MINUTES

Neighborhood Revitalization Board

St. Etienne Conference Room – Armory Building

October 15, 2003

Present: Betty Volm, Bob King, Nadine Hogate, Kimberly Hansen, Mike Kinter, Jean Minahan, Dolph Pulliam, Joann Muldoon, Martha Walden, Pam Carmichael, Carol Bower

Absent: Willa Mae Allen, Mike Gibson, Paul Sadler

Staff: Eric Anderson, City Manager; Kathy Kahoun (CD); Susan Minks (CD); Mindy Miller (CD); Bob Schulte (HS); Barb Ashton (CD); Mike Matthes; Jay Leipzig (CD); Larry Hulse (CD)

Guests: Frank Cownie, Gary Dodge, Chris Coleman

The meeting convened at 5:05. Hogate moved to approve the agenda; seconded by King, carried by unanimous vote. King moved to approve the minutes of the October 15 meeting, seconded by Hansen, carried by unanimous vote.

OFFICER'S REPORT/CITY COUNCIL INFORMATION. Kahoun reported on recent Council actions, including approval of the ordinance for the Highland Park SSMID and the agreement with the Highland Park Foundation. Kahoun said the 2004 Consolidated Plan recommendations will be on the November 17 agenda.

NEIGHBORHOOD DEVELOPMENT ADMINISTRATOR'S REPORT. Kahoun said on November 17 staff will go over the accomplishments of the last Consolidated Plan and begin preparation of goals for the next plan. On November 18, staff will meet with the King Irving neighborhood to present their plan. All residents will be notified and the plan, if approved, will be presented to the NRB on December 3. Hogate asked if the King Irving Neighborhood was aware of Helgeson's plan to develop assisted living in their area; Kahoun said KI representatives had been involved all along.

Volm said she was at a meeting with the City Manager that morning and he said staff would be consulting with HUD to discuss changing how they classify proposals as housing or public services. Matthes said they hoped to be able to pull certain uses out of the public service category into the larger arena.

Kahoun said a letter had gone to Jim Elza and Mary Mahoney of the County regarding the Board's concerns about the Polk County land disposition policy. Neighborhood Development staff will move to the main floor of the Armory on November 21, and Neighborhood Inspection will move to the top floor.

A resignation letter was received from NRB member Paul Sadler. Regarding member Willa Mae Allen's absence from the Board meetings since May, Kahoun said she had made repeated attempts to contact her with no response. Bower moved to send a letter to Council asking them to declare the seats vacant and appoint new members. Hogate said the Nominating Committee would seek candidates for Council's consideration. Motion seconded by Hogate; carried by unanimous vote.

CITY MANAGER RECOMMENDATIONS FOR 2004 CONSOLIDATED PLAN. Eric Anderson, City Manager, presented his recommendations for the 2004 Consolidated Plan. Differences from the NRB's recommendations included a higher amount for the Neighborhood-based Services Delivery program, Forest Avenue Redevelopment, Creative Visions, and Human Services Planning Alliance Child Care Services. Some of the recommendations were for lower amounts than the NRB had requested, including the NCS Owner Occupied program, NCS Investor-owned program, DMPS Home Remodeling, and SCRUB. The Neighborhood Finance Corporation's Homebuyer Education program was recommended for $0 funding, and the Manager plans a new lead-based paint abatement program with the agency to be identified at a later date.

The Manager said he recommended reducing the NCS programs because he felt the money wasn't being utilized quickly enough and the cuts wouldn't compromise their ability to operate during the next twelve months. He said an EPA representative had brought the lead paint issue to his attention and he had come to believe Des Moines needed to do more to address the large number of children with high exposure levels.

Anderson said the Human Services Childcare reduction could not be made up by utilizing SSBG funds; there it needed to receive CDBG funding. The SCRUB deficit can use the City's Enterprise funds. He said the Homebuyers Club was cut because the City's deficits required it to focus its funding elsewhere.

Anderson said he concurred with the NRB's recommendation to fund New Directions should reprogramming money become available, and also the Homebuyer's Club.

Bower said the Board had discussed their recommendation for Creative Visions at length, and they were aware that the agency had experienced bookkeeping and cashflow problems. She said the Board's recommendation was conditioned upon Creative Visions "getting their act together," and she asked the Manager to share his thinking. He said he hadn't approached it from that position. Matthes, who is the Acting Director for the Housing Services Department where the monitoring staff is located, said when the monitors find problems, they stop the funding until they are resolved, and they do risk analysis, setting priorities on an agency's viability. He said New Directions had been told they had to perform to standards if funding was to continue.

