Monday, March 26, 2007

Kranz establishes format for revenue-sharing grants

By: Gus Thomson, Journal Staff Writer

Supervisor Bruce Kranz has come up with a new way to give out his district's share of the $100,000 in revenue-sharing grants now available to board members.

Contending that the grants are a gift of taxpayer money that allows incumbents to buy votes, Kranz has refused to participate in the revenue-sharing giveaways since joining the board two years ago as the eastern Placer County's Fifth District representative.

In fact, this year he's used his position as board chairman to put what had previously been no-debate consent items onto the agenda as action items. That has allowed him to vote against the revenue-sharing grants other supervisors have recommended.

Taking a different tack after being on the end of a string of 4-1 votes this year on dispensing revenue-sharing funding, Kranz said that he will now establish a separate committee to distribute the $20,000 allocated annually to his district. The other districts will continue to follow the current course of non-profits making requests to supervisors.

Other than voting as a supervisor on recommendations at board meetings, Kranz said he would play no role in the grant process. The committee will hopefully contain representation from North Auburn, Meadow Vista-Colfax, Foresthill, the Donner Summit and areas just outside the Tahoe Basin, and the Tahoe Basin, he said.

For the past two years, other supervisors have had $20,000 to provide to community organizations - with Kranz the lone holdout. He said that there was the anticipation on his part that new supervisors Kirk Uhler, who was appointed to replace Assemblyman Ted Gaines, R-Roseville, and Roseville Supervisor Rocky Rockholm, elected to succeed retired supervisor Bill Santucci, would have more interest in establishing a new funding approval framework.

But after Kranz's query at a board meeting on changing the approval process failed to elicit interest, the Weimar-area supervisor sought legal advice from the County Counsel's Office on whether he could move forward on the committee concept.

"In reality, it's not a lot of money but it's the principal of the issue," Kranz said. "It's the county's money and really the taxpayers' money."

With funding recommendations flowing through individual supervisors, they can take credit for donations that don't come from their own pocket, he said.

"I still feel today that this is taxpayer money and when volunteer organizations are doing something good, they should be raising funds without government money," Kranz said.

But problems have cropped up in the past two years with a $20,000 fund not being utilized in District Five.

"I took a lot of criticism by people saying it was putting the district at a disadvantage," Kranz said.

"The main reason was I didn't want to be the decider of who gets what."

One example would be the Roseville High School Sober Grad Night committee receiving a grant while a similar Colfax High School event would not, he said.

The Foresthill Trails Alliance received grants from former Supervisor Rex Bloomfield, the group's president Sherri Osborn said. The grants of between $500 and $1,000 provided gravel and other materials for trails maintenance, she said. Volunteers provided the labor.

"Discretionary funds have kind of been spent on pet projects," Osborn said. "We've received nothing from the discretionary fund for the past two years but we've been lucky to receive funding from the parks division of the county."

Osborn said she sees the group possibly approaching the new committee if they feel a project would warrant funding.

"We have ongoing projects and we can always try," she said.

The grant selection process should be open and transparent, with meetings on a bi-monthly basis, Kranz said.

With the decision to establish a committee, $20,000 will be freed to be dispensed by the end of the fiscal year in June.

Kranz said plans are to limit grants to $1,000 or less. Public agencies, schools and non-profit organizations are eligible to apply through District Five Field Deputy Lisa Buescher at (530) 889-4010. Applications for the District Five Benefit Fund Committee should be filed with the clerk of the Board of Supervisors.

The Journal's Gus Thomson can be reached at gust@goldcountrymedia.com.