Willow Glen Resident

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Alameda business group gets to keep parade grant

ByMary Gottschalk

Thanks to Kerry Adams Hap-
ner, director of the San Jose Office of Cultural Affairs. The Alameda Business Association is keeping $1,350 the group received from her office.

The money came in the form of a grant that Larry Clark applied for on behalf of the ABA to stage a Fiesta de las Rosas parade on May 18 of this year.

When there was no support for the May parade, Clark, then ABA president, started promoting a July 4 "Rose, White and Blue" parade. That parade was successful.

However, the contract the ABA signed with San Jose was for the fiscal cycle ending on June 30. Using the money for an event after June 30 violated the contract, and the cultural affairs office requested the grant be returned, following the city attorney's guidelines.

When Clark learned of the city's request, he told the ABA he wasn't giving the money back.

"It's a bit of blood sport, but I'm up for it," he said at the June ABA meeting.

In August, the cultural affairs office gave the ABA a separate grant, allowing the group to keep the money.

Hapner says the new grant reflects the office's effort to work with groups that encounter unforeseen circumstances.

For example, Hapner says, a summer event might require rescheduling because of site availability or something else that would put it beyond the fiscal deadline. In that instance, if the group comes back to her office, she says it is possible it can keep the grant.

"This is only on approval by our office, and it has to be due to unforeseen circumstances," Hapner says.

Hapner says the special grant to the ABA is "to support them and to really reflect the spirit of what we're trying to do."

The special grant to the "Rose, White and Blue" parade is "outside of the festival, parade and celebration grants program," she says.

Clark has already told the ABA he plans to ask for more money for the 2009 parade.

During the 2007-08 fiscal cycle, the program awarded $413,194 to 34 applicants.

Proposals for the 2009-10 cycle are due in January.