San Bruno PG&E settlement money continues to benefit city

The largest chunk, $50 million, went to the city’s new recreation and aquatic center slated to open next year. But the foundation has also funded many other initiatives, some of which it intends to continue long into the future.

“We talked about it, about what we want to do with the money going forward, do you want to spend it, do you want to keep it going into perpetuity if you can, and the overall feeling was to keep it going,” said Jim Ruane, the foundation’s vice president who was the mayor of San Bruno during the explosion.

Ruane said a key priority for the board was to sustain its Crestmoor scholarship program, which, since 2016, and with additional funds from charitable donors, has awarded more than $1 million to local students. Last week this year’s recipients were announced, with $190,000 going to 12 students to help pay for college expenses. The awards are given to those who have given back to the community in various ways and have a financial need.

Another program the board would like to continue, Ruane said, is the foundation’s community grants. The grants, which typically range from $2,000 to $25,000 and can be applied for by any organization benefiting the San Bruno community, have gone to a wide range of causes over the years, including nonprofits focused on underserved youth programming, domestic violence victims, homeless services, education, arts and many others. The grants totaled $300,000 last year.

Other initiatives the foundation has funded include first responder training, music education programming for local schools, pedestrian safety projects and COVID relief for small businesses and schools. COVID relief grants have totaled roughly $750,000, and a similar amount has been spent on music programing. This year another $200,000 went to a memorial honoring interned Japanese Americans during World War II being built at The Shops at Tanforan.

Hatamiya said the foundation identifies priorities in a number of ways. The foundation held two “listening sessions” aimed at gathering public input, the primary way the recreation center was decided on. In other instances, the board has been contacted about a local need, as has been the case with some of school district initiatives, she said.

“It goes both ways, it can be things that we’ve heard and then we take the initiative to find the right partner, or it can be a partner comes to us,” she said.

As another possible initiative, Ruane said community members have expressed interest in using funds to improve San Bruno’s downtown. While the pandemic relief grants were directed to many downtown establishments, he said the foundation could also aid in some city efforts to revamp public spaces, like improvements to Centennial Park on San Mateo Avenue.

But, for ongoing projects, the foundation may need to rethink its business model. Hatamiya said the board made a decision early on to not fundraise, instead relying mainly on returns from investments to sustain its funding capabilities so as to not draw money from competing charitable organizations.

“As we transition and have a much smaller investment portfolio, we may be looking at [fundraising] in the future as part of our business model,” she said.

The fund is planned to drop to the $30 million in the next year and half, as a remaining $29 million committed to complete the recreation center is slated to be paid off. Despite a hit due to the recent economic downturn, she said the fund has seen about $16 million in total gains.

“We’re still in very, very good shape,” Ruane said. “There is a lot to do going forward, so our goal is to try to keep this foundation going for quite a number of years.”

corey@smdailyjournal.com

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