Salt Lake stands behind YouthCity

Admitting he was "capitulating" to the City Council's concerns, Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson said Tuesday his pet YouthCity Program will be taking a slightly new direction.

That direction, Anderson explained, will focus more on programing in the city's schools, working with existing youth providers like the Boys and Girls Club, and moving away from at least one brick-and-mortar project — remodeling the Boxing Building in Liberty Park — which sought to create a permanent home for civic programs like YouthCity.

"We'll do what we can with Boys and Girls Clubs and other after-school clubs," Anderson said at Tuesday's City Council meeting, adding. "We'll do what we can to shift those (brick and mortar) funds over to programming."

The capitulation came as the council was considering a budget opening, including whether to allocate part of a new $900,000 federal grant the city received to fund a new employee for YouthCity operations. While the allocation would cost the city no money, some council members still seemed leery about expanding YouthCity, which some see as expendable in tight budget times.

Eventually, council members feared, they would have to fund that employee through General Fund revenues, although Anderson has denied that would ever happen.

Anderson and YouthCity head Janet Wolfe have argued in favor of expanding the program, which they note uses very little taxpayer money and relies heavily on grants.

Jim Jensen, executive director of the Boys and Girls Club of Salt Lake, agreed with Anderson on Tuesday, saying the city shouldn't turn away money for YouthCity. He agreed that YouthCity and the Boys and Girls Club could and would work better together in the future.

Still other citizens argued against YouthCity, saying money could be better spent on funding existing private programs.

In the end, the council capitulated back to Anderson and made the allocation in a 4-3 vote.

While supporting the allocation, Councilwoman Jill Remington Love noted YouthCity's future could be in jeopardy when the next budget cycle rolls around in June.

"The administration needs to be on notice, when it comes to budget time, we have serious questions," she said. "We're going to have to see a lot of answers."

The council even included some language in the budget allocation demanding answers from the administration about how YouthCity works with the private sector and how it is spending its money to reach the highest number of kids.

As for other budget-related issues, the council declined to hire new employees for the city's justice court and its prosecutors' office.

Noting the court and prosecutors' office are grossly overworked, Anderson's administration had asked for five new court clerks along with one new prosecutor and two prosecutor aids. But the council was wary to increase positions when it faces a budget next year that could see some city jobs eliminated.

---

E-mail: bsnyder@desnews.com