February 9, 2017 Minutes (City Commission Room)
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MEMBERS PRESENT: |
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Will Averill, Jenna Coker, Alex Delaney, Jonathan Holley, Matthew Kapfer, Steven Koprince, Frank Pondrom, Kendall Simmons, Blake Swenson |
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MEMBERS ABSENT: |
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Frank Brown, James Minor |
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STAFF PRESENT: |
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Danelle Dresslar, Brad Karr |
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PUBLIC PRESENT: |
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Ted Boyle, Nathan Littlejohn, Pat Miller, Phil Collison, Marilyn Stanley, Mia Gonzalez, Jim Evers, Melissa Fahrenbruch, Emily Winters, Nickie Daneke, Rich Minder |
Chair Koprince called the meeting to order at 5:35 p.m.
1. Introductions.
The committee members introduced themselves. Dresslar asked the committee to welcome Averill as a new member.
2. Approval of the January 26, 2017 Minutes.
Pondrom moved to approve the CDAC meeting minutes from January 26, 2017. Swenson seconded the motion. The motion passed 9-0.
3. Continue Discussion of 2017 CDBG Public Service Applications.
The committee heard from the remaining applicants in attendance about their organization and request for funding.
Nickie Daneke, Director of Stabilization with Catholic Charities of Northeast Kansas (CCNEK), spoke to the committee about their request for funding. The funding would be for homeless programming to provide deposits to assist up to 150 people get housed, including those who do not meet the definition of homeless under other federal grants. Koprince asked if CCNEK makes the public aware there is no requirement to be Catholic to access services. Daneke said it is communicated with their policies and procedures, and being federally funded from other grants requires open access to everyone.
Rich Minder, Success by 6 Coalition of Douglas County, spoke to the committee about their request for funding. They are a coalition of early childhood agencies who work with families with young children to provide rent and utility assistance. The funding is part of a larger strategy to be a comprehensive support system for families with young children. Clients must be working with a partner agency to apply for assistance.
Melissa Fahrenbruch, President of the Brook Creek Neighborhood Association (BCNA), and Emily Winters, Coordinator for BCNA, spoke to the committee about their request for funding. The funding would be used for the publication of four newsletters and salary for the Coordinator. The Coordinator is paid $10/hour for 30 hours a month. The neighborhood is low income and includes many elderly, both which limits access to the internet; there are about 100 people on the e-news list, and 1000 on the regular mailing list. Coker asked about having four newsletters. Winters said the four newsletters would allow them to be sent seasonally, and cost about $1,000 per issue. Simmons asked if BCNA would be willing to discuss with her about creating a coordinated print bid with all the neighborhoods. Winters said she had tried to organize a meeting with the other neighborhoods, but was never successful. Koprince asked what BCNA was doing to increase their non-CDBG funding, given their budget projection is actually lower than what was raised last year. Winters said they have tried hard to get advertisements for the newsletters, and had a new fund raising yard sale. Holley asked if they send a newsletter to every household in the neighborhood. Winters said yes, and they also drop off a bundle of them at both the Edgewood and trailer park offices. Koprince asked if they use social media, such as Facebook. Winters said yes, they have a Facebook page, send out a weekly e-news, and use Nextdoor. Winters said a major challenge is informing the residents which neighborhood they actually live in, and to join the correct neighborhood association.
Delaney reminded the committee how the allocation last year was distributed evenly between all of the applying neighborhoods; he asked if that should continue or if some neighborhoods should be rewarded for their past successes. Coker commented on how wealthy she thought NLIA was based on the amount of money in their account; she felt giving each neighborhood the same amount would seem to help those who were struggling. Dresslar cautioned the committee on reducing a neighborhood’s funding for being successful in fundraising.
