Community Groups Plead for Support : Grants: Council postpones action on parceling out city’s share of federal funds for service organizations.

Father Bill Easterling has a simple way to measure the effectiveness of the anti-gang program of the Soledad Enrichment Action (SEA) organization.

“I measure it by the number of hospital calls and funerals I’m not doing,” said the Roman Catholic priest from St. Joseph Church here. “I’m doing a lot less, which I am grateful for.”

The priest from St. Joseph Church said SEA’s programs are one reason fewer children are dying in drive-by shootings. Calling it an accomplishment, he said “I haven’t buried an infant for over a year and a half.”

The clergyman explained that, in 1990, he conducted funerals for eight victims of drive-bys who were under age of 13.

Easterling, fellow religious leaders, parents, former gang members and other youths involved in SEA, attended the Pomona City Council meeting Monday night to plead for more city support for the agency, which has seen its budget shrink to one-fourth the size it was when it opened in Pomona in 1988.

But before SEA and other community organizations seeking increased financial support could plead their cases, the City Council postponed action.

The council will conduct a study session Monday and act May 18 on recommendations from the Community Life Commission for the distribution of federal funds.

Each year, the city allocates a percentage of its Community Development Block Grant funds to public service organizations. And each year there are complaints that the support is inadequate.

Last year, the strongest complaints came from the Boys and Girls Club of Pomona, whose allocation was slashed from $20,000 to $7,500.

This year, SEA is complaining loudest. The city allocated $60,000 to SEA in 1989, but only $15,000 last year. And the commission has recommended the same amount this year. SEA is seeking $50,000.

Easterling said that if the city cannot redistribute the block grant funds, it should find money elsewhere.

“There’s not a lot of investment in our youth” in Pomona, he said. “The city needs to make a commitment.”

SEA was founded 20 years ago at Our Lady of Soledad Church in East Los Angeles as a support group for families of young people slain by gang violence.

Brother Modesto Leon, who heads SEA, which conducts similar programs in Los Angeles and other communities, said that if Pomona contributes $50,000, the county and a private foundation established by Claremont attorney Herbert Hafif have each agreed to match the amount.

The City Council delayed action on the commission recommendations in order to obtain more information, including an analysis supporting the proposed allocations.

Under federal guidelines, the city can spend 15% of its $1.8 million in Community Development Block Grant money for public service activities, including city recreation programs. The proposed budget this year includes $68,341 for after-school recreation and $50,490 for summer recreation, leaving $157,240 to be divided among other agencies.

In addition to the $15,000 for SEA, the commission recommended grants of $25,000 to Pomona Mission Transitional Shelter for a 40-bed facility for the homeless; $20,000 each to the House of Ruth shelter for battered women and children, the Pomona Valley Youth Employment Services program for job assistance for high-risk youth and for the Boys and Girls Club.

Other proposed allocations are $18,750 to Project Sister’s date rape education program; $17,340 to the hunger program sponsored by the Pomona Valley Council of Churches; $15,000 to the Pomona Valley YMCA Leadership Academy for children 5 to 14, and $6,150 to the Family and Community Educational Services (FACES) program to combat gangs.