Pasadena Public Health Department Budget Shrinks, Councilmember Asserts “We Don’t Adequately Fund Our Health Department”

A Councilmember and public speakers urged the Council to increase funding for Pasadena’s Public Health Department at a special meeting of the city’s Public Safety Committee Tuesday.

As it stands, the Department is proposing a budget of $20.084 million for Fiscal Year 2023, a 5.4% decrease from the current budget of $21.234 million.

Members of the public who spoke at the meeting urged the City Council to increase the general fund appropriation for the health department.

“As was the case last year, the fiscal year 2023 public health budget proposes zero general fund dollars to fund the public health department’s many programs. Instead, our public health department must fend for itself trying to get grants outside of the city which are uncertain, competitive and time limited,” Sonja Berndt said. “Please substantially increase general fund appropriations for the public health department.”

Councilmember Tyron Hampton, agreeing with members of the public who spoke at the meeting said: “We don’t adequately fund our health department.” Hampton then asked PPHD’s Director, Dr. Ying-Ying Goh, to identify programs and projects of the department that need funding.

“We would be happy to propose a wishlist if that is what you like to see. There are many issues that are of utmost importance that impact our health and wellbeing, among those huge problems are climate change and gun violence,” said Goh.

“There are so many issues that we would love to work on but I also need a workforce,” she added.

This year, the health department investigated over 16,900 confirmed and 730 probable COVID-19 cases, administered over 7,400 doses of COVID-19 vaccines and distributed 11,500 COVID-19 antigen tests to long term facilities, schools and community agencies.

It also provided substance use prevention education to 400 students of Pasadena Unified School District and linked people experiencing homelessness to 152 clinical appointments and made 98 points of contact and outreach through Pasadena Outreach Response Team, in partnership with the Fire Department.

The health department is expecting a revenue of $19.964 million for 2023, 8.3% lower than this year’s revenue.

Goh explained the decrease in both recommended appropriations and expected revenue “reflect the natural year-to-year variation that we tend to see as some grants began.”

Grants make up 78% of the department’s revenue, according to Goh.

About 10% of the revenue comes from licenses, permits and fees that the department collects. Another 10% comes from state retail sales tax and motor vehicle tax collections.

Of the total recommended budget, $3.996 million will go to the Community Health Services Division, $2.254 million will go to Environmental Health Division, $2.919 million will go to the Epidemiology and Disease Control Division.

A total of $4.990 million will be allocated for the Health Administration Division, $2.227 million will go to the Health Policy and Promotion Division and $3.698 million will go to Social and Mental Health Services Division.