2026-10-22 - Development, Planning and Sustainability Committee

12:41Thank you for your question.

12:42I just wanted to do a little table setting for anybody following along at home.

13:03The CDBG hearings were a matter of sort of routine behavior for decades in the city of

13:12Cleveland.

13:13In the last couple of years, they've come into a real frenzied state.

13:18I just want to let people know why that might be.

13:22The second year of the Trump administration has once again seen a record delay in communication

13:28from the federal government.

13:29We still don't know what the CDBG full award amount is.

13:34We learned today.

13:35Well, that's how convenient for us to wait to the last minute to hold this because the

13:39federal government waits to the last minute to tell us anything.

13:42I also just want to point out that the director here today is, I believe, going to do her

13:49very best.

13:50The previous director had rearranged the department into two sectors and promoted two assistant

13:55directors, both of whom left before the previous director was dismissed or left.

14:00I believe that we had a beleaguered department for many years, but I think we are trying

14:05to rebuild and put back together, and none of that should be taken at the expense of

14:10the folks at this table today.

14:11I think we are working with what is available to us on the timeline that the federal government

14:16has terribly interpreted for us.

14:20So while if you have been watching CDBG hearings for decades, you're used to one thing, you're

14:26not probably going to see that thing today.

14:28We're going to go for four hours today, and then I will be cleaning up anything that

14:32doesn't get handled today, tomorrow.

14:34It's beginning at 9.30.

14:35So I just wanted to set that table for anybody who tunes into CDBG annually and is going

14:40to be asking in an hour or two why is this not going the way it used to always go.

14:44That is the answer.

14:46Thank you, Vice Chair and Director.

14:50Thank you very much.

14:51Thank you, Chairwoman Santana, members of City Council, and everyone joining us today.

14:56Thank you for the opportunity to present the Department of Community Development's

15:01program year 2026, budget and programs report to discuss the city's consolidated and annual

15:07action plan.

15:09These documents represent more than a budget.

15:13They establish how we will invest federal resources in Cleveland's neighborhoods, which

15:17needs we will prioritize, and how we will measure our progress.

15:21And how we will ensure that these investments produce meaningful results for our residents.

15:27I'm joined today by Assistant Directors Melissa Levenger and Dr. Andrew Kuntz who will introduce

15:33themselves and talk a bit about their roles in the department.

15:35Hi, my name is Melissa Levenger, and I'm the Assistant Director that's overseeing

15:43the Bureau of Program Operations and Community Programming, in addition to some cross-cutting

15:48focus on program design and process improvement.

15:50Good morning.

15:54Good afternoon, everyone.

15:55I'm Dr. Andrew Kuntz.

15:57I oversee the Bureau of Residential Improvement and Enterprise Operations, which includes

16:03accounting, finance, and data analyst.

16:08Also joining me, thank you.

16:09Also joining me at the table today is Jeff Kacharski in his role as Budget Manager.

16:15He also serves as our Bureau Chief for Enterprise Operations.

16:18Behind me in the audience, I have Bureau Chief Danette Davis who directs our Residential

16:23Improvement work, Bureau Chief Takisha Ruffin who has just joined the department as the

16:29new Bureau Chief for Community Programming, and Joy Anderson in her last Community Development

16:35Block Grant hearing as Bureau Chief for Program Operations before her retirement next week.

16:42So as you know, I am new to this role, but I would really like to take a moment to first

16:47applaud the dedication and expertise of the staff of that department.

16:53They're often misaligned, they're criticized, but they still manage to be thoughtful and

16:57kind and carry the best interests of our residents at heart, all while being terribly under-resourced.

17:04They have borne the challenges of the last few years remarkably well and have demonstrated

17:08an openness to change and improvement that makes me optimistic for the future of the

17:12department.

17:15With that, I will start kicking off.

17:28Our department's mission is more straightforward than it often seems.

17:33To strengthen Cleveland's people and neighborhoods by expanding housing opportunities, supporting

17:37residents' housing needs, and investing in lasting neighborhood improvement.

17:42We pursue this mission through affordable housing preservation and production, homelessness

17:47prevention, neighborhood revitalization, access to housing and economic opportunity, and essential

17:53public services.

17:55We also recognize the importance of these investments and the responsibility that comes

17:59with administering them.

18:01We have taken this opportunity to realign our resources more deliberately with community

18:06needs, to strengthen accountability and improve how we deliver programs and services.

18:11But we also want to highlight our focus on operational improvement and performance measurement.

18:17As we developed this new five-year consolidated plan for 2026 through 2030, we have also

18:23taken a closer look at our past practices, our internal processes, and our ability to

18:28demonstrate the impact of our work.

18:31Ultimately, our success cannot be measured solely by how much funding we allocate.

18:36It must also be measured by whether we preserve and expand that affordable housing, help residents

18:41remain safely in their homes, improve neighborhood conditions, and support people experiencing

18:47or at risk of experiencing hopelessness.

18:50We have significant work ahead of us.

18:52Federal resources are limited, costs continue to rise, and the demands facing Cleveland

18:57residents remain substantial.

18:59Using these challenges will require thoughtful prioritization, strong partnerships and clear

19:04expectations and a shared commitment to results.

19:08Today we welcome the opportunity to review these plans and investments with City Council.

19:13We look forward to your questions, your guidance, and your continued partnership as we strengthen

19:17our processes and improve the impact of these resources.

19:23So for program year 2026, Cleveland will administer approximately $28.1 million in

19:31federal funding through our HUD grant partnerships.

19:34These include four grants, the community development block grant, the home investment partnership,

19:40emergency solutions grant, which is our homelessness funding, and housing opportunities for persons

19:45with AIDS.

19:46These resources support a wide range of activities from home repairs and affordable housing

19:51development to homelessness services, small business assistance, neighborhood improvements,

19:56and support services for vulnerable residents.

20:01The consolidated plan, which is the five year plan mandated by HUD as a sort of application

20:10for these grants, establishes our priorities and goals for a five year period based on

20:16data, resident participation, and consultation with community partners.

20:21The annual action plan then translates those priorities into the projects and activities

20:25that we intend to fund each year.

20:28So that's two different plans in 2026 they are prepared and submitted together.

20:34Together, these plans should provide a clear connection between the needs that we've identified

20:38in that five year plan and the investments that we make, and ultimately the outcomes

20:44that we achieve.

20:48That connection is particularly important as we address long standing compliance and

20:53administrative challenges in our federal grant programs.

20:57The department has identified opportunities to improve transparency, to strengthen project

21:03documentation, to establish more consistent procurement and environmental review procedures,

21:07and improve financial performance through monitoring.

21:10These are not simply administrative exercises.

21:13They directly affect our ability to move resources into neighborhoods, to complete

21:18projects on time, to demonstrate results, and to protect the city from the risk of

21:23losing or having to repay federal funds.

21:26We are therefore proposing a more structured project based approach to grant administration.

21:32This means identifying projects and their intended outcomes earlier.

21:36It means establishing clear eligibility and compliance requirements and ensuring that

21:41individual activities are properly documented and aligned with the goals of the consolidated

21:45plan.

21:47We understand that changes to established procedures require collaboration and coordination

21:51between city departments and city council, who plays an important role in identifying

21:55their priorities and advocating for residents, as well as our nonprofit community based organizations

22:02who are essential to delivering these services, to preserving housing, supporting small businesses,

22:07et cetera.

22:08Our goal is not to diminish these relationships, but to create a more consistent and transparent

22:13framework in which we can work together effectively.

22:16We also recognize that accountability must be accompanied by meaningful public participation.

22:22Residents should have a genuine opportunity to help shape priorities, to understand proposed

22:27investments, and provide feedback before funding decisions are finalized.

22:32We are working toward a more deliberate annual planning process that creates those opportunities

22:36earlier and makes proposed projects and expenditures easier to understand.

22:42I'm going to move into sort of the rest of the presentation at this point, but just

22:46ahead of time, let me thank you for your time and for your commitment to Cleveland's

22:50neighborhoods and residents.

22:58So I'm going to start with an overview of the department.

23:03As you may recall, the structure of the community development department has changed as part

23:08of the clusters reorganization.

23:10So two of our bureaus, we had six originally, two of our bureaus have now become part of

23:16the department of development.

23:18An easy way to keep the functions of that straight is that the department of development

23:22is really the keeper of all things real estate.

23:24So vacant land, real estate development, housing development, those things live in development.

23:31So think of CD as working more like a foundation or a community organization that makes grants

23:36and develops programs.

23:38We will continue to provide fiscal management and compliance for the federal grants that

23:44DOD will be implementing.

23:47We will also continue to manage the environmental review process as part of compliance.

23:53There is also a policy role for our department in determining how those dollars are used

23:58before they are.

24:02So our remaining bureaus are sort of structured in the same way that they have been.

24:08Our Bureau of Enterprise Operations is focused on budget and accounting.

24:13Our strategic data analytics team is in enterprise operations.

24:17Our residential improvement team is focused on home repair and our home repair programs.

24:22Program operations is really our grant making team, so a lot of the contracting and program

24:29design that comes through our department happens among them.

24:33And finally, our community programming team, which you may recall was my former team,

24:38that is all of our resident facing work.

24:39So that's our fair housing, consumer affairs, financial empowerment and community engagement.

24:45Also sort of brought into this work has been the coordination of some of the southeast

24:51side outreach and programming there.

24:53So Asia Aaron, who had been working with Marvin Owens has now joined that team.

25:01As Melissa and Andrew mentioned, the department is organized into sort of two overarching

25:09teams.

25:10We also have as part of the director's office James Green who manages all of the department's

25:16real estate holdings.

25:18We have a staff assistant director of law who works with us on a lot of our contracts.

25:28And then a little bit more in depth org chart, which I actually meant to put in your packets

25:36and neglected to, but I will share that.

25:39So this is just a little bit more of a sense of who is in what team and how many people

25:45are in each team.

25:47Our program operations, I have actually on the next slide, program operations sits at

25:55about 19 people.

25:56That is our biggest program operations and residential improvement are our biggest departments.

26:03And that is really where the very program intensive work takes place.

26:10As you can see in this slide, this really breaks down how all of our positions are funded.

26:16You can see that out of 77 of our total headcount, 51 are considered admin under the block grant,

26:24which means that they serve the block grant administration as a whole.

26:29The 11 folks who are directly attached to a project, that is our residential improvement

26:35in home repair work.

