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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2025-06-04 Policy & Services Committee Summary MinutesPOLICY & SERVICES COMMITTEE SUMMARY MINUTES Page 1 of 11 Special Meeting June 4, 2025 The Policy & Services Committee of the City of Palo Alto met on this date in the Community Meeting Room and by virtual teleconference at 7:34 PM Present In-Person: Veenker (Chair), Lu, Stone Absent: None Call to Order Chair Veenker called the meeting to order. The clerk took the roll. Public Comments No requests to speak. Agenda Items 1. Recommend to the City Council Approval of the FY 2026 Nonprofit Partnership Workplan Phase I awards Lupita Alamos, Assistant to the City Manager, provided a slide presentation including FY 2026 budget status, City Council consensus, nonprofit partnership workplan phase 1, Policy and Services Committee review and discussion and staff recommendation. Chair Veenker discussed the process of phase 1. Item 1 Public Comment 1. Larry M., government affairs community liaison for Job Train, discussed the services offered by the organization. Job Train would like to be closer aligned with the HR department in Palo Alto. 2. Midpen Media provided slides about the Midpen Media Center including a description of the center’s services and the center’s grant request. SUMMARY MINUTES Page 2 of 11 Sp. Policy & Services Committee Meeting Summary Minutes: 6/4/2025 3. Jasmina, founder and director of UNAFF, spoke about the relevance of UNAFF considering the social and political situation in the country. Without the same level of support as last year, UNAFF will not be able to continue to have all the programs for free. 4. Sarah B. talked about the relationship between Neighbors Abroad and the City and how Neighbors Abroad utilizes the requested funds. 5. Olenka V. spoke about the events and services provided by Magical Bridge. 6. Andrew N. (Zoom), Director of Clinic and Outreach Programs for Peninsula Healthcare Connection. HSRAP partially funds the two staff members who do the day-to-day work with the community. Additional funding will help the organization continue to do longer-term case management services. 7. Nicole C., executive director of Dreamcatchers, described the services provided by the organization. Chair Veenker has questions for Midpen Media. The Midpen Media representative clarified Midpen Media subsidizes 80% of the production. The funding would be used to subsidize the cost that people are paying the organization to have a show. The regular fee for a community member would be $150 but they would only pay $40 and the rest would be subsidized. With this funding, shows would be free for community members. The workshops would be the same. The workshops precede the shows to train people on how to use the equipment. Ongoing workshops are also provided for the community members not related to the production itself. This money would be for anyone in the Palo Alto community not to have to pay $40 per hour to produce the show or take classes. Councilmember Stone asked how partial funding would impact the services UNAFF hoped to provide with the grant funding. Jasmina explained the grant received from the City of Palo Alto is crucial to be the same amount as last year. Not receiving it will result in the organization having to charge for the events held for seniors, schools and all the free programs. Chair Veenker asked for explanation of what the money goes to. Jasmina explained the $20,000 will support the eight different ongoing series UNAFF presents in the senior centers and UNAFF schools for the veterans and libraries. The $25,000 is for the ongoing operation of the film festival. It is a quarter of the budget. Chair Veenker wanted information about the funding for Neighbors Abroad for this year. Sarah B. explained in 20 years, there was a time when there was not much funding or staff support. In that time, the funding dropped off and the relationships with cities dropped off. About six years ago, they began to have a contract to fill back in what had been the original agreement with the City at a fraction of it. There is no longer a staff person but there is payment to help with administration fees, costs and overhead. This is separate from that. In 2021, there was a function in City Hall where they received $5000 from Council funds. Several cities came and the delegates were entertained on that money. In the next year, $10,000 was received to make up SUMMARY MINUTES Page 3 of 11 Sp. Policy & Services Committee Meeting Summary Minutes: 6/4/2025 for