Local news summaries
County Expands Safe Routes to School Program
San Jose – The Santa Clara County Public Health Department’s Safe Routes to School program has been awarded a $500,000 grant for a new project that will encourage children to walk and bicycle to school, while addressing traffic safety issues that currently discourage it.
The public education and traffic safety project will seek to decrease traffic congestion around schools in the county and to increase the number of days students who walk or bike to school. Other expected benefits include increased physical activity, less car congestion near schools and a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.
The program is part of the Public Health Department’s Traffic Safe Communities Network, a countywide coalition of public health and traffic safety professionals working together to prevent and control traffic-related injuries, fatalities and health care costs.
County Approves Key Financial Policies
San Jose – The County of Santa Clara Board of Supervisors has taken three steps that will set the course for how the county will seek to balance its fiscal-year 2009 budget.
At its meeting Tuesday, the board voted 4-1 (Liz Kniss opposed) to accept County Executive Pete Kutras’ recommendation to continue the existing policy which dedicates the use of one-time funds to one-time expenditures; 3-2 (Kniss and Ken Yeager opposed) to continue the existing contingency reserve policy; and 5-0 to require that the county executive provide a review of the prior year fund balance no later than the annual mid-year budget review.
In recent years, due to severe revenue shortfalls, the county has used one-time funds to keep much-needed programs and services afloat. Doing so, however, compounds the budget shortfall for the following year. Though the board’s policy has been to use one-time funds for one-time purposes; adhering to that policy has become increasingly more difficult.
“When we solve our budget deficits using one-time funds, we create the impression that everything is okay,” Kutras told the Board of Supervisors. “The short-term problem is solved, but the long-term problem is made worse.”
Under the policy, the county will continue its current goal of setting aside 5 percent of its general fund revenues as a contingency reserve fund for emergencies.
“In 1997, when I began serving on this board, the reserve fund was only $14 million, which was ridiculous for a $3 billion operation,” said Board Chair Supervisor Don Gage. “If we hadn’t concentrated on building the reserve fund, we would have been in real trouble when the economy tanked and we started incurring revenue shortfalls.”
County Receives $3.7 Grant to Aid Families
Morgan Hill – The county has received a $3.74 million grant to expand services to drug-abusing families with young children.
The five-year grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services will be used to expand access to assessment, counseling and supportive services in the hopes of keeping more families together. The funds will support the county’s Dependency Drug Treatment Court program, while enhancing and expanding the model to better address the needs of pregnant women and mothers with young children who are struggling to overcome methamphetamine and other substance-abuse addictions.
The project’s primary goal is to increase the permanency, safety, and well-being of children who are in out-of-home placement or at risk of being removed from their homes due to abuse or neglect.
– By Staff Reports