26:37And then we have nine staff out of that 77 that are currently funded by our lead grants

26:46from HUD.

26:47We have six general fund budget positions.

26:50We are requesting this in this upcoming budget, an additional six positions and I'm going

26:56to talk a little bit about what we're hoping for with that.

27:01It is important to note that we do have a significant body of work in the department

27:06that takes place outside of our CDBG grants.

27:10The middle neighborhoods initiative is administered, we're administering council allocated dollars

27:15there.

27:17We still have a significant number of ARPA contracts that we're working through.

27:21Casino funds, we do more casino contracting than any other department in the city.

27:27We also manage our healthy homes community engagement program that embeds contractors

27:36in CDCs across the city.

27:39Our consumer affairs work is written into the charter, which is why it's not funded

27:43by CDBG.

27:45And then from time to time other policy initiatives will come through our department as well.

27:52Most notably is the ten year housing plan that we are also responsible for managing.

27:58Just a little note on that contract volume for non-CDBG contracts.

28:04It's right now in 20, or sorry, in 2025, it was about $25 million, the year before that

28:11it was about $66 million, that was a lot of ARPA.

28:14But it is a significant volume of contracts.

28:19We do not have a huge staff that works with these, and we are often given them without

28:28really a choice of whether we are going to administer them or not.

28:33And so I just want to make sure that that's something that folks are aware of as we talk

28:38about our staff and our head count, that we do a lot of work that is not connected

28:42to that grant.

28:44It's just a quick little breakdown of who some of those folks are.

28:49Our enterprise, sorry, our emerging programs team works on non-CDBG programs.

28:55So we have a whole sort of squad of folks that are dedicated to that work.

29:03We, as I said, are assistant director of law.

29:06He works for us on mostly non-CDBG contracts.

29:12We have a couple of other positions that are supervisory to those folks who don't work

29:17on CDBG work, and then we have the team that administers the Healthy Homes Initiative,

29:23the community engagement specialists.

29:30So as I mentioned, the department also serves as the housing policy arm for the integrated

29:35development cluster.

29:36This consolidated planning process focuses us on housing needs.

29:41This positions us really well to lead the work of the housing plan.

29:46The expertise that we develop will help us direct how we spend the home dollars, even

29:50though, as I said, the Department of Development is implementing those home projects.

29:55You'll hear from that team tomorrow.

29:57They're going to talk a little bit more about the work that they've been doing.

30:00And again, as you may recall, last year we set about checking in with our 10-year housing

30:05equity plan.

30:06That plan expires in 2030, but we really wanted to get a sense of how useful it still

30:12was as a guiding force for sort of the cluster as a whole.

30:16And just to kind of touch on this quickly, because I think it's good to know.

30:21That original plan really remains relevant in terms of its values, but the environment

30:26around it between the pandemic and various federal changes, the economic disruption that

30:32all of that has created, really have forced municipalities across the country to reckon

30:38with housing affordability and housing supply in different ways.

30:41And so here, what we have done in our sort of refresh is we've realigned the priorities

30:46of the housing plan so that they better reflect the work of the integrated development cluster

30:51as we are working today.

30:53And it really brings residents' needs to the forefront in alignment with our administration's

30:58more resident-facing approach.

31:03Okay, so let's talk about grant administration.

31:11So in administering these grants, there are three primary challenges that we face.

31:18One, we have not, and these are challenges that have been identified by the Department

31:23of Housing and Urban Development who gives us these grants.

31:28They have resulted in what are called findings or concerns that have been sort of marks

31:36against the city in terms of our risk as a grantee.

31:42And we are doing our best now to sort of finally address some of them conclusively.

31:49So one of the first things that they consistently tell us is that we have not demonstrated consistent

31:55or sufficient effort, consistent enough or sufficient effort to really engage our citizens

32:00in our planning process.

32:02So we give them incomplete project information to review as part of the public comment period,

32:09the period of transparency where we submit our plan to the public for review.

32:14Second, we follow sort of a backward allocation process.

32:18We lump up activities together with too many different recipients.

32:22It makes our proper monitoring impossible and it violates federal procurement processes.

32:28And then three, we really create a lot of confusion with unpredictable and undefined

32:35project initiation cycles so that it makes our team really sort of excessively burdened

32:42in trying to administer these contracts.

32:43It's very difficult when project proposals are kind of coming at you from every direction

32:49and our team has to like catch all of these things that keep coming at them.

32:54So we are hopeful that through process design, we can institute a transparent process that

33:01will enable citizens to have a little bit more oversight over the work that we do and

33:06to help us manage our workload internally, document our projects effectively so that

33:10we can demonstrate that we're actually being effective.

33:13So I'm going to take a couple of slides to talk through that.

33:19So we are proposing changes that will address compliance and administrative challenges that

33:25put our federal funding at risk and can really limit our ability to have an impact in the

33:31neighborhoods.

33:32The changes here are to streamline, sorry, to improve public participation and spending

33:37transparency, to comply with these federal rules around procurement, and to streamline

33:44our department processes and how we exchange information about projects with counsel.

33:50These changes are first and foremost about responsible stewardship of taxpayer dollars.

33:55These dollars are intended to serve residents, particularly those with the greatest needs.

34:00And our city currently, sorry to report, has the highest risk rating of any project jurisdiction

34:06in Ohio.

34:08These risk ratings have real impact on our ability to receive further grants, and if

34:12we don't set up and monitor these projects correctly, we run the risk of grant repayment

34:17or just returning of funds.

34:22So I'm going to dig a little bit into each of these areas and talk about how we plan

34:26to address them.

34:29So this citizen oversight issue, as we determined our plan priorities, what became clear to

34:38me as we were sort of planning this is how integral citizen participation is to the CDBG

34:46program as a whole.

34:48It has been a part of the block grant process from its inception over 50 years ago.

34:53The idea that citizens understand better than anyone what is needed to make their communities

34:57better is core to this program, and it's preserved through a lot of these requirements

35:02like the citizen participation plan.

35:04We have been given consistent concerns that our citizen participation plan is insufficient.

35:12It's not rigorous.

35:13It doesn't allow for residents to give substantive input on projects and spending because many

35:18times the plans would go out to the public.

35:22Unfortunately in the form of NDA, it sort of comes out as a lump sum rather than specific

35:27projects.

35:29Those allocations then were not subject to public scrutiny because they would be developed

35:34after the public comment period and after the plan was submitted.

35:42So here are some procedural changes that we are making to our citizen participation

35:49planning process.

35:51New in the coming cycle will be two citizen workshops.

35:54We made an attempt at these last year.

35:57They were not very well attended, but we're really looking to figure out this time around

36:01how to kind of blow those up, and we would love to be able to do some of this work in

36:05your ward meetings.

36:07The citizen workshops are an opportunity for residents to really help set priorities to

36:12give input, to really tell us about the needs that they're experiencing in their communities.

36:18Similar to previous years, we will hold two public hearings.

36:21That's once the plan is completed and folks have an opportunity to give us feedback on

36:27the plan that we've created.

36:28This is also an opportunity for us to go back to the public and say we heard you, we listened,

36:33this is how your voice is showing up in this plan.

36:37And then finally, making some plain language documents available for residents to review.

36:42Nothing says welcome to City Hall like being handed a 300 page CDBG plan and said here,

36:49figure this out and tell us what you think.

36:51Our goal is really to kind of streamline that, give them something that's easy to

36:55read both in terms of the stories that we're trying to tell, the work that we're trying

37:00to accomplish, and the budget itself and how the dollars will be spent.

37:07We are hoping to start implementing this in January.

37:12And then on the council side of this transparency process, we are hoping to be able to sort

37:18of set a timeline for projects.

37:22And this timeline will enable us to submit a plan that already has your plans in it.

37:28If the plan already has your plans in it, then the residents can give all the feedback

37:33they want.

37:34You can respond, we can respond.

37:36And then it can go back out for submission with all of that input included.

37:41If we don't do that, it's a black box.

37:43It's just we're going to spend some money, we're not going to tell you how we're going

37:46to do it.

37:47And then it doesn't give them an opportunity to really substantively input on that process.

37:53So more to come on that, we have a little bit more information about this for you tomorrow

37:58when we dig in a little bit deeper.

38:01And this is also stuff that we're sort of hoping will develop in collaboration with

38:05you and your staff so that we can be creating processes that work for everybody.

38:13Let's talk about everybody's favorite project documentation.

38:17So HUD has a very archaic project documentation accomplishment reporting system.

38:25This system is designed in a very specific way.

38:31And it's designed in a way that is supposed to align activities with projects, with goals,

38:38with priorities.

38:39So it's all about alignment.

38:40And I'm going to talk a little bit about that here in a second.

38:43But it's really essential for accurate reporting.

38:48So that when HUD sees what we're doing, they understand what we're doing.

38:53If our documentation doesn't look right to them, that's when we start to get in trouble.

38:58And if our projects are not in alignment from the beginning, they immediately look fishy

39:04to HUD folks as they review our accomplishments.

39:08So really what we're trying to do here is rather than kind of going in with a large

39:14lump sum allocation, we're trying to break it up into more projects.

39:18So if they can see these projects, we can set them up properly in our HUD data documentation

39:24system.

39:25And then we can report accomplishments appropriately.

39:28Everything's aligned.

39:29Everybody's happy.

39:31Because it's going to be that easy.

39:34And just to give you a sense, too, of like how this looks.

39:38So when we set these projects up, we set the projects up in alignment with the consolidated

39:45plan priorities and goals.

39:47And then the activities are aligned to the projects, that then rolls back up in our reporting.

39:52So when we turn in all of our information at the end of the year and we get our caper,

39:58which is our end of program year evaluation, everything just kind of rolls up into these

40:04categories that we established at the beginning of the program year.

40:08And if it all lines up at the end, that's when we can really demonstrate to HUD that

40:12we have done what we set out to do.

40:17So non-compliant documentation is another challenge that we face in administering these

40:25grants.

40:26And a lot of this is around everyone's favorite environmental review.

40:32Environmental review, the need for environmental review is based on what they call the federal

40:37nexus.

40:39And this nexus point is the point where funds are requested.

40:43So I will give five American dollars to anyone at this table who can tell me exactly how

40:48to figure out when funds are requested.

40:50And I don't see a lot of takers.

40:58Oh, right.

40:59Fair.

41:00Fair.

41:01Fair.

41:02All of that to say, ethics aside, it is very challenging for you and very challenging for

41:05us to understand where that fund request begins and so what establishes the federal

41:11nexus.