the 2 cities that were complaining. They found out city government people had gone and accepted accommodations and other things at quite an expense and that was the make up money. They then applied for the budget to get $20,000 in funding and that has not been used up yet. Chair Veenker asked if there is an ongoing contract. Sarah B. replied this is separate from the ongoing contract. The ongoing contract is in the preparation phases. For the last little bit, Staff was looking to find out how much of the budget was left for entertaining to roll that into the contract and have a clear amount. Chantal Cotton-Gaines, Deputy City Manager, explained the base funding for Neighbors Abroad is $30,000 which supports the administrative support. That is in the city manager's office funding. That is in the budget as an annual ongoing expense. To the point in the spreadsheet of the $20,000 reference is funding Council gave one time in the previous fiscal year and just paying it down until that money is gone. The 30 has been in place since the contracts with Neighbors Abroad started. Councilmember Lu asked if the $30k is on a reimbursement basis. Sarah B. replied it is $30k overall and 77% of that has to be spent on admin. The rest goes toward the storage locker. Councilmember Lu wanted to know how restrictive those figures are. Sarah B. stated the organization hires offshore people who are working at City of Palo Alto minimum wage. In other cities, this is a city staff position which would be more than four times what the $30,000 is. It used to be a city position. The money also goes to fund things like the Calenda. Councilmember Stone wanted to know where the $150,000 goes to for Magical Bridge. Olenka V. explained the one-year commitment with the City ends at the end of June. The $150,000 allows the organization to provide programs completely free. There are over 50 programs currently. It pays for staff and all event expenses. This is the first year to receive $150,000. When the board said the events could not continue to be free, the City and Council brought the organization in as a paid nonprofit partner. Councilmember Stone asked how many events the organization put on this year because of the funding. Olenka V. stated 51 events have been put on on and off the playground. All of the events would have been a financial and staff burden to take on without the extra funding. Councilmember Stone asked how partial funding would impact the organization. Olenka V. said that would mean less events that Magical Bridge would be able to put on. This is the only funds that are allocated to provide inclusive programming and a lot of people have been overlooked. Councilmember Lu asked about other comparable city contracts for Magical Bridge. Olenka V. replied every other city has a staff of at least two or three people that are specifically taking on community programs. There are people in Mountain View that only do Magical Bridge programming. It is completely funded through full-time staff members. Councilmember Lu wanted to know how this incremental funding would advance access to care. Andrew N. commented it would enable the organization to expand access to the trauma- informed healthcare for marginalized populations by expanding the deliverable hours. Chair Veenker asked where services are delivered. Andrew N. confirmed there is an office near the public defender near the courthouse. The organization has a KKRC Resource Center on SUMMARY MINUTES Page 4 of 11 Sp. Policy & Services Committee Meeting Summary Minutes: 6/4/2025 Sherman Avenue, a clinic on Encina at the Opportunity Center and a lot of services are provided in the field. Chair Veenker wanted clarification of what would be funded. Andrew N. confirmed the funding would be for the salary of a case manager. The current funding stream provides 30 to 35 hours. Adding more hours would enable the staff members to deliver more services and do more one-on-one case management services. Councilmember Stone wanted elaboration on why Dreamcatchers terminating the Expanded Learning Opportunities Program contract with the school district. Nicole C. explained the Expanded Learning Opportunities Program (ELOP) is run through the state providing an afterschool program for PK through 6th grade. Dreamcatchers focuses on 6th, 7th and 8th graders and the ELOP pulls the focus away from them. The childcare component of ELOP was a financial burden that was not being made up by the increase in funding and preventing the 6th graders from taking advantage of other opportunities. The funding received