The San Juan Bautista City Council broke with tradition
Wednesday and denied a request for $500 from Suicide Prevention
Services.
The San Juan Bautista City Council broke with tradition Wednesday and denied a request for $500 from Suicide Prevention Services.
In discussion of the issue, which was pulled from the consent agenda at Wednesday’s meeting, Councilman Arturo Medina said he felt the $500 would be better spent for roads, infrastructure and sewer and water programs in the city.
Councilman Chuck Geiger agreed, though Scott Freels, assistant chief of the San Juan Volunteer Fire Department, said firefighters have responded to two reported suicide attempts this year.
“It does happen here a lot more than you expect,” Freels said.
Medina said he didn’t deny that suicide attempts occur in San Juan.
“Just because it happens here, it doesn’t mean that this (suicide hotline) phone number helps stop it,” he said.
Past Councils have voted in favor of the program, which provides a 24-hour multilingual crisis line, multilingual educational outreach services and grief support services for those who have lost loved ones to suicide.
Medina moved to deny the request to support the Suicide Prevention Program. After Geiger’s second, the motion passed 3-2 with Priscila Hill and George Rowe dissenting.
The Council also approved changing a resolution naming the San Benito County Integrated Waste Management Department as the lead agency to distribute grant funds over to the city.
An application for a $5,000 grant from the State Department’s Conservation Recycling program was written by the waste management department, but Medina said he wanted all the money to be spent in the city.
Mandy Rose, executive director of the county Integrated Waste Management Department, said it was fine to make the amendments to the application as long as the money was used for recycling programs. The money could be spent on new trash containers, advertising campaigns and other clean-up activities, she said.
Medina moved to approve the application with the amended changes. With Reed’s second, the motion passed 5-0.
