By B. Sakura Cannestra. San Jose Spotlight.
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As San Jose works to distribute a sizable donation from Google, residents want to make sure the money goes to support their communities.
Part of Google’s $200 million donation to San Jose was $1 million to support the Gardner Community Center, with the goal of reopening the center with more programs for residents. However, after going back and forth for about four months, the city and residents still don’t agree on how that money should be spent.
The city has budgeted about $364,000 of that million to hire three full-time and two part-time employees for the community center over the next year. The city is also spending about $74,000 on one-time costs for equipment at the community center, including computers.
A budget proposal sent by the city to members of the Gardner Neighborhood Association planned to keep the new community center's programs open for two years and allocate about $454,000 per year for staffing. That will consume about $908,000 of the $1 million over the two years.
Chuck Cantrell, San Jose's planning commissioner and president of the Gardner Neighborhood Association, said the association had previously met with city parks director Jon Cicirelli about keeping the center open for more than two years. But the talks went nowhere, and it's unclear what might happen to the community center after those two years are up.
“We want the funds from Google’s very generous donation to benefit the community now. It’s an abstraction to say that if you let us hire all these people, then it will benefit the community,” Cantrell told San José Spotlight. “Well, how? And why at that level?”
Parks spokesman Ed Bautista said the department conducted community outreach in multiple forms, including sending mailers to approximately 1,400 neighborhood addresses and holding in-person community meetings, to develop budget plans.
He said some neighborhood association leaders disagree with the proposal. He added that having the center open for two years will help justify the city's continued funding.
“We received substantial input on exactly what programs they want to see in a fully managed community center and we believe the plan meets the needs and desires of the community feedback,” Bautista explained to San José Spotlight.
Cantrell said he wanted to see less money spent on staffing and more on scholarships.
Without scholarships, residents have to pay fees for the senior lunch program and an after-school program for children attending Gardner Elementary School. Cantrell said the after-school program costs about $2,000 per child per year.
Mahan’s office held a community meeting Monday on the city budget, in coordination with District 6 Councilman Dev Davis and the Willow Glen Neighborhood Association. More than a dozen Gardner residents and their supporters came to ask about the community center.
After the event, residents cornered the mayor to remove funding for the Gardner Community Center from this year’s budget. The community wanted more time to work out the details with the city. To save money, members of the Gardner Neighborhood Association suggested that area residents might be interested in helping run the community center.
“This community has been neglected for many years now. Not just one or two years, but more than 10 years,” said Claudia Gonzalez, secretary of the Gardner Neighborhood Association. “To make matters worse, we are a predominantly brown community. And now they are cutting our funding.”
Mahan told the group he is not familiar with the Gardner Community Center issue, but would try to learn more about it. He also recommended the group circulate a neighborhood petition to assess the community's agreement on removing the money from the budget and make a presentation to the City Council.
“Our team is working with the city parks department to understand what our options are ahead of the budget vote in June,” Tasha Dean, a spokesperson for the mayor, told San José Spotlight.
Fred Buzo, policy director for Davis' office, said the budget is only a proposal, so there is still time to amend it. Buzo said his office hopes to continue discussions with the Gardner Neighborhood Association and the community about how to best use the funds.
Cantrell said the need for a petition delegitimizes the neighborhood association, which is the organizing body for the Gardner community. She added that the Gardner Neighborhood Association is comprised primarily of people of color, while other neighborhood associations that are predominantly white, such as the Willow Glen Neighborhood Association, would not be treated this way.
“At a town hall for District 6, when Gardner is a District 6 community, we were not allowed to just ask and answer a question,” she told San Jose Spotlight. “This is part of the treatment we receive across the board. That’s why it’s so hard for us to survive here.”
Read the original note by clicking here.
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