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 youth-sports groups for equipment and supplies. Meeting participants and staff agreed scholarships should be the first priority. Staff proposed a standing allocation model: roughly $30,000 per year dedicated to scholarships (based on historical intake) with any unspent balance carried into the following year specifically for grants, not for facility fees.

Staff and participants outlined concrete process changes they plan to propose or implement: - Raise the per-recipient scholarship cap to $2,500; staff would be authorized to approve awards up to $2,500, with requests above that routed for additional review. - Streamline the application to an online drop-down form linked to rosters so organizations can submit scholarship and grant requests electronically; staff said the form will later support translated languages. - Prioritize scholarships first; use leftover funds for grants only if scholarships do not exhaust the annual allocation. - Exclude school-district programs from eligibility for the fund, per the meeting discussion.

Operational and governance issues

Speakers flagged several operational obstacles that the city intends to address as part of the package brought to the commission and council: the current grant and scholarship application was described as “cumbersome,” approvals required multiple internal reviews, and some groups said they stopped applying because of the paperwork. Staff said the city will replace the paper-based form with an online form designed to attach participant rosters to support eligibility checks.

Participants and staff also discussed liability and volunteer work at fields. Staff said the city is negotiating memoranda of understanding (MOUs) with partner leagues, including Westside Middle League, to formalize volunteer credit and clarify liability where fields and buildings are jointly used with the school district. Staff noted a specific unresolved item: a building at Carling located on both school-district and city property will require a three‑party MOU to settle operating and liability questions.

Budget, fees and timing

Staff reiterated that the fund is paid into from a $25 nonresident fee collected by organizations when they register a nonresident participant. The parks enterprise receives only a portion of field-related revenue; staff said overall fee revenue historically covers about 12% of parks program costs, with the remainder subsidized by the city general fund. Staff said they expect to return a formal recommendation to the Parks and Recreation Commission and later to City Council; staff noted that while they will try to move before the end of the calendar year, the matter may realistically reach Council during the January budget cycle.

Other interim steps

Because of staffing vacancies, staff said the city may contract interim services for opening and closing restrooms and other basic maintenance tasks until positions are filled. Staff also proposed forming a smaller working group of volunteers and league representatives to refine eligibility rules, equity priorities and the draft standard operating procedures before the commission receives a formal package.

What was not decided

No formal city action or Council vote occurred at the meeting. Participants voiced support for scholarship-first prioritization and for procedural streamlining; the group expressed consensus on excluding facility fees from fund eligibility. Final policy language, award criteria and detailed allocation formulas will return to the Parks and Recreation Commission for review before any Council action.

Next steps

Staff will draft written procedures and an electronic application, convene a small working group to finalize details, and bring the proposal to the Parks and Recreation Commission and then to City Council for formal consideration. Staff said it will include recommended timelines for application review and target the budget process so changes can be considered during the city's operating budget discussions.