By Rashad Christian
Baltimore Watchdog Staff Writer
The Baltimore County Council Monday took the first step toward establishing a nonprofit foundation that would raise money to supplement the budget for parks and recreation in the county.
On a 7-0 vote last evening, the council charged Roslyn Johnson, the director of the Department of Recreation and Parks, and County Attorney James R. Benjamin to develop a recommendation on how to best proceed with the process of creating a nonprofit that would raise charitable donations from residents, corporations and other philanthropic organizations.
The initial resolution before the council was to establish a working group that would have studied the feasibility of a parks and recreation foundation and report its finding to County Executive John A. Olszewski, Jr., by May 1, 2021.
Council member Todd K. Crandell, R-7th District, who sponsored the resolution with Council member David Marks, R-5th District, amended that proposal at the council’s working meeting last week so that the legal and logistical details could be worked out by Johnson and Benjamin, who would recommend whether to establish a working group or take other steps.
Crandell has said that the supplemental funds raised by a foundation will be needed as the county’s long-term revenue projections look “stark.” He said last week that there are many corporations moving into the county that have line items in their budgets for philanthropic donations.
He has also argued that the county’s parks have a big impact on residents.
In 2018, Crandell said last week when he introduced the resolution to the council, parks in the southeastern part of the county alone attracted 3.4 million people. In addition, he said 24,000 residents participated in 304 recreational programs that year in the southeast region, which includes Essex, Dundalk and Middle River.
“Resolution is the first step in establishing a foundation that can work in concert with the Baltimore Recreation and Parks,” Crandell said. “We can begin the due diligence on the appropriate steps to get this thing running in a meaningful way.”
The Baltimore County administrative officer, Stacy Rodgers, pointed out that there will be costs associated with such a foundation.
“There are costs to administer the foundation as well,” Rodgers said. “It will take resources for a foundation to stand up and accept any funds.”
Crandell offered potential workarounds to the issue of overwhelming donating entities, including soliciting the help of certain corporations.
“Maybe the Recreation and Parks Foundation, they can tap into those corporations that already have philanthropy budgets,” Crandell said.
The parks foundation would be similar to nonprofit foundations that raise money for the county’s library, police department and schools. The county spent roughly $11 million on parks and rec last year.
In other action, the council endorsed the administration’s application to the state for a $3 million grant that would be used to protect tenants from being evicted from their apartments due to COVID-19.
The county’s Department of Planning is seeking the grant from the state Department of Housing and Community Development, which is providing about $15 million in federal block grants to counties throughout the state for eviction protection.
Baltimore County has already received $2 million under legislation passed by Congress in March to stem the economic downturn created by the coronavirus pandemic. The additional grant would supplement those funds, which are dispersed to nonprofits in the county that are working with local officials to protect tenants who can’t pay their rent because they either lost their job or received substantial pay cuts due to the coronavirus.
The deadline for applying for the grant is Oct. 2.