PORT ANGELES — Nonprofit workers earlier this week praised a city staff proposal to include $46,350 for health and human services in the city’s proposed 2014 budget.
“I just want to thank you for actually restoring last year’s budget for health and human services and adding some funds to it,” said Jody Moss, executive director of the United Way of Clallam County, which manages the funds, at Tuesday night’s City Council meeting.
The city’s budget funded health and human services at $30,000 in 2013. Funding in 2012 was $56,250.
Moss said the city’s 2013 funding helped local nonprofits serve just more than 11,000 people in the Port Angeles area in the first six months of this year.
Moss spoke during a public hearing on the city’s proposed 2014 budget, which will be the subject of another public hearing and possible council vote Dec. 3. The council will meet at 6 p.m. in council chambers at City Hall, 321 E. Fifth St.
Council members took no action on the budget Tuesday.
The funding is part of a proposed $129 million total city budget, which includes a $19.2 million general fund.
The staff proposal added the health and human services funding, which is steered toward local nonprofits that provide a variety of services to the city’s low-income, elderly and disabled populations, after City Manager Dan McKeen initially recommended no such city money for 2014.
Utility rate increases
At the request of council members, McKeen worked with staff to increase the proposed amount first to $35,000, then to $46,350 using additional utility tax revenue expected to be generated next year due to utility rate increases set to go into effect Jan. 1.
Priscilla Schaefer, fiscal manager for Port Angeles’ First Step Family Support Center, one of the historical recipients of the health and human services money, told council members the city funds help the support center receive grants from other agencies.
Such grants are more likely to be awarded if it’s shown the city has enough faith in the center to fund it, Schaefer explained.
“Thank you very much for caring about health and human services here,” she said.
The family support center has received $1,867 from the city this year, according to United Way figures, and served 539 individuals in the first six months of 2013.
Becca Korby, executive director of Health Families of Clallam County, another funding recipient, praised the council for urging for more nonprofit money.
“I would like to thank you for being a public example for doing what civilized leaders do,” Korby said.
Healthy Families of Clallam County, which helps victims of domestic violence, got $4,533 from the city in 2013, according to United Way figures, and served 4,531 people in the first six months of this year.
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Reporter Jeremy Schwartz can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5074, or at jschwartz@peninsuladailynews.com.