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RESOLUTION NO. 8474
RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF
HAWTHORNE, CALIFORNIA, APPROVING BUDGET
ALLOCATIONS FOR SPECIFIED ELECTED OFFICIALS
FOR THE 2024-2025 FISCAL YEAR.
WHEREAS, on July 12, 2011, the City Council adopted a “budget policy” allocating to each elected official an amount (“budget allocation”) to be used for donation to organizations sponsoring events in the City of Hawthorne; and
WHEREAS, since the adoption of the “budget policy,” City Council has annually reaffirmed the policy, including, in part, that the budget allocations only be used for community events approved by the City Council, that no elected official be permitted to donate to any event sponsored or co-sponsored by an organization to which that elected official is a board member, and that reports be filed no later than 45 days after the event has taken place; and WHEREAS, on May 18, 2019, Resolution No. 8097 approved affirmation of the said policy and the budget allocation in the amount of $1,000 per each member of the City Council for an expanded list of events for fiscal year 2019-2020; and WHEREAS, on September 24 2019, the City Council approved Hawthorne World Fest as an additional community event; and
WHEREAS, on May 26, 2020, Resolution No. 8197 repealed the budget allocation for fiscal years 2019-2020 and 2020-2021 as all events were canceled due to the state of emergency caused by the COVIC-19 world pandemic; and
WHEREAS, on April 12, 2022, Resolution No. 8350 approved affirmation of the said policy and the budget allocation in the amount of $1,000 per each member of the City Council for an expanded list of events for fiscal years 2021-2022 and 2022-2023; and WHEREAS, on June 28, 2022, Resolution No. 8368 reaffirmed said budget policy, further updated the list of events eligible to receive budget allocations from an elected official (attached as “Exhibit A”), and increases the budget allocation to $2,000 to members of the City Council, including the Mayor for the fiscal year of 2022- 2023; and WHEREAS, on March 28, 2023 and pursuant to Section 11 of Resolution No. 8368, City Council voted to add a Mother’s Day Event, Women’s History Month and Women’s Resources Fair to the list of City Sponsored Events; and
WHEREAS, on August 8, 2023, the City Council adopted Resolution No. 8426 allocating a budget of $2,000 per each members of the City Council for the 2023-2024 fiscal year for the aforementioned community events; and
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WHEREAS, on October 10, 2023, the City Council adopted Resolution No. 8434 which amended the 2023-2024 budget allocation by altering the list of events eligible to receive budget allocations from an elected official, increasing the amount of the budget allocation to $3,000; and WHEREAS, the City Council wishes to reaffirm the budget allocation policy and allocation amount for the fiscal year of 2024-2025.
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED by the City Council of the City of Hawthorne does hereby find, determine and order as follows:
Section 1. The City Council of the City of Hawthorne, California, hereby incorporates by reference all the recitals herein and finds that they are true and correct.
Section 2. The City Council of the City of Hawthorne generally finds that certain events and nonprofit organizations provide a benefit to the community and thereby serve a public purpose, making it appropriate for the City to provide financial support to those events.
Section 3. The City Council of the City of Hawthorne hereby approves that each member of the City Council, including the Mayor, is to be allocated a $3,000 budget allocation for the fiscal years 2024-2025 to be used for the financial assistance of events meeting the criteria in Section 4.
Section 4. The City Council of the City of Hawthorne further finds that the events and nonprofit organizations qualifying for the financial assistance must demonstrate a public benefit to the community by promoting cohesiveness, education, safety, health, or cultural awareness that yields significant improvement in basic living conditions for the residents of the City. The organization must also demonstrate a history of sources of funding, including private funding for the event seeking city financial support.
Section 5. Appropriate use of funds include food, beverage, rental fees and advertising costs of an event. It will not include costs for staff time, such as employees in the public works, code enforcement or parking enforcement department.
Section 6. The City Manager or his designee shall determine the appropriate documentation required for funding the event.
Section 7. Organizations receiving funding must agree not to discriminate against individuals or groups based upon race, color, national origin, ancestry, sex, religion, age, marital status, sexual orientation, gender expressions, disability or political affiliation.
Section 8. Events funded through the Budget Allocation process must be open to the public. No City Funds may be used for private, political or fundraising purposes. - 3 -
Section 9. The City Manager is hereby authorized to adopt additional criteria, guidelines and details to these policies so long as they are consistent with the rules contained herein.
Section 10. The events and organizations listed in Exhibit A, attached and incorporated herein by this reference, are hereby declared to meet the stated criteria. Council may amend Exhibit A from time to time by direction to the City Attorney’s Office, so long as the procedures in this resolution are adhered to.
Section 11. Any member of the City Council may recommend an event or a nonprofit organization for inclusion on the list contained in Exhibit A and shall provide information regarding the public benefit served by the event or the organization at the time of recommendation. Events or nonprofit organization to be added to the list must be approved by a majority of the City Council. Organizations that wish to have their events included within the list of events may contact members of the City Council, the City Clerk or City Treasurer and request consideration by the legislative body.
Section 12. The unused portion of the budget allocation for each elected official shall not roll-over to the next Fiscal Year.
Section 13. No elected official may donate any part of the official’s budget allocation to any event sponsored or co-sponsored by an organization for which that elected official is a board member.
Section 14. No later than 45 days after the event is held, the elected official that requested disbursement from their budget allocation shall file a report, a sample of which is attached as “Exhibit B” and incorporated herein by this reference, with both the City Finance Department and the City Clerk’s Department, which shows the organization to which the donation was made, the amount of the donation, the date of the donation, and a description of how the donation was spent. If a report is not filed within 45 days, the City may request reimbursement of the financial assistance provided. The report shall be made available to the public on the City website.
Section 15. The Finance Department shall provide quarterly reports to the City Council, City Clerk and City Treasurer with a current balance of each elected official’s budget allocation and a list of all events receiving a disbursement, amount of the disbursement, and name of elected official(s) requesting said disbursement, to date.
Section 16. The term of the authorization and approval provided for by this Resolution commences on the date that this Resolution is adopted through the end of the 2024-2025 Fiscal Year.
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Section 17. This Resolution shall take effect immediately upon its approval by the City Council, and the clerk of the Council shall attest to and certify the vote adopting this Resolution.
PASSED, APPROVED, and ADOPTED this 11th day of June, 2024. ______________________________
ALEX VARGAS, Mayor
City of Hawthorne, California
ATTEST:
______________________________
DAYNA WILLIAMS-HUNTER, City Clerk
City of Hawthorne, California
APPROVED AS TO FORM:
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ROBERT M. KIM, City Attorney
City of Hawthorne, California