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To what extent, if any, should the city of Menlo Park subsidize the city’s children’s center? How much of the burden should parents shoulder?
This is one of the issues the City Council will take up when it considers its policies on setting fees for city services at a study session, set to begin at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 10, in the council chambers, located in the Civic Center, between Laurel and Alma streets.
The city has long used informal guidelines to set fees, according to city staff. In general, the city tries not to subsidize costs associated with the planning department, for example, while it subsidizes nearly all the operations of the police department.
There has been less clarity, however, about the city’s policy for setting child care fees. The issue provokes a contentious debate among residents nearly every time the council considers upping fees at the children’s center — usually once a year.
Several residents have expressed outrage that parents are asked to cover only about three-quarters of the cost of the center, while the city picks up the bill for the remainder — an expense of more than $300,000 per year, according to a recent study on the cost of city services.
But parents have been equally vociferous in their opposition to fee increases, arguing that it puts an unfair burden on families with two working parents, especially in the current economic climate.
The city’s informal policy on fees at the children’s center has been to gradually increase parents’ share of the cost, with an eye to eventually having parents pay the full cost of the service. But at least one council member does not support the idea that the city should recover all its costs, and others have expressed reservations about the rate at which the city currently subsidizes the center.
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The City should charge for the full cost of child care services. Indigent Menlo Park residents should be eligible to apply for assistance. People residing outside of Menlo Park regardless of income should not be eligible for assistance.