Committee forwards retroactive DPH and ZSFG grant acceptances totaling about $3.7 million

The Budget and Finance Committee voted April 3 to forward two retroactive grant acceptances to the Board for approval.

Item 2 requests authority for the Department of Public Health to accept approximately $909,000 from the San Francisco General Hospital Foundation to support a Transforming Mental and Behavioral Health (TMBH) program. Angelica Jernigan, chief administrative officer at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital (ZSFG), said the award will fund enhancement of an EPIC care coordination module, existing grant-funded patient navigators, hygiene kits and track phones for discharged patients. She said the foundation's notice of award arrived in October 2023 with a project start date of November 1, 2023, and the department is requesting retroactive authorization.

Item 3 authorizes acceptance of approximately $2.8–$2.9 million from the California Department of Justice for a two‑year Youth Tobacco Sales Prevention Grant beginning January 2024. Jen Kallerward of DPH described the grant's goals: prevent youth access to flavored tobacco and nicotine products, support enforcement and education, fund decoy operations and online enforcement, and finance DPH staffing including senior inspectors and trainee positions. Kallerward noted this is the program's fourth cycle and that DPH seeks retroactive approval because the notice of award arrived late in October 2023.

Supervisor Mirna Malgar asked to be added as a cosponsor and pressed DPH on ensuring enforcement is equitable across neighborhoods after noting industry targeting of specific youth communities; DPH described the use of data to identify hotspots and balance decoy operations across neighborhoods. With no public speakers, the committee forwarded both items to the full Board with a positive recommendation (3–0).