This might get a little long winded, but bear with me. I would like to infuse a little clarification to the discussion on NRP. There seems to be some confusion between the funds that are allocated to a neighborhood and those funds which are contracted directly with with neighborhood groups (associations) or other agencies such as NEDC. In addition, there is some lack of clarity on financial oversight. Each neighborhood is allocated a specific amount of funds that will be spent within those geographic boundaries. Neighborhood groups or associations formed non-profit corporations and applied to contract with the NRP to facilitate the NRP planning and implementation efforts. In most cases, only one group applied from each neighborhood. In a few cases more than one group applied. In those cases, the neighborhood voted to decide which group would represent them for MCDA Citizen Participation and NRP. There are also situation where groups of neighborhoods formed consortium groups to plan and implement NRP (i.e. Longfellow Community Council, Nokomis East, Hale/Page/Diamond Lake, Field/Regina/Northrup.) These neighborhoods pooled their NRP dollars and conduct planning and implementation activities together. When implementation activities take place, projects are contracted on a project by project basis. The majority of NRP funds ARE NOT contracted directly to the neighborhood association. If the funds are used for park projects, they are contracted to the Park Board directly. If the funds are for educational programs or school projects, they are contracted directly with the School Board. Planning projects go through the planning department, public works projects go to the public works department. Housing and Commercial Development projects are administered by the MCDA on behalf of neighborhoods. Social Service programs are administered by Hennepin County. In most cases when a sub-contractor is hired to administer projects on behalf of a neighborhood, the contracts for those vendors are with city departments or agencies, not the neighborhood association. However, there are cases where the neighborhoods administer some of their own programs. The funds that are contracted directly with neighborhood associations tend to be for administrative funds. Funds for staffing, office rent, copiers, copying, postage, utilities, etc....and for community programming such as crime and safety programs, some social service and educational programs, resource centers, etc. In most cases, these administrative funds represent 10% or less of their total neighborhood plan allocations. Program funds generally tend to be smaller amounts as well. As NRP staff to several neighborhoods in South Minneapolis I can say that most of my neighborhoods are very financially astute, keep excellent records, have great accountability to both the government and the neighborhood residents, and have excellent audits from the state to prove that. Since the State Auditors have been working with neighborhood to audit their financial practices, many neighborhoods have developed good financial management systems. NRP has offered MANY training opportunities for neighborhood volunteers and staff to learn sound financial management practices. Many of these required mandatory attendance. I have neighborhood staff and volunteers that are highly sophisticated at monitoring the public dollar. I have been at several meetings between neighborhoods and public departments or agencies where the neighborhood volunteers and residents are inspecting every line of financial detail with relations to expenditures on specific projects. In turn these same volunteers or staff people can account for every line of every dollar spent on projects when asked by people at their neighborhood meetings. When people think of the downfall of People of Phillips they think that $18 Million went down the drain. That wasn't and isn't the case. The majority of the Phillips NRP funds were contracted through city departments and city agencies and were subcontracted by those governmental entities to private non-profit corporations selected to provide services on behalf of Phillips. These projects were successfully implemented and the funds were spent for their intended purposes. The NEW Phillips has organized regionally into four smaller operating groups and is now charged with spending the remaining $4 million. Ventura Village has formed a corporate entity and has an excellent financial management system in place. They have already contracted several housing programs not directly through the neighborhood association but through other agencies. The other three regions have decided to find other agencies to act as fiscal managers on their behalf as they do not currently have the capacity to conduct these activities on their own. East Phillips has chosen Powderhorn Park Neighborhood Association (PPNA) as their fiscal manager. PPNA has an excellent reputation for sound financial management skills. The other two regions have not finalized their selection of fiscal agents. That is sound decision making in my book. When you know your not ready to do it yourself, you hire someone who is. Jay Clark touched on the community capacity building issues. I believe that NRP has empowered a group of citizens that have and will continue to change the face of City Hall as we know it. Departments and most importantly department heads are working directly with neighborhood residents. These residents are highly educated on the issues they bring forward. They are able to discuss intricate details of the projects and can hold their own with city staff in the discussions. I see this trend continuing and I see city departments and agencies developing better response mechanisms as NRP II continues to unfold. There's another 10 years coming. We have learned so much, both through successes and mistakes. It can only make the process stronger. Since this is getting really long, I will sum it up by saying that a lot of good things are happening with NRP. Most neighborhoods are doing an excellent job managing their finances and take this responsibility very seriously. There are hundreds of really great projects that have happened because of NRP throughout the city. Several of them were both nominees and winners of this years CUE awards. For whatever reason, the Star and Tribune and Doug Grow choose not to write about those. Barb Lickness Whittier Ward 6 AND....NRP staff __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Shopping - Thousands of Stores. Millions of Products. http://shopping.yahoo.com/
