Sonoma City Council embraces ‘core recreational services’

City officials rethink funding model for local nonprofits|

“Core recreational services.” Those three words were music to the ears of four local organizations which will likely benefit from a nonprofit-funding change of heart by the Sonoma City Council.

The Council at its March 20 meeting collectively voiced its support for scaling back a year-old “community fund grant” experiment that doled out small chunks of cash to many nonprofits in favor of greater and more dedicated funding toward a few organizations that deliver core services typically administered by a city’s parks and recreation department.

The City’s policy of dedicating 1.5 percent of its general fund revenue – that was just under $195,000 last year – toward independent organizations that offer P&R services in a town that lacks such a department has been in place for nearly a decade.

And debate over which organizations fit that P&R bill has been around just as long.

According to the city staff report, the idea of “core recreational services” was at the heart of the City’s 2009 adoption of a “Recreational and Community Programs Funding Policy” that acknowledged the cost savings to the city by forgoing a municipal P&R department and pledging a portion of the general fund to support a select few local nonprofits which meet those community needs. Up until 2016, those had been the Boys & Girls Clubs, the Sonoma Community Center, Vintage House senior center and the Sonoma Ecology Center.

Those four nonprofits had been labeled by the City as “Tier 1” nonprofits and for many years had received the bulk of the funds the City dealt out to organizations that offer P&R-type services, such as kids camps, senior activities, arts and crafts classes and community-wide events.

But there has always been shades of gray over the definition of recreation services – and whether other nonprofits were being overlooked in the Tier 1 process.

Last year, at the behest of Councilmember Rachel Hundley, the Council adopted a new “competitive” funding paradigm in which all Valley nonprofits were eligible to apply for a piece of the grant pie. When the dust settled, the City Council unanimously approved a proposal for 13 organizations to receive between $5,000 and $25,000. The former Tier 1 groups were awarded grants from $20,000 to $25,000, though, compared to the previous year, it added up to an overall drop in city funding ranging from 18 percent (Ecology Center) to 72 percent (Boys & Girls Clubs).

The new system, called the Community Fund Grant program, received mixed reviews, with the smaller nonprofits happy for a seat at the grant-funding table, and the no-longer-Tier-1 groups feeling slighted and facing unexpected budget shortfalls.

When it came time for a post-mortem review of the Community Grant Fund program on Monday, City Manager Cathy Capriola presented an overview of the program and stressed that a city’s role isn’t typically to act as a “foundation” – i.e. the Sonoma Valley Fund, Impact 100 or the Marin Community Foundation – whose mission is to fund nonprofits. The essence behind the 2009 policy was to support the organizations providing the core services for which many cities take responsibility. Among the 13 nonprofits funded through the program last year, several of the programs would fall beyond the offerings of a typical city P&R department.

Capriola recommended three options to the Council: Bring back the Tier 1 system; continue with the competitive grants; or develop something of a hybrid which could include contracting with the larger nonprofits to more officially solidify their roles and funding.

Pretty much everyone in the room voiced support for a hybrid or reverting to the Tier system.

Bill O’Neal, board president of Vintage House, echoed the idea that the city is “not a foundation.”

“I think you went off the rails with what you did (last) year,” said O’Neal. “I would like to see you get the train back on the track.”

Sonoma resident Larry Barnett noted that “the Visitors (Bureau), a nonprofit, gets $100,000 a year,” he said referencing the city’s contract with the VB, which few would describe as a typical P&R service. “Come up with a coordinated effort instead of going chock-a-block.”

Council members were largely in agreement. David Cook described last year’s grant program as “trying to do something that we do not do.”

The funds are intended “as a tradeoff for a parks and recreation,” said Cook, who said he’d like to rename the program to specify the its connection to “core recreational services.”

Councilmember Amy Harrington, who was not on the Council last year when members ushered in the new system, echoed Cook’s comments.

“It makes more sense to select a few (nonprofits) and give substantial donations,” she said, rather than fund many nonprofits in small amounts.

The Council in the end directed staff to return at a later meeting with a hybrid proposal closer to the Tier 1 model of funding core recreational services.

Email Jason at jason.walsh@sonomanews.com.

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