Budget woes hit Belle Haven too hard, residents say Budget woes hit Belle Haven too hard, residents say (May 12, 2004)

** Cuts, changes at Onetta Harris Community Center worry many.

By Rebecca Wallace
Almanac Staff Writer

A budget cut can look like a stark number on a page. Or it can look like 26-year-old Tyrone Williams, facing the prospect of losing the only job he's ever had.

Sneakers squeak and a basketball thumps on the gym floor as Mr. Williams talks about coaching young athletes at the Onetta Harris Community Center in Menlo Park.

"I've been here since I was a sophomore at M-A," he says. "I used to play Pee Wee football, and I had no family to come to games. So I wanted to give back."

In his office, he displays the handiwork of another of his programs: newly constructed model cars. Holding a silver Mercedes high, he says proudly, "A 6-year-old built this car."

Does he see himself as a role model for kids? Mr. Williams turns shy again. "I do my best," he says. "The community center, that's what it's here for."

Many residents are more outspoken about praising Mr. Williams and the other staff as sorely needed role models in the lower-income Belle Haven neighborhood -- and about voicing their opposition to proposed cuts in Belle Haven.

With Menlo Park facing a projected $2.24 million budget deficit in its $27 million general fund budget, City Manager David Boesch is proposing sweeping cuts across city government, including eliminating the equivalent of 10.75 full-time positions for a savings of $692,000.

Mr. Williams' three-quarter-time position is on the chopping block, along with others, including Debbie Helming, coordinator of the shuttle bus service, and J. Michael Gonzales, the community relations manager who handles press releases and city publications.

Other proposed cuts in Belle Haven include reducing the full-time Onetta Harris night clerk position and a full-time social services coordinator position in the Menlo Park Senior Center to three-quarters, and eliminating a three-quarter-time community specialist at the senior center.

That last cut could hit hard because the specialist provides crucial Spanish-language outreach to the Latino community, said Roberta Roth, the city's outreach librarian and a shop steward.

The plan is coming before the City Council on Tuesday, May 18, to begin public hearings that are scheduled to end with the 2004-05 budget's adoption in late June. But many residents aren't waiting until then to speak out.

Matt Henry, president of the Belle Haven homeowners' association, told the Almanac that the Onetta Harris center has already been hit by past years' cuts in service and personnel.

"It's a protected area -- people feel so comfortable there. But they're slowly just chipping away and chipping away at it," he said, adding, "The city manager has a job to do. He lives on Mt. Olympus. And it's really hard when you live on Mt. Olympus to figure out what the peasants are doing in the village."

Mr. Henry also said he worries that a cut in community policing could be dangerous when coupled with reductions at the center, where healthy activities such as dance classes and homework groups can keep kids out of trouble.

To save about $18,000, Police Chief Chris Boyd is proposing to keep a vacant patrol officer position open. Overtime from other officers would make up for lost patrol time, but officers also perform community policing duties such as outreach to schools, which would no longer be possible in an unfilled position, Chief Boyd said.

"I don't know that we have a valid choice (due to the budget problems)," he said. "I do believe that basic safety needs to be a priority."

Reworking the department

About 35 people converged on the May 4 council meeting to protest the proposed cuts in Belle Haven, but council members couldn't respond because the matter was not on that night's agenda, they said.

Many also had harsh words for a proposed reorganization of the city's community services division, which operates the Onetta Harris center.

The department has three senior supervisors, Onetta Harris director Aaron Johnson, Nancy Nuckolls and Mike Taylor, and to reduce costs Ms. Nuckolls would be demoted, community services director Curtis Brown said. Programs would be divided into two parts: recreation and sports, headed by Mr. Johnson, and human services (including child care), headed by Mr. Taylor.

Ms. Nuckolls was chosen for the demotion purely because the other two had more seniority with the city, Mr. Brown said.

The hope is to make staff more flexible and efficient by assigning them to programs citywide rather than focusing them on one facility, Mr. Brown said. So several employees would be based in a different place, moving from city facilities at the Civic Center to those at Belle Haven, or vice versa.

That includes moving Mr. Johnson from Onetta Harris, where he has been since about 1977, a possibility that caused several residents to speak in his defense May 4.

"I'm 33 years old and Aaron is like a second dad to me," said Atiba Williams, a teacher at Redwood High School who grew up in programs at Onetta Harris. "There's no one who can replace this man."

Cedric Reed got choked up as he said he had gone through difficult times in his life but that Mr. Johnson had helped inspire him to earn an accounting degree.

"I have a 3-year-old son. He (Mr. Johnson) recently created a program for 3- to 5-year-olds to help them play sports the right way. He didn't have to do that," Mr. Reed said.

As part of the reorganization, city officials will also be trying to recruit volunteers to take over Tyrone Williams' coaching duties, and looking into partnering with the Boys and Girls Club and the Ravenswood City School District to help keep the Onetta Harris programs going, Mr. Brown said. Shuffling duties is part of keeping programs as intact as possible with fewer staff members, he said.

In this fourth straight year of stagnant revenues and budget cuts in Menlo Park, Mr. Brown said he had to slice $563,000 out of the community services budget, which in 2003-04 was about $6 million total.

"You might not like everything that I as a director am doing, but I'm looking at the bigger picture," he said.

In a report to the council last month, Mr. Brown responded to concerns that Belle Haven was being hit unfairly hard by pointing out that only 2.5 of the 10.75 city positions being recommended for elimination are in Belle Haven.

One position in Belle Haven could get an increase from half-time to full-time. Family services coordinator Mara Mintzer helps provide programs for grades K-6 that the council has earmarked as a priority, including summer school and parent education, Mr. Brown said. Some of her salary comes from private foundation money.

At the Onetta Harris gym, Mr. Johnson watched the young athletes play basketball and said he didn't want to leave the center where he's worked for so long. The smell of hot empanadas wafted over from the cooking class.

When asked whether he knew all the boys playing, Mr. Johnson chuckled and said, "Definitely. And their parents."

"Everybody around here has pitched in to help out," he added, pointing out that many staff volunteer their time at the center. "We're upset. We don't know why they want to change us."

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