Claremont COURIER/Friday, May 16, 2014 3CITY NEWS

The Claremont CityCouncil meeting becamea lively event Tuesday

night. Two particular items onthe agenda, funding for the2014-15 Community-Based Or-ganization (CBO) General Serv-ices and Homeless ServicesProgram and the sanitation rateincrease, incited emotional reac-tions from the public as well asmembers of the council.

Kathleen Trepa, director of commu-nity and human services, fielded numer-ous council questions about the grantallocation policy guidelines serving theCBO program. Raising red flags fromthe council was the 20 percent fund allo-cation dedicated to new and emergingCBO programs, which “addresses anewly identified community need or aquantifiable increase in the level of anexisting service directed towards provid-ing essential social services to Claremontresidents or students.”

This year, four of the 28 programs seek-ing a CBO grant, including the ClaremontHomeless Advocacy Program (CHAP),were first-time applicants and consideredpilot programs in the Claremont commu-nity.

In all, these groups requested a total of32 percent of the available funding. Thecommission, however, only allocated 3percent of its resources to these new andemerging programs, citing financial limi-tations.

The commission’s recommendation didnot sit well with CHAP representative KarlHilgert, who addressed the council andstated that the $1000 allotted to his organ-ization felt like “a slap in the face” after he

was encouraged to apply and was led tobelieve the group would receive sufficientfunding.

Mayor Joe Lyons, apologizing for thetone in his voice, concurred with Mr.Hilgert, pointing out that CHAP had in-

deed been before thecouncil on numerous oc-casions with more or less

a promise that—given a track record ofdemonstrating the ability to meet a par-ticular group’s needs—they might expectsupport.

“It is a slap in the face because if[CHAP’s] own home city doesn’t sup-port their activities to the extent that thecommunity has, I agree with the speaker.In my mind, it’s unacceptable,” Mr.Lyons asserted.

One program that was not recom-mended for any funding was the Clare-mont Museum of Art’s ProjectARTstART program. Ms. Trepa told thecouncil that as the commission started al-locating funds, $1000 was recommendedfor the ARTstART program. The com-missioners , however, ultimately decidednot to recommend any funding for theyear because “the program had been self-sustaining the year prior and the CMAhad been successful in securing largergrants from other sources.”

Several paid interns and impassionedstudent volunteers, as well as CMA BoardPresident Sandy Baldonado, addressed thecouncil, voicing concerns about the elim-ination of funds from the program andstressing the need to expose the city’syouth to creative outlets.

Mayor Lyons later addressed to theaudience, saying, “The community hasto know there aren’t any art programs.That our schools are not being fundedsufficiently so that perhaps in their vot-ing, they will take that into account andhold people accountable to those pro-grams and to those they elect to do some-

thing about that.”The nonprofit Claremont Educational

Foundation (CEF) provides ongoing fi-nancial support to schools for art andmusic instruction. Last year, CEF donatedupwards of $200,000 to the ClaremontUnified School District to fund art andmusic instruction in schools.

The original Claremont Museum ofArt, which opened in the Packing Housein 2006, has received financial supportfrom the city in the past. In September of2009, while under financial stress, theCMA requested and received $4500 andanother $5700 in funding from the cityto keep its doors open. Then again in No-vember 2009, city council approved$18,879 from the public art fund to as-sist the CMA in continuing and develop-ing community art programs. Despite theclose to $30,000 in city funding, theCMA museum space closed the follow-ing month.

At Tuesday’s meeting, as the councilcontinued to question Ms. Trepa aboutCBO funding, City Manager Tony Ramossuggested that the council work directlywith the community and human servicescommission to “fine tune this amazingprogram.”

“Now with a new Human Services di-rector on board, we can really analyze theambiguities in the [CBO] program andhow it actually works,” Mr. Ramos toldthe council.

The city manager’s additional recom-mendation of adding a workshop in Sep-tember, enabling council to address theHuman Services Commission’s concernsabout new and emerging programs, waswell-received by all council members.

