02-08-10 Common Council Meeting Minutes

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REGULAR MEETING FEBRUARY 8, 2010 a neighborhood similar to those projects that CDBG monies are used for. Although neighborhood restoration is a required component of the program and have to report back what the community is doing, we still can’t use any of the weed & seed funds to do that. So what they do is show what the City is doing with other funding that is being targeted into the weed & seed area. Ms. Meyer stated what that they can begin to do is begin to send the quarterly reports to Councilmember’s Henry Davis and Derek Dieter because those are the two targeted districts for weed & seed funds. She stated that they give notification to the members of the steering committee when the meetings are and was not sure if those members were going back to their various organizations and informing them. She stated that unless they really ratchet up the kinds of community engagement that they do for this kind of structured application process that there is any other way in the period of time that they are given to advise people of what they are going through. She stated that primarily you are continuing programs because they assume that a program doesn’t just start and stop within a 12 month program. She stated unless there is something with that program that did not work. She stated that they are always extending st the program and now running until May 31, they still have activities and outcomes that will occur beyond the point of which is being reported on and makes it kind of a complicated application to report on because you are reporting on things that are not yet completed. She stated that in previous years they were asked to create or suggests new types of programs that might come in to play or new types of focuses based on the distressed criteria mostly crime related criteria. So when you see the kinds of seeding types of programs that are being talked about they are supposed to go back to the kinds of crimes and activities that are happening in the area and try to help and deter people from doing that and be at least one aspect of deterrence. Councilmember Rouse stated that this sounds like a freight train running down the middle of the street. He stated that what it sounds like to him is that these programs have been in place for years and it is a freight train running down the street if it doesn’t work get out of the way. He stated that he and Councilmember Henry Davis have constituents that look to them for answers as to how these funds are being spent. He stated that these constituents do not know who is on the steering committee all they know is that they look to their Council representative to get the answers. Ms. Meyer advised that if Councilmember’s have constituents that have concerns to share those names and she would be happy to call them. She would be happy to have the steering committee call them, if they are members of neighborhood organizations where they have representatives on that, and then they can call that out at a meeting. She stated that she has always been one to ask the members of the steering committee to report back because they are the messengers to the various neighbors and neighborhood organizations and if they are not doing their job then there is going to be a problem. She stated that if there are people who are expressions concerns and they don’t know whose those people are then they cannot address those concerns properly. Councilmember Henry Davis stated that he understands what Ms. Meyer is saying, but it just doesn’t work like that. He stated that as elected officials they are charged with so many different things that going to the grocery store or church can be a task. He stated that they are asked so many different kinds of questions and sometimes asked questions that they don’t even know is happening in the city or district beyond what is being reported in the newspaper, the internet, beyond the different types of sources of communication that are at their access. He gave an example of being asked about something that was happening on Sunnymede which happens to be in Councilmember LaFountain’s district. He stated that things like that come up, not very often but they do happen. He stated that passing along names to have someone else contact the Councilmember’s constituents is a poor way of communication that information back. He stated that he prefers to have that information and to relay or communicate that information back into the community and to the constituents who elected him to represent them. He feels that this would be a more streamline approach to answering and serving those constituents who elected them. He noted to Ms. Meyer that he believes that she is very knowledgeable in her job, but the part of communicating needs improvement. 3