Youth Making Changes may be on track for expansion following a Monday vote of the Culver City Council to evaluate the program’s popularity with local students.

The program teaches the basics of public policy to students in grades 6 through 11, is currently offered at the Culver City Teen Center and operated by the city’s parks and recreation department. By a 5-0 vote, the council agreed to further promote the initiative, as a cost-effective way of discovering whether heavy interest would necessitate formation of a separate youth advisory committee.

Establishment of such a committee has come before the council several times in the past few years, each time spearheaded by Councilman Gary Silbiger in an effort to get local teens more involved with city politics and issues. His ultimate goal is to have a youth advisory committee that functions like other local committees and for it to receive funding from the city to conduct its activities.

But several council members said Monday that with a $6 million budget deficit projected for the upcoming fiscal year, they were wary of creating new programs. According to city staff reports, “These estimates of both staff time and meeting materials are consistent with other reports that the cost to operate a city committee that meets once a month is approximately $30,000 annually.”

“We’re facing an enormous budget deficit,” said Councilman Scott Malsin. “It would be ill-advised for the city to implement a new program when we’re really looking at layoffs. That’s what it comes down to,”

Last December, a survey was posted on the city’s Web site to poll teens on their interest and thoughts on a youth advisory committee. Approximately 6,000 fliers were disseminated through Culver City schools and libraries, but only 115 surveys were completed and returned, according to city staff reports.

Of the 115 young people who filled out the surveys, 43 indicated interest in attending a city-sponsored event to learn more about local government and youth involvement; 35 said they would like to be a part of a youth advisory committee to the city council.

Those results were convincing enough to move forward, Silbiger said. “If we can find a minimum of 43 people who are willing to attend a meeting to find out more about the youth advisory committee,” he said, “that’s a big interest.”

On the other hand, Councilman Mehaul O’Leary said he was disappointed with the figures, and bemoaned a “lack of fortitude” among local youth. About a half-dozen students from Culver City High School addressed the council on the matter, but O’Leary said prior to Monday night he has never heard them express any interest in the program.

“Sometimes when you want something really badly, you have to fight for it,” he said, later adding: “Are we convinced that the youth are interested? I’m not seeing it on a weekly basis. Any of the residents who have issues with things such as trash cans, they come up to us and passionately speak about it. I’m just not hearing that from you.”

Vice Mayor Christopher Armenta said he supported creation of a youth advisory committee, but understood the concerns of his fellow council members. He proposed creation of a pilot program to gauge interest from local youths.

Mayor Andrew Weissman took the vice mayor’s recommendation a step further and suggested the city further promote the Youth Making Changes program.

“Now is not the time to embark on any ambitious new programs,” Weissman said. “We have an opportunity here to take advantage of a program that already exists. … We can refine it any time, we can change it, tweak it. Let’s use the structure we already have to capture the interest of those in the audience tonight and those who submitted the survey.”