The fate of the Board of Supervisors' Neighborhood
Reinvestment Fund (aka the discretionary fund) will be taken up Tuesday,
March 23 and representatives of the many organizations that benefit from
the fund are planning to be there in force to speak for not cutting it.
Several fire safe organizations from Valley Center will talk about how
they benefited from over $210,000 in grants from the fund.
The fund has been the subject of some controversy this year when Supervisor
Pam Slater-Price got in trouble for not declaring $1,500 in free tickets
she got from the San Diego Opera and the Old Globe Theater, both large
recipients of the fund.
Supervisors will consider a request by Supervisor Greg Cox and Supervisor
Dianne Jacob, to cut
Neighborhood Reinvestment in half for next year.
Currently supervisors each have about $2 million a year to disburse to
non-profits and causes of their choosing, subject to approval by the
full board. The proposal before the board would cut that amount to $1
million. If that happens, competition for the remainder of the fund could
become quite fierce.
Supporters of the fund, insist that the process is a transparent, accountable,
and open process that requires each grant be presented to the scrutiny
of the public and voted on by all five members of
Board. Unlike, say, congressional earmarks, these grants are not buried
in the county's budget process. They are given for specific projects
and individually tracked. People interested in such things can check
into the legitimacy of organizations being funded.
Critics of the practice say that the money is a campaign fund that individual
supervisors can use to bolster their election chances.
In Valley Center, Supervisor Bill Horn has given discretionary funds
to Western Days, the July 4 fireworks show, the Maxine Theater, the VC
History Museum, the Valley Center Road median, and many other organizations.
These funds were used to help jump start the Valley Center Firesafe Council.
Jim Courter, president of Valley Center Fire Safe Council and VC CERT,
will travel with George Lucia, VC fire marshal, and Kathy Ames, president
of LAST (Local Animal Safety Team) to speak before the board about what
was done for their organizations by grants from the fund.
* The Valley Center Fire Safe Council received $30,000 this year
* Valley Center CERT received $87,30 this year
* Deer Springs CERT Received $94,000 last year
