In danger of being drastically cut, services and programs
offered at the Morgan Hill senior center could remain fully
intact
– but only for one year – due to a budget revision and the offer
of more money by the local YMCA.
In danger of being drastically cut, services and programs offered at the Morgan Hill senior center could remain fully intact – but only for one year – due to a budget revision and the offer of more money by the local YMCA.
Several dozen Morgan Hill senior citizens packed city hall’s council chambers Wednesday night to protest a proposal, announced last month, to cut about half the senior programs offered at the Centennial Recreation Center.
However, those who ended up speaking at the public hearing on the recommended fiscal year 2010-2011 budget ended up thanking the council members and city staff for the unexpected revision to allow the senior center to remain open with full staff and for regular hours next year.
“Before I came in here, I had both barrels loaded,” Morgan Hill senior citizen Bernie Mulligan told the council. “It was never a good time to lean on our seniors. Thank you for all the effort.”
At a budget workshop last Friday, council members identified the recreation department’s proposal to eliminate half its normal funding to the senior center as one of the most difficult proposed in the total budget for the year that starts July 1.
A week before that, about 100 senior citizens protested the $37,500 cut in front of the senior center, at the Centennial Recreation Center.
But as of Wednesday, thanks to an updated projection of department revenues and the promise of one-time funds from the YMCA, the funding will be restored in the city’s budget.
As the sales of new monthly memberships at the CRC and the city’s Aquatics Center have continued to rise since the first draft of the proposed budget was released May 14, the department this week forecasted its revenue for next year up by $25,000, department director Steve Rymer said.
Plus, the YMCA, which has run the local senior center in partnership with the city and county, made a one-time offer of $25,000 from a health trust grant and stimulus funding. And the city will institute a voluntary annual membership fee of $25 for use of the senior center, which is expected to raise about $4,000 next year.
These new funds will allow the senior center to continue operating the senior center with no disruption of services such as video game bowling, line dancing, computer lab assistance and bridge groups.
The new funding illustrates the “power of the partnership” with the YMCA, according to Councilman Larry Carr.
“Some people were skeptical of our partnership with the YMCA (when it started),” Carr said. “But that is what makes the senior center work.”
But council members also cautioned that the preservation of senior center services is only a one-year fix, and the community will have to find a way to keep the services going beyond 2011.
“We have a lot of work to do to figure out how to get something permanent in place,” Mayor Steve Tate said. “We were really pleased that the YMCA was willing to step up and give us those one-time funds – it’s really good for the seniors.”
Attached to the revised budget for the senior center is the planned formation this year of a volunteer senior services task force, whose job will be to explore future and ongoing sources of funding for the senior center.
There are about 5,000 senior citizens in Morgan Hill, about 1,700 of whom use the senior center each year, according to a letter to the city from the YMCA. The senior center logged about 44,000 visits by those seniors last year.
Of the $25,000 in additional expected recreation revenue, $5,000 will also be used to restore some of the recommended cuts to the CRC’s teen center, Rymer added. The teen center was proposed to be open two fewer hours per day starting July 1, but the revised revenue forecast would only cut one hour per day, restoring homework and tutoring services.
Speaking at the public hearing was Morgan Hill teen Stephanie Garcia, who said the center changed her life after a troubled childhood.
“There are teens I see almost every day out in the streets, making trouble,” Garcia said. “But when I come to the teen center I see all the teens … respecting one another. It’s the one place where everyone can be together, and get away from all the negative stuff.”
Still uncertain is the fate of domestic violence services. For about the past 18 months, the city has been Santa Clara County’s grant manager for $1.1 million in federal Department of Justice funds.
The funds have allowed the city to employee a full-time domestic violence detective to investigate local incidents, and to distribute “sub-grants” to nonprofit agencies that help victims of spousal abuse throughout the county, with a local taxpayers’ share of about $30,000 for this year, City Manager Ed Tewes said.
The current grant runs out in September, and the city does not yet know if the federal funding will continue.
If it does, the city’s share of funding will increase to $80,000, and staff will have to return to the council for budget revisions, Tewes said.
Morgan Hill resident Brandy Pereira, a former victim of family violence, asked the council to accept the grant if it is offered again in September.
“I see how far we’ve come. It’s scary to think domestic violence services might go away,” she said.
Another speaker at the public hearing asked the city to reconsider its method of determining what to cut. Dan Kenney said city staff and the council should start by looking “on the top,” by asking city employees who make $100,000 or more to take a salary reduction. Doing so could eliminate the possibility of cuts in police, senior services, the teen center and parks.
But some council members said after the meeting that doing that could cause a flight of the city’s department heads to more lucrative jobs. Councilman Greg Sellers noted that the city’s management staff has not taken any pay increases the last two years, and some high-level positions such as the community development director are proposed to be reduced next year.
“If you made massive cuts to the top management, you would likely see folks leave, and that would create havoc in the entire organization,” Sellers said. “To make (staff) an example would be counterproductive.”
