Re: [Mpls] Samuels on New Orleans, Johnson Lee
Unfortunately Michelle, what you've illustrated is the lack of attention to detail or perhaps even laziness on the part of some of the FORMER staff of the Empowerment Zone. What you'll notice at the bottom of that document is the year 2003, which is when the Small Grants program was started. When this document was written, I believe the individual either didn't realize the that the City Council was not a part of the process or once clarified that this was not a step in the process, did not remove that. It is an inaccurate statement and shoddy administrative work not to have removed it or updated it in 2 years. Which is why when I took over in December 2004 I made sure that the guidelines were updated. You can find them on our website (www.ci.minneapolis. mn.us\ez) and will notice they do not have this step. It should not have been listed on the guidelines, but having it written in there or removed does not change the outcome of the process and does not prove your point. What would prove your point is a copy of a City Council agenda or action showing that the Small Grants were brought forward for approval. All of the Council agendas and actions are available on the City website at http://www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/council/. You can review them at your leisure but you will notice that the Small Grants program does not appear, because it does not go to them for approval as I have previously stated. The document you have, therefore, and not the information I have presented, is inaccurate. The fault, however, also lies with the EZ Your friends situation illustrates why there was a need to clarify and revise the guidelines. As was stated before, the Small Grants program began in 2003 with the original intent of complementing the EZ Small Business loans and technical assistance programs already existing. The original intent was for the Small Grants to be for non-profits as there was no consistent funding mechanism for smaller organizations besides businesses through the EZ except in response to RFPs. The Board saw the need to assist non-profits and smaller projects and the idea for the Small Grant program was born. Unfortunately, as has already been pointed out, the guidelines didn't clarify the fact that the program was for nonprofits. As such it left a loophole for the Empowerment Zone to be approached by two businesses in June of 2004. This raised the question for the Board and they directed the staff to review the feasibility of extending the Small Grants program to include businesses and return with a recommendation. After much discussion and consideration of the capacity of the EZ to review and analyze business proposals and track them, as well as the impact this would have on undermining the current Small Business initiatives the Executive Committee, based on the recommendation of staff, decided not to set aside grants funds for business or include them in the Small Grant program. This was approved at the August 12, 2004. Which would account for your friend's September letter. While it was not stated that being a for-profit was a reason for declination, neither were any of the other reasons. This, again, has been added to the guidelines to try to make things as clear as possible, and why we also provide free technical assistance through the Office of Grants and Special projects to keep people from investing their time only to find out their ineligible. As you can see, we make revisions and quality improvements at every step that we can to ensure the best quality of service. As you have not named your friends business I cannot verify any other information that you claim. Originally, you stated that Don had given her a letter of support, now you state that she has a letter of support from "her Council Member" and that Don was "there" offering letters of support, which indicates that the letter is not from him. Whether he was actually offering letters of support is for Don to clarify, but without an actual letter of support it's secondhand rumor at best. More importantly, I hope this whole thing will lay to rest the misinformation that Don wrote letters of support and then vetoed the proposals, as one is unsubstantiated and the other is impossible. Finally, I answered your question about El-Amin's Fish House in my last email, let me know if you don't see it and I'll repost it. The Empowerment Zone is funding the Minneapolis Urban League for its Uhuru program, the Director of which is Spike Moss. And I don't know all of the businesses that Basim is connected to so without a name, I cannot accurately answer your question. I do know that in 2001 a proposal for an intiative that he was driving was considered but that ultimately it didn't meet the minimum requirements and was not funded. As for who was benefited from EZ funds, I would once aga
Re: [Mpls] Samuels on New Orleans, Johnson Lee
