Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones didn’t get any takers when she asked area businesses and charitable foundations to step up to fund more than a dozen organizations that have counted on city dollars.
Jones had given “business, foundation and philanthropic leaders” she wrote to on July 24 until Aug. 21 to contact her office if they were “interested in funding these worthwhile efforts,” according to a letter she posted on her office’s official Instagram account.
Her goal was to close — if only by a relatively small amount — the $158 million budget deficit the city faces over the next two fiscal years by having private-sector dollars replace city grants to local nonprofits and programs…