Volm said Creative Visions had already received extra funding this last year when they requested a one-time grant to remodel. Carmichael asked how much of the money cut from NCS was from committed funds. Anderson said they had requested the budget reflect only non-committed and non-contracted funds.

Hogate asked whether the Manager had a plan for the proposed lead paint abatement program. Anderson said this was an extensive problem and would take many players (the state, EPA, etc.), and a good plan of attack.

Hogate said she could not support his recommendation to zero out the Homebuyers Club. She said homeownership is the primary goal of neighborhood organizations and the Board needed to support that. She said for the NFC to make loans without including homeownership education would create a recipe for failure for revitalization. She said their program had expanded rapidly, they were in deficit already, and she feared what would happen if the City pulled out. Anderson said he believed the NFC had enough funding to get by until reprogramming became available right after the first of the year.

Carmichael said she too could not support all of the Manager's cuts, and said while the NBSD program was working very well, she wondered if its expansion could be done in phases and the money saved could be put back into some of these cuts. Anderson said the NBSD program was one of the most important pieces of the Stockard and Engler recommendations and since this program was put in place, money was being saved in many places. He said crime in the NBSD areas was down considerably and it is an important quality of life piece for the whole community.

Bower asked Gary Dodge, director of NFC, if they charged people to participate in the Homebuyers Club, and whether initiating a fee would help them financially. He said there are restrictions in the state code and it would compromise their ability to compete with local mortgagors in getting clients.

Bower asked whether police assigned to the NBSD responded to routine calls; Anderson said they weren't assigned routine calls, but would if it was a major emergency. Pulliam said he had no problem with the expansion of NBSD and it had made a tremendous impact in his area. He said this program is a national model, and one of the officers is going to a national convention to present it. He said he also supported the street lighting reduction, and his area had not noticed any increase in crime since it was enacted. Anderson said that was proving true throughout the City and only a couple of complaints had come in. Hogate said she would like to see the NBSD model become the City's usual way of doing business. Anderson said he hoped it would.

Anderson said there were additional changes in the works – the Community Services site offices are going to be reduced from six offices to two. These two offices will be located at Logan and in the Neighborhood Development Corporation building at 601 Forest. He said all known clients and allied agencies would be notified, and they are looking at having some mobile personnel who will set up at various locations; there may even be some access in the evenings. Anderson said several of the site office personnel would be laid off.

Muldoon said this proposal would remove everything from the south side. Anderson said staff would monitor the demand from that area. Hogate said she thought this was an exciting alternative and she said it would be important to have the Brooks site open at the same time consistently. Ashton said they were looking at ways to do more client outreach by mail and will meet with the NRB and providers to get ideas. She and Hulse said this may be an opportunity to consolidate and modernize some of their methods and move personnel where they're most needed.

Carmichael asked if the Manager and staff planned to look at NCS and send it through a similar reorganization process. Walden said before this increased traffic hit Logan, the restrooms should be repaired. Volm said there probably wasn't a need for the mobile personnel to be at Franklin Senior Center at night since it was most crowded at noon. Ashton said they would do population tracking as part of this reorganization.

After the Manager left, Carmichael said she was not sure his recommendations wouldn't exceed the public services cap. Volm said she did not think it was fair to fund CCI but not NFC. Bower said she could not support the new lead program, and was unsure how it would be classed - housing or public services? Carmichael said if it was public services, it would throw off the cap amount even more, and she did not feel it was needed, since there were already plenty of regulations and inspections required for lead paint. Carmichael said, however, that it was NCS that dealt with lead paint at the City level, and it was getting one of the cuts. Bower said she would contact the Manager and discuss a different approach.

Muldoon said she believed the consensus of the Board was that the Homebuyers Club should be funded. Carmichael said if the NBSD program is expanded to citywide, she hoped they would not take all the CDBG money to pay for it. The Board discussed several scenarios to revise the funding and avoid some of the cuts. Carmichael moved to send a letter to Council thanking the Manager for coming and suggesting the Homebuyers Club be funded in the regular funding allocations and letting the NBSD program wait for reprogramming money; seconded by Minahan. Bower suggested taking money from Forest Avenue. Bower said the Board should stick to their original recommendations and provide rationale. She also said the additional money the Manager recommended for SCRUB should go to NBSD and the rest of the Board's recommendations should stand. Hogate said the Board should recommend funding NFC now and NBSD later. Bower stated the revised motion to be to send a letter to Council stating that the Board accepted the Manager's recommendations with one change – that the NFC Homebuyers Club be funded now and to fund the NBSD with reprogramming. Carried by unanimous vote.

COMMITTEE/REPRESENTATIVE REPORTS. None

OTHER BUSINESS.

The meeting adjourned at 6:47 p.m.

Carol Bower, Secretary