41:12If we don't know when the federal nexus is and we don't get an environmental review

41:17when we need an environmental review, any project work that takes place before the environmental

41:24review is complete runs the risk of not being able to be reimbursed.

41:30So we want the organizations that you want to fund in your wards, we want to be able

41:35to reimburse them, but if we can't figure out when that federal nexus is and when and

41:40if that environmental review should have happened, we maybe are going to be in a situation

41:45where we can't repay the expenses that they've already put towards projects.

41:50So this is really complicated.

41:52Our team is really well prepared to handle it, but we just need clarity and sort of specificity

42:01about how projects are coming into our office so that we can make sure that all of that

42:06goes according to plan.

42:11So again, just thinking about the whole life cycle of these projects and how they are initiated.

42:17So if we can clearly establish a federal nexus, we can do all the compliance steps

42:21that are needed.

42:22We can scope and contract the work appropriately.

42:25We can make sure that it gets set up appropriately in the documentation system.

42:30We can monitor that contract throughout the project's life cycle and then we can finally

42:36measure the accomplishments, report, provide reimbursements on schedule.

42:41So all of this is really just an attempt to peel back a lot of the layers of bureaucracy

42:47and process and idiosyncratic habits that have built up over the years so that we can

42:52more effectively fund the projects that we have already -- we want to do these projects.

42:58No one wants to stand in the way of the projects.

43:00And so this is just going to help us do that a little bit better.

43:05And finally, as I said, the volume of contracts and the sort of haphazard way that they -- they

43:13can come -- the many different ways that they can come into our office really creates a

43:17pretty significant administrative burden for our staff.

43:21So as of this moment, for 2025, we have 60 subrecipients and we're still, you know, dealing

43:30with active contracts from 2024.

43:33We have 66 2025 contracts still active.

43:38Our team is close to 200 active contracts at any given time and they, you know, they

43:44just -- they don't just get signed and then it's all over.

43:47Like we have to monitor those contracts, we have to make payments on those contracts.

43:51And so it's a pretty consistent process.

43:53All of that to say these changes that we're going to be making really are just intended

43:59to make all of this smoother and clearer for everyone.

44:05So with that, I'd like to shift to share some information about our 2026 to 2030,

44:152030 consolidated plan.

44:18As I mentioned, the consolidated plan and the annual action plan are submitted together

44:24at the beginning of a cycle every five years.

44:28So in the four years to come, we will submit an annual plan separately for each of those

44:33years.

44:34So think of the consolidated plan like a strategic plan for the department, it outlines

44:38our priorities and what we want to achieve.

44:42The annual plan then breaks down those goals into smaller pieces and each of those annual

44:49plans is made up of projects and activities that will help us achieve the goals that

44:53we lay out.

44:55We are really hopeful that as we go into these future annual planning cycles, participation

45:01from council and staff in our citizen workshops will make all of this more meaningful to

45:05all of us.

45:06I will admit that we were in a bit of a time crunch this year.

45:10So our cycles are kind of funky.

45:12We will be up for another annual action plan starting, we're hoping to have that out by

45:18March.

45:19So we'll probably start our process in January.

45:21I know it feels like we just did one and we're about to do another.

45:24But we kind of got off cycle to give ourselves time to create a meaningful five year plan.

45:31We as I said have established a series of priority needs and goals throughout this process

45:38and I just want to sort of try to shed a little bit of light on how those things break

45:44down, how HUD defines those terms.

45:47These terms all have very specific meaning in the HUD process.

45:51Priority needs are what is informed by data and what we hear from our partners and our

45:55residents.

45:56So this is to say these are the things that we as residents and as experts in the field

46:03are concerned about and establish that as a priority.

46:07From there in each of those priority needs we will establish goals and those are five

46:12year goals.

46:14The five year goals are then given sort of a measurement treatment where we decide how

46:20we're going to measure those goals.

46:22Is it in number of housing units?

46:23Is it number of people served?

46:26And then we align those together through yet more fun HUD nomenclature around how all of

46:36that lines up and becomes determined to be eligible.

46:40So then after that consolidated plan is established every year we'll do an annual plan where projects

46:47are described and those projects then are broken up into activities.

46:51The activities are where the accomplishments come from.

46:53So you'll hear us talk about accomplishments, what's been accomplished.

46:58Those accomplishments are a result of the activities and so all of that is intended

47:02to align in sort of a one to one fashion.

47:05Meaning that every activity is aligned to a project.

47:09Every project is aligned to a goal and every goal is aligned to a priority need.

47:18So I feel the need to go through this again but this is still sort of that same idea

47:23of just all of the alignment of projects kind of rolls up into our reporting then at the

47:30end of the year.

47:31So when we have that one to one alignment data looks like that.

47:38A little bit about our approach to goal settings.

47:40So when we we're going to go through these goals in a minute and they're not going to

47:44look like much has changed but I do think that what we are doing is a little bit different

47:51in the sense that we're trying to first of all be concrete about what it is that we're

47:57trying to do.

47:58So you know previous years goals or priority needs have been things like ending poverty.

48:06Ending poverty is a priority and it's a need but it's not something that we can realistically

48:13set goals and measure at our scale.

48:17So what we tried to do is we tried to align these priority needs and goals to things

48:21that we're working on things that we have the capacity to actually have an impact.

48:29So our sort of our five priority needs these were identified as part of our planning process

48:37so we did a ton of data analysis the citizen participation and stakeholder consultation

48:43and we also reviewed past program results.

48:45So where are the places that we were successful where were we not able to have an impact

48:52to really understand where those priority needs should focus.

48:56You'll see that like I said they sound familiar but we're really trying to get focused on

49:02concrete and achievable.

49:06It's also important to note that these are not as we talk about priorities and goals

49:10we're not talking about specific programs.

49:13The programs and projects come as part of the annual plan.

49:16This is really at the five year consolidated plan level.

49:20We're gonna get more specific about projects and programs tomorrow.

49:27I'm gonna take a minute and go through each of these and then I was hoping directed that

49:34you could go through the priorities and then we'll pause because that is a lot of information

49:38and then we'll be alone in my comments so we can absolutely do that.

49:45So our first priority is no surprise to anyone affordable housing.

49:52This is both the preservation and the production of new housing.

49:56We really are it's very much going forward as we have begun here.

50:03We are working with the Department of Development to establish a strategy for how we're gonna

50:08use the home dollars.

50:11We just want to continue to build that pipeline of projects and we'll talk a little bit more

50:15about those tomorrow.

50:18In terms of home repair we know that our prior home repairs have not been producing

50:25as of late but we are hoping that we will sort of create a little bit more of an ecosystem

50:32of home repair work that includes our CDCs and a sort of reconfigured in-house home repair

50:38program.

50:40This home repair work really one of the things that we've learned is that we really need

50:43to focus on preserving housing stock as a whole right.

50:49So we're the at this at the city level we are trying to work systemically to preserve

50:55the housing stock and so we will adjust our priorities in terms of what we're able to

51:00accomplish what we set out to accomplish and what we're able to accomplish in that way.

51:06Housing stability and homelessness prevention we are this is kind of a recovery point for

51:13us we lost some staff that really were the the keepers of a lot of our of that knowledge

51:18that content specific knowledge.

51:21So as we rebuild that knowledge we're really focused on continuing to support the continuum

51:26of care partners continuing to continuing to invest in city owned facilities that we're

51:34looking for lease partners to take on the North Point building.

51:40We also are just trying to sort of find gaps in continuum of care services so one of the

51:47gaps that we've seen for example is rapid rehousing so we're looking to include rapid

51:51rehousing services in our homelessness work going forward I'm advancing my own slides

52:00and not your slides okay I can only manage one theater at a time I guess.

52:15So our third priority is is neighborhood revitalization and reinvestment this is work

52:22that's done primarily through other departments and other community organizations but CD is

52:27able to support this work through the block grant CDCs do a lot of small business assistance

52:34that's part of their the activities that they perform these are really intended to

52:40be supportive of commercial corridors which keep dollars in neighborhoods and can be

52:43a source of local jobs.

52:46We're also doing work with our CDC partners and our other departments to sort of care

52:50for the physical space of these communities so we do a lot of light removal board ups

52:56neighborhood cleanups that sort of thing falls into this category.

53:02Our fourth is that four or five the next category is access to housing and opportunity

53:11so this is where a lot of our work and you may be familiar with some of our financial

53:17empowerment work some of the work that is really intended to support what's happening

53:24in the housing innovation district these are ways of ways and tools that we're going to

53:29develop to connect residents to housing capital so home repair and mortgage loans we're looking

53:37to find ways to invest in sort of a targeted way in middle neighborhoods that's maybe focused

53:42on converting renters to homeowners.

53:46We also really want to understand what kind of housing access supports our residents need

53:52as you know about 60 percent of Clevelanders are renters and face challenges finding safe

53:56and affordable housing this goes hand in hand with some of the work around lead safe

54:00certification the challenges that come out of our plethora of out of state landlords

54:05helping folks age in place finding ADA accessible housing all of these are our concerns for

54:12our residents and this is the area where a lot of that work takes place as of right

54:17now we don't do a ton to support that work but we're really looking to kind of shift

54:22in that direction particularly around financial empowerment and you know you may recall our

54:30financial empowerment blueprint that we released last spring it was deeply informed by resident

54:36voices it really helped to clarify that homeownership can't be the end all be all of wealth building

54:43for our residents so this work is really starting with financial well-being and how

54:47we can connect residents to the banking system to credit recovery to financial education

54:52in ways that help to prepare them for economic mobility this is also as I said really connected

54:58to the overall integrated development clusters work in the Housing Innovation District so

55:06these targeted efforts on the east side that are going to accelerate housing development

55:10and business development through site readiness don't really address residents that are currently

55:16living in these neighborhoods and our goal and role with that work is to connect existing

55:21residents to ways that they can benefit from that growth our approach really is going

55:27to be focused on education and connection but also concrete resources that provide

55:31things like down payment assistance and potentially property tax relief these are all things

55:35that we're exploring and learning more about how we'll be able to support that work we

55:43also have as a priority public services and the build resident capacity this is a place

55:49where things are going to change fairly significantly this year as you know we've had historically

55:55a competitive grant process around city-wide public services and what and other public

56:01services these have been sort of unfocused projects that create lots of contracts what

56:11we are trying to do is to sort of focus these dollars in barriers to work in barriers to

