GILROY
– A typically rubber-stamp City Council item turned
controversial Monday night.
The annual distribution of hundreds of thousands of federal
dollars received a split vote at City Council’s most recent
session.
Some members said the city’s mission of giving money to local
charities that provide food, shelter and family services has gone
awry.
GILROY – A typically rubber-stamp City Council item turned controversial Monday night.
The annual distribution of hundreds of thousands of federal dollars received a split vote at City Council’s most recent session.
Some members said the city’s mission of giving money to local charities that provide food, shelter and family services has gone awry.
Councilman Bob Dillon recommended a transfer of $12,000 in federal Housing and Urban Development grants from three charity services indirectly related to providing food and shelter to the needy. Instead, Dillon wanted to increase funding for agencies such as St. Joseph’s Family Center, a premier local charity that provides services such as meals to the homeless.
“That puts beans on plates,” Dillon said. “This is the home team here in Gilroy. They do good work every day.”
Each year, the federal government gives cities money to provide charitable services. For fiscal year 2004-05, Gilroy will receive $583,000.
The three programs Dillon said didn’t deserve a slice of the pie were Silicon Valley Independent Living Center, Community Technology Alliance and The Health Trust.
Dillon said he has no problem giving money to the particular charities, but some of the services they provide do not satisfy the city’s guidelines of meeting food, clothing and shelter needs.
Silicon Valley Independent Living Center received $4,000 for producing videos for persons with disabilities. The Health Trust received $4,000 for an HIV prevention program. And, Community Technology Alliance received $4,000 for implementing a computerized client tracking system.
“Can you tell me how data entry feeds people or puts a roof over their heads?” Dillon asked Betsy Arroyo, the director of programs for Community Technology Alliance. “This strikes me as going far afield of our mission to provide food, clothing and shelter. You don’t need data entry to tell you if you’re hungry or not.”
Arroyo defended the funding of the computer tracking system.
“Being able to identify which services and combination of services really helps us to identify further need,” Arroyo said. “It doesn’t put beans on the plate, but … it’s an educational tool for those of us making policy decisions and making decisions on what kind of programs to develop.”
Councilman Paul Correa said all of the programs being funded had a connection to the city’s charitable missions.
“Technology does play a critical (role) in terms of providing efficient and effective programs and preventing wasteful government spending,” Correa said.
Councilman Craig Gartman was the other dissenting vote.
In addition to increasing St. Joseph’s funding, Dillon suggested increasing the Emergency Housing Consortium by $4,000 and Second Harvest Food Bank by $2,000.
The Emergency Housing Consortium provides housing for homeless residents. The agency’s funding dipped $1,000 from last year and was $5,000 under what the group had requested.
Second Harvest Food Bank received $4,000, a grant worth $1,000 less than what the agency requested.
