❒ Key staff report calls for no change to funding levels for several community organizations

When Benicia City Council looks at its 2015-17 General Fund budget Tuesday night, it will consider appropriations for the city’s charitable contributions.

Two municipal advisory panels have made recommendations for the grants they manage on the city’s behalf. But some community organizations don’t apply through established grants, as Assistant City Manager Anne Cardwell, Library Director Diane Smikahl and Finance Director Karin Schnaider wrote in a report to the Council.

Instead, those groups — Benicia Historical Museum, Benicia-Tula Sister City Association, Benicia Fire Museum and Fire Volunteers, Benicia Unified School District — receive funds during the city budget process.

Benicia owns the buildings used by the historical museum, and since Fiscal Year 1999-2000 the Council has authorized annual donations of $50,000 for staffing, programs and operations.

Cardwell, Smikahl and Schnaider’s report to City Manager Brad Kilger recommends continuing that $50,000 annual donation.

The Fire Museum and Benicia Volunteer Firemen also operate in a city-owned building that houses what the three described as “many treasures of fire service equipment and hundreds of related items.”

They recommended continuing status-quo funding of $20,000 a year.

The Economic Development Division has budgeted $7,000 annually to offer business grants or loans to retain or attract companies that would generate retail sales, job growth or stimulate sales tax growth, the three wrote. They recommended continuing the program at that level.

Likewise, the employees recommended continuing the annual $1,000 appropriation to the Benicia-Tula Sister City Association.

In their report, Cardwell, Smikahl and Schnaider urged the Council to continue giving the Human Service Board $150,000 a year for those grants, all of which are designed to help low income Benicia residents.

The report included calculations for 5- and 10-percent reductions in the budget of several groups.

• Should the Council agree to keep funding at current levels, the Community Action Council would receive $92,310 annually for multiple services to disadvantaged residents. A 5-percent decrease would give the CAC $87,695, and a 10-percent decrease would give it $83,079, they wrote.

• Special Friends, which helps at-risk children in kindergarten through third grades, would get $32,400 annually if funding remains the same, $30,780 at a 5-percent reduction and $29,160 with the 10-percent cut.

• Families in Transition, helping residents with one-time contributions in times of unexpected crisis, would get $31,500 a year at current grant levels. A 5-percent cut would give the organization $29,925 and one at 10-percent would result in $28,350 being awarded.

• Catholic Charities, another broad-spectrum social services organization, would get $15,600 annually if funding stays the same. That would be reduced to $14,820 with a 5-percent cut and $14,040 with a 10-percent reduction.

• Children’s Nurturing Project, offering support and education to encourage healthy parent-child relationships, would get at most $4,500 a year and at the least, with a 10-percent cut, $4,050. A 5-percent cut would give the organization $4,275.

Staff members will ask the Council to approve a resolution that authorize those expenditures.

However, before the Council and staff proceed to developing the 2017-19 budget, they should consider three modifications, Cardwell, Smikahl and Schnaider’s report said.

One is their recommendation the Community Sustainability Commission revise its timeline to coincide with grants awarded by the Human Services Board and Arts and Culture Commission, as well as with the city budget adoption.

A second is to establish uniform practices for nonprofit or governmental agencies that don’t go through evaluation before receiving grants.

The third is the purchase of software that would streamline requests for grants and subsequent quarterly reports.

The Council also will see a draft of the 2015-17 General Fund budget during its meeting at 7 p.m. Tuesday in the Council Chamber of City Hall, 250 East L St.