Boyle commented on the amount of money in the NLIA account, and the success of their fundraising activities. Simmons commented about BCNA not having many businesses to ask for donations; she felt each neighborhood has different challenges. Delaney said every neighborhood has options to raise additional funds, even if it is not from businesses located in the neighborhood. Koprince agreed, and said every year the committee asks each neighborhood association what they are doing to raise additional non-CDBG funds; he cautioned there will be a day when no funds are allocated to the neighborhood associations. Delaney said Manhattan, KS does not allocate any funds to their neighborhood associations. Dresslar said Lawrence was the only grantee in the region allocating funds to neighborhood associations. Koprince said other applicants are using the funds to house homeless people, and at some point the committee will have to make the judgement call to fund housing over a neighborhood coordinator’s salary. Delaney agreed the committee will have to stop funding all neighborhoods at some point, when the money could be used to assist the homeless.
Miller said she felt PNA was on the mend, and she indicated they had no problems with the allocation being split evenly. Koprince pointed out the disparity in the amount of salary paid to each of the coordinators; he said the committee has previously asked each neighborhood to work on lowering their expenses on the newsletter mailings, but maybe the coordinator should be a volunteer position.
Holley said he went thru each application and estimated the number of low/mod income people in each neighborhood and divided it by the requested amount of funding to arrive at the following average price per low/mod person:
· BCNA - $2.35 requested per low/mod income person
· ELNA - $7.86 requested per low/mod income person
· NLIA - $4.17 requested per low/mod income person
· PNA - $3.88 requested per low/mod income person
Delaney said he really liked these stats, and the neighborhoods need to think of what was the cost per low/mod resident.
Winters said BCNA was fine with the even split used last year; she feared without a paid coordinator and CDBG funding, BCNA would cease to exist. Delaney suggested BCNA ask the City for “Welcome to Brook Creek Neighborhood” signs; the question would be how to pay for them.
Boyle said NLIA would be happy to receive the amount of funding they received last year. Collison said ELNA would also be happy to receive the same even split as last year.
Kapfer said since the grant funds are decreasing each year, the neighborhoods need to become self-sufficient at some point. Koprince asked what percentage of Public Service funds were allocated to the neighborhoods last year; Kapfer said about 22%. Pondrom said the committee could use the same % to start figuring the amount to allocate to each neighborhood. Koprince said he felt the neighborhoods were not responding to the request to reduce mailing expenses, and there was no real movement on increasing additional funding, so they should get a decrease in funding from last year. Delaney said since the total amount of requests was lower this year, he would be inclined to fund the neighborhoods at the same level as last year, but with the warning the allocations could reduce next year. Holley said he felt using an equal split this year is good, but next year a division of funds needs to be discussed.
Coker moved to fund 1a, Brook Creek Neighborhood Association Operating/Coordinator expenses at $5,285; 2a, East Lawrence Neighborhood Association Operating/Coordinator expenses at $5,285; 3a, North Lawrence Improvement Association Operating/Coordinator expenses at $5,285; and 4a, Pinckney Neighborhood Association Operating/Coordinator expenses at $5,285. Simmons seconded the motion. The motion passed 8-1, with Koprince in the negative.
Holley indicated there were enough remaining funds to allocate the remaining applicants at around 67% of their request; he said personally the Lawrence Community Shelter was a high priority. Simmons said LCS and CCNEK were both a high priority to her. Koprince said his priorities were similar to Holley’s, and with the decrease in funding each year, the best the committee could sometimes offer would be a Band-Aid to the problem. Kapfer said some of the agencies were assisting in keeping people from becoming homeless, which could be less expensive in the long run. Swenson said he did not feel HCCI was in the same category of providing direct assistance to keep people from being homeless. Holley said HCCI was just a different part of the pipeline that does assist in keeping people from becoming homeless.
Marilyn Stanley, Interim Executive Director for HCCI, added the funding would be used to empower people to help prevent them from becoming homeless and having to use assistance provided by one of the other applicants.
