CCMIN070902 - Laserfiche WebLink

Mr. Wolfe indicated that last year Council had set priorities for funding and charged the Commissions to review grant applications. No specific timing or area was identified and he believed each Commission created its own policies for allocation of funding. If Council wishes the Commissions to focus more on the Youth Master Plan, that direction can be given to them as a guideline. Ms. Michelotti indicated this was discussed during the budget process. Ms. Ayala suggested this be taken before the School Liaison Committee for discussion of guidelines. For this funding cycle, there was not time to develop guidelines, but this was a topic to be determined by the Council in the future. All the commissions were asked to set priorities and the Youth Commission has done that. Ms. McKeehan explained that Council had specifically asked each commission to set priorities, which is slightly different than before. Each commission needs to go through a process at the beginning of next year and send that information to Council for its use when establishing its priorities. It has been an interesting challenge to work with each commission to set funding priorities, because there are very different feelings among the different commissioners as to how they want to set priorities versus reviewing applicants and projects. Mr. Campbell asked if Ms. Ayala wanted more groups associated with the Youth Master Plan to apply for grants or did she want more money to apply to those groups? Ms. Ayala believed that the Youth Commission would implement the Youth Master Plan and the grants would relate to that. She hoped the Youth Commission would get the word out to groups in the community which could help implement the Youth Master Plan. She asked when Council would be having a joint meeting with the Youth Commission. Ms. McKeehan said that had just been done and it would be a while before another was scheduled. Ms. Ayala felt it would be beneficial to have a joint meeting with the Youth Commission to discuss the Youth Master Plan. Ms. McKeehan indicated that even if there is no joint meeting before the next regularly scheduled joint meeting, staff can still give that direction to the Youth Commission and relay their thoughts. Mr. Campbell asked for the rationale for the City not giving grants to specific schools. Mr. Wolfe said each school has different activities and functions. If Council allowed grants to individual schools, staff felt it would open the door for additional grant requests for the limited funding available. Staff tried to explain to applicants that grants are not intended to be the primary source of funding. Instead, the money is to provide an opporttmity to purchase equipment with long term value or to leverage funding from other sources. Staff reviews the organization, its potential base of support, does it garner funds through fees, etc. Pleasanton City Council Special Meeting Minutes 4 07/09/02