through the state is equivalent to $2500 per student for 6th graders but drops to $1000 for 7th and 8th graders. It did not align with Dreamcatcher’s mission. Councilmember Stone wanted to know how Dreamcatchers is differentiated from YMCA of Silicon Valley. Nicole C. had intentions of working with the YMCA. Dreamcatchers was not designed to service ELOP but to be academic support to provide wraparound services. A lot of time and resources go into parent education and securing scholarships and walking families through gaining access and securing scholarships. Councilmember Stone asked if the ELOP funding from the district was not an option to be used toward paying staff salaries. Nicole C. explained the ELOP funding forced them to create two different programs that were not servicing the families. Chair Veenker recapped the comments of Nicole C. about Dreamcatchers. Nicole C. confirmed that HSRAP is a bit shy in funding the staff resources and the funds being asked for would supplement that. Chair Veenker provided a slide of a spreadsheet to review and discuss which organizations to recommend Council award funds to. Chair Veenker recommended awarding YCS/YCI in full. Councilmembers Lu and Stone agreed. Councilmember Stone wanted to do the full award for Magical Bridge Foundation and asked if it was true that the City gave nothing for inclusive programming in the last year. Chair Veenker wanted to talk more about it. Councilmember Lu was happy to tentatively support the full request but thought it fair to put an asterisk on it to come back for potentially partial funding for other programs proposing inclusive and accessible events. Chair Veenker was comfortable recommending $100,000 but needed more discussion to agree on the full $150,000. Councilmember Lu wanted to clearly mark that this will be substantively funded. Kristen O’Kane, Director of Community Services, remarked the City has not provided inclusive programming directly. Magical Bridge has been funded in the past to do the summer concert series. The City recognizes being behind compared to other cities in providing inclusive programming. A therapeutic recreation position was added to the community services SUMMARY MINUTES Page 5 of 11 Sp. Policy & Services Committee Meeting Summary Minutes: 6/4/2025 department last year. That position is the start to building a bigger program. That position is a 0.75 in this fiscal year FTE. That person does a lot of intake calls from families or individuals looking for programming suitable for their needs. Councilmember Lu thought Third Thursday is worth funding in whole. Partial funding is an option but it is a medium large request in the context of this sheet. Councilmember Stone was onboard full funding for Third Thursdays. Chair Veenker was onboard for $40k because that is what Finance said. Councilmember Stone imagined that had the application been in front of Finance, the recommendation would have been for $46.8k and wanted to know why there was an increase. Chamber of Commerce President indicated Third Thursday was awarded $40k last year. There was a supplemental $5000 that came through in additional funding. This years ask of $46.8k is a little bump up from that. Councilmember Stone assumed Finance was looking at what the line item was at the time the budget was adopted. Ms. Alamos assumed the same and added it was correct that $5000 came through what is part of the service contract for the Chamber. There is also some co-sponsorship included through staff engagement and support. It is possible they are making up that difference. Chair Veenker asked if there are other sources of funding for Third Thursday in addition to the $45 from last year. Chamber of Commerce President replied in this budget there is an additional $18,000 the Chamber Foundation and Third Thursday are looking to raise above and beyond so more can be done. The $46.8k is the request through this process and then $18 from the Chamber to try help grow the program and make it more sustainable. Chair Veenker wondered if the City’s money could be used as some kind of fundraising matching thing. Chamber of Commerce President answered that is why they were trying to use this to elevate the extra $18,000. Chair Veenker asked if the $11,000 and $4616 co-sponsorship Environmental Volunteers received last year was for the use of City facilities exclusively. Ms. Alamos stated that was partially subsidized use of Mitchell Park in FY25 and FY26. Chair Veenker thought it is not a huge dollar amount, supplements the City’s docents and there is not much else like