43
Community center plans still on hold in Campbell
By jeanne starmack
campbell
Plans to establish a youth and community center are still on hold, even though a new levy has taken pressure off city officials distracted by a fiscal crisis.
Robert Walls, who headed a youth-center committee that formed in January and met for several months, said last week that the city’s “political situation” is the biggest hurdle to the plan.
Lack of money was only part of the problem. Disagreements between Mayor George Krinos and the city council throughout the year included Krinos’ efforts to oust the city’s finance director and fill the post with his own appointee.
City officials also disagreed over Krinos’ recalling a laid-off firefighter when there was no money to pay for him and over Krinos’ taking his health benefits after promising not to so he could pay for a full-time secretary.
Krinos and council disagreed over the budget, with Krinos saying they should have adopted a version he proposed.
The council also filed a court action over a police contract that Krinos negotiated, which was finalized and signed in July.
Once it polled residents and found overwhelming interest in a youth center, the committee asked council in the spring for help finding state grants for a temporary, then a permanent location. Walls told council that city officials would have much more success getting those grants than the committee members would.
The city decided in March to start looking for grants, compile what it found after 30 days and come up with a plan to act on the information.
That never happened.
Bill VanSuch, council president, said this week that Krinos and other administrators were supposed to check on what grants are available. They were supposed to report back to council.
“Yes, they were supposed to,” he said. “But there were too many things to overcome.”
“But now, hopefully, we can help,” he added.
Finance Director Sherman Miles said this week that he never followed up on looking for grants because he was distracted over a fight for his job.
“It was right before my suspension,” he said. “We never followed up beyond that.”
Krinos suspended Miles without pay in April and that dispute ended up in court.
Krinos said this week that he did research grants.
“We do have a list of grants available but never had a follow-up meeting,” he said.
Krinos said that in spite of their disputes, officials would do what’s best for the city.
“I’m really waiting for people in charge to tell me — what’s the next step,” he said.
Mark Samuel, director of Neighborhood Ministries and a member of the youth center committee, confirmed he is exploring whether grants from private foundations would be available.
But, he said, the political climate is wrong. “It’s challenging right now with political infighting. I’m moving slowly,” he said.
He said the next step would be to see if the committee is still interested in pursuing the proposal.