Vice Mayor Jason Lee has proposed cutting the city manager’s $150,000 discretionary fund and reallocating the money to the Stockton City Council’s discretionary fund.
Lee made the suggestion during the council’s June 4 budget study session for the 2025-26 fiscal year.
Currently, councilmembers receive $15,000 in discretionary funding. The mayor receives $60,000 in discretionary funding.
The money is meant to be used “only when there will be a substantial benefit to the city and its residents,” according to council policy. It covers expenses councilmembers incur when sponsoring activities or events that benefit the community, are not religious or political, and do not personally benefit the members.
“I know we have budget restraints, but $15,000 per district to invest in our districts is crazy,” Lee said, before asking city staff whether they had considered revisiting the discretionary fund budget for councilmembers.
City staff did not respond to the question during the meeting.
Lee said he wants the increase in funding because nonprofits in District 6 have asked for financial support.
“For example, for Juneteenth, I have the Sierra Vista folks asking me to sponsor a very small event … those things add up,” Lee said. “You go to One Voice to advocate for your district — that’s $5,000. I couldn’t even go to One Voice because I chose to be able to sponsor the young Stockton Vikings. I just think if there’s a little bit more flexibility in supporting each district to do events in their communities, it would be helpful.”
Mayor Christina Fugazi and District 4 Councilmember Mario Enríquez expressed support for Lee’s proposal.
“I can say that at one point I had an idea of just pulling it all together, and as a council we’d decide, but I get what the vice mayor is saying,” Fugazi said. “It’s just like with our (Community Development Block Grant program) funds. We give a fraction, and you’re not able to actually implement the full program that you would like to.”
Enríquez also suggested reducing the city manager’s discretionary fund and increasing councilmembers’ funding.
“If we’re going to say city managers are going to get $150,000 and we’re still getting $15,000, and we’re more active in the districts, it doesn’t make sense to me that we’re just going to stick with that plan again,” Enríquez said.
At the June 5 study session, Lee raised the issue again.
“I want to take us back to yesterday. We had a very healthy conversation about the fact that each of us only have $15,000 to spend within our districts with our community, and I asked, ‘Could we get an increase?’ knowing that we were coming in to vote on a $15 million deficit that we had to balance,” Lee said. “I’m ready right now to say we’re going to take that $150,000 and we’re going to put $25,000 of that in each of our districts so our constituents can benefit from direct service from us.”
Fugazi told Lee the money would have to be split seven ways, including her.
“Even with your $60,000, $25,000 and $15,000 is only $40,000, so we’re still less than the mayor. But yeah, give the mayor an increase too,” Lee said. “She can get a raise.”
Fugazi said the city manager’s discretionary fund has mostly been used in the past for sponsorships and added that councilmembers could coordinate sponsorships as a group instead.
“We can sponsor as council, as opposed to sponsor by the city manager,” Fugazi said.
District 1 Councilmember Michele Padilla, who was censured in November 2024 for misusing public funds by violating discretionary funding rules, said she was “open to exploring the use of our discretionary funds.”
Ultimately, Lee recommended that each councilmember receive $20,000 from the city manager’s $150,000 discretionary fund, and that the mayor receive $30,000. That would give councilmembers $40,000 each and the mayor $90,000 in discretionary funding for fiscal year 2025–26.
Councilmembers are set to vote on the proposal and the rest of the city budget on June 24.
Record reporter Hannah Workman covers news in Stockton and San Joaquin County. She can be reached at hworkman@recordnet.com or on Twitter @byhannahworkman. Support local news, subscribe to The Stockton Record at https://www.recordnet.com/subscribenow.
This article originally appeared on The Record: More discretionary funding for Stockton City Council? Why the vice mayor wants an increase
Reporting by Hannah Workman, The Stockton Record / The Record
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