Reviewed by: Town Manager, Assistant Town Manager, Town Attorney, and Finance Director 110 E. Main Street Los Gatos, CA 95030 ● (408) 354-6832 www.losgatosca.gov
TOWN OF LOS GATOS
COUNCIL AGENDA REPORT
MEETING DATE: 08/19/2025
ITEM NO: 13
DESK ITEM
DATE: August 19, 2025
TO: Mayor and Town Council
FROM: Chris Constantin, Town Manager
SUBJECT: Provide Direction for the Distribution of $155,000 Included in the FY 2025- 26 Budget for Community Grants
REMARKS:
Attachment 2 contains council member comments.
Attachments Provided with the Staff Report:
1. Community Grant Recipient Details from FY2021-22 through FY2024-25 Attachments Provided with this Desk Item:
2. Council Member Comments
ATTACHMENT 2
From: Rob Moore <[email protected]>
Sent: Tuesday, August 19, 2025 10:28 AM
To: Wendy Wood <[email protected]>; Chris Constantin <[email protected]> Cc: Gabrielle Whelan <[email protected]>
Subject: Item 13 Desk Item
Please see the attached desk item for the meeting this evening:
Mayor Hudes and Councilmembers,
Ahead of tonight's evening, I wanted to share three suggestions related to item 13 - Community Grants. I am providing this to you in advance to ensure you have some time to process these ideas, as I know it can be helpful to think this sort of thing through ahead of time.
My three proposals are:
1. Allocate the $126,800 to the Sustaining Grant recipients recommended by staff, with one minor modification.
• This modification would be to replace the $20,000 for rental assistance to West Valley Community Services with $10,000 to the St. Vincent de Paul Society and $10,000 to the Los Gatos Anti-Racism Coalition, as SVdP and LGARC were the two organizations to receive rental assistance funding from the Community Grants Program last year. Last year, both SVdP and LGARC received $12,500 for rental assistance to be exclusively allocated to Los Gatos residents. WVCS did not apply for this rental assistance money last year and, therefore, should not receive this Sustaining Grant (this would still leave WVCS with $20,000 for human services support).
2. Place the remaining $28,500 in a reserve to be allocated by Council action for urgent or unforeseen community needs this fiscal year.
• Councilmembers have talked on multiple occasions about setting aside discretionary funding for the Town Council to allocate in the event that an organization or service faces unforeseen challenges due to federal or state funding cuts or policy changes. We have been fortunate that this appears not to have been the case thus far, but having a small emergency fund would allow the Town of Los Gatos to respond quickly if such a need a arises.
3. Have staff bring back the Community Grants structure early next year with a draft budget of $155,000 to coincide with Strategic Priority setting.
• This would allow the Town Council to think through how to help Community Grant funding to align with Council Strategic Priorities and allow the Council and staff time to put together a more cohesive, sustainable plan for how to structure the Community Grants program moving forward.
Thank you for your consideration, and I look forward to discussing this important program and funding this evening.
Take care,
Rob