WILL ANTI-DRUG PROGRAM RETURN?

DARE Funding Decision on Hold for Now School, City Budgets Unclear
Until Late Summer

WAUKESHA - City officials will wait, at least until the end of summer,
to decide their future role in paying for the Drug Abuse Resistance
Education program.

"It is very early and too premature to make any official action on
DARE," Mayor Carol Lombardi said Tuesday at the city's finance
committee meeting.

Committee members unanimously decided to table any action on financing
the program until the city and Waukesha School District budgets for
next year are more clearly understood.

The city and school district split the cost to fund the DARE program
this year. City finance director Steve Neaman said the city has spent
about $12,500 for the program this year.

But in light of massive budget cuts, the school district has proposed
to drop its half of the spending.

Committee members agreed to take a wait-and-see approach on the
issue.

"I think we could study this for hours tonight and not have any
answers," Charles Betker said.

City officials said the school district will have more complete budget
numbers from the state in the late summer. The city will work on its
budget throughout the summer and finalize a spending plan for 2004 in
November.

Common council members Kathleen Cummings and Ralph Lapp referred
separate items pertaining to the issue to the committee. Lapp stood
behind the program but concurred that it was a good idea to hold off
on the measure.

"It's kind of foolish to make a premature decision before we find out
where (the school district) is at," he said.

Cummings, whose referral called for outside sources, such as PTAs, to
help pay for the school district's portion, pulled her referral from
the agenda during the meeting after committee member James Ripplinger
called fund raising for the program "inappropriate."

Ripplinger said it was not the city's job to secure funding for a
school program through solicitation.

"Fund solicitation should come from the school district and the school
board," he said. "The city should not get involved in the business of
the school district. It's totally inappropriate."

Cummings said her main purpose for the referral was to make Waukesha
residents aware of DARE's questionable future. She had put a June 19
deadline on finding alternate funding sources for the program in an
effort to gauge support for the program.

"If we don't get a response, it's a clear indication that support is
perceived and not actual," she said.