Jonathan Palmer Wrote: 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. Michelle Hill responds: I walked over to my neighbors house to get written confirmation on the Empowerment Zone Funding. Under Small Grant Program General Funding Process, # 5 states, "Upon approval by the Governance Board, the request is submitted to the Minneapolis City Council for final approval." #6 states, "After the City Council approval, a contract is entered into between the EZ office and the lead implementing agency." Therefore, your information, that the council is not involved is inaccurate. I could fax you a copy if you need it. Now, I will tell the forum what the goal of the Minneapolis Empowerment Zone small grant Program is: " A ten-year initiative(1999-2009), its purpose is to create jobs and business opportunities in the most economic distressed areas of the cities. The goal is to help disadvantaged communities become stable and sustainable through self-empowerment and economic participation. It is a holistic approach to economic development that recognizes to create sustainable communities we must support activities that make it possible for current residents and business of the EZ to grow and prosper." The small grants program, for request under $25,000.00 has 6 points in the strategic plan. 1. Ensuring that EZ investments contribute to the economic well being, opportunity and self-sufficiency for the people of the EZ. 2. Emphasizing wealth creation in all poverty reduction initiatives for EZ residents. 3. Ensuring that residents and business owners of the EZ are the clients of the EZ and receive the benefits. 4. Engaging in opportunities to obtain multiplying-effect leverage and sustainability of EZ investments. 5. Incorporating the needs of people of color, people with disabilities, people with low income and new immigrant arrivals into EZ initiatives. 6. Creating opportunities to increase communication with EZ business and community members. A letter dated, September 14, 2004, signed by Kim W. Havey sent my neighbor a letter stating, "Unfortunately, due to limited funds and because is a for profit business status, the EZ did not approve the proposal for EZ Small Grant funds." Where does it say that the businesses had to be nonprofit? I have the documents, in its entirety. Jonathan Palmer wrote: 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. Michelle Hill Responds: As to the letter of support, my neighbor does have a letter of support from her council member. I have read and confirmed the existence of the letter. She also said that CP Samuels was there offering letters of support also. Also in attendance, at the Empowerment Zone meeting in the community was CP Zimmerman. I think it is a beautiful thing, when council members support people in their ward attempting to empower themselves and in doing so, adding jobs in the community. As long as the business will help the community and the council member does not directly benefit from the business. Now that I have proven my point could you please answer the questions I have asked in past post, but received no response. I have asked if Alimin's(sic) Fish Restaurant received funding from the EZ and if it is a nonprofit business. Since it would be public information, could you please answer that for me. Also, did the EZ give money to Spike Moss and businesses related to Basim Sabri? A response would be appreciated. If would be great if you could just post the list of who benefited from EZ monies. Michelle Hill Cleveland 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
Re: [Mpls] Samuels on New Orleans, Johnson Lee
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 Corri
Re: [Mpls] Samuels on New Orleans, Johnson Lee
[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: "When the community asked for Empowerment Zone money to create jobs and opportunities CP Samuels vetoed them, after giving them letters of support." Michelle, While I will not be entering the debate on who is a better candidate, Don or Natalie, as I like and respect both of them and wish we could have both on the Council, I would like to point out that you have raised the point above on the list before back in May and that I provided you with the correct information back then. This statement above is inaccurate. Don did not and CANNOT veto any proposals to the Empowerment Zone. You're original post can be found here: http://www.mnforum.org/pipermail/mpls/2005-May/041432.html. It's a May 21, 2005 posting entitled "Response to socialiost2001", and your specific statement was: "Council Person Don Samuel met with several people with Business proposal at the UL. Even after giving letters of recommendation, Mr. Samuels voted not to approve." My response can be found here:http://www.mnforum.org/pipermail/mpls/2005-May/041436.html. It is the same date with the same title as yours, and my response was: "The proposals you mentioned were small business startup proposals submitted to the Small Grants program, they were ineligible based on not being non-profits, and further, many did not have business plans or other sources of funding. The recommendation and information was presented by the Staff to the full 30-member board, which approved the declination.Don could not single handedly turn them down even if they were eligible. I explained this to Booker when I met with him in December." I believe Booker has another editorial in the Spokesman which states this again, and I am really concerned that despite my clarifying this, people still make the same false accusation. Whatever reasons anyone has for disliking Don, this should not be one of them, because it is completely and utterly false. Don not only did not veto them, he CANNOT veto them, even if they were eligible proposals, which they were not. The proposals for the samll grants are reviewed and recommended by staff and brought to the full board, no one person can veto them. If you have any questions regarding the Empowerment Zone or it's workings, please feel free to contact me directly by email or phone or through this forum. I am happy to explain any situation and provide the correct information. Jonathan Palmer Victory 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
