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HomeMy WebLinkAbout103-Transcript.pdf TRANSCRIPT OF COUNCIL DISCUSSION ITEM 10 – FISCAL YEAR 2010/11 PROPOSED OPERATING & CAPITAL BUDGET PUBLIC HEARING MAY 19, 2010 CITY COUNCIL MEETING Speaker Ann Waltonsmith – addressed the Council noting SASCC (Saratoga Area Senior Coordinating Council) has drafted a letter that is ready to go out to all Saratoga households. Ann Waltonsmith: We are holding off mailing the letter to request your support of the letter to consider a challenge grant and I’m asking for your support of the letter; in fact, I’m asking you for $50K dollars so that we could use it to urge people to match it. SASCC has its back to the wall and is doing all it can to raise capital. This letter has some local business sponsorship so that SASCC does not have to pay for mass mailing to all Saratoga households. Last fall, Susie Nagpal, Council Liaison to SASCC, asked SASCC to put on a fund raiser. We are asking for as much as possible from you for the Challenge Grant. Councilmember Page: Do you have any recommendations where that $50K would come from? Speaker Ann Waltonsmith: I was actually thinking that if you had any Council Discretionary left. . . . Mayor King: SASCC is having difficult times right now; is there a gap that needs to be filled right now? Speaker Ann Waltonsmith: It’s not the gap right now. We’re cutting staff right now; we’re cutting the budget right now wherever we can so that we can come in with as much of a budget as we possibly can. What we are looking for, is to try to replace – huh, we are going for a million dollars, because if we get the million dollars, plus the amount we have right now – we could then begin to live on the proceeds again – rather than eating into the “corpus” of the investments. So that’s what we are doing, we are going for as much as we can this year, and then the following years we just have to rebuild after the last two years of the terrible market. So it’s not to just live on, it’s to - we are trying to rebuild the corpus of the money so that we can then live on the proceeds. [Comments from the public]. [Council comments regarding their support of the proposed budget]: Mayor King: I do want to recognize what Ann Waltonsmith brought up about SASCC. We have conveyed to the Recreation Department that we are realistic and will make up 35% of their budget because it is not a break even to do a Recreation Department; yet we fund some of SASCC, but we don’t feel SASCC should have the same benefit as the Recreation Department. I look at what SASCC does, and if the City had to all that SASCC does, the City couldn’t afford it. I would like us to look at some of the unrestricted/undesignated funding to put a challenge grant together to help SASCC stabilize more. I would like to recommend that we look at SASCC’s request with some of that uncommitted funding now, to help them raise funds. Vice Mayor Hunter: Councilmember Nagpal had conveyed to me very recently that she felt strongly about having a fund raiser for SASCC. Mayor King: I would like to see the letter that is going out be typed in a larger print and that this be a one-for-one challenge grant for every dollar that you raise – in the amount of, Jill . . . . . ? Vice Mayor Hunter: I think $50,000 is a huge amount and I cannot begin to comprehend where we would get those kinds of funds and you are not indicating what the challenge grant is for – the direct amount that the City is offering. I defer to the rest of the Council. Councilmember Page: I agree with Vice Mayor Hunter that having something tangible that the money is going to; either explain what changes are being made to show – okay, we have been cutting into the nest egg for a long time and this is how we are changing to make sure we don’t continue, and then this challenge grant is to pay for operations going forward and it will extend our life by “X X”. I would like something tangible; if not, then perhaps there is a specific program that you are running and this is going to be used to fund that. Councilmember Page then asked Finance Director how much money was left in Council Discretionary Funds. Director Furey responded – “currently about $26,000”. Councilmember Page: I would feel very comfortable setting a number of about $30,000; taking a few thousand out of the un-allocated and if an emergency does come up, we do have the nest egg too, that we could refill the Council Discretionary Fund, knowing that this is an election year. Chances are we probably won’t see that many new things that we want to do, unless they become campaign issues. So I feel confident that the money will still be available. If we have $25,000 - $27,000 – then add another $5,000. I think the senior services that are provided by SASCC would be hard pressed if the City had to provide those services. I think that if we are comfortable with $30,000 today in a tough economy, and if the money can be matched, maybe Council would even consider more – if they have it. Mayor King: So Chuck, the challenge would be $30,000 and if SASCC raises $30,000, they would receive the $30,000 from Council? Councilmember Page: It could be a dollar-for-dollar or a two for one. Mayor King: I like the “dollar-for-dollar”. Councilmember Miller: SASCC matters and I think we really need to do something. I feel like we are missing some active engagement on the crux of what the plan is. Ann Waltonsmith provided an outline of the plan and I’m wondering if we, as a Council considering putting some money into this, could consider having a Study Session, at which point we could have a working plan on what their plan is for recovery of their budget, or even simpler – maybe SASCC could do a presentation at a future Council meeting to discuss the plan. We all would like to see SASCC survive and I would like to understand more about what the plan is. Short term – they have a letter going out and having real dollars behind that – if we want to take $25,000 from the Contingency Fund and another $5,000 from somewhere else, I would be supportive of that. Short term, I am with you, however, I would like to figure out a way to engage in a more detailed manner. Mayor King: I will make a motion that we have a challenge grant for SASCC for $30,000. We take $25,000 from the Contingency Fund and $5,000 from the Un-allocated Funding. A total of $30,000 for a dollar-for-dollar Challenge Grant for SASCC so they can include this in their letter that they are preparing to send, and that the letter be in larger print. Councilmember Page: Yes, please. Councilmember Miller: I would second that. KING/MILLER MOVED TO SUPPORT A CHALLENGE GRANT OF $30,000; ALLOCATING $25,000 FROM THE CONTINGENCY FUND AND AN ADDITIONAL $5,000 FROM UNDESIGNATED FUNDS FOR A TOTAL OF $30,000 – A ONE DOLLAR FOR ONE DOLLAR CHALLENGE GRANT TO BE NOTED IN THE SASCC LETTER AND THAT THE LETTER BE WRITTEN IN A LARGER FONT. MOTION PASSED 4-0-Vacant. COUNCIL DIRECTION: Staff should bring this item back for adoption at the next regular council meeting and agendize a presentation from SASCC at the July 21, 2010 Joint Meeting describing in more detail how the funds would be used.