> I've heard this excuse a number of times. Neighborhood groups that contract
> with the NRP handle millions of dollars. I believe that my neighborhood
> organization's budget for Phase 1 was more than $3,000,000. If this money
> cannot be properly handled by volunteers then we should rethink the assumptions
> on which the NRP is based.
The volunteers do not get to handle the money. The volunteers get to choose a course
of
action. The money goes to implement the course of action and someone like Joe Horan
(in
my neighbohood's instance) comes around with his hands tight on the purse strings. He
hands out money after the initiative has been implemented, after the work is done.
He's
a real pain in the butt that way (sorry Joe, this is a good thing), but it means
neighborhoods cannot be profligate with the money.Too, just because people are
volunteers does not mean they are any less skilled than professionals about spending
money. I call your attention to the K-Mart in the middle of Nicollet Ave. No
volunteers there.
>
>
> The problem here is that I have guaranteed rights with respect to the my
> government and the city council.
Surely you jest.
> PPERRIA has forty board members, twenty of whom are reelected each
> year.
There's the problem right there. My neighborhood board of 21 is too many to make
decision-making work
> volunteers having
> varied skill sets, is one of the major flaws of the NRP. I believe that these
> volunteers often lack the the expertise necessary for making decisions
> involving hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Brookfield Development also lacks the expertise necessary for making high buck
decisions
as does STA Associates, as does this, that, and the other one. If you look at the NRP
records, you'll likely find that neighborhoods waste fewer dollars than many an
"expert."
> I'm in the dark, perhaps you could identify their "elaborate control mechanisms."
According to the Human Genome Project, Joe Horan is very little more elaborate than a
fruit fly--we're all in the same boat here, but as a mechanism for elaborate control,
he
seems to have more than enough stuff.Then there is the city contract office, the
machinations of which could make a statue weep, and on and on.
> Are you conceding
> the point that some residents may not get fair hearings?
He's conceding the point that some people are unable to hear any drumbeat but their
own. It's a common failing of the species, so common, in fact, that it has a tendency
to happen regardless of whether one's an amateur or a pro, grass roots or Clairol, and
etc.WMarks, Central
>
>
> Thanks for the good luck, but I would rather rely on people's good judgment
> and sense of fairness.
>
> Mike Atherton
> Prospect Park
> Ward 2
>
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