this on the list and pitched to do the full amount requested. Councilmember Stone agreed. Ed Shikada, City Manager, indicated Environmental Volunteers was established when Foothill's Nature Preserve was open to the general public. There was an original partnership with the City to supplement funding on a one-time basis for the establishment of this when new visitors to Foothills. Director O’Kane confirmed the city manager’s comments. The original contract amount was around $20,000. It has been reduced in half the last year. They still provide a valuable service as the rangers are busy with other tasks. Councilmember Lu did not have a strong opinion. Councilmember Lu favored funding at least a significant chunk for UNAFF. Chair Veenker noted the ask was $25k for October Festival and $20k for special programs. Neither of those would fund either in full. Councilmember Stone agreed with Councilmember Lu as far as trying to find a partial number that works. Councilmember Lu thought $25 was a good number. SUMMARY MINUTES Page 6 of 11 Sp. Policy & Services Committee Meeting Summary Minutes: 6/4/2025 Chair Veenker stated Ada's Café asked for $25k, $20k for patio furniture and $2500 for each of the two events for their mission-oriented workers. Councilmember Lu thought the amounts were fuzzy going through the sheets. He would be happy to fund the programs in full but as a café, furniture would be an operating expense. Councilmember Stone was in agreement. Chair Veenker asked for Staff’s thoughts about funding the furniture. Director O’Kane explained as part of the lease, Ada's has the ability to use a portion of the outdoor area. That is their furniture and they try to restrict it to their customers only. Minka Van Der Zwaag, Human Services Manager, Community Services Department, stated they lock the furniture up every night. Chair Veenker felt picking up some cost of the furniture is not wrong given the high traffic of that area. Councilmember Lu preferred to just fully fund the events between $5k and $10k. Chair Veenker agreed with at least $10k up to $15k. Councilmember Stone was happy to start at $15k recognizing there might be a $5k buffer. Chair Veenker brought up the Palo Alto Special Education PTA request for $5000. There was confusion as to whether this should come from the City or the school district. Rika Yamamoto, President, Palo Alto Special Education PTA, explained generally PTA is an independent nonprofit organization. There is no funding tied to the school district. PTA raises funds and supports back to the school district. Councilmember Stone asked if the school district can fund a PTA program. Ms. Yamamoto explained the school district funds third parties through MOU such as Dreamcatchers or YCS. PTA is a nonprofit. PTA would not request funding from the school district. Chair Veenker asked how the grant money would be spent. Ms. Yamamoto replied $1500 would go for a consultant fee for a social building program, $1000 for development training for the members, $1000 for materials, $650 to offer financial aid and $850 for facility fee. Councilmember Lu was happy to move ahead with $5000. Chair Veenker agreed. Councilmember Stone thought it made sense but wondered about the precedent it would start. Chair Veenker wanted Staff’s thoughts on that. City Manager Shikada observed that the City funds PACCC on campuses. That precedent has already been established and this would be another step in that direction. Chair Veenker stated there are some attractive grant recipients that do not fit into the HSRAP category. If an organization does, it should go there. For the future, if HSRAP does not have enough, then more should be put in and let the HSRAP people figure out that universe. Councilmember Stone agreed with drawing lines but was onboard for the $5000 for this one. Chair Veenker stated PARCA get HSRAP money. Their services only go to Page Mill Court. Ms. Van Der Zwaag indicated these are specifically programs for the residents at Page Mill Court. They have a whole program for the cohort of residents that live there. This specific service is the social emotional living skills programs they have. Chair Veenker felt it was a different category if it is not something anyone can go to. Ms. Van Der Zwaag explained it is an ongoing place of residence for individuals with disabilities. Councilmember Stone leaned toward not funding this one as it is HSRAP funded. Councilmember Lu had no take on it. Chair Veenker put it in the decline category. Chair Veenker pointed out that Neighbors Abroad would not exist if not