REGION: Slater-Price grants total $689,000

Supervisor Ron Roberts' community grants up for a vote Tuesday

By EDWARD SIFUENTES - Staff Writer | Tuesday, April 8, 2008 12:16 PM PDT ∞

North County communities and groups are getting $414,000 in grant money from the discretionary fund of San Diego Supervisor Pam Slater-Price.

The money comes from the supervisor's $2 million community projects funds, which each supervisor has to make cash grants for causes in their respective districts. Most of the Slater-Price's 25 grants ---- totalling $680,000 ---- were between $2,500 and $20,000.

Slater-Price said the grants help mostly arts, tourism and civic groups. The projects in turn benefit the community as a whole, she said.

"It's a small amount of money, but it goes a long way and it helps to build community," she said Monday.

One of the projects is a sculpture that the Downtown Encinitas MainStreet Association plans to install on Encinitas Boulevard. The county grant is for $8,000 but the cost of the sculpture plus installation totals about $25,000, said Dody Tucker, the association's executive director.

"It's a very generous grant and we're very happy to have it," Tucker said.

The rest of the money to install the sculpture, called "The Encinitas Child," will come from the city and private donations, Tucker said.

Slater-Price's grants were approved by the Board of Supervisors at its March 25 meeting. She said more grants for her district will come before the board in a few weeks.

Supervisors will vote on Supervisor Ron Roberts' list of projects on Tuesday. His list totals $403,000, including an $80,000 grant to the San Diego Air & Space Museum for a new installation of a space capsule.

The largest item on Slater-Price's list was a $254,614 grant to reimburse Encinitas for costs related to the Encinitas Library, including equipment and furniture for the literacy lab. The smallest grant is a $1,000 donation to the Mira Mesa Women's Club for its Chalk The Walk art festival May 10.

For the last decade, each of the county's five county supervisors has had up to $2 million a year from the county's general fund to give however he or she sees fit. Critics have called the program a political "slush fund."

Supervisors have defended the program, saying the money goes to worthy projects.

Slater-Price's grants include:

-- $50,000 for the Boys & Girls Club of San Dieguito for a new recording studio and recording equipment;

-- $10,000 for the city of Solana Beach for landscape improvements to the Plaza Street and Highway 101 intersection;

-- $2,500 for Operation Homefront-Southern California to purchase school supplies for children of military families;

-- $10,000 for the Escondido Children's Museum to offset the costs associated with hosting the 2008 Moonlight Masquerade on Oct. 4; and

-- $5,000 for the San Diego North Convention and Visitors Bureau to pay for marketing, entertainment and venue rental for its annual meeting May 1.

Contact staff writer Edward Sifuentes at (760) 740-3511 or esifuentes@nctimes.com.