City Council Member Skylar Peak is pushing for an increase in budget allocations to the general fund grant program, according to statements made at the April 27 special city council meeting, where City Manager Reva Feldman presented a preliminary 2016-17 budget.
The budget is temporarily inflated to $80.8 million for the upcoming fiscal year, due to the groundbreaking of the Civic Center Wastewater Treatment Facility.
Generally, the city’s budget is much smaller, hovering between $30 million to $35 million. The General Fund budget of $26.54 million in revenues and $25.84 million in expenses included a suggestion from Feldman to bump up the grant program from $125,000 to $130,000 for the coming year.
“What’s our process to increase that, from maybe $125,000 to $200,000?” Peak asked Feldman.
“That could be something as part of this meeting; you could provide direction to staff to see if we could accommodate that increase,” Feldman said.
After hearing it could be discussed among council at the Wednesday night meeting, Peak made the case for increasing the budget, despite trepidation from some council members.
“It’s always difficult,” Mayor Pro Tem Lou La Monte said. La Monte sits on the Administration and Finance (A & F) Subcommittee along with Council Member Joan House.
“There’s always a half-a-million dollars worth of requests, and all of them are needed and necessary,” La Monte lamented.
A total of 33 organizations made requests up to $558,440 for the coming fiscal year, including many of the 26 groups that earned funding for the 2015-16 fiscal year.
La Monte explained that many groups that ask for funds share a common goal, meaning the city could be allocating twice as much money as is necessary to solve an issue.
“A lot of them are looking to solve the same problem. One way or another, we have to find a way to prioritize, or find a way where they can work together,” La Monte said.
Council decided to leave initial grant allocations up to the discretion of La Monte and House, saying the two could allocate as much as they saw fit, with council working together to narrow down the list at the May 23 council meeting.
“When the A & F Committee looks at this, really look at what you want to give to a program and not saying, ‘We have to fit all into the $125 or the $130,’ or something like that,” Mayor Laura Rosenthal suggested. “That way maybe you come with a recommendation to us, ‘OK, here’s the 125, but if we did go up to the 175, let’s say, here’s the recommendation of what that money could go to.’”
One of Peak’s main concerns was that other cities may be giving much more than Malibu.
“I don’t want to say — it’s not embarrassing, but it’s funny that we spend so much time talking about this one percent or two percent of this budget that we’re spending, and these are things that really benefit a lot of the people directly in this community,” Peak said.
“The organizations that we’re funding are providing services that the city does not provide,” Peak said, mentioning that the $30,000 given to the Boys & Girls Clubs of Malibu this fiscal year pales in comparison to what larger cities give their B&GC.
“It’s fairly minor compared to what other cities give their Boys & Girls Clubs,” Peak said. “There’s other cities that give them hundreds of thousands of dollars. Granted, those other cities have larger populations and have larger budgets and whatnot.”
The Malibu Times reached out to neighboring cities Calabasas and Agoura Hills to see what kinds of grant allocations they provide. Given the many variables among these cities, such as population sizeand budget and general fund sizes, it is difficult to draw direct comparisons — but Malibu is still fairly generous.
The City of Agoura Hills had a general fund roughly half the size of Malibu’s in the 2015-16 budget year, totaling $13.9 million. Of that, about $20,000 was allocated toward “community outreach grant program funds,” the rough equivalent of Malibu’s grant program.
Agoura Hills gave $1,100 to the B&GC and $500 to the California Wildlife Center, while in the same year, Malibu gave $30,000 to the B&GC and $3,500 to the California Wildlife Center.
Agoura Hills also gave $1,200 to Meals on Wheels, whereas Malibu gave $3,000.
The City of Calabasas’ budget did not disclose line items of specific “discretionary funds,” which total $25,000 in its annual budget, but does show allocations to groups such as Neighbors in Need ($25,000) and Relay for Life ($5,000), as well as several community events like July 4th ($70,000), Egg Stravaganza ($9,200) and the Film Festival ($15,000).