for the City. If only administration is funding, there will be no programming and was in support of fully funding it. SUMMARY MINUTES Page 7 of 11 Sp. Policy & Services Committee Meeting Summary Minutes: 6/4/2025 Councilmember Lu was fine with the number. Councilmember Stone agreed. Chair Veenker moved Neighbors Abroad to the award column. Deputy City Manager Cotton-Gaines wanted to clarify this was only taking into account this grant request, nothing on the baseline funding. Chair Veenker confirmed. Chair Veenker was all in for Musical Memories Foundation, Inc. Councilmember Stone was in support of it. Councilmember Lu pointed out there are other dance programs somewhat focused to seniors run by communities and suggested taking another look at this one. Chair Veenker confirmed this program is particularly targeted for seniors with some degree of dementia or memory loss. Sheryl Marymount, CEO/Founder, Musical Memories Foundation, explained each program is customizable to cater to the needs of the population being served. Councilmember Lu wanted to move ahead with $5000. Dreamcatchers was discussed next. Councilmember Stone thought this was more of a school district organization. It is funded through HSRAP, Emerging Needs and the school district. Councilmember Lu wanted to punt this one and come back to it at the end. Chair Veenker wanted to do partial at least. Councilmember Lu wanted confirmation on the numbers. Ms. Van Der Zwaag clarified $95,600 is what they got in FY24 and 25. The Emerging Needs fund was a one-time grant. Nonprofits in the community are eligible to get up to $10,000 once every two years if they are selected in the application process. Councilmember Lu thought giving some thousands to Dreamcatchers would be a reasonable use of funds but was reluctantly okay to punt it. Chair Veenker noted that funds would be used for an operations director who handles fundraising in order to be less reliant on this in the future. Chair Veenker also wanted Staff to note that when chairing an endowment committee that went through a grant making process, that process would fund for up to three years and not be forever funding and consideration should be made whether to be a dependency for organizations or a temporary source. Chair Veenker advised to put $20,000 in and revisit. Councilmember Stone suggested putting $10,000. The Committee agreed on $15,000 and revisit. Peninsula Healthcare Connections was discussed next. Chair Veenker asked for information about Project Homekey. Deputy City Manager Cotton-Gaines thought the intention was primarily for those onsite or if they have another connection and trying to get someone into the program and would double check that information. There is a contract with Life Moves to do some outreach services before the shelter opens to make those multiple touchpoints that are necessary. Any additional outreach other community organizations can help with in that regard would be fruitful. The county has volunteered to help in that regard over the coming months. The Peninsula Healthcare Connections could be a helpful partner, especially with the RV dwellers. Ms. Van Der Zwaag explained some of the programs and touch points with people are to be connectors and other programs are specific to the organization. Andrew Navarro, Clinic Manager, Peninsula HealthCare Connection, talked about the services the staff is trained to offer. The services focus exclusively on Palo Alto. Councilmember Lu wanted to fund a significant portion of this. SUMMARY MINUTES Page 8 of 11 Sp. Policy & Services Committee Meeting Summary Minutes: 6/4/2025 Chair Veenker asked when residents might start receiving services at the Homekey site. Deputy City Manager Cotton-Gaines replied the estimated timeline was late summer/early fall in 2025. Chair Veenker suggested consideration to fund it now because services are not yet being provided at San Antonio Road. Deputy City Manager Cotton-Gaines thought the services would benefit the community in that regard. Councilmember Lu thought this would strengthen the services they could deliver overall out of the Homekey site. Ms. Van Der Zwaag stated every organization doing outreach in the community to the unhoused and interested in being in the Homekey site is an asset. There is a contract with Life Moves for a homeless outreach team. Part of the contractual obligation is doing specific outreach to get people into Homekey. There will be case managers at Homekey. Staff at the opportunity center mostly stay onsite. Homekey site case managers will probably be in service to the