06-06-12 Community & Economic Development Committee

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COMMUNITY & ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT JUNE 6, 2012 4:07 P.M. Committee Members Present: Henry Davis, Karen White, Gain Ferlic, Dr. Fred Ferlic Citizen Members Present: Patricia Crowley Other Council Member's Present: Tim Scott; Valerie Schey, (4:50 p.m.)Dr. David Varner, Oliver Davis, Derek Dieter Other's Present: Pam Meyer, Chris Brown, Lory Timmer, Kathy Cekanski - Farrand, Marti Wolfson, Murray Miller, Isaac Hunt, Glenn Williams Agenda: Review & Discussion Sec. 3 Housing — Pam Meyer, Community & Economic Development Committee Chairperson Henry Davis, Jr. with full committee and citizen member Pat Crowley in attendance opened the meeting by giving a brief outline of the meetings purpose and intent. Henry stated he has a growing concern that federal dollars coming to the City to benefit low and moderate income people were not necessarily achieving their desired intent. He recounted his recent vote against a housing consortium bill as one meant to draw attention to the need for a larger conversation. Namely, a discussion as to whether federal dollars by they HUD, CDBG, or other grants were could be more effectively expended by the City for populations they were intended to benefit. This meeting, while focusing on HUD Section 3 compliance, was just the first of probable series of meetings aimed at measuring current practices. With that Henry called upon Pam Meyer, South Bend's Director of Community Development to address HUD's Sec. 3 Housing program. Providing the committee two handouts, Pam briefly outlined the history the purpose the intent and the implementation of the federal program by her department. In total over $2.5 million was received from the feds in 2011. All reporting forms were filed with HUD in February 2012 and the City was deemed in compliance. Pam explained the process required to use the funds including project proposals. RFP development, the bidding, awarding and monitoring for HUD compliance performed by her department. She noted all funds had to be funneled through not - for -profit organizations such as South Bend Heritage and the Near Northwest Neighborhood Organization. Subsequent to her presentation Karen White asked about HUD established reporting thresholds and Pat Crowley asked about the monitoring process. Pam noted only 2 contracts let me the $100,000 reporting threshold for Sec. 3 compliance. The monitoring conducted was explained by Lory Timmer from Community & Economic Development who serves as the primary contact with HUD.