No decision at council for non-profit funding

The Sonoma City Council set a special study session with the local non-profit organizations at its meeting on Monday to discuss just who gets what portion of the $240,000 that was approved for the FY 2008 city budget.
“I hear the need to get this funding issue resolved,” Mayor Stanley Cohen said. “People need their money and maybe we need a special meeting.”
While the general consensus from the public and the non-profits alike was not to put one group above the other – council member Ken Brown suggested that maybe a mailing should go out to the more than six-thousand local voters and let them weigh in and pick the non-profit they want.
Council member Steve Barbose praised the informal study session idea, citing a real need to get out from behind the table. “I find that what works is when people talk to one another,” Barbose said.
Mayor pro tem Joanne Sanders said that she will be glad to do whatever needs to be done. Council member August Sebastiani cast the swing vote, and a special study session it will be.
So that all of the local non-profits get an opportunity to speak in an informal fashion to the council regarding their fair cut of the near one-half-million-dollar financial pie, this study session is set for Monday August 20 – two days before the issue will be formally addressed at the council meeting scheduled for Wednesday August 22.