56:18housing barriers to building community so we're going to focus on things like economic

56:23mobility access to transportation especially for seniors and folks with special needs and

56:30this is all of course supported by our community engagement team so in addition to the general

56:36funded folks that are in the CDC's we have a group of folks that are stationed here

56:41at City Hall that do a lot of sort of resident engagement around activities to be honest

56:49this this category has been a real source of mission creep for our department it as

56:53much as it's all things that we want to be able to support everything there are things

56:58that sometimes may be better supported by other departments so that we can really focus

57:02on housing and neighborhood development and then lastly is of course our grant administration

57:12as you know this work these grants pay for the vast expanse of our salaries and we do

57:21our best to conserve these resources but it is really important to understand that

57:26salaries are increasing we as a city we have a an annual 3 percent pay increase that comes

57:32out of our block grant as much as we want to be able to give that 3 percent pay increase

57:38it does put a strain on the rest of our resources we are also capped at 20 percent of our total

57:44block grant dollars to be able to pay those administrative costs so as salaries increase

57:50they take up more and more of that 20 percent cap because the amount of the grant continues

57:56to decline so this is a real coming budgetary crisis for this department and it's something

58:07that over the next few years we'll have to take some hard looks at how we're going to

58:12solve it so I'm happy to stop here what I have next goes right into this year's grants

58:21so we can either continue here pick up tomorrow yeah and I'm sure Mike Connie's have a question

58:28do you have questions let me know how do you want just a question for me just I know

58:32we've talked about this director but um the five-year plan was that already submitted

58:38to HUD yes for 2026 yes it was submitted on August 15th okay but then you mentioned

58:44that January we're going to start again but if it's a five-year plan it was submitted

58:48this year wouldn't that that's an annual plan so there are five if you think of the

58:54five years there are five plans the first year's plan is both a consolidated plan and

59:02an annual action plan and then in 2027 we'll have another annual plan 2028 another annual

59:08but they still roll up into that that five-year plan got it for the five-year plan that was

59:14submitted yes what type of input was taken from council members um I would say not as

59:23much as I would like there to have been I did when I first started in the role kind

59:27of tried to connect with individual council members and and talk about their priorities

59:32try to understand what they were working towards and that did you know those notes were were

59:40part of our information collection and I would just add to this more of like a comment

59:46I know every council member most of us probably have a master plan in our neighborhood right

59:49where it came with residents feedback and input one of things as a community engagement

59:56person that is my passion is residents are at a point where they're tired of telling

1:00:02us what to do or you know giving feedback they want to see action um and so I guess

1:00:08to that point many of the council members have so much feedback that it would be great

1:00:13to provide is there an opportunity for amendment of this five-year plan if council members

1:00:20don't feel like it aligns with goals from the neighborhood or yeah so these plans have

1:00:27an amendment process built in um if the and whether it's a substantial amendment or I

1:00:35forget what they call the smaller amendment um there are two different kinds of amendments

1:00:39one requires a hearing one requires public comment it's just to determine what the citizen

1:00:46oversight of those amendments would be um but really mostly those impact um the spending

1:00:55so those are determined the size of the amendment is determined by how much the budget changes

1:01:01if you're proposing changes that don't really require different budgets we wouldn't really

1:01:06need to amend we could just um develop new projects that would go into our next annual

1:01:11plan and then that annual plan would get reviewed by the public and and we could just kind

1:01:17of build it into our cycle to be honest as much as these priorities were really focused

1:01:23on concrete work anything that's going to improve your neighborhood is going to fit

1:01:27into one of those categories and so I I don't know that um I think we can change the substance

1:01:35of the plan without too much problem and also does the five-year plan require like

1:01:43um neighborhoods you know are we targeting neighborhoods are we at that point where

1:01:49could you say more about what so just basically you know we know that the city of cleveland

1:01:54is very impoverished the need is great but there's certain pockets pockets in the city

1:01:59of cleveland that need more resources than others right so with that five-year plan

1:02:03did you have to submit some target neighborhoods understood so to the chair um we did include

1:02:11as part of that planning process there's a lot of data these um eligibility criteria

1:02:18that these projects and plans come up against is really rooted in in levels of poverty and

1:02:26levels of need and so these dollars as I say frequently are intended for low to moderate

1:02:32income people in low to moderate income places and so every activity has to meet those criteria

1:02:40in some way um and that is what determines eligibility for these projects thank you director

1:02:46i have councilman harsh thank you madam chair um and thank you director for uh getting

1:02:53us started here today with with a high level overview um i just need to repeat this for

1:02:59people that might be following along at home uh we used to get these numbers back in february

1:03:04march uh we used to know exactly what the federal government was going to do so early

1:03:08in the year that we actually did cdbg immediately following the regular budget that we do in

1:03:12january february and it is just impossible for us to plan an entire department around

1:03:18expectations or what we think might be the funding level so we have to really wait until

1:03:23we know what we're dealing with before we can make decisions about how to allocate

1:03:26these funds it's the same reason we don't do the budget the year before we don't do

1:03:30the budget in november december because we don't know what the final you know collections

1:03:34from the city are until december 31st at midnight so we do a budget knowing exactly

1:03:38how much we have and um the federal government the last two years has strung this out into

1:03:43october for the first time ever and that just really really makes it difficult for

1:03:47everybody at this table and i just don't want anybody um observing this from outside

1:03:52of city hall to misunderstand how complicated the uh the new timeline imposed on us by the

1:03:58federal government has really complicated this process so i just i just want to make

1:04:01sure people know that um but it does look like we got 28 million i think is total allocation

1:04:08and it looks like the cdbg amount is 19.656 million which i think is a slight increase

1:04:13um actually it's a wee bit more than we got last year uh so through the chair to the director

1:04:19was the total amount allocated down again and if it was what column did it go down

1:04:24and because it seemed to go up a bit in cdbg uh strict cdbg oh there we are oh wait was

1:04:31this isn't oh this is coming up i just hadn't gotten this is okay okay this is a distinct

1:04:35preview okay so there it is so so talk tell us tell us what we're looking at sure um through

1:04:42the to the councilman through the chair um our total funding declined by about 2.3 million

1:04:47between 2021 and 26 um the decline's really concentrated in cdbg and home the other two

1:04:55grants had us much smaller level of decline and you know as as you noted the the increase

1:05:01this year was just tiny tiny it's it's essentially level um the we don't know from one year

1:05:08to the next it's dependent on uh the congressional appropriations process um and whatever they

1:05:16appropriate is then uh awarded to um it's awarded to cities like cleveland which is

1:05:23an entitlement community by a formula um and so depending on what the total appropriation

1:05:29is it then gets divided between the entitlement communities and given to states according

1:05:34to different formulas so yeah so we can see that we got a bit of a bump there uh in the

1:05:40obama years uh which actually trailed off in the obama years uh and then a slight bump

1:05:46under biden and now a turn to form uh soon to be leveling out there so um good to see

1:05:54that actually uh utilize a lot of last year's um work because again very similar to the

1:06:01councilman through the chair if i could just add um it is worth noting that every one of

1:06:07president trump's um budgets to congress has zeroed out cdbg um it congress appropriates

1:06:15it back yes but but it's not uh nothing's nothing in this world is guaranteed no it's

1:06:22a it's a very good point director because it is congress actually that makes sure the

1:06:26cdbg is is included in the um the map oh yeah uh through the chair i saw that we got

1:06:32the map of uh hud's latest census tracts every single ward in cleveland is eligible

1:06:37for cdbg uh expenditures because every single ward has low mod census tracts um and i understand

1:06:43that low mod census tracts is only one indicator the other is low mod people um and every ward

1:06:48has low mod people as well um but when you look at that map you'll see that some wards

1:06:53are entirely low mod census tract um and presumably all the folks in those wards are

1:06:58almost all the folks are low mod people as well um but uh thank you for sending that

1:07:02along last night um through the chair your current list of 77 employees i believe was

1:07:08the if i counted it right i forgot to write down the page uh what is that compared to

1:07:13last year the year before i think your department has lost we're down about 15 from this title

1:07:19this year 90 something last year yep okay and those 15 people uh were they all cdbg

1:07:27funded or were some of them general funds i'm sorry i know you lost a director or two

1:07:31assistant directors which would be three general funds they were all three replaced

1:07:36i would have to look i'm not sure okay because it's it's by person so i i'm not sure the

1:07:42reason i'm asking on page 13 uh you identify um 1.12 million or six more people uh which

1:07:49would be almost 200,000 each and i know that the city has shared costs for employees it

1:07:54costs you know like 25 percent of a person's salary to employ them or some kind of nap

1:07:58that is not correct sorry what will be the request then for a general fund that or is

1:08:08that for eight that's for eight so the 1.1 is for eight um well that would make a little

1:08:16bit more uh that would get us more into the typical salary range um so that was one thing

1:08:28i was gonna ask we'll have to get back to that specifically when we sort of before

1:08:34we conclude but um i think that body understands the need to get staffing back in place you

1:08:43can't run programs without people um i had one other question nope that's all i had

1:08:48for now thank you chair thank you um councilman um star and then i have councilwoman i know

1:09:00that uh director probably got a couple more slides because i believe on slide presentation

1:09:05two starts on slide number 45 or something like that so um are we just doing this for

1:09:12the first 20 some slides comments questions um most of my questions stem from some other

1:09:19slides so i definitely don't want to just ask questions around the round some of the

1:09:25things my first thought will be um to the director based on your current staffing levels

1:09:31um that you currently have filled are you able to fulfill all the roles and the requirements

1:09:38of HUD funding with regard to the rules and regulation of CDBG dollars um currently which

1:09:43are staffing levels that you have currently filled today through the chair uh to the council

1:09:48woman through the chair we are um i would say that it's a struggle i i'm i think part

1:09:56of the there are two challenges there one is that um it's difficult to given the number

1:10:05of people that are allotted and the levels of technology and and sort of uh uh junked

1:10:13up processes that we have um it's harder than it needs to be so um one of the things that

1:10:22we are really thinking about is how we can do more with fewer people and some of that

1:10:28is through process change and some of that is going to be through technology so as folks

1:10:33are leaving we're not feeling this tremendous pressure to like hire a million more people

1:10:39but we do need uh the the flip side of all of that is that because of the constraints

1:10:46on our ability to pay staff we are at something of a deficit in how we can attract folks to

1:10:54come and work with us because we're not able to offer the same level of pay that many other

