Deciding which social service programs in Rosemead require more urgent funding than others, the City Council mulled over staff recommendations for an action plan to the upcoming fiscal year at Tuesday’s meeting.
Michelle Ramirez, Rosemead’s acting director of Community Development, outlined a nuts-and-bolts overview of the city’s reduction in money from Community Development Block Grant and HOME funds for the 2012-2013 fiscal year.
Her recommendations were made from a list of eight staff-endorsed projects with a total of $268,355 in requests. Although many community organizations tried hard to voice a need for their programs at the Feb. 14 public hearing, Ramirez would be forced to work within the limits of a $102,338 allocation for these social service programs.
“Unfortunately, due to the severe decrease in CDBG funding, it was necessary to reduce funding for some programs, eliminate funding for others, and recommend the consolidation of two senior nutrition programs into one,” Ramirez said.
Requesting $93,010 from the 2012-2013 Social Services Budget, the Senior Nutrition Lunch Program remains the only service that would be granted its full funding request. The program, currently hosted at both the Garvey Community Center and the Rosemead Community Recreation Center, offers lunch to seniors with a requested donation of $1.25 for residents and $3.00 for non-residents.
Though the program is facing a $48,000 deficit and its operations will need to be consolidated to a single location, funding for the program is actually a bit more complicated due to federal cap restrictions, according to Ramirez.
“The total amount to fund the (senior) program for the upcoming fiscal year will be $206,380, of which $93,010 will come from CDBG out of the Social Services (activity) cap,” Ramirez said, explaining that an extra $4,700 will come from CDBG funds under the Planning and Administrative services cap. This means that the city’s General Fund will have to make up the difference by contributing $108,670.
Other social service programs requesting funding were not as successful. Family Counseling Services, which uses CDGB funds to offer family counseling and a variety of other services to Rosemead families, received a recommendation for $6,000 even though it had requested $40,000. Family Promises, a first-time applicant that provides local homeless services, was recommended $5,000 after requesting $10,000. People for People, a San Gabriel food bank, received $7,328 after requesting $27,345.
But among those programs that were completely cut off, Rosemead High School (requesting $10,000) and the Rosemead School District ($7,000) stirred up much sympathy among council members.
After Mayor Pro Tem Sandra Armenta pointed out how valuable the school district’s parenting programs are to low-and-middle income families, Councilwoman Margaret Clark proposed that the council take $2,000 from Family Counseling’s allocation and split it between Rosemead High School and the school district.
According to Clark, the gesture would at least offer a vote of support to the high school and the district. “It is a very painful decision because it is the federal government that is cutting this money, and it is very hard to say who gets it and who doesn’t, and we’re going to say no to some, and severely cut others,” she said.
Justifying the importance of the school district’s parenting programs, as well as its need for funding, Rosemead School District board member Ron Esquivel told council members that the district is facing another $700 in cuts per student this coming fiscal year.
“Our program does help a lot of low-income parents, many who come to this country and do not understand English,” Esquivel said. “We teach them English, we teach them parenting skills, and we provide child care for the parents.”
Ramirez said that her staff will want to discuss with the district and high school whether the newly recommended amount would be sufficient enough to actually help support their social service programs.
The council then voted unanimously to direct Ramirez to proceed with final recommendations for the action plan. The final funding recommendations will be brought back to the City Council for a public hearing and final approval at its Apr. 24 meeting.
In other matters, council members appointed a new mayor and mayor pro-tem due to the annual council reorganization. The Rosemead City Council unanimously selected Councilwoman Sandra Armenta as mayor and Councilman Polly Low as mayor pro tem.
In his outgoing comments as mayor, Steven Ly said it was an honor to have served Rosemead for the last year. “It started off great, and then the state kind of came in and did (their business) on all of us,” he said jokingly. “But I’m very proud of the fact that we got a lot of things done, and I would like to thank the council and staff for helping us get a lot of things done.”
