TO: Mayor and Commission AGENDA DATE: 5/6/2024
FROM: Interim City Manager AGENDA ITEM: 8 - A
SUBJECT:
Title
Request for approval of an increase in the amount awarded from the William S. Harvey Deltona Scholarship Advisory Board (WSHDSB) - Joyce Raftery, City Clerk’s Department (386) 878-8502.
Strategic Goal: Internal and External Communication.
Body
LOCATION:
N/A
COST:
$50,000
SOURCE OF FUNDS:
Budgeted from the City Commission Budget
ORIGINATING DEPARTMENT:
City Clerk’s Department
STAFF RECOMMENDATION PRESENTED BY:
Joyce Raftery, City Clerk
POTENTIAL MOTION:
Recommendation
“ I move to increase the future William S. Harvey Deltona Scholarship funds from $25,000 to $50,000 and increase the maximum award from $3,000 to $5,000.”
END
BACKGROUND:
Background
On April 1, 2024, the Commission tabled this item and requested that staff investigate the requests coming before them last year and the Commission is correct. As stated the Commission did in fact approve both requests on April 3, 2023. However, during the budget process the amount was decreased to $25,000 by the City Manager at the time but, staff is unaware of the reason for the decrease.
To provide some history about the board, on November 5, 2007, the Commission approved the scholarship program and to allocate the funds from recycling to fund the program. However, on January 7, 2019, the Commission temporarily suspended the recycling program until the recycling market improved with an effective date of February 1, 2019. As a side note, the reason the City suspended its recycling program was because only a tiny percentage of waste was actually able to be recycled, resulting in most materials going to landfills, a waste of thousands of hauling miles and gallons of fuel.
As previously stated, the board met on March 14, 2024, and is requesting to increase future scholarship funds from $25,000 to $50,000. This same request was made by the board in 2023 to increase the funds from $30,000 to $50,000 and the Commission at that time agreed. However, in 2024 due to budget constraints, the scholarship was lowered to $25,000 which is $5,000 less than previous years. If the Commission is not in agreement with the $50,000, the board requests that the amount go back to the $30,000 which was the agreed upon amount since 2016.
If the Commission would approve the increase to $50,000 the second request is to change future packet contents to reflect the award range of no more than $5,000 (up from $3,000) and no less than $1,000 to qualified applicants.
End