1:11:00departments are simply because we are constrained by this funding source and so for that standpoint

1:11:05to the question or your response um so basically your entire department is budgeted through

1:11:12vast majority of um community development block grant hud funding hud rules hud regulations

1:11:19um and at 20 amounts to close to 3.9 million dollars and then overall your total for your

1:11:27actual staffing levels and your entire entire department is around 6.7 so therefore the

1:11:33other 2 million that's a change roughly comes from the actual general fund and then that's

1:11:39where you are constrained to those rules of hud because vast majority of your budget

1:11:44is coming straight from these um cdbg allocation which kind of sometimes make you put a strain

1:11:49for your department to be actually do certain things with a certain level okay um overall

1:11:55from the standpoint i think you said we have a little bit more about 20 um your department

1:12:01not just your department we get around roughly 20 plus million dollars in total from hud

1:12:07grant from hud actually and what's that actual definitive number 28.1 million so we have

1:12:18um in your department roughly 20 28 million dollars point one sorry to the councilman

1:12:25just to clarify the the block grant community development block grant is 19.6 million correct

1:12:32um which is where that admin cap and our salary come from and then where's the where's from

1:12:38that 19 where's the other nine million dollars to get you to 28 uh that's the other grants

1:12:44that make up the um consolidated entitlement grants so that's our home partnerships home

1:12:50investment partnerships the emergency shelter grant which is homelessness and homelessness

1:12:56services and hopple which is housing opportunities for people with aids so all of those funds

1:13:01come through our department but only the the community development block grant pays

1:13:05our department salaries all right because those others the other grants are program

1:13:09right that's correct and then through through those dollars um where do they come from

1:13:14you said their grant do you have a funding source where those grants are from to be

1:13:18able to do those work uh to the councilman those grants are also from hud okay so overall

1:13:28those grants do they have um similar stipulations and rules um as to cdbg dollars yes and then

1:13:38from that standpoint have any changes have happened with the rules in hud um within

1:13:44those dollars or have the rules been just the same congruent as they have been for

1:13:49um since the 70s or with the minimal changes or judgments or amendments from hud to the

1:13:56councilman i would say yeah the the changes really have been minimal um i think the the

1:14:03biggest source of change really has been in process so that data reporting system that

1:14:09i described for example is a i wouldn't call it new it's from probably the late 90s but

1:14:16um the the sort of alignment and kind of the scientific measurement of these results

1:14:24is relatively new but um overall the restrictions are are pretty much the same okay so and then

1:14:32i was looking at um some of your slides on like 19 and um as you was wrapping up and

1:14:39it was basically talking about neighborhood investment um and the nda's and then obviously

1:14:47some of the things that you have to do um actually occurs 19 19 like based on some

1:14:58of the rules of what you're doing from possible neighborhood investments and how you are able

1:15:05to have these meetings or discussions after the hearing and making those things change

1:15:11um is it possible for you to from your department to work earlier to get this information out

1:15:18to have these meetings sooner than later because one of the things is when we talk

1:15:23about business and you talk about operations and you talk about organizations or you talk

1:15:27about just the financial or budget you can always have a projected budget you also have

1:15:34rules and plans and goals that you want to accomplish on a different year to year basis

1:15:39and based on actually funding you get you could be able to tailor what you're going

1:15:43to do for each year as the project come up to be able to keep things afloat so folks

1:15:48understand what you are trying to accomplish within your five-year goal um so my one of

1:15:54my biggest question when it comes to community development is one, do HUD still have those

1:16:03hundred and one different tiers of opportunities of how you can spend CDBG it was a point

1:16:10where HUD had a hundred and five hundred I think it was like a hundred and ten or something

1:16:16range of different ways to actually utilize um CDBG dollars then second it was noted

1:16:25that the community the Department of Community Development decided to come up with the different

1:16:31three tiers where it was more so you could do the matrix code so different matrix code

1:16:38that was in place where you could have single family homes we have have limitations you

1:16:44can do different projects that can fall within line of what the oversight that your department

1:16:53can actually manage as opposed to what the need is and what my question is as I'm speaking

1:16:58of this is one or is there any way for us to open that up because some of the needs

1:17:05that we have when I'm looking at um a report that was sent to us from 2020 2024 on February

1:17:132024 and when you see people saying that they got the activity of well we did some

1:17:19technical home repair assistance my heart the house is still falling the roof is still

1:17:25falling off but a community development corporation who receive funding to have staffing to do

1:17:32work they're saying hey I did general technical assistance to this home repair and but the

1:17:38house is still not prepared or they say they have general technical assistance to a business

1:17:44but they never receive no dollars so setting up a meeting with somebody and then passing

1:17:50them off doesn't don't add up to nothing if you ask me so I'm trying to get under

1:17:57clarity is one not saying that I'm against up um having staff paid or anything like

1:18:04that that is never my point or my attention is my my thought process is how do we get

1:18:09these dollars in a neighborhood so we could develop um everyone screams and I keep hearing

1:18:14this this low moderate census track and these different maps but let's be honest

1:18:21and be real just because people have a couple different precincts parts does not equate

1:18:29to the equity that is needed in neighborhoods that has full full precincts and areas that

1:18:38is low moderate income and we have not put no investment in those neighborhoods we also

1:18:44say from that from that standpoint of the tools that they hood have there's other cities

1:18:49who have used cdbg dollars to address different insecurities and different problems in their

1:18:54neighborhood so when I talk about full deserts and creating an economic system that we need

1:19:00in our neighborhood to make sure we have businesses that can actually stay afloat and

1:19:05get started um also when you talk about affordable housing I remember assistant director whackers

1:19:11um sent me over a whole list of different um tools and and works and projects that

1:19:18were done and when you look at areas that my neighborhood it was nothing getting done

1:19:24it was all general technical assistance business assistance no multi-family houses are being

1:19:30built um no housing equity plan that is that is strategic initiative that was actually

1:19:37occurring in war five so my my frustration is the fact that I can see the tools of cdbg

1:19:47dollars being used to build and develop elsewhere but when it comes to one of the neighborhoods

1:19:52got got the most impoverished area of central we don't have nothing getting done with these

1:19:58dollars so as we talk about all this swapping and all these different things director I

1:20:04am definitely want to task to be able to uh work with your department to figure out

1:20:08some resolutions of how can we how can we get dollars into the war five and actually

1:20:14do the development that the residents are part of so to the councilman through the

1:20:21chair I I would say a couple things so I think first one of the things that you're

1:20:27talking about is the structure of cdc funding those matrix codes where you identified the

1:20:34three particular codes um that cdc's are historically the last few contract cycles

1:20:41have been restricted to um there is a lot of complexity around what what it what defines

1:20:51an eligible project and an allowable activity under that eligibility um and one of the

1:20:59things that we struggle with is helping cdc's find product projects that are both eligible

1:21:06and allowable that's point number one point number two with the cdc's my feeling about

1:21:12measuring those that that sort of home repair technical assistance or or what we call home

1:21:19repair administration that you describe one of the things that we do when we fund cdc's

1:21:26for that work is we are helping them staff their offices so what that means is that

1:21:33we are in essence and I'm terrible with sports metaphors so I'm going to apologize ahead

1:21:37of time if this doesn't land but what we're doing is we're asking Michael Jordan for

1:21:42his earned run average and when cdc's report oh we did all this work on on home we did

1:21:49all of these points per game okay oh no no no no but I got you this is the point the

1:21:54problem is it's the wrong statistic right so I I mean Michael Jordan could play baseball

1:21:59but he was not a pitcher I did some research on this but I got you I'm with you but but

1:22:04he played baseball too but he wasn't a pitcher so I checked that out um well there you okay

1:22:11sure yards per carry that sounds great um I will trust that that is a sport thing um

1:22:16so the challenge that we have is that we're funding cdc's to do one thing but the work

1:22:23that they do that's the most important is actually some other thing and so I can ask

1:22:29all day long how many folks you helped signed up for home repair we have so few functioning

1:22:34home repair programs in the city that it does not matter and so what what does matter

1:22:40is that there was someone in the office who was there when a resident came in who addressed

1:22:46that resident's concerns who helped that resident find some other resources help to

1:22:52build some community but we can't because of the restrictions on our dollars we can't

1:22:57fund that work we have to fund this other thing so so my question is we have a system

1:23:05that plays design and fail our neighbor that is 100 percent correct and here's what if

1:23:11I may the thinking about the project that you requested for us to help with that the

1:23:19boiler building in out way right yes so we're gonna take down that boiler building and

1:23:24that's gonna kick start some a development project in your district right you were able

1:23:29to do that because there was an accumulation of your ward dollars what if you didn't have

1:23:34to spend your ward dollars what if you could just come to me and say I need this to happen

1:23:38in my ward how can you help me make this happen and I would love to do that so what I'm I'm

1:23:45hopeful that as we enter this new plan the CDC question is is separate and yes is gonna

1:23:52require a lot of other negotiation and conversation on a variety of levels but at the core what

1:24:00you're talking about is getting more projects done in community without worrying about whether

1:24:07or not it's NDA or if you've got these dollars or those dollars we all have the same goals

1:24:14so what can we do to further all of this and we've created I believe a plan that will

1:24:20allow you to come to me and say I want to do this how can we make it happen and I wrap

1:24:24up cuz chairwoman I hear you and I see the look you're giving me so um and what I mean

1:24:30by that is how do we set up programs that can actually do that with these dollars because

1:24:37coming to my CDC and a resident is irate because they're boiler went out like promised

1:24:43up I have a resident who boiler just went out on e69 um her going to Burtonville car

1:24:49office because she bought the house from Burtonville car just seeing a staff person

1:24:55there who don't have no help or no resources doesn't solve that problem for that resident

1:25:02me being able to call Cleveland housing network because I have a relationship with some folks

1:25:06over there to try to connect that resident to some services to get some assistance help

1:25:12is helping right now currently to try to fix that problem so my question would be have

1:25:18we explore ways ways that we can use these dollars and get these dollars over to organizations

1:25:24that can actually utilize the dollars for resources of that nature and not just need

1:25:29to fund on different positions that can just do the technical assistance because I'd be

1:25:35more intrigued of being able to get the person to the right way to do it like I know even

1:25:41within war five we got a home repair program that I'm working with a partnership through

1:25:46coyote county land bank and habitat for humanity is there a way to get community development

1:25:51block grant dollars utilized for those repairs to them so therefore we can actually do it