individuals. Chair Veenker hoped that would reduce the demand through a different mechanism for additional case managers at the opportunity center. Councilmember Stone pointed out Peninsula Healthcare Connections was one of the programs that scored perfectly on the rubric. The Homekey project will not be a panacea for the homelessness issue and will take a few years to see the hoped for success and thought this was a good one to fund. Councilmember Lu wanted to put a placeholder of $20k. Councilmember Stone asked what happens if it is $20k or $25k. Mr. Navarro said the clinic will make whatever they are blessed with work. Chair Veenker felt the Museum of American Heritage was redundant and was unsure about funding it this year. Councilmember Lu was in agreement. It was moved to decline. Councilmember Lu was unsure about the Midpen Media Center. Councilmember Stone and Chair Veenker agreed. Chair Veenker wanted to see the application more refined if they reapply next year. It was put in the decline column. Councilmember Stone was not willing to fund Dance Action and suggested they look into the HSRAP process. Chair Veenker suggested going with a smaller number because they look to give money for scholarships and because they are nonprofit. Councilmember Stone could agree with going with a smaller amount. Councilmember Lu and Chair Veenker wanted to pass due to lack of specificity. It was placed in the decline column. The Committee discussed Vista Center. The funding was being sought to hire someone to help with fundraising to help leverage funds better. Councilmember Stone felt the request was too large and there were other services that should be funded first. Councilmember Lu and Chair Veenker agreed. It was put in decline. Children's Health Council was discussed next. Councilmember Stone thought it fit in the focus on youth mental health. Chair Veenker had concern about redundancy. Ms. Van Der Zwaag suggested looking specifically at what the funding is being requested for. What they are asking for funding for is not coming from HSRAP. Councilmember Lu thought the request should be dialed down. Chair Veenker recalled the two goals were community engagement and equip SUMMARY MINUTES Page 9 of 11 Sp. Policy & Services Committee Meeting Summary Minutes: 6/4/2025 educators and caregivers with tools and resources. Councilmember Stone wanted to award a partial amount for a specific use. Chair Veenker supported that tending toward the lower side to send a message to get more granular and suggested going $15,000. Councilmember Lu suggested $12,000. It was agreed to go with $12,000. Councilmember Stone like Job Train and thought it was unique and worthy and wanted to support at least some portion of the request. Councilmember Lu wanted to plug in $15,000 and come back to it. Chair Veenker preferred a $50,000 plug number. Councilmember Stone agreed with $50,000. Councilmember Lu wanted to confirm the programs are locally located. A $50,000 plug was put on. Chair Veenker like the Karat School. Councilmember Lu suggested putting $10k or $15k. Chair Veenker wanted to go with $20k. Councilmember Lu wanted to come back and look at Momentum for Health and Peninsula Healthcare Connections holistically and say $20k, 2 of 3. Chair Veenker noted Live Moves needs went up because they lost their meal provider and proposed funding no more than the delta which would be $48,366. Councilmember Lu agreed. It was 3 of 3 at $48,366. Chair Veenker thought $15,000 for 5 of the 11 seniors in Palo Alto was expensive for Loaves and Fishes. Councilmember Lu thought a lot of the proposed budget went to salaries and rent and contrasts with Life Moves. No one would be turned away due to lack of funding. Councilmember Stone agreed and suggested giving $5000 as a gesture of goodwill from the City. Ms. Van Der Zwaag stated they receive HSRAP funding. Councilmember Lu thought it could be taken on in HSRAP and wanted to pass on this one. Chair Veenker and Councilmember Stone agreed with declining. Councilmember Stone wanted to support Momentum for Health for the full amount. It gets no City funding but receives federal funding. Deputy City Manager Cotton-Gaines explained the federal funding was a one-time earmark grant the city received for supplementing and augmenting the county's trust program. Chair Veenker suggested putting $15k and relooking at it. Councilmember Lu wanted to pull Ada's back down to $10k. Environmental Volunteers should be $5k. Councilmember Stone was fine with $10k for Ada's. Children’s Health Council should stay the same. Dreamcatchers