Kathy Swett, executive director of the Sonoma Community Center, talks with David Goodison, president of the Board of Directors, moments before he announces to the council the center’s withdrawal of its request for financial support from the city.
Ryan lely/Sonoma Valley Sun
The Sonoma Community Center, in an unexpected move prompted by months of frustration with the city council, has withdrawn its request for financial support from the city.
The surprise request, which clearly caught city council members off guard, came at a meeting Monday evening where the council once again had taken up a proposed new method of allocating city money to many of the city’s non-profits, a process which has led to numerous proposals, lengthy meetings and decisions that have been recanted and then reconsidered. All of this has left such organizations as the community center, which among other things, stages the July 4th Parade and the Annual City Party, in a state of financial uncertainty for the current fiscal year.
Community center officials said outside the meeting – held, ironically, at the center – that their decision would have no bearing on either event, that they, would continue. However, they said they would have to look elsewhere for money, about $65,000, they hoped to get from the council for such things as maintenance of the center, located at 276 E. Napa St.
At a meeting that by turns was fractious and seemingly adrift as council members sought a compromise in the process of funding non-profits, the mood among the audience members, many of them representing non-profits, appeared to be resignation that an established method of funding their organizations was coming to an end, replaced by a system that no longer guaranteed ample money for their groups.
When it became clear that a majority of the council was heading toward a funding cut, David Goodison, president of the board of the community center, announced that the center no longer wanted the money it had requested, thus ending a 20-year financial tie to the city.
Leading the reform effort was Mayor Stanley Cohen, who said times were changing, money was going to be increasingly tight, and difficult decisions were needed. Though not now facing anything resembling financial difficulty, the city would more than likely be doing so in the foreseeable future.
“I’m sorry it hurts,” he said.
“We do have a surplus. But my responsibility is to look further than today. Someday it ends. The city will not have enough money.”
But city council member Joanne Sanders, while not disputing Cohen’s assessment, clearly thought now was not the time to be moving away from adequately funding non-profits.
“I have serious concerns about losing the services that are provided by the center.”
The problem for the city is that without such agencies as the community center, the Boys & Girls Club Valley of the Moon and the Sonoma Ecology Center, many services provided in other communities through city departments would not be available in Sonoma.
The funding for the city’s largest non-profits, including the community center, has been included in the city’s annual budgets almost as if they were a department of the city.
Some city council members decided earlier this year that it would be better to remove the non-profits from the budget and place them in another category to be decided separately from the budget, presumably to give the process additional transparency.
Additionally, the council established a two-tier system. The first tier, as approved Monday by the council, will be the Boys and Girls Club, the Ecology Center and the Vintage House. A second tier will comprise about 35 smaller non-profits.
The first tier will get a lump sum based on their request for funds from the city. The second tier will compete for a fixed dollar amount, based on how they are able to meet various needs of the city as set forth by the council.
The council reaffirmed in a 3 to 2 vote on Monday that the first tier would receive $150,000 for the current fiscal year and the second tier, $90,000.
