Santa Clara County supervisors preliminarily approve $6.97 million in inventory grants after public testimony

The Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors on Thursday gave preliminary approval to a slate of one-time budget inventory grants totaling about $6,970,000 and referred the measures for final adoption at the June 12 budget hearing.

The action, taken at a budget information hearing, followed about 19 in-person public commenters and four Zoom speakers who largely urged support for community organizations serving seniors, immigrant families, students and other local residents. Board President Lee said the board would receive an overview from county budget staff, then hear public comment and allow supervisors to pull items for discussion before a final June vote.

The inventory recommendations presented by the Office of Budget and Analysis (OBA) included a combination of flat allocations to each district and discretionary formula-based amounts. An OBA presenter told the board the county had set aside nearly $7,000,000—displayed on the slides as $6,970,000—as one-time funding for specific purposes and that the office had received requests across all five supervisorial districts. The presenter reported 52 inventory items for District 1, 13 for District 2, 37 for District 3, 30 for District 4 and 39 for District 5.

Public commenters named organizations receiving recommendations and described how funds would be used. Kelsey Colson, vice president of the San Jose chapter of Sleep in Heavenly Peace, said the chapter has "over 400 bed applications" and that grant funding would help provide beds to children ages 3 to 17 in San Jose who currently do not have their own bed. Nicole Chu Wong, executive director of DreamCatchers, described after-school enrichment work for economically disadvantaged middle school students in Palo Alto Unified School District and thanked the supervisor who recommended their grant. Amy Kaiser, associate director of the Community Services Agency of Mountain View and Los Altos, said board funding has supported a dedicated case manager serving high school students and families.

Multiple speakers from Vietnamese-American community groups thanked supervisors for supporting proposals to expand culturally and linguistically appropriate services, including seniors' programs and community health education classes in Vietnamese. Other speakers included representatives from Girl Family Services, the Si Se Puede collective, Ujima Adult and Family Services, and the Silicon Valley Education Foundation, which sought support for tuition-free summer acceleration STEM programs.

During board discussion, President Lee (speaking from the dais) proposed several adjustments to recommended amounts to reflect duplicated requests, scope clarifications and deeper investment in priority programs. Among changes announced on the record were a $2,500 reduction to one office's proposed award for the African American Community Service Agency (bringing that office's contribution to $10,000), a $10,000 increase to Helping Hands Silicon Valley, a $5,000 reduction to one Society of Hearts Delight award (to $5,000), and additions of funds to Korean American Community Services to help backfill a lost City of San José grant. Lee said a supplemental memo on a modified program scope had been added to the agenda for one item.

After the amendments were read into the record, the board voted to approve the inventory items as amended and to refer them to the June 12 budget hearing for final adoption. The recorded roll-call during the meeting showed unanimous support: "Supervisor Abe Kuga? Aye. Supervisor Yoon? Yes. Supervisor Ellen Perk? Yes. Vice president Arenas? Yes. President Lee? Aye." The board emphasized that the action taken was a recommendation and that the final adoption vote would occur during the June budget hearings starting June 9 and concluding June 12.

The board also noted this was one of the largest inventory lists in recent history and described the process used by board offices to solicit applications, route them through OBA for tracking and assign inventory item numbers. OBA staff said the funding package combines per-district flat amounts with a modified discretionary pool (noting a reduction from $2,000,000 to approximately $1,970,000 during prior deliberations).

The meeting closed with the board thanking staff and the community for participation and reminding residents the final budget hearings will be held in June.