The countywide working group on crime and related issues hopes to address a range of needs in this area, but first it tried to address some of its own needs Wednesday morning.
While working on its fundamental principles, its organization and even its name, the 27 people at the group’s meeting at the Aycock Recreation Complex dived into the crucial issue of grant writing.
After three meetings, many questions remain about the working group, but one of the core ideas driving the creation of the umbrella organization is the need to bring more outside dollars into Vance County. That means landing grants.
Henderson City Manager Eric Williams was not able to bring a grant writer from Progress Resources and Opportunities of Roanoke Rapids to Wednesday’s meeting as he planned, but the absence of such an expert did not slow the discussion.
Businessman Cliff Rogers said the working group must decide quickly whether it wants to contract with grant-writing consultants or to seek a full-time grant writer paid by the city and county. “I think we should probably hire a person to be on staff because that person’s sole job would be to always go after grants for the city and county.”
Williams said it will be tough to sell the City Council and county Board of Commissioners on paying for a grant writer whose efforts might produce money for an agency out of their control, such as the District Attorney’s Office. It also will be hard to find extra money in the city and county budgets.
“This group can be the impetus to put the political pressure on the city councilmen and the county commissioners to fund this position,” Rogers said. “We as a group have realized that we’ve got to step up and do something about public safety.”
He said grants are crucial to that effort and helped motivate members of the Vance County Coalition Against Violence to launch the working group last month.
Garry Daeke, who writes grants for family and childhood programs as the development coordinator for the Franklin-Granville-Vance Partnership for Children, said he agrees and disagrees with Rogers on how to approach the need for a grant writer. He once thought an on-staff grant writer was crucial for a service agency, he said, but having seen the specialized expertise consultants can bring to specific grant areas, he has changed his mind. “It’s not so much writing the grants,” he said. “It’s having the contacts.”
The group could consider hiring a full-time grant writer itself if it organizes as a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization. Or it could piggyback on the work and grant-writing plans of another nonprofit group, such as the planned Henderson-Vance County Economic Partnership. In an interview later, Henderson Mayor Clem Seifert said one of the key benefits of the economic partnership would be its plan to hire a full-time grant writer.
Williams said the anti-crime working group could put out a request for proposals on grant-writing help, and he raised the idea that a grant consultant could be paid on a contingency basis, perhaps getting a percentage of grant money won.
County Manager Jerry Ayscue, attending his first meeting of the working group, said it’s harder to pay for a grant writer through grant proceeds than people think. He said fewer and fewer grants include money for administrative expenses; an alternative is to pay the grant writer with regular budget funds freed up by the grants.
Williams said the Kerr-Tar Regional Council of Governments gets much of its revenue from fees for doing grant work in the five counties it serves, including Vance. He, Ayscue and COG representative Ben Foti agreed to talk with the COG leadership about grant-writing options and the role the COG could play.
Assistant District Attorney Quon Bridges suggested a compromise: hiring consultants as needed now and moving to a full-time staffer if and when it becomes necessary.
Rogers said speed is crucial. He cited an opportunity, discovered by lawyer James Green, to apply for a $200,000 grant related to the justice system; the deadline is June 1.
Picking up on that example, Ayscue said the grant demonstrates some of the difficulties. It requires a government entity, such as the county or city, to receive and administer the money, and another local institution, the four-county resource center for ex-offenders reintegrating into society, already is interested in the same grant.
“There’s more money coming in here to address the areas of crime and public safety than we probably realize,” Williams said, and one of the complications for a new grant writer or consultant would be avoiding conflicts among the agencies pursuing foundation and government grants.
“A lot of us are working at it, but we’re not working in sync,” said Rogers, who’s part of a subcommittee collecting information from the working group’s members to compile a database of local programs and resources related to crime, families, early childhood, education and more.
Rogers said the working group is going to need seed money from the local governments to develop that coordination and start bringing in even more money. Regardless of financial requests, Williams said the working group needs to appear before the City Council, the county commissioners and the Board of Education soon to win their endorsement of the group’s efforts.
First, however, the group needs to organize itself. Discussion to that effect filled much of the group’s one-hour meeting.
Williams presented the group with a proposed “fundamental premise” of the varied factors that are behind crime, a list of five objectives to which he hopes other group members will add, and a suggested mission statement: “To engage the active participation of various components of Henderson and Vance County for the purpose of improving the public safety, welfare and sense of security for our community.”
The group will take up discussion of those proposals and a formal organization of leadership and committees at its next meeting, April 6 at 10:30 at the Aycock center. The working group agreed to meet at that time and place on the first and third Wednesdays of every month.
Also due at the next meeting is a name for the group.
Williams said the name is important, as is a catchy acronym for the name. He brought a list of possible acronyms for which the group could create names, such as CALM, BRAVE, FEAR-NOT and WAKE-UP. His preference was COPS: Council Organized for Public Safety.
“I’ve been asking for more cops for years,” Police Chief Glen Allen quipped.
Assistant Schools Superintendent Wright Anderson suggested “community” instead of “council,” and others followed his cue and offered “citizens,” which won acclaim.
“I like the name,” Bridges said. “I don’t like COPS.”
The Rev. Harold Harris said the acronym would send a negative message to some people and wouldn’t show that the group is about more than cracking down on criminals.
Foti, applying his Scrabble experience, tossed COPE into the discussion, with the last letter possibly representing enrichment, and Rogers ditched the o-word in favor of CFPS (Citizens for Public Safety).
At Allen’s suggestion, the group tabled the discussion until the next meeting. In the meantime, members can e-mail name suggestions to Donna Stearns, who will compile a master list for the group’s consideration.
“We’re getting where we need to go,” Williams said.