Following discussion, the council unan-imously agreed with the city manager’srecommendation to the council that theyrefer the item back to the commission andreconsider the commission’s allocations attheir second meeting in June.

The commission will re-examine thefunding allocations on June 4, particularlythe 20 percent for new and emerging pro-grams, and report back to council on June24.

Following the Community Based Or-ganization Grant Program debate, councilunanimously approved a one percent in-crease in sanitation fees beginning July 1.

According to city staff and the currentbudget projections for the Sanitation Fund,the Consumer Price Index (CPI) increaseis necessary to sustain operations. Coun-cilman Opanyi Nasiali admitted he doesn’tlike rate increases but wanted residents toknow, in this case, he feels it’s a necessity.

“This is a self-supporting service and ifwe don’t maintain it, the delivery centerand the company that provides the servicewill run into problems,” he said. “As muchas I don’t like increases, this is one that wehave to do.”

Additional fee changes recommendedby the Ad Hoc Committee in March arealso moving forward. For the 365 cus-tomers currently receiving off-streetservice that means fees will be increasingto $22.14 per month for the first threecontainers.

Existing alley customers who receiveoff-street service free of charge will con-tinue to do so for a period of 10 years oruntil the property changes hands. Afterthat, the property owners would then beresponsible for paying the $22.14 monthlycharge for service.

Bin off-street fees are also increasing to$13.70 per pickup and bin rate rentals rateswill rise to $115 per week/pickup.

For low-income and disabled customersreceiving off-street service, rates will re-main unchanged

The one percent CPI increase is pro-jected to bring an additional $48,670 to thecity’s sanitation fund.

—Angela Bailey news@claremont-courier.com

CBO to reboot recommendations; sanitation increase a reality

Furry visitor causes stir in north Claremont neighborhood

Photo courtesy of Drew ReadyThis California black bear took a rest in a backyard tree at a home off RadcliffeDrive last Saturday. The bear was tranquilized by Department of Fish andWildlife authorities and was safely returned to the Angeles National Forest.

A California black bear spent some timehanging around a Claremont neighborhoodlast weekend, providing photo opportunitiesand quite a stir among residents.

Claremont police received a call at 9:06a.m. on Saturday, May 10 from a resident onthe 300 block of Radcliffe Drive statingthere was a bear in the neighborhood. Ac-cording to Claremont Police LieutenantMike Ciszek, California Department of Fishand Wildlife (CDFW) was quickly dis-patched and wildlife officers tranquilized thebear by dart. Once the tranquilizer took ef-fect, the bear was transported and re-releasedwithout incident.

Don Nelson, Claremont warden with theCDFW, was the responding officer and saysthe 3-year-old male bear was darted oncewhile up 30 feet in a tree. Most likely startledby the dart, the nearly 200-pound animalcame down the first tree, jumped severalneighborhood fences before climbing an-other tree.

“That’s when the tranquilizer took effect,sending the bear crashing to the ground 50feet below with an incredible impact,” saysMr. Nelson.

“We were able to monitor him and heseemed fine so we ear-tagged him and suc-cessfully transferred the bear back into theAngeles National Forest.”

Bear sightings are becoming more com-monplace in the City of Trees. In the pasttwo weeks, Claremont police have receivedseveral calls regarding sightings at TheWebb Schools, where a bear was seen wan-dering on campus but left unassisted.

Just this past week, hikers on the Clare-mont wilderness trail reported a bear sight-ing at the halfway mark on the ClaremontLoop. It’s unknown if the captured bear isthe same bear from previous sightings.

Drought conditions has likely made it dif-ficult for bears and other wildlife to findwater and vegetation in the Angeles NationalForest, forcing them to foothill communi-ties, like Claremont, in search of sustenance.

Foothill neighborhoods are especially aptto have bear visitors during summer and fallduring years when it is hot with not a lot ofrainfall. The Los Angeles County Sheriff ad-vises residents who encounter a bear to giveit space, leave the area and call 9-1-1.

--Angela Bailey

CITYCOUNCIL