After its final budget worksession on Wednesday, May 15, it appears that the Greenbelt City Council has two main questions to answer before it can adopt a budget for Fiscal Year 2025 (FY 2025), which begins July 1. These are: Should they increase the Greenbelt Cinema’s annual stipend, and should they change how funds are allocated to city boards and committees. In addition, they might address a late request from the Greenbelt S.I.T.Y. (Sensational, Inspirational, Talented, Youth) Stars, a double dutch team founded by Austin Graves.
There will be a public hearing on the budget on Wednesday, May 29, with final passage scheduled for Monday, June 3.
Council and staff made relatively minor adjustments to the budget proposed by City Manager Josué Salmerón. In that proposal, FY 2025 revenues were estimated at $37.956 million and expenditures totaled $37.907 million, leaving a slight surplus of revenues over expenditures of $49,500. Since the initial budget presentation, staff have identified some corrections/updates to the budget numbers and councilmembers have appeared agreeable to a few other modifications.
Notable among them are: a $39,600 negative correction to the animal control budget; an update to contract costs for the police department’s stun guns, body cameras and associated storage and software (+$60,000); $20,000 to continue the service coordinator program in the Greenbelt Assistance in Living (GAIL) program, and a $76,000 increase, to $86,000, in the recreation department’s special programs budget.
This last item covers various camps and the Learn 2 Earn program, among others. City Treasurer Bertha Gaymon told the News Review that the original allocation of $10,000 was an error resulting from a miscommunication during the budget preparation process.
Applying these adjustments resulted in no change to revenues and expenditures of $37.984 million, leaving a shortfall of $27,800. Gaymon proposed reducing the allowance for abatements to commercial property taxes by $75,000. The city has built a substantial reserve against abatements and after reviewing more recent data, she is confident that the lower allowance will be sufficient. Applying this change brings estimated FY 2025 revenues to $38.031 million, creating a surplus of $47,200 in revenues over expenditures.
Cinema
The Greenbelt Cinema has requested an increase in its stipend from the current $50,000 to $150,000 (see article in last week’s issue). Executive Director Caitlin McGrath said that the cinema will not be able to sustain current operations without an increase. Councilmember Jenni Pompi noted that the city had helped the cinema get revenue from a bond bill to support their renovations, although McGrath noted that those funds cannot be used for operating expenses.
Councilmember Kristen Weaver pointed out that two days earlier council had approved a $25,000 grant from American Rescue Plan Act funds.
No councilmember supported the full request. Weaver noted that as the stipend has been $50,000 for some time, some increase may be appropriate but that the requested $100,000 increase is a “pretty big jump.”
Councilmember Rodney Roberts said that the original agreement was that after a couple of years, the theater would be self-sustaining and called the requested increase “a big leap.”
McGrath disagreed saying that the original contract always called for a city subsidy. (Editors Note: Roberts appears to be correct. A June 22, 2017 article in this paper reporting on a June 7 worksession with Friends of the Greenbelt Theatre, stated that “council appeared sympathetic to the theater’s failure to become self-sufficient this year, as anticipated in the agreement.”
The March 2,2015 contract between the city (the owner) and the Friends of the Greenbelt Theatre (the manager) states: “The owner shall contribute to the manager an amount equal to fifty thousand dollars ($50,000.00) per year for the first two years of the term thereof …”)
She argued that the pandemic has transformed the industry. Some former theatergoers still do not feel safe attending in-person events. And membership renewals are also down. The stipend has never been adjusted for inflation, she said. If they do not get additional funds, she said, the cinema might have to return to the for-profit model of the previous operator and play only first-run movies. She said that the group may be able to reduce their request to get through the current crunch.
Several councilmembers indicated that they could support increasing the FY 2025 subsidy by around $25,000. A final decision will be made at the budget adoption meeting.
Contributions
Each year the city makes contributions to various organizations, including a few advisory boards and committees. Mayor Emmett Jordan proposed replacing the individual funding for specific boards and committees, except for the Advisory Committee on Education, with a lump sum for all boards and committees. He proposed setting this lump sum at $58,000, up from the $56,900 in the proposed budget. This approach, he said, could result in more timely responses to funding requests. There was concern among some other councilmembers about this proposal. Weaver suggested that council could add an allocation for “other boards and committees” to deal with unexpected requests.
Roberts opposed Jordan’s approach, saying that council should not be handing money out to the boards. He also complained that the number of contribution groups was multiplying, burdening taxpayers. Councilmember Silke Pope, noting the number of boards and committees, questioned whether Jordan’s proposal was necessary.
Gaymon pointed out that last year staff added line item 99 Miscellaneous grants to handle unexpected requests, although this is not directly tied to boards and committees. Salmerón budgeted $16,500 for this line item.
S.I.T.Y. Stars
Graves came to ask for a grant to the double dutch team meeting at the Springhill Lake Recreation Center. The 33-year-old team participates in a number of competitions and demonstrations each year. In summer of 2025 S.I.T.Y. has an invitation to participate in an event in Japan, for which it needs funds for travel, equipment, uniforms and other expenses. While the team does fundraise, it needs assistance to meet the $34,900 anticipated expense, he said. Two other trips are planned, including one to New York, which will require an overnight stay. Jordan suggested that the city could provide seed money for the team.
Several councilmembers pointed out that the group had not followed the city’s process for reviewing requests for contributions. Resident Judith Davis said that the city normally contributes only to organizations that have been “contribution groups” for at least a year and S.I.T.Y. Stars is not a contribution group. Councilmember Danielle McKinney called for consistency in how council handles contribution requests.