1:25:57as opposed to just someone there and I yell chair to the councilman through the chair

1:26:02we did how many of those repairs we we do that currently so we currently work with

1:26:08CHS to do furniture pair of furnace replacement how so these are programs that we can definitely

1:26:14do and we have done and will continue to do again also can I have a one record request

1:26:21on chair woman could you give a list of onto our staff to mr. titran and his team possibly

1:26:29from 2022 to 2026 how many home repairs have we actually done utilizing CDBG or any special

1:26:39programs that direct dollars that come from community development department thank you

1:26:47councilwoman Hudson then I have councilman show thank you madam chair I just have a

1:26:54couple questions first currently what's the through the chair what's the percentage of

1:27:03allocation that flows through community development to our CDC's or other nonprofit organizations

1:27:13versus what the programs that you all do yourselves I don't know that I have that

1:27:20exact breakdown I can tell you that 40 percent of our grants in the last few years have

1:27:28gone into what has been referred to as NDA then another 85 percent of that NDA has gone

1:27:35to CDC's there's additional CDC dollars that come from the department we also do our public

1:27:42services and Citywide grants so I think let's see so our plan for 2025 sorry for the seizure

1:28:02so public services is about 15 percent I mean I can get you the exact number but it's it's

1:28:12a lot basically the amount that goes to other organizations versus what we do not the majority

1:28:17but a significant portion of it's not the majority of the grant but it's probably the

1:28:22majority of the non-administrative work okay and through the chair is it correct to say

1:28:28that your entire department is funded through this allocation it is not quite correct all

1:28:37but six of our staff currently are funded through this allocation six of the entire

1:28:44department six out of 77 are not funded okay okay and how is it determined you know which

1:28:52projects you all take on and I see the list of priorities how do you determine which

1:28:59specific projects are done you know by by the community development department versus

1:29:05what's expected from community development corporations so we offer a competitive grant

1:29:18process for public services and Citywide programs so folks can apply for our funds and those

1:29:26are done in categories that are very broad so Citywide services or other public services

1:29:35I would say in terms of the home grant so that would be housing development that is

1:29:43generally developers come to the city and seeking those grants or they do they will

1:29:49come in response to an RFP we intend this year for the first time and I don't know

1:29:56how long to offer resident programming through an RFP that is not something that the city

1:30:02has really initiated historically but we are starting to initiate that I think the in

1:30:12concept what should happen is the need defines a goal and that goal is we're going to serve

1:30:18you know 15 families with housing counseling services so there's we understand that housing

1:30:28counseling services will get us to this goal of access to homeownership and so we in theory

1:30:36would create an aligned sort of activity there that would be the housing counseling and

1:30:42then we would say we would put out an RFP saying who wants to do the housing counseling

1:30:48in terms of how those decisions get made I have a staff that is in constant communication

1:30:56with folks in the community and CDC and what programs people are looking for our financial

1:31:02empowerment blueprint was the product of a year's worth of research and community engagement

1:31:08we make these decisions based on what we hear in the community and the needs that

1:31:12we've identified does that answer your question I think so yeah thank you I'll have to watch

1:31:17it again just to make sure that I got everything straight but thank you for that is it correct

1:31:24and this is this is my understanding so if I'm wrong please let me know that this restructuring

1:31:32of CDBG funds for community development corporations that instead of giving CDC's and allocation

1:31:40that council members would have a specific project let's say you know I want support

1:31:48for you know a housing project in my ward that and perhaps you know I don't have CDC's

1:31:59that do the type of work that are in my ward so I would work with you to develop an RFP

1:32:09for what I'm looking for and then it would be open to any organization to respond to

1:32:17that okay so that's correct that is correct that's the councilman through the chair one

1:32:23thing that we have also built into this year's plan and we'll again tomorrow when we get

1:32:28into projects we can talk more about this is in addition to the administrative funding

1:32:35that the CDC's are receiving we would like to be doing sort of a running RFP for home

1:32:41repair so for example that we're going to substantially renovate 10 houses in your ward

1:32:52and we can rotate those throughout the city if you want more and want to put additional

1:32:58of your funds towards that we can issue additional RFP's but the idea is that we're doing this

1:33:04in addition to the support that keeps the CDC's running not instead of it is of course

1:33:13you know historically it's been council's decisions around how much they want to allocate

1:33:21to their CDC's and I would certainly advocate for your CDC as a recipient but if there's

1:33:29a decision to be made the decision still as far as we understand it is is with council

1:33:35and through the chair would council members still be getting an allocation for ward so

1:33:44more on this to come to the councilman through the chair what we're thinking the way that

1:33:50we're thinking of it is sort of an internal earmark so instead of allocating a lump sum

1:33:54in our plan there's a line in a ledger it's not articulated as a specific project but

1:34:03it is a certain amount of funds and then those that certain amount of funds in our ledger

1:34:10gets translated into projects that go into the plan and so the plan then is a list of

1:34:16things that are going to happen rather than just a dollar amount and through the chair

1:34:24I know that I don't I believe that not every single ward in the city has a CDC that that

1:34:32serves it or at least there are neighborhoods that don't have CDC coverage that is correct

1:34:41in small places okay and also it's also my understanding that you know some CDC's are

1:34:48stronger than others and it might also be that the neighborhoods with stronger CDC's

1:34:54are the neighborhoods that don't need as much work and is one of the goals of this

1:35:02restructuring to help balance the investment that the city gives into neighborhoods that

1:35:10need it the most to the councilman through the chair I think it's safe to say that that

1:35:16would be my hope but I am very aware that there's a lot of politics around that that

1:35:25may be beyond my control okay and you know and I did get a chance to look through you

1:35:31know I think all of the materials that were sent over ahead of time and you know one

1:35:38of the studies it was troubling to me because the neighborhoods that were studied you know

1:35:46didn't include the most challenging areas of my ward you know whereas the old Brooklyn

1:35:53was one of the neighborhoods that was part of the target study stockyards wasn't included

1:36:01or you know a portion of the Detroit Shore Way neighborhood that suffers from you know

1:36:07extreme violence prostitution and drug activity but because it's kind of you know in quote

1:36:16Detroit Shore Way it's not seen by many of the funders as a priority neighborhood so

1:36:29you know I'm in addition to you know being concerned that the the most challenging parts

1:36:36of my ward aren't being looked at appropriately I'm also concerned about the defunding of

1:36:46the CDC's that represent these areas by our by the foundations and Cleveland neighborhood

1:36:56progress to the councilman through the chair I'm not sure what study your which piece

1:37:02that I know I inundated you with tons of information let me see if I can it was the

1:37:11it was the study that you mentioned that took part took a year oh the financial empowerment

1:37:15blue financial empowerment so that just to clarify on that I thought that might be it

1:37:20the financial empowerment blueprint was really a study in the racial wealth gap so the neighborhoods

1:37:25that were chosen for that study were chosen because of their racial makeup and so I mean

1:37:34it's neither here nor there and that we understand that the entire city is is struggling financially

1:37:41but just so that you know that's that's how that those decisions were made in terms of

1:37:48funding or defunding CDC's it is nowhere near our intention to do that I think the

1:37:57challenge is that we're faced with constricting resources from all sides philanthropy is not

1:38:05necessarily helping in this situation and so we are feeling tremendous pressure as

1:38:14the weight of these organizations success or failure is in many ways on this body right

1:38:19now and this body's ability to negotiate a general fund swap of some kind or I don't

1:38:28mean to open that can of worms right now but but I did but it but that's where this

1:38:34conversation is coming from and that is why this conversation that conversation is urgent

1:38:40we definitely feel very keenly that that the success or failure of these organizations

1:38:46is on the line and that many of them are struggling but we don't have the resources

1:38:50to really help them improve and and part of I will say part of that that neighborhood

1:38:58home repair which is in the plan as CDC home repair is around technical assistance too

1:39:03so how do we help our CDC stand up home repair programs but it does still have to be outside

1:39:08of that baseline funding that we already give them thank you that was a lot that's

1:39:13okay that's all thank you next up I have councilwoman house Jones and I have councilman

1:39:20Jones and then thank you to the chair to the team good afternoon I just really just

1:39:34on this section really wanted to talk about the citizen participation plan so how would

1:39:43I say so have you all heard anything about call it was called what's in your wallet

1:39:48have you heard about that sure like that huh like the commercial no no no so one of

1:39:56the things probably like three or four years ago I made a actually a proposal to this

1:40:03council and hopefully this year now people can see the the thought even before of engaging

1:40:11people's feedback but what's in your wallet is it was like a week long week long engagement

1:40:19of Clevelanders regarding the city's budget literally so we had you know the morning

1:40:26afternoon evening times as well as virtual time set up to be able to go through the

1:40:32city's budget get people you know to really give their input for those who attended and

1:40:39so I'm offering this to you as we can do a supplemental to what you may be proposing

1:40:45in a very real way to actually get people's input for those who want to engage I just

1:40:51think it is a practice of this council that we need to do it throughout the year and

1:40:56you know we have the budget but there are also other opportunities right because I know

1:41:00you know in this body there are 15 members and everybody wants their moment and all

1:41:05that type of stuff but if we did a practice where we are scheduling and engaging and when

1:41:10you look at even in other cities this is what they do they have very a very robust

1:41:15and engaging times to go out share with people their budgets get people to get their feedback

1:41:23and beyond that like we're talking about the in-person meetings but they are also

1:41:27the other opportunities when we think about engaging people on social media utilizing

1:41:33text messaging utilizing our council newsletter right we're coming up at the end of the year

1:41:40there's an opportunity when we do our ward wide or north city wide council newsletter

1:41:47or whatever we're going to do to mail out to every household this is another opportunity

1:41:51to get people's real input just based on what what they think how much money you know

1:41:58if you had however we're projecting the budget to be how would you spend it right I mean

1:42:03these are real exercises to get people's insight into how we are spending the people's

1:42:10money and then to begin to utilize that data based on the allocation that we get to then

1:42:17write sizes as best we can so I just really wanted to add this to the conversation because

1:42:23this is like I said just a fundamental we can see that we're not talking to each other

1:42:27we're not working with each other we're not planning with each other and even beyond

1:42:31some of the larger city wide events many council members like myself actually just

1:42:39engage in more intimate conversations at our local community meetings and neighborhood

1:42:44meetings which if you knew about them those could all be a part of the larger citizen

1:42:49participation plan so as while people may think oh no that was a ding no it's probably

