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 disagree 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 in 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 have the new community center's programs open for two years and allocate about $454,000 per year for staffing. This will consume around $908k of the $1 million over the two years.
Chuck Cantrell, San Jose 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 is an abstraction to say that if you let us hire all these people, then it will benefit the community,” Cantrell told San José Spotlight. "Good as? And why at that level?”
Parks spokesman Ed Bautista said the department conducted community outreach in multiple ways, including sending mailings to approximately 1,400 addresses in the neighborhood and hosting in-person community meetings to develop budget plans. .
He said some of the neighborhood association leaders do not agree with the proposal. He added that having the center open for two years will help justify the city continuing to fund it.
“We received substantial information about exactly the programs they want to see in a fully managed community center and we believe the plan meets the needs and wants of the community feedback,” Bautista explained to San José Spotlight.
Cantrell said he wanted to see less money go toward hiring staff and more toward scholarships.
Without scholarships, residents have to pay fees for the senior lunch program and an after-school program for children who attend 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 about 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. Not just one or two, but more than 10 years,” said Claudia González, secretary of the Gardner Neighborhood Association. “To make matters worse, we are a majority brown community. And now they are cutting our funding.”
Mahan told the group that he is not familiar with the Gardner Community Center issue, but would try to learn more about it. He also recommended that the group circulate a neighborhood petition to gauge the community's agreement on taking the money out of the budget and making a presentation to City Council.
“Our team is working with the city's 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 in Davis' office, explained that the budget is just a proposal, so there is still time to modify it. Buzo said his office hopes to continue conversations with the Gardner Neighborhood Association and the community about how best to use the funds.
Cantrell said the need for a petition delegitimizes the neighborhood association, which is the organizing body for the Gardner community. He added that the Gardner Neighborhood Association is primarily made up 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,” he 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.”
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