Rocky's nonprofit-allocation plans get mixed reviews

Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson's recommendations for giving city money to nonprofit groups that provide services such as low-income housing and after-school programs have left some grumbling and others cheering.

The city this year will split $6.2 million in federal money among 98 programs, with grants ranging from $3,200 to $702,721. The city gets money from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development in the fall after Congress adopts its budget. Salt Lake City's nonprofits submit their requests by the end of the year, and the mayor offers his formal recommendations in March.

The City Council plans to discuss Anderson's plan tonight and then hold a public hearing Tuesday. The council is tentatively scheduled to adopt the budget for community-development block grants on April 18 so that city staffers have enough time to report back to HUD by its May 15 deadline, said LuAnn Clark, director of Salt Lake's department of housing and neighborhood development.

Cuts in the federal budget for community-development block grant money have trickled down to the city level and often mean the difference between a few thousand dollars for one organization over another. One group that won't get to finish its project this year is the Poplar Grove community council, which wanted to add islands and landscaping to 400 South between 900 West and Redwood Road.

Mike Harman, chair of that community council, said his neighborhood wanted the additions to slow down traffic on the busy road.

"We didn't really expect the entire $1 million, but we were hoping for more than $15,000," which was Anderson's recommendation, Harman said. "We're hoping the City Council will look more favorably than the mayor did on that request."

The community council also wanted to redo a park pavilion but may have to wait for the $90,000 for that project. An advisory committee supported the request, but Anderson did not.

The Boys and Girls Club of Greater Salt Lake asked for more than $130,000, but Anderson recommended that $42,000 go toward staff salaries and continuing a program for teenagers that encourages them to choose good friends.

LeAnn Saldivar, the club's president, had asked for additional money for the teen program to expand it to new high schools. "We won't be able to do that," she said. "My grant writer is going to start crying."

Anderson and the community-development advisory board also did not support the club's request for $57,000 to remodel a center in the Capitol West neighborhood.