Santa Clara staff to recommend keeping nonresident-fee fund for scholarships, streamlining awards

City of Santa Clara parks staff told a gathering of youth-sports organizers and volunteers that they will recommend no increase in operating fees for the 2025 fiscal year and that the city’s nonresident-fee fund should prioritize scholarships for children before supply or equipment grants.

At a parks meeting, a staff member said the fund — referred to in the discussion as the Wade Brummell fund — currently holds about $113,000, that the fund normally takes in about $30,000–$35,000 a year from a $25 nonresident registration fee, and that staff will bring a formal recommendation back to the Parks and Recreation Commission and then to City Council. “As staff, we are not going to be recommending…a fee increase in the operating budget for 2025,” the staff member said.

Why it matters: the fund finances scholarships that allow Santa Clara-area children to participate in city-run or city-field programs when organizations register nonresident participants. How the city allocates that money affects dozens of nonprofit and volunteer groups that use city fields, the affordability of youth sports for residents and the city’s maintenance and staffing budget for parks and facilities.

Discussion and staff proposals

Staff described two historical purposes for the fund: scholarships for Santa Clara residents and grants to…