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Mayor Pico commented that it has always been his goal to sow as many seeds as possible for youth programs. After listening to these speakers, he felt that these are exactly the kinds of programs he wanted to support. With respect to the water polo, he felt the funding could be granted by modifying the Youth Commission proposal to give the funds to the Parks and Community Services Department to purchase the needed equipment for the water polo program. He believed the robotics program was a fabulous way to enrich the children's school experience and get them involved in science at a young age. He totally supported giving them the grant. He realized Council had set priorities and policies, but he believed there had to be some flexibility especially with regard to the Youth Commission. He was mazed at the amount of effort they put into the allocation of the grants. He did not believe the Youth Commission was created to have staff direct them in everything they did. He wanted to encourage them to be creative and he felt they have demonstrated the value of allocation $20,000 for their funding recommendations. Ms. Ayala referred to the allocation of $7,500 to the Th-Valley Teen, Youth to Youth Service Project, and the Volunteer Center of Alameda County which is to be spent for materials, supplies, printing, postage and staff time. When she reviewed all these recommendations, she wanted to be certain that the programs within the School District were working and that the District supported funding the programs. She was very interested in the future of the programs and the robotics and water programs would be the most interesting as compared to supplying supplies and postage for others. She wanted to make certain Council assisted in reaching the goals of the Youth Master Plan and she thought these fit in the Plan. She wanted to encourage the Youth Commission to work toward the Youth Master Plan and to encourage other groups to apply for grants to fulfill the Master Plan. Ms. Michelotti was sorry all the grant allocations were continued, since there was a question about only two of the recommendations. She believed these programs were great and supported giving seed money for equipment. She supported having the Youth Commission come to its own conclusions regarding the Youth Master Plan and to feel it has flexibility. She wanted the School Liaison Committee to be informed and to provide feedback but she did not want to create another layer of bureaucracy. However, she did think it was important to have guidelines. With regard to the water polo organization, she was comfortable that the money would be used for equipment, that the 501(c)(3) would be established, and that there is a treasurer and volunteers for a Board of Directors. In the future, she wanted clear reasons to justify allocations to an individual school, such as capital expenditures vs. on-going expenses. There are many requests for funding and she hoped to have developed guidelines to make selection less onerous. Ms. Dennis asked her colleagues to stop and think before they direct people to set guidelines, because Council had already set guidelines once. Council is considering buying equipment for one club and others have been denied. She was very happy to see water polo established, but she was not sure a grant for equipment was appropriate. She was concerned that there are a lot of needs for other sports leagues that the City will not be able to meet. She preferred to support the leagues by providing scholarships for the athletes that can't afford to participate. That would take care of training fees and people would not be excluded because they can't pay. The City can enhance its outreach to make certain people are aware of this resource. She felt that was much more fair. The robotics program is also great, but the grant will Pleasanton City Council Special Meeting Minutes 10 07/09/02