Michelle, I think that either someone is providing you with incorrect information or you may have the Empowerment Zone confused with some other program. The Small Grants program does not go to the City Council for approval. By City requirement, allocations over $50K have to be done through a Request For Proposal (RFP) and have to go to the City Council for approval. The Small Grants allocation maximum is $25K, the Small Grants, therefore, do not go through the City Council, and neither Samuels nor any other City Council Member would have voted on them at the Council. The Council does get other funding allocation requests and that may be what you're thinking of.
RFP recommendation do come to the City Council, but before that there is an independent Review Committee that reads the proposals and makes its recommendation (as a group of fundees), the staff then reviews and brings forward the recommendation to the Executive Committee which reviews and decides whether or not to approve the recommendation. If upheld, it is forwarded to the full Board for approval. If upheld there, it is forwarded to the Ways and Means Committee. If upheld there it is forwarded to the full Council. This recommendation is always a group (i.e. out of the 60 proposals we received we recommend these 10) and only entails those being recommended. The only level that really considers individual proposals is the Review Committee. Individual RFP proposals are not brought forward to the Board one by one. Therefore, neither Don nor any Board Member could "vote against" any individual proposal. Further, we generally do not get the Board members writing recommendations for Empowerment Zone proposals, and I have never seen one from Don or any other Board member that I can recall. I am concerned now that someone may be putting out false letters of support. If you want to provide me with your friend's name or business, I would be happy to investigate it and report back as to whether we have ever received the proposal or the letter of recommendation or if it is, in fact, false. As to why people were not told that they needed to be nonprofits, first of all, it is only the Small Grants program that is reserved for non-profits (this was explained in my May post), for profits are eligible for the small business resources, tax credits and the RFPs. Second, the meetings hosted at the Urban League were not hosted or coordinated by the Empowerment Zone, but rather a group of individuals who represented themselves as experts on the Empowerment Zone, but in truth were not. As such, we cannot control nor should we be held responsible for what a group of individuals decides to do on their own. It does a disservice to individuals such as your friend who get the wrong information presented to them and then end up getting hurt because someone gave them this incorrect information and they followed it. I attended a couple of these meetings and did not see any Council Members there, however, none of the sitting Council Members were involved in the original designation of the Empowerment Zone, and only Ostrow and Samuels of the current group have sat on the Board or are involved. Therefore I would not expect any of the others to be experts or know the ins and outs of the Empowerment Zone. Lastly, I have never told anyone that I would help people get low interest loans, that then turn out not to be. If you've heard me on the radio, then it has been recently, and what I've said has been that the Empowerment Zone loans have regular interest rates (10%), but they take a chance on individuals who are a riskier investment (i.e. those with the low credit scores or resources). In fact, through this program 79 EZ businesses have gotten loans of up to $50K which have created or retained 253 jobs and 4,667 technical assistance hours have been provided over 846 entrepreneurial visits, for various services such as business planning, bookkeeping, and lease negotiations. Cafe Tatta Bunna is an excellent example of a business we have worked hard to get started. What I have changed in my tenure has been to negotiate with our lenders to lower their interest rates to 7% and give 6 months deferments (this will rollout this month) as well as to refer people to our Business Finance department which has resources such as a 2% matching loan that goes up to $75K, this would not take the same risk that the Empowerment Zone lenders do, however. There are not areas that are already thriving that receive Empowerment Zone funds, ours are targeted at the key impacted areas and work to improve them. And we have a mix of loans, grants, tax credits and bonding authority the form of which depends on the program and the entity applying. El-Amin's Fish House, for example, is a business and was awarded a loan through the 2003 Commercial Corridor RFP. The Empowerment Zone does not give individuals money, however, to help them buy homes, that is not one of our programs. It seems as though a lot of the information you are receiving is either second or third hand, and is not accurate. I would encourage you to check out our website (www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us\ez) which gives a lot of information about our program and feel free to ask me any questions, but everything you've describe is misinformation or twisted around, and I can see how that would be frustrating for people such as your friend who are trying to get their business off the ground and think that they have something and then be told that they don't. In closing, I have made it a priority of the Empowerment Zone for any of the staff to sit down or talk with individuals and help them find resources at the City for businesses (people forget that we're one of several programs and there are a lot of resources that are untapped) and/or help them understand why they may not be eligible for certain programs, and what if anything, they can do. Jonathan Palmer Victory In a message dated 9/11/2005 9:35:17 PM Central Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: My response to Jonathan Palmer is simply this: I read the letter of support, from CP Samuels, giving my neighbor his support on her request for empowerment zone funding. It is important to tell the people that these people were not told that they had to be a "nonprofit" organization. That came up after they applied and were waiting for funding approval. Now, as to CP Samuels being able to veto those applying, what I said was......He gave letters of support to those applying, to submit with their applications. When the time came to vote on those applications CP Samuels voted against giving them the money. The City council minutes will reflect that, since they showed the minutes on MTN. Mr. Palmer you offered, and have stated on a radio show that I listened to, that you would help people get "low interest loans",,,,,,,,,,,,Why would the most impoverished area need to get loans, that you alleged were low interest loans but weren't, and the areas already thriving financially received empowerment zone money? What good would it do them if they do not have high credit scores? That was the same thing offered to help low income people buy homes. They lost out because they did not have high credit scores to get the houses. It doesn't matter how you word it, it was a farce and those people were never going to get the funded. In fact, my neighbor and several others, said that numerous council members spoke at the many meetings at the Urban League regarding empoerment zone funding, and at no time did they say you had to be a nonprofit organization. Hey, I thought you said funding was given to Alimin's(sic) fish restaurant on west Broadway. If that is true, is a fish restaurant nonprofit? (Please note that this is a serious question ). REMINDERS: 1. Be civil! Please read the NEW RULES at http://www.e-democracy.org/rules. If you think a member is in violation, contact the list manager at [EMAIL PROTECTED] before continuing it on the list. 2. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. For state and national discussions see: http://e-democracy.org/discuss.html For external forums, see: http://e-democracy.org/mninteract ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A Civil City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:mpls@mnforum.org Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
