The Calistoga City Council recently approved redirecting $10,000 that in past years went to a local youth center toward the Calistoga Cares Food Bank, in an effort to address local food insecurity.

That money in past years made up a portion of what the city annually contributed to the Boys & Girls Clubs of St. Helena and Calistoga, which has long run the Calistoga Teen Center. But council members previously argued there was a need to shift some of the funding toward food insecurity, at least temporarily.

Though the city continues to contribute money for the teen center, the council in June decided to reduce its annual compensation to the club for the center from $40,000 to $20,000. The council also agreed to waive utility costs for the club at the city-owned Monhoff building located at 1505 Grant St., which city officials said adds up to about $10,000.

Trent Yaconelli, executive director of the club, previously said the city’s cuts came on top of a loss of around $500,000 in federal and state funds. But there had been an outpouring of local support, he said, and the club was working to secure private funding.

The City Council at a meeting Tuesday, Aug. 25, narrowed in on exactly where to send the remaining $10,000, and ultimately voted unanimously — with Councilmember Lisa Gift absent — to send it to the food bank.

Mayor Donald Williams made a case for sending at least some of the money toward public art, which he said brings a variety of “soft benefits” that would gradually and imperceptibly improve the city.

“It’s not something that we’ve done a lot of, and there are a lot of reasons that public art makes sense for a community,” Williams said.

Williams said he respects the desire to contribute directly to people’s needs, which he said are undeniably real. But, he said, “those needs will always be there.”

“If we don’t at some point carve out a place and a time for public art, it just won’t happen because there always will be some pressing immediate need,” Williams said.

But most other council members favored sending the money to the food bank. Councilmember Kevin Eisenberg — who is set to become Calistoga’s mayor in January — said he was a great supporter of public art, but discussions around the $10,000 during budget deliberations earlier this year had indicated the money would be going toward addressing food insecurity.

“The discussion was: We are dealing with an acute food emergency in our community, and that that was a justification for reallocating this money,” Eisenberg said. “I think to be true to that, the money should go to the food bank.”

Eisenberg suggested he’d be interested in revising the discussion around public art when the city gets to midyear budget adjustments, if the city at that point has extra funds to allocate.

“I am an advocate of public art, just not right now,” Eisenberg said.