Agency official says summer jobs service corps is general-fund supported and cited roughly $138 million in funding

An agency official told the meeting that the summer jobs "service corps" is funded through the general fund and received about $138,000,000 last year, supporting roughly 20,000 paid internships. "What I love about this program, it's not, it's not AmeriCorps," the agency official said, distinguishing the local initiative from federal programs.

The official described early efforts to assemble funding and employers for paid internships, saying organizers once "cobbled together money" to create summer job opportunities. The speaker said the program was created "in the spirit" of a named founder and grew such that "we started a service corps, which is now larger than the Peace Corps in The United States." The official also noted that local leaders including Mayor Goh and Dyer, of differing political parties, have been beneficiaries of the program over time.

The funding figure and internship count were presented as approximate: the speaker prefaced the dollar amount with "don't quote me" and used rounded language for internship totals. The transcript contains no record of a motion, vote, or directive tied to the funding figures in this excerpt; the remarks were descriptive and historical rather than a request for immediate formal action.

The meeting excerpt did not identify the speaker by name or agency; all attributions in this report follow the transcript and use the functional label recorded for the speaker. Additional documentation or staff reports would be needed to confirm the exact funding totals, the definition used for 'paid internships,' and which budget line items funded the program.