should be declined or brought down to $5k to $10k. Environmental Volunteers should stay the same. Job Train should be $50k. The Karat should stay. Live Moves should stay. Magical Bridge should be $100k. Keep Momentum, Use of Memory and Neighbors Abroad the same. UNAFF could be brought down to $15k. Peninsula Healthcare could be reduced by $5k. Chair Veenker would take UNAFF down to at least $20k. Councilmember Lu agreed. Chair Veenker wanted to go with $10k for Ada's. Third Thursday could go down to $32.4k or go with SUMMARY MINUTES Page 10 of 11 Sp. Policy & Services Committee Meeting Summary Minutes: 6/4/2025 $40k to meet the Finance Committee recommendation. Councilmember Lu was reluctant and wanted to say 2 of 3. Councilmember Lu wanted to cut Job Train to $40k or $35k. Chair Veenker wanted to do $40k. Councilmember Stone wanted to do $45k. Councilmember Lu agreed on $45k. Children's Health Council could go to $7500. Councilmember Stone would only go to $12k. Councilmember Lu suggested doing a 10% cut on everything to stay in budget. The Third Thursday budget was discussed. Chair Veenker wanted to do $40k. Councilmember Lu agreed with $40k. Councilmember Lu said Life Moves gets $95k from HSRAP for food programs. Ms. Van Der Zwaag stated that contract ends on June 30. The 2026 application was not completely submitted so the HRC recommended a portion of the staff salaries. In the past, the HSRAP funding has paid for the food service worker but not the food. Councilmember Lu thought Life Moves was appropriate as it was. Chair Veenker asked for Staff observations. Ms. Alamos suggested a conversation with Children's Health Council to know exactly what the funding would be used for. Councilmember Lu could see cutting 10% or a few thousand dollars more here or there. City Manager Shikada suggested one option to consider would be the FY26 Council Contingency to make up the $38k deficit. Chair Veenker advised getting the deficit down to $25k then go to the FY26 Council Contingency. Ms. Alamos stated there is an ongoing service contract with Neighbors Abroad and they are treated different than other nonprofits in that they do have an ongoing source of revenue. At the time their contract is due for renewal is a good time to include additional needs. They still have not spent all the current allocation. It could be allocated at the time when the contract is up for renewal. Deputy City Manager Cotton-Gaines explained because the regular contract for $30k for staff support is being finalized, the remaining funding Council allocated one off a couple of times is being put into their contract so it is easier to track. They are clearly delineating what amount of that is being used for reception hosting and those type of things. They will still be made to use the $30k for staff support and whatever is left can be used for reception hosting. Any funding given through this process can either be rolled into the contract or do something separate. In prior years, if all the funding has been spent down from doing receptions, they let the Council liaison for that group know to figure out if there is a possibility to help beyond that. They have funding now to address delegations coming with some of the remaining funding in the previous Council allocations and some amount that is being allocating now. It was agreed to decrease to $12.5k. Councilmember Lu suggested consideration of decreasing Momentum for Health and Peninsula Healthcare Connections by $2500 each. Chair Veenker wanted to consider reducing SUMMARY MINUTES Page 11 of 11 Sp. Policy & Services Committee Meeting Summary Minutes: 6/4/2025 Dreamcatchers. Councilmember Lu thought it would make sense to reduce Dreamcatchers by $2500, reduce Environmental Volunteers by $2500 and bring Children’s Health Council to $2000. Councilmember Stone wanted to do $5k on Dreamcatchers and $2k on Children’s Health Council. Councilmember Lu wanted to cut Environmental Volunteers to $2500, pulling something from Dreamcatchers, pulling less from Children’s Health and pulling other changes between Neighbors Abroad, Momentum Health and Peninsula Healthcare Connection. Councilmember Lu proposed $12k for Dreamcatchers, $7280 for Environmental Volunteers and change Children’s Health to $10k. Chair Veenker wanted to take Environmental Volunteers to $10k and Children’s Health Council to $10k. Job Train could go to $40k. Councilmember Lu agreed with going to $40k for Job Train. Deputy City Manager Cotton-Gaines could have two different iterations for Council to consider. Chair Veenker suggested giving