1:42:55not a ding it's just because it's not being recognized as engagement in the time that

1:43:01it is so that's really what I'll say in this portion and again my office will be more

1:43:08than happy to share some of the information I know Councilman Slife had did the presentations

1:43:14and stuff like that so everybody could you know has been planned out you know you started

1:43:19off don't do that and that was the other thing too because I'm always one of these

1:43:23people where we like we actually partner with various people to you know sponsor refreshments

1:43:30and you know all these different types of things because I just think that we just

1:43:35go through the process of doing things without embracing which what I know is radical hospitality

1:43:44treating people very well when they are with you so that they'll want to come back and

1:43:49so if we incorporate that in our practices you'll be surprised what people will how

1:43:56they'll show up for us and be in partnership with us okay to the councilman through the

1:44:01chair thank you so much and I look forward to the opportunity to discuss further thank

1:44:14you Madam Chairwoman you know there first one I'm gonna say I was watching a lot of

1:44:20the presentation well listening to a lot of the presentation before I came down so

1:44:26I want to welcome the director hadn't had a chance to officially do that at the table

1:44:31because I don't sit on this committee anymore but I will be attending all the sessions one

1:44:37of my concerns has always been an ongoing concern for me over the years going all the

1:44:43way back to the 90s and this was the issue how do we we fund our development corporations

1:44:50and and what has been an issue before at that time and before that time because I even

1:44:58talked to previous council member Earl Turner and we've had like hours and hours of conversation

1:45:06about block grant and how it's used and one of the things that I've seen from that space

1:45:13and time to now is how there has been decrease in eligible activities for development corporations

1:45:20and how those decreases come to happen and and it really takes away from the real work

1:45:31of building community because there's a lot of small parts and pieces when you're talking

1:45:34about building a community and protecting this interest and and at the end of the day

1:45:40retaining its population and and I haven't heard the thing last time I heard the thing

1:45:44about bring population in the city of Cleveland was then under Mayor Mike White previous

1:45:49mayors really haven't fundamentally really looked at this this particular piece but

1:45:53funding and development corporations properly is important and here's where the big discussion

1:45:57comes in and I'll ask some questions in terms of staffing the issue that we find ourselves

1:46:06in is turnarounding turnaround in terms of the dollars once the contracts which unfortunately

1:46:13for ever takes forever to get to the local development corporations now you have language

1:46:19in it you can't do any work until you actually have a contract so the problem of how unfortunately

1:46:27we're killing our CDC's literally killing them here is when we fail to have clear communications

1:46:37on how they are to report and to receive a payment and because you're already lethargically

1:46:48slow these development corporations and it's not you it's the department that you're in

1:46:53unfortunately that you had to receive you had to come in some of these development corporations

1:46:59I've talked to them and I've had a number of development you know and I sit on the

1:47:03Cleveland housing board and and I hear all the complaints and I've had a chance to kind

1:47:09of digest this and and just hours of this discussion I don't know why we have such a

1:47:15delay process in turnaround in terms of the contract these should be boilerplate items

1:47:22majority of it we should already have a streamlined process in place we should after all of these

1:47:27years we should have a real thorough system and now each new develop director that comes

1:47:37on there's a new plan your predecessor gave us a huge presentation told us and asked us

1:47:43about being able to to help her and we I want to do the same here I want to make sure

1:47:48that you're successful I want to make sure you have all the tools necessary you need

1:47:52but our development corporations and getting the funds to those development corporations

1:47:56and and some people can't hold that money so if they they're old 4550 or $100,000 and

1:48:02you're holding that money it means a lot to them sometimes it's their only source

1:48:07of resources coming back into them so it's like a small business they're starved out

1:48:13so they can't keep credible people they can't pay people and it's just that vicious cycle

1:48:20of nothingness so where's the funds were met and intended to really uplift the community

1:48:25to try to deal with the part impoverished areas of the neighborhood it is failing to

1:48:32do that because it's failing to have this side of the hall in shape to be able to deliver

1:48:38the resources so that the work can be done in a consistent way and so with that I won't

1:48:45go into details because it's a lot here to to to to digest and and I don't want to waste

1:48:50too much of even though we have 10 minutes I don't not trying to use it all but I want

1:48:55to just ask the question about how over the years now we don't have the same kind of

1:49:02activities that we're being allowed to use that we've had a chance to use in years past

1:49:07that hood actually still have on their boards today why are we limited because we're not

1:49:11building houses in world one I've been trying to get one house built one for nine years

1:49:18I can't even get a development housing and development in my neighborhood I can't tell

1:49:22you why it's so difficult and hard but if we've concentrated on these last four years

1:49:27with your previous predecessor to focus on that and now we I'm seeing the same thing

1:49:30in these presentations it's it's like you got to make me understand why and no one

1:49:37has been able to do that why are we so late and turning those payments around to these

1:49:42local development corporations why does it take so long for these contracts to work

1:49:46and then part of what you said is that you have so many contracts so let me start here

1:49:49with this question Mr. Madam Chairwoman to the director looking at your staff you you

1:49:57say that we have nineteen point six million that comes from the federal government for

1:50:02block right the nineteen point six is the is the community development block right

1:50:10okay and so that nineteen point six million what is the total amount of money you're

1:50:17paying for the current staff to to to run this program to what's your run let's rephrase

1:50:26the question Mr. Chairman sorry I'm gonna rephrase the question so I'm clear what is

1:50:32the total cost of your entire staff that you pay on an annual basis to the councilman

1:50:43through the chair our staff cost general fund and all all in is about six point seven

1:50:52million pardon six point seven million so six point you spend six point seven million

1:50:58on seventy seven staff yes 77 staff on 77 staff thank you and at those 77 staff members

1:51:08they administered the nineteen point six million dollars many of them do that work okay so

1:51:13it's not all of them six million to get nineteen out it's shorthand to the chair to the councilman

1:51:22through the chair sure okay so let's still look at numbers if we can so right now with

1:51:2977 staff members we're having a difficult time with being able to process over the

1:51:38years and that's not when I talk and I'm not I don't want you to get the wrong impression

1:51:44Mr. Chairman Mr. Chairwoman to a director that that these some of these questions may

1:51:52be uncomfortable but they're needed in order to fix an issue that has been in existence

1:51:59for 50 years when Congress decided to put these funds in place they decided to put

1:52:07these funds in the various purpose to really wipe out poverty and that's what they were

1:52:12that's what the argument was that was the fundamental function of the Congress at the

1:52:16time when they started putting this whole piece together how can we help poor cities

1:52:21and suffering peoples we talked a little bit about this this morning I think councilwoman

1:52:25was very eloquent and making the presentation that the first thing we need to think about

1:52:31morally speaking is how we feed people how we take care of our citizens and so with

1:52:39that we're sitting here with 6.7 million you have 77 staff what do we need to do to

1:52:45make this program work flawlessly how many more staff people do we need to have or we

1:52:50can have a really good program how can we sitting here as council people help you be

1:52:56able to have a program in such a way where our neighborhoods are not suffering the way

1:52:59they are right now to the councilman through the chair I thank you for phrasing the question

1:53:06that way I think you know what I have put up on this slide is that really what we're

1:53:13looking at is our program operations team and our enterprise operations team are the

1:53:18folks that really deal with the administration of the grant so of those 77 people that's

1:53:242434 folks I think there are a few things that will transform that process one is technology

1:53:37we do not have an effective grants management software tool it's 2026 and these things

1:53:47are readily available we're working on that that is one thing that that is very high

1:53:52on our list is is bringing in appropriate technology to manage these grants the second

1:54:00thing that will transform this process is training for our staff so right now we are

1:54:09working with ancient processes and idiosyncratic things that that people sort of decisions

1:54:20that individuals have made that that create all sorts of of slowness and then the last

1:54:27thing that I would say that is really necessary to get these payments out the door is that

1:54:36consistency in communication and in process between counsel staff and our staff we are

1:54:45we bear a significant portion of that blame I don't say this to say that your staff are

1:54:51not doing what they should be doing at all but there just has not ever been a collaborative

1:54:58process it's always been like you do this for me no you do this for me and so you know

1:55:05this is very it's about internal controls and and how we we operate as a department

1:55:13so that's a high priority for us is is to work on that I think to to characterize the

1:55:23slowness of the payment process as as anyone holding on to money I think is is a little

1:55:29bit unfair I would say that part of what slows the process down is that the documentation

1:55:36that is required in order for us to release a payment is complex but we also don't have

1:55:43consistent ways of asking for that documentation so there's definitely work to be done on

1:55:48all sides but our hope is that with technology and training we'll be able to make some significant

1:55:54changes and I thank you Miss Madam Chairwoman to the director for that because it's more

1:56:00there than meets the eye and I know that we can't go into at the table but at some

1:56:03point I really want to take a deeper dive behind the scenes because I have some suggestions

1:56:07I have sat here at this table and I have suggested to the previous executive director

1:56:12about how to manage programs and I was very you know upset and angry because I serve

1:56:17people I do everything I can every day to think about ways and means to serve the citizens

1:56:22of my neighborhood and and we talked a little bit about this this morning how starving

1:56:26people are and how the problems are really significant and we bear the brunch as being

1:56:31elected officials of those territories and the citizens look at us so with that in that

1:56:38same vein and breath to talking about servicing our citizens one of the things that has been

1:56:42difficult and and I'll share this and we need to streamline it as quick as we possibly

1:56:47can is creating or bringing a consultant into assist and I'm not sure if we have consultants

1:56:52and I've talked about that here at this table for complex problems that are consistent you

1:56:58know one of the issues is data centers you know it's a certain way I feel about that

1:57:04but at the same time this council needs to have an expert that can help drive the conversation

1:57:10because we have said we've had people in previous times talking about our Cleveland

1:57:13public power and we've misspent mismanaged money and we're in debt we made bad decisions

1:57:19and so at the end of the day I think that in order to to protect the citizens resources

1:57:25and money we need to make sure that we have the right consultants I would consider because

1:57:29this has been an issue and an ongoing issue and a major problem and I don't want to bring

1:57:34out some of the problems there at the table wouldn't have enough time to do it but we

1:57:38need to have someone else coming in to help to manage this process we need to have some

1:57:43professionals that can help us streamline the process and and I believe if we do that

1:57:48we're going to be in a good place when it comes to contracting I don't know if we've

1:57:51gotten to that yet but when it comes to the contracting portion of it I've always said

1:57:55it is unfair to know that you already run out of money and you still have the applications

