With youth program at risk, city looks to outside agency

Serving on the Chase Youth Commission led Spencer White to run for class president at University High School.

He won. This year he’s a freshman at Gonzaga University pursuing a degree in political science and hopes to run for office one day.

“It was definitely a turning point,” White said about his involvement on the commission. “It’s extremely important to maintain a healthy connection to the youth within a community.”

The future of the Chase Youth Commission, which is overseen by the city-led Spokane Regional Youth Department, remains tenuous heading into 2012.

Working to balance an $8 million shortfall, Spokane Mayor Mary Verner has proposed significantly cutting the city’s youth program, and her opponent in today’s election, David Condon, also has suggested that the youth department is a smaller priority that may have to face the budget ax in order to spare other services such as police.

Verner’s proposed 2012 budget would cut the city’s portion of the youth department budget from $175,000 to $50,000. The two-person department also receives about $50,000 in funding from Spokane County.

After presenting her budget to the City Council last week, Verner said she was working with “an outside agency” to take over the functions of the department. She declined to name the organization because the group had not yet committed to the concept.

City Councilwoman Nancy McLaughlin said Monday that Verner has been in discussions with the YMCA. She also said, however, that the city may need to provide more than $50,000 in the first couple of years to help provide a transition period.

“I personally think that’s a fabulous idea if we can shift it to a great organization like the Y,” McLaughlin said. Some on the City Council, including Councilman Steve Corker, have expressed concern that the city may end or significantly reduce its commitment to the Chase Youth Commission.

City spokeswoman Marlene Feist confirmed that the mayor is working with the Y. She added that the city may be required to solicit official bids depending on how much the city agrees to pay an organization to take over the program.

Each year the youth department and the commission organize the Chase Youth Awards, a battle of the bands and a candidates’ debate. It runs a website aimed at promoting activities for youth, www.youthlinkspokane.org. It has partnered with the West Central Neighborhood Council to help improve academic achievement in the neighborhood. It is working on an anti-bullying campaign. Perhaps most importantly, it gives youth a forum to comment on city issues and actively participate in decision making, said Joanne Benham, who has led the department since it was formed in 1986.

“It’s important that young people have a voice in city government and county government,” Benham said. “How else can they have a say because they can’t vote.”

Benham said activities have been crafted based on the concerns of youth participants.

The Chase Youth Awards began in response to a feeling that kids and teens only made news when they did something wrong. BOBFest, the annual battle of the bands, started because teens felt there were few venues for them to play and hear live music. Youth commissioners started the annual candidate debates because they felt candidates largely ignored issues concerning kids.

“We’re trying to find ways to recognize them and engage them in their own destiny,” Benham said.

Not all political leaders believe the department is worth the money. Councilman Bob Apple said the budget spent on the youth department would be better spent in the park department on youth centers. Funding for those wasn’t cut for 2012, but is endangered for 2013.

The youth department “doesn’t provide any benefit to the city or the kids,” Apple said.

But Megan Wertman, a former vice chairman of the commission, questioned why city leaders would consider cutting a youth program that gets kids more involved in civic affairs at a time when those same leaders express concerns about the high school dropout rate.

“It makes a huge difference in a lot of kids’ lives,” said Wertman, a North Central High School graduate and Gonzaga University student. “People aren’t taking into account the real problems (cutting funding) might cause.”

The City Council will have the final say on the future of the youth department, and Verner has said she is open to ideas for raising revenue. Council President Joe Shogan has proposed raising parking ticket fees from $15 to $25 to raise revenue, in part to prevent cuts to the youth and arts departments.

A public hearing on the budget that includes the youth department will be held during Monday’s City Council meeting.

“It’s been 25 years of being in the city,” Benham said. “To just turn that around in a month and a half is going to be a challenge.”