Koprince suggested the committee not decrease any applicant from the amount received last year, and then see how much is left over. Delaney said if they funded LCS at around $25,000, there would be enough to fund all the remaining applicants at 100%. Koprince said he was not comfortable in decreasing LCS just to be able to fully fund the others. Kapfer suggested funding LCS at around $30,000 would leave about 90% for each of the other applicants. Simmons asked which agency was serving the largest number of people. Delaney said LCS was probable serving the most people and affecting the most change. Swenson said he felt HCCI was the least effective in creating change, while the other applicants offered more direct concrete work. Averill said that is one way to look at empowerment, but it leaves out the fact the goal of empowerment is not that the individuals are doing all the work themselves, but to provide opportunities to make steps to achieve their goals. Swenson said he felt they should start by funding LCS at $45,000 and then see what is left; he felt HCCI was public relations for banks, since they were on the board and providing funding. Stanley said the Capital Federal funding goes only to the Topeka Homebuyer program, not for credit counseling in Lawrence. Swenson said the other applicants were charity programs. Stanley said HCCI was a registered 501(c)3 charitable organization. Swenson felt HCCI was just being paid to meet with people. Delaney said they are being paid for providing education; he is a property manager and has to counsel his tenants on rental issues. Karr explained all the recipients of the HOME grant funding, such as the First Time Homebuyer program, are required to receive HUD Certified Housing Counseling.
Delaney moved to fund 6a, Housing and Credit Counseling, Inc., Housing and Credit Counseling Program, at $5,000. Pondrom seconded the motion. The motion passed 9-0.
Swenson moved to fund 7a, Lawrence Community Shelter Operating Expenses, at $35,000. Pondrom seconded the motion. The motion passed 7-2, with Delaney and Koprince in the negative.
Pondrom moved to fund 5a, Catholic Charities of Northeast Kansas Lawrence Emergency Assistance Center, at $10,000. Delaney seconded the motion. The motion passed 8-1, with Koprince in the negative.
Delaney moved to fund 9a, Success By 6 Coalition of Douglas County Housing Assistance Fund, at $7,000. Pondrom seconded the motion. The motion passed 9-0.
Swenson moved to fund 8a, The Salvation Army Emergency Service Council, at $14,000. Pondrom seconded the motion. The motion passed 9-0.
There was $4,236.05 remaining to allocate in Public Services.
Delaney moved to fund 7a, Lawrence Community Shelter Operating Expenses, at $39,236.05. Pondrom seconded the motion. The motion passed 9-0.
4. Public Comment.
Minder wanted to affirm with the committee how homelessness prevention is generally a better strategy when assisting clients and all the applicants are doing some measure of prevention.
5. Miscellaneous/Calendar.
The next meeting of the CDAC will be on February 23, 2017 and the committee will briefly review the previously approved CDBG Public Service allocations and begin reviewing the HOME applications. CDBG Non-Public Service (Capital Improvements) will tentatively be discussed on March 9, 2017.
6. Adjourn.
Pondrom moved to adjourn the February 9, 2017 meeting of the CDAC at 7:07 p.m. Delaney seconded the motion. The motion passed 9-0.
Attendance Record
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Members |
Jan 12 |
Jan 26 |
Feb 9 |
Feb 23 |
Mar 9 |
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Will Averill |
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+* |
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Frank Brown |
+ |
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E |
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Jenna Coker |
E |
E |
+ |
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Alex Delaney |
+ |
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+ |
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Jonathan Holley |
+ |
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+ |
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Matthew Kapfer |
+* |
+ |
+ |
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Steven Koprince |
+ |
+ |
+ |
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James Minor |
+ |
+ |
U |
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Frank Pondrom |
+* |
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+ |
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Blake Swenson |
E |
+ |
+ |
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Kendall Simmons |
+ |
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E Excused Absence
U Unexcused Absence
X Meeting Cancelled – Weather Conditions
- Meeting Cancelled – Committee Vote/No Business
* First meeting after appointment
** Last Meeting Prior to expired term
^ Last Meeting