On Tuesday, the Santa Maria City Council will meet to discuss an amendment of the Annual Action Plan for Fiscal Year 2020/21 to adjust the city’s entitlement amount under the Community Development Block Grant program.
Earlier in the spring, the city was notified it would receive $1,628,974 in CDBG entitlement funding for the fiscal year.
However, by October, there was an error in the formula calculation, decreasing the city’s originally anticipated allocation by $248.
The council will be recommended to approve an amendment, decreasing funds in the following sectors: a $38 decrease for Public Services/Unitarian Society — Freedom Warming Center; a $161 decrease for Capital/Chapel Plaza Renovations; and a decrease of $49 for General Administration.
“The proposed action will continue to address major issues facing the community by providing emergency assistance to homeless and special needs populations, expanding services for at-risk youth, providing opportunities for sustainable affordable housing, revitalizing neighborhoods, and improving the community’s public facilities and infrastructure,” the staff report reads.
In other business, the council will be recommended to adopt a resolution confirming the setting of a zero-campaign contribution limit in the city for local elections and deeming the zero-limit as an imposed limit.
The city doesn’t currently have mandatory campaign contribution limits for local elections.
In November, the council agreed that Santa Maria hadn’t experienced large campaign contributions by single contributors to individual candidates that would provide undue influence in its local elections.
“The average contribution was $100 to $1,500 per contributor per election, and that $2,000 was typically a maximum contribution received from a single contributor,” the staff report reads.
The regular meeting will begin at 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 1, and can be viewed on Comcast Channel 23 or by live streaming on the city’s meeting portal at /Portal/CitizenEngagement.aspx or on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLN7bMlSUIgZeGyM57KCt4RkzjEFZuGi78..
email: gmccormick@newspress.com
