Council awards $211,000 in grants, Hume abstains from all votes

By Shannon Savage
Citizen Staff Writer

The Elk Grove City Council gave away $211,000 in community grants at their June 13 meeting, slightly more than a third of the $600,000 in funding that community groups had requested.
Despite the generosity, not all of the city council members were not in the giving spirit.
“I’m going to abstain from all of them,” said Elk Grove City Council Member Pat Hume, who had disagreed with the idea of government funded community grants at a prior meeting.
“I don’t believe that it is government’s role to act as Robin Hood and redistribute wealth,” Hume said during the May 23 council meeting. “Even when we were in high cotton I kind of had a problem philosophically with the idea of community services grants.”
Other council members, though, saw the worth of the programs requesting help at the June 13 council meeting.
“This is an organization that has been serving the community for a long time,” said Elk Grove City Council Member Gary Davis about the Animal Rescue League. “They work their tails off.”
Some council members were more concerned with giving money to groups that helped people.
“There are a lot of human needs,” said Elk Grove City Council Member Mike Leary. “Perhaps we should prioritize.”
Members of the council also argued that they could either fund the Animal Rescue League or give more money to the Elk Grove Rotary Foundation Youth Incentive Mentor Program, “where you can keep an at risk kid out of prison,” said Elk Grove Mayor Jim Cooper. “So it’s either Fi Fi the cat or a kid.”
In the end the Rotary Foundation received $10,000, $5,000 less then they requested and the Animal Rescue League received $10,000 of their $50,000 request.
But all of the money didn’t just go to furry little four legged friends. The Elk Grove Community Food Bank Services received $60,000.
“This is an organization that’s operating lean and mean,” Davis said. “Any assistance we give is going to Elk Grove families. We don’t have a big homeless population but we have a lot of people that are barely making it.”
Other groups like Project R.I.D.E. also received their full request.
“We’re ecstatic it’s definitely a step that we needed to take to not have to continually ask the city for money every year,” said Tina Calanchini, director of operations for Project R.I.D.E.
The group requested $11,900 to develop marketing packets to promote the organization to help get bigger donors.
“We want to garner support in other places of the city,” Calanchini said. “This will help us help ourselves.”
The council also gave $25,000 to the Elk Grove Adult Community Training.
“We’re looking at folks who are disabled, they need everything they can get,” Davis said. “This will give them a good shot in the arm so to speak.”
Even the arts didn’t get left out of the donations.
Elk Grove Artists and the Elk Grove Concert Band received a total of almost $7,000.
“They are young kids out there,” said Elk Grove City Council Member Sophia Scherman, about the concert band. “They really do entertain a lot of folks out in the community.”
There were also a slew of events requesting funding.
Although the Elk Grove Veteran’s Day Parade received $3,000, the Elk Grove Western Festival received $2,000 and the Strauss Festival of Elk Grove received $15,000 Davis continued to mention that events might be better funded by other areas of the budget.
“I think we’ve got funds from other sources to fund events,” Davis said.
The Fine Arts Festival of Elk Grove was also funded at $5,000, which was less then the group’s request of $14,350.
“Were just really grateful that they thought to help us out,” said Nan Mahon, member of the fine arts festival committee. “We’re a new (so) it shows that they have some faith in us.”
Although they did not receive the full amount requested, Mahon said the it would still be useful.
“The money means that we can continue to make this a free event so that all of the community can come and enjoy the arts,” Mahon said. “That’s our goal is art for everybody.”
But not all organizations walked away happy.
The Elk Grove Youth Achievement Foundation requested $30,000 and received nothing.
“I’ve never been aware of them funding any sports for girls,” said Elk Grove Mayor Jim Cooper. “I’ve got a problem with that.”
Other groups like the Elk Grove Historical Society were also left out in the cold.
The historical society requested $42,326 for handicap improvements to Rhoads School and research library equipment.
“You’re disappointed when you don’t get a grant but its understandable, the city doesn’t have a lot of money to give to everybody,” said Anita Peters, president of the Elk Grove Historical Society. “It’s kind of the luck of the draw.”
But the historical society will still need to find the money to at least do the handicap improvements.
“Of course (Rhoads School is) an old building but we do school programs there and we have in recent years had a couple of children who were in wheelchairs and it was very difficult thing for them,” said Frances Fite, director of the Rhoads School. “Also we are not in compliance with the (American’s With Disabilities Act) requirements.”
Even though many groups did receive funding this year the council sent out a warning to all that planned to apply again next year.
“They may not get any funding to free up the money for someone else,” Leary said.
This year the council had $1,000 leftover after giving out community grants.