Greg Luce referred to Neighborhood Associations in his post as NRP groups. While I have great respect for Mr. Luce, I would like to clarify some information. These groups are Neighborhood Associations (NA) which in most cases are formed as 501(c)3 Corporations in the State of Minnesota. Many of these NA's were in existence long before the NRP started. Some NA's were formed with the onset of NRP. They are not legally connected to the city. These groups do receive funding from the MCDA and NRP and also make recommendations regarding how some funding is directed as it pertains to NRP and the MCDA. In almost every case these NA's are the official Citizen Participation groups that are contracted (through an annual open RFP process) with the MCDA to gather neighborhood input on matters concerning the MCDA. There are a few neighborhoods that do not have Citizen Participation contracts with the MCDA. Bob Cooper, Director MCDA Citizenship Participation would be able to provide that information. NRP contracts with the recognized Citizen Participation groups in each neighborhood to conduct NRP planning and implementation activities in the neighborhood. NA's also have been used by other City departments and other government jurisdictions to conduct Citizen Participation activities in the neighborhood. Zoning and Planning are especially good instances of this. In all reality however, NA's are not contracted by these departments or jurisdictions to conduct this business, it has just become the accepted process over time. The Zoning and Planning department does not provide any financial or technical assistance to neighborhoods to conduct business on these issues. The neighborhoods use NRP or MCDA funds to cover costs to do outreach on these issues, or volunteers themselves pay the costs for this outreach. (I took three days of vacation time and personally paid for all the flyers to organize for a public hearing regarding the location of a liquor store on Grand and Lake St.) It is for that reason that I raised cost issues when the planning department developed a new process for considering changes to neighborhood boundaries. The new process mandates that every household in the neighborhood be notified of the proposed boundary change. However, no financial incentives are offered to help pay for the cost of flyering, copying, mailing or other expenses. So NRP or MCDA will pick up the costs for this. In addition, I do not believe that the Zoning and Planning department have an official policy on a citizen participation process that must be followed when a neighborhood is conducting a hearing on a Z&P issue. As an example, there is an issue being visited right now in a neighborhood I work in that is clearly a zoning and planning issue. The neighborhood appears very divided on the issue and it has become contentious. (This is generally when issues of process arise in neighborhoods) The issue has nothing to do with either the MCDA or the NRP yet both of our offices are receiving calls regarding process. Since there isn't an official process regarding how zoning and planning issues are heard in a neighborhood, the neighborhood is falling back on the MCDA Citizen Participation process. As you can tell, I could go on and on about this issue. Just wanted to provide a little clarity here. If you would like to continue to discussing it offlist, e-mail me. Barb Lickness Whittier Ward 6 City Council Candidate __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Spot the hottest trends in music, movies, and more. http://buzz.yahoo.com/ _______________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - Minnesota E-Democracy Post messages to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest option, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