where there is consensus and where there is a range and Council could pick the final recommendation. Deputy City Manager Cotton-Gaines advised updating the range of alternative numbers and include two of three or whatever the number was for the Committee and the motion would be proposing Council review and recommend the funding amounts as stated with consideration of the alternative amounts. Chair Veenker wanted it made clear where there was agreement and committee members supported amounts ranging from X to Y. The Committee went through the final numbers on the spreadsheet. MOTION: Councilmember Lu moved, seconded by Councilmember Veenker, to recommend the City Council approve awards as attached, noting areas where there was dissent among the committee. MOTION PASSED: 3-0 Future Meetings and Agendas Adjournment: The meeting was adjourned at 12:40 AM Policy & Services FY26 Nonprofit Partnership Workplan Phase I Proposals  Line# Organization Proposal  Request P&S Initial  Proposed  Awards* P&S Proposed  Scenario A  (Majority)** P&S Proposed  Scenario B  (Minority)***P&S Committee Notes 1 Ada's Café 25,000$            $            10,000 10,000$            10,000$            Restrict funding to events/programming, not furniture 2 Children's Health Council 50,000$            $            12,000 10,000$            12,000$            Amounts considered range from: $10,000‐12,000; 2 cmte members  recommended 10,000 and 1 member recommended $12,000; the  funding is only for first objective (not podcast) 3 Dance Action Inc 5,000$              $‐   ‐$ ‐$  4 DreamCatchers 28,643$            $            15,000 15,000$            5,000$               Amounts considered range from: $5,000‐15,000; 2 cmte members  recommended $15,000 and 1 member recommended $5,000  5 Environmental Volunteers 10,780$            $            10,780 10,780$            7,280$               Amounts considered range from: $7,280‐10,780; 2 cmte members  recommended $10,780 and 1 member recommended $7,280 6 JobTrain 60,000$            $            45,000 45,000$            40,000$             Amounts considered range from: $40,000‐$45,000; 2 cmte  members recommended $45,000 and 1 member recommended  $40,000 7 Karat School Project 25,000$            $            20,000 20,000$            20,000$             8 LifeMoves 66,366$            $            48,366 48,366$            48,366$             9 Loaves & Fishes Family Kitchen 15,000$            $‐   ‐$ ‐$  10 Magical Bridge Foundation 150,000$          $          100,000 100,000$          100,000$           11 Midpen Media Center 50,000$            $‐   ‐$ ‐$  12 Momentum for Health 15,000$            $            15,000 15,000$            15,000$             13 Museum of American Heritage 10,000$            $‐   ‐$ ‐$  14 Musical Memories Foundation, Inc 5,000$              $               5,000 5,000$               5,000$               15 Neighbors Abroad 17,500$            $            17,500 12,500$            17,250$            Amounts considered range from: $12,500‐17,500; 2 cmte members  recommended $12,500 and 1 cmte member recommended $17,500.  Funding restricted to hosting, not staffing 16 Palo Alto Chamber Foundation: Third  Thursday 46,800$            $            40,000 40,000$            40,000$             Amount intended to match the Finance Cmte recommended  amount 17 18 Palo Alto Special Education PTA 5,000$              $               5,000 5,000$               5,000$               19 Partners & Advocates for Remarkable  Children & Adults (PARCA)5,000$              $‐   ‐$ ‐$  20 Peninsula Healthcare Connections Inc 35,000$            $            20,000 20,000$            20,000$             21 UNAFF 45,000$            $            20,000 20,000$            20,000$            Funding restricted to film festival only 22 Vista Center for the Blind and Visually  Impaired 99,000$            $‐   ‐$ ‐$  Youth Community Services 50,000$            $            50,000 50,000$            50,000$             Subtotal 874,089$          $          433,646 426,646$          414,896$           Balance (of $396,000 recommended  target budget) $           (37,646)(30,646)$           (18,896)$            *Initial Proposed relates to the P&S Committee discussion on June 4, 2025 where the Committee agreed on base amounts to be considered by Council in tandem with Scenario A & B adjustments. ** Majority relates to the dollar amounts by organization that at least 2 committee members recommended. *** Minority relates to the dollar amounts by organization that only one committee member recommended.