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Mr. Price asked the City Manager for some youth Job Corp programming. The concept was <br />established where University City High School students would be recruited to attend a <br />certain series of classes on topics as anger management, resume writing, etc and create job <br />opportunities between the hours when school lets out and parents get home. It would <br />involve the City hiring a part-time person to oversee the program. Ms. Feier stated that if <br />Council proceeds with any level of the Job Corp, a budget amendment would be required. <br />She was looking on how the Council would like to proceed. <br /> <br />Mr. Price spoke of a youth initiative a couple of months ago and his request then was <br />$100,000 be allocated for the youth. He said this is the most important thing that could be <br />done. Mr. Price stated that if a young person did not participate in a volunteer program as <br />the Sport’s Association, he noted that he could not think of many things that is offered in this <br />town for young folks. Mr. Price said a non-resident yearly fee for Centennial Commons is <br />$350 a year. University City’s school data shows that 59% of the students get free or <br />reduced lunch, therefore most of their parents are making less than $20,000 a year. They <br />cannot pay the fee to join the Centennial Commons. Priorities for him are the Home <br />Improvement program and then this youth program. For the $75,000, Youth Job Corp, for <br />26 weeks which would budget $20,000 for a Coordinator’s salary, $45,000 for teen wages <br />and $5,000 for expenses and would employ a total of 70 participants at $8 an hour. Mr. <br />Price said if the City does not help their own kids; who is going to help them? Mr. Price <br />moved to allocate $75,000 in the budget to help the young and if the $8 an hour can be <br />lowered to the minimum, allowing more youth jobs and the funding can come from the <br />reserves. Mr. Price stated the taxpayer pays the money that goes into the reserves and <br />what you say is hold the reserves even if the young people and the seniors collapse, you <br />still have the reserves. Mr. Price’s final motion was to allocate $75,000 for the youth <br />initiative and an additional $25,000 be budgeted for projects, working with organizations as <br />the school district and the Sport’s Association. Mr. Sharpe seconded Mr. Price’s motion. <br /> <br />Mr. Wagner stated that it is not if we are for or against any particular program. He noted <br />that we have to balance a budget and when you give money to one program, something <br />else doesn’t get funded. Mr. Wagner is disappointed in that the recommendations of the <br />Green Practices Committee did not get into the budget discussion. By aligning this city with <br />other cities in the nation and in the world is what is going to make a difference to this planet. <br />First modest step was ways of reducing the carbon footprint of this City. The kids that you <br />are worried about will not have a planet if we don’t recognize the Green Practices’ <br />recommendations. <br /> <br />Mr. Crow asked Ms. Feier if the conversation with the school district on their training <br />programs happened and wanted to know if those conversations were far enough along to <br />realize if programs were being duplicated. Ms. Feier stated that there has been <br />conversation with the school board to be sure that programs are not duplicated but used in <br />conjunction with additional new programs. Mr. Crow asked where this program was going <br />to be housed. Ms. Feier said that conversation would still need to happen. Mr. Crow asked <br />if the dialog with the police department occurred asking what the police departments think <br />about this by allocating resources, is a prevention program like this making sense versus <br />other priorities. The City Manager said the dialogue occurred on a very surface level. Ms. <br />Feier stated that this is not a public safety issue, it is more an opportunity for engaging <br />youth with job opportunities and experience within the city. Mr. Crow asked what would be <br />the most effective from the varieties of examples offered. He asked Ms. Feier if she felt that <br />the proposal Mr. Price made a motion for could be run effectively. She stated that it was a <br />brand new concept and program and could depend on how we partner with the school <br /> <br /> 8 <br /> <br />