Upland advisory committee recommends creation of Upland CARES emergency fund

The City Council Advisory Committee on March 18 recommended that City Council approve a new emergency donations account called the Upland CARES fund and designate the committee as the advisory body to recommend distributions.

Assistant City Manager Parker, who led the presentation, said the fund — “Upland CARES, CARES being an acronym standing for community assistance relief in emergency situations” — would allow the city to accept tax‑deductible donations after a large incident and route money to victims more equitably than ad‑hoc fundraising. Parker told the committee the city manager would declare a Mass Casualty Incident (MCI) or Mass Displacement Incident (MDI) to open the fund and that City Council must affirm that declaration within 10 days; donations taken before affirmation would be returned if council does not affirm the activation.

Executive Assistant Stacy Padron reviewed incidents that motivated the proposal and described the intended application process. Padron cited the city’s 2021 7th Street apartment fire as a model of the problem staff seeks to prevent: “the city of Upland had a fire in an apartment on 7th…