The city’s application for $1,000,000 of Community Development Block Grant money is so wrought with problems that one hardly knows where to begin.
Only one business day before the final public hearing on the grant, the Interim City Manager noted that the application is only 85% complete as he allows the public the first opportunity to read the documents and to know its own business. Does he expect the citizens to trust him that the additional 15% of the information will not change the context? It has taken so long to finally get the application that one would think it is a weighty document with reams of information that took tremendous amounts of time to assimilate. Not so!
The application is 70 pages in length. Of those 70 pages, 49 have absolutely nothing filled in other than the name of the city or the project. Twenty of those pages consist of simple directions and 29 of the pages require mostly blocks to be checked. So, in all this time the city filled in 21 pages which included one 3-page narrative. Practically anyone could have done this part of the grant is one day or less. It lends one to suspect that the 15% of the application that has not been made public must be extremely detailed.
Here are some points to ponder in the application:
– Twelve people wrote almost the same, unoriginal, form letter of support for the application. Of these twelve, eight do not live in Henderson: Jim Crawford, Michael Wray, Danny Wright, Bill Edwards, Phil Lakernick, Jeanne Fox, Talmadge and Sylvia Burgess, and Doug Berger. Benny Finch, Norm Shearin, Tim Baynes, and Jane Frazier also sent the same type of form letter. Why did the application not include any citizen opposition?
– The city requests $1,000,000 but does not list if any of that will be Local Option money. What will they spend this money on?
– The city asserts that this grant will benefit 54% of low to moderate income families. How do they judge this benefit to low and moderate income people over reducing blight?
– The city states that 8,532 households are in need of a performance hall. Does your household stand in need of a performance hall?
– The city must certify to the federal authorities that it followed a detailed, written citizen participation plan. Can they show this?
– The city must indicate whether there are persons with a reportable financial interest in the project. How will this play out with Variety Wholesalers and the ownership of the land and is this part of the grant that is not complete yet?
– The city states that no other government assistance is, or is expected to be provided for this project. Does that mean that the Legislature has pulled its bill and that tax credits are not part of the financial package?
– The city must show documentation of citizen input. Can they?
– The city must state why a performance hall need was selected for this project over the needs of other projects. Why was it?
The city has bred suspicion and ill-will with this shadowy and inept grant application. While I am certain that the sitting City Council will vote to send this application to Raleigh, if the Department of Commerce even gives this application a second glance, with all the glaring problems, then we will know for sure that our government does not promote the will of the people but the will of the well-connected.
Elissa P. Yount
Henderson