Burien will spend $186,000 on various human service programs next year, after the City Council agreed to put the expenditures on the 2011 budget. This is $30,000 more than last year.

The amount to be spent on human services is less than half of the amount requested from 50 different organizations. The total number requested for human service programs in 2011 was $482,000.

Out of the 50 organizations that applied for funds 24 will receive money in 2011. If an organization serves communities outside of Burien, they must use the money granted to them from Burien on city residents.

New Futures will receive the highest amount of money of any organization. The city will grant them $32,000 next year. That is $9,000 more than the city funded last year.

New Futures operates community learning centers in four apartments in south King County, which their website says positively impacts 4,000 people who live in those communities a year.

Councilmember Jack Block Jr. tried to move funding around to provide more money for organizations helping Burien residents. He had trouble finding council support for his cuts, none of which were approved.

Block wanted to make the unallocated $50,000 the city has to fund arts available to organizations to use for grant writing or emergency use.

“(It is) basically sitting there doing nothing right now,” Block said.
There appeared to be some council support to use those funds as a sort of short-term loan to finance a grant writer.
Councilmember Gordon Shaw said he could not support it because without a steady funding source each year there was no way to make the grant writer option sustainable.

Block said he did not intend for organizations to reimburse the city for the grant writer if they received funds. He also proposed cutting several studies, the money from which would be a one-time expense saved only this year.

Block proposed cutting the police force study, which would save the city $100,000 over two years, postponing the visioning study, merging the Burien newsletter and the parks and recreation newsletter, which he said would save $36,000 a year, and ending their membership with the South King County Chamber of Commerce.

Councilmember Kathy Keene said combining the city and parks and recreation newsletter would be more confusing then helpful.

None of these suggestions were met with favorable approval by the rest of the council.

“There may be interesting discussions to have but not for this budget cycle,” Mayor Joan McGilton said.

Block said he was disappointed by the lack of council support.

Block also recommended looking at how much fertilizer the city uses in its parks and other property to see if that couldn’t be cut back. This measure was as much about saving money as trying to be environmentally friendly. Several council members were in favor of looking into this.

Shaw, however, said he would not support decreasing the level of services to North Burien. It has been neglected for too long, Shaw said.

The Burien Council will continue their budget discussions at their next council meeting on Nov. 8. The budget is tentatively scheduled to be adopted on Nov. 22.