Sacramento’s Proposed City Budget Offers Potential Vendor Opportunities

The city of Sacramento has published its proposed budget for fiscal year 2021-2022, and it contains some indications of where technology vendors may see opportunities to do business with the city.

City Manager Howard Chan’s proposed budget for the coming fiscal year totals $1.3 billion for operations and capital improvements. In his 429-page proposed budget, Chan highlights the Department of Information Technology’s accomplishments in the current fiscal year — and lays out IT objectives for the coming year. He also notes the federal funds that have flowed to Sacramento as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The city this past year received and allocated $89 million in federal CARES Act funding for small-business recovery and assistance, youth and workforce training programs, homelessness and rapid rehousing, the arts, and social services,” Chan writes. “In March, President Joe Biden signed the American Rescue Plan of 2021 (ARP), from which the city expects to receive $121.6 million to address internal financial challenges resulting from the pandemic.” How much of that may go directly to IT is not yet known.

Chan notes that among the city’s technology-related achievements under the leadership of Chief Information Officer Maria MacGunigal in the past year are these:

• Established the Sacramento COVID-19 Digital Equity Response program using federal CARES Act money to provide up to 10,000 qualifying households Internet connectivity.
• The IT department quickly procured, configured and distributed more than 650 laptops and rolled out technology tools to give remote-working city employees “seamless remote connectivity to business systems and online council and staff meetings.”  
• Upgraded the city’s IT security posture by replacing existing firewalls with “next-generation” firewalls that include additional security, filtering, threat prevention and virtual private network (VPN) to protect critical data and systems and to support the city’s remote workforce.
• Developed a Wireless Master Plan “to leverage city infrastructure assets (e.g., fiber, buildings, poles, conduit, towers) to be used strategically to build a public-private wireless network that would provide cost-effective wireless Internet services in Sacramento.”
• “Implemented a state-of-the-art utility billing software system that has industry best practices built in, technical and security support to provide city customers accurate volumetric billing, more flexibility in the billing cycles and reduced call wait times. This system ensures a flexible, scalable and maintainable software suite to manage customer accounts, calculate and generate billing, track revenue and delinquencies, and schedule operational work.” 
• Implemented a 311 system replacement that expands access to information, improves automation and increases efficiency in handling service requests from residents, visitors and employees.
• In improving energy consumption and supporting the city’s green initiatives, IT has reduced the number of physical servers by 92 percent, resulting in significant savings.
• Transitioned to an enterprise campus network architecture design that improved reliability, flexibility and cost effectiveness of city network services. “The cost to migrate to the equipment needed in the campus design was less than half of the cost to replace the end-of-life equipment from the former design, which saved the city close to $150,000 over the life of the equipment.”  

An overview of the proposed budget also indicates city goals that may offer opportunities for vendors, including:

• Implement a Grants Management Information System that will administer and manage the life cycle of all city grants and improve business efficiencies.
• Implementation of a 311 Workforce Management System to support shift scheduling and work assignments.
• Upgrade the city’s budgeting enterprise performance management software system to streamline the budget development and reporting processes.
• Complete installation of the new cashiering system that will accept payments for most city services, programs, fees and charges. “City departments that collect revenue using in-person or online payments utilize a variety of software applications that impact cashiering operations,” Chan writes. “This system will streamline the process and ensure transactions are recorded properly in the citywide financial system.”
• Modernize the city’s public website “to provide additional functionality, improved look/feel and enhancements to better serve the public.”

Chan’s plan also calls for the addition of two staff positions in the IT department, which would bring the department’s workforce to 200.5 positions.

The City Council’s Budget and Audit Committee will hold the first public hearing on the budget on May 4. The council is expected to consider the budget in May and June,  with adoption scheduled for June 15. The city notes that meeting dates may change as needed to address other city business.