1:58:02going out to the people it makes no sense cut the program off because Madame Chairwoman

1:58:07this is heartbreaking to sit in the meeting and I'm glad Stephanie House Jones put together

1:58:14forums for community input she was the only council person to do that at this entire table

1:58:21and I haven't seen unfortunately practice has not been in our neighborhood in all the

1:58:26nine years I've been in I've had no director come to me maybe you have but that's it no

1:58:33director but you so thank you director so so but with Madame Chairwoman the issue this

1:58:39heartbreaking is to stand in the meeting and to have someone really angry in the crowd

1:58:45and say hey we apply for this program and we've been waiting for a councilman and we

1:58:52never got it we applied for it ten years ago and I said I'm so sorry I'll take a look

1:58:59into it I don't know what happened what's okay now because my mother's dead she died

1:59:06waiting to get her roof fixed she was in this program that long and so when when I

1:59:13when I'm sitting here and I'm talking to you your your department in conclusion thank

1:59:19you Madame Chairwoman your department is probably one of the single most departments

1:59:25in the city of Cleveland because you're tasked with the responsibility of helping poor people

1:59:30thank you Madame Chairwoman thank you Councilman Shaw thank you chair I'll make a quick I

1:59:38know he's have a lot of presentation to get through and I think a lot of my questions

1:59:42are actually going to be about the proposed new way of doing things so I'll wait for

1:59:47most of those but a couple of things I just wanted to kind of bigger picture things understand

1:59:52as well as a new council member director I know you're also fairly new but I wanted

1:59:58to understand as you've been doing all of this work to bring this here can you share

2:00:03a little bit about I guess I'm curious as to why we're not also talking about how other

2:00:08cities do the this process as well so that we can actually understand what's working

2:00:12and what's not so I wanted to just through the chair to the director if you can share

2:00:17a little bit about what other things have you looked at what other cities if you can

2:00:21share a little bit about that process as well and whether that's guided this thank

2:00:27you to the councilman through the chair I will say that Cleveland is the only city

2:00:30in the country that funds community development corporations with community development block

2:00:35grant dollars they are the wrong dollars for the work that community development corporations

2:00:41want to do but they're the only dollars that we have in terms of other cities we've been

2:00:48looking at Cleveland and sorry Cincinnati and Columbus to Councilwoman House Jones one

2:00:56of the things that I've been really looking at is Boston and the way that Boston does

2:01:00their public budgeting information because to have a process to mimic in terms of how

2:01:06folks are educating their residents around how to work the process that's certainly certainly

2:01:12very useful so in other cities generally there is a combination of capital projects neighborhood

2:01:22improvements so things like parks and fire stations it depends on the size of the city

2:01:26of course and what their other revenue sources are but what we I think you know street resurfacing

2:01:34is a frequent use of these dollars generally cities like to find a fairly consistent place

2:01:42to put them so something that needs to be done frequently or maybe they have a longer

2:01:47term capital plan that they assign dollars to projects over the course of several years

2:01:54there's just the the beautiful thing about these dollars is they really are very useful

2:02:00and very flexible if you're able to plan ahead and be smart about what you're doing and

2:02:05choose the right projects so you know we would love to be in a position to be able to say

2:02:12okay over the next five years we're gonna put dollars into this park and these roads

2:02:19and this firehouse but that's we are trying to sort of modernize the way that we use

2:02:27these dollars in the within the framework of the way that Cleveland generates funds

2:02:36for capital projects which I don't know how unique it is but is not at this moment really

2:02:44allowing us to get into that work we're trying we're trying to figure out what it might

2:02:49look like but yeah I think most cities do a combination of housing related public services

2:02:58things like housing counseling down payment assistance there are a whole bunch of different

2:03:05things that you can do with these dollars that's helpful and I think just one quick

2:03:11point and then I'm gonna yield chair to the rest of the council and the committee members

2:03:17you know since I'm not on DPS I seems we need to make some changes it seems like the

2:03:22status quo isn't working but I would encourage us as my big bigger picture framework I'm

2:03:28trying to wrap my mind around right is I think we're the discretionary dollars are

2:03:36a process for council to push for neighborhood level things to happen ideally we would do

2:03:45those things as part of the budget since we are also part we are the legislative budget

2:03:50making authority I think historically we haven't always done those things because partly there's

2:03:55been lots of challenges in getting this money out the door and I think this is clear like

2:04:01kind of a historical process that's kind of come about but I think I also so I think

2:04:07there's accountability that has to be taken on on both sides of that of like the citizen

2:04:13participant I mean going through that report of what had cited of the reasons it's clear

2:04:18though there there are and personally what I've been frustrated at least with some of

2:04:22the transparency and accountability things on the reporting side has been I mean we've

2:04:28talked about the housing plan 2030 director before right and I guess what I'm looking

2:04:33for is more of that accountability as well on these bigger priorities it's I'm glad

2:04:40to hear right in the consolidated plan that housing was the number one priority we submitted

2:04:43as a city I want the administration to show that with the other resources that the administration

2:04:49has at its disposal as well and that's not on your department but that's more you know

2:04:53up to the senior team and the advisor teams of are we are we complacent with just putting

2:05:00these you know fraction of money on these things and where those top line priorities

2:05:06and so I keep going back to those I know there's a lot of frustration on that but

2:05:10I I I hear you that you know the money that we have here isn't enough I'm looking forward

2:05:15to yet talking about a different way to fund these things but yeah I'll yield the rest

2:05:20of my time right now chair thank you thank you to the councilman the councilman through

2:05:25the chair I think one of the things that I would like to point out is that we were

2:05:30thinking about the priorities of the administration writ large as we developed these priorities

2:05:36so you'll find over the next day when when folks other departments come in to talk about

2:05:42the way that their work intersects with these grants for example thinking about housing

2:05:49I think that the Housing Innovation District is going to be transformational in terms

2:05:55of how we think about building housing and and our department plays a role in that in

2:06:00connecting residents to that growth the the homelessness work that we're thinking through

2:06:06as a department is really supported by the work of the Department of Public Health and

2:06:10the Home for Every Neighbor program so I mean I think there's just a lot of alignment

2:06:15that we worked to find and and I think the way that Chief McNair is encouraging us as

2:06:23a cluster to think is really more more integrated than I think things have been in the past

2:06:30so I hope that you'll see over the next five years that our work becomes more integrated

2:06:37into the work of the city as a whole and that like the priorities that we're setting

2:06:41forth as as things that are important for low to moderate income residents are also

2:06:47at the top of mind for the as an agenda item for for the administration I hear that and

2:06:54I'll just respond real quick Chair I hear you my frustration lies and it happened already

2:07:00this is year five for the mayoral administration there's only so long we can go by blaming

2:07:05what happened in the past and this is a high priority then I want to see that action happen

2:07:10now not in five years I understand you're new but once again those are some of the

2:07:15pipeline things and I guess my final thing I am I gonna see a report card for the housing

2:07:19plan 2030 tomorrow I'm sorry are you looking for a report card the housing plan 2030 asks

2:07:28puts the responsibility on the administration come up with a report card on how the administration

2:07:34has achieved the metrics set in that housing plan 2030 that was set in 2022 there hasn't

2:07:41been one yet we've talked about this before I've asked for this months ago I know that

2:07:45some of the data is around in different places the plan is clear I want that report card

2:07:52to the councilman through the chair we can give you numbers on home like housing units

2:07:56that were built through the home program part of why we chose to revisit the housing

2:08:02equity plan a year ago was because there was no accountability for collecting that

2:08:06data and and I'm not sure where that data exists or or how we would collect it what

2:08:14I can give you as the home data and you're right I did promise you that and I will be

2:08:18sure to follow up on that and it's there I mean the data is there I mean it's pretty

2:08:26it's not that hard to you know the numbers it's asking for are complicated but it's

2:08:33I flagged this once again for the administration earlier that report card is just one of those

2:08:37accountability tools it's a public facing thing we're talking about how we can have

2:08:41more transparency let's at least stick to the words that we've put to paper if we can't

2:08:46stick to the words that HUD is asking us why not at least stick to our own that I

2:08:49think is a step one of in this process so I would I'm hoping we can come up with it

2:08:54by tomorrow like I said I've I've been patient I've been trying to hold off and waiting

2:09:00for this I know you're new but please can we get that because yeah it's hard for us

2:09:05to kind of assess this without getting those numbers and report backs to actually understand

2:09:10and you know 40% of the funds that are administered through the CDBG money is the NDA funds that's

2:09:19council funds that HUD identified as you know lacking in public participation I just

2:09:24want to point out 60% of that is still the administration's that is that's not a role

2:09:29that we play a part in and that is also being indicted as something that didn't have adequate

2:09:34participation or the transparency and I think that report card is one example of how we

2:09:39can improve those things to the councilman through the chair what you were describing

2:09:43as a year-long data collection process so I don't anticipate having it for you tomorrow

2:09:49but I we can certainly work on on getting I don't think it's a year-long one though

2:09:56I respectfully I disagree I mean it's something that like I said I fight but I think for

2:10:00the administration during the budget when we were here eight months ago seven months

2:10:05ago this is something that you are required to do I understand that wasn't something

2:10:10that was made clear to your department or the responsibility wasn't something that was

2:10:14kind of allocated but to me that's just not a good enough answer this is a report card

2:10:18that's going to help us track how we're meeting the housing equity plan why wouldn't we try

2:10:24to come up with it so that we can hold ourselves accountable to the plan we've set to the

2:10:29councilman through the chair I will do my best to get you something I appreciate that

2:10:33thank you councilwoman gray thank you chair appreciate it I want to discuss your upcoming

2:10:47changes to citizen participation plan which I really I really admire because this right

2:10:57here states that you're going to be holding at least two citizen workshops engagement

2:11:02events for residents to help set priorities and that is a priority that has been needed

2:11:10a long time ago because of the citizens that comes to us a chair to the director that comes

2:11:20to us to ask us what is going on with not only what what are we providing to the neighborhood

2:11:31but what we providing to the CDC's and that is a huge downfall for all of us to deal

2:11:38with CDC's is that not operating up to the standards that they should be and in my position

2:11:46as a council I'm between CDC's that that has not been operating up to the standards

2:11:54to the previous ward four now to ward three and I believe these workshops need to happen

2:12:03now because what's going on with the CDC's that I'm dealing with today I haven't had

2:12:08a discussion with you a while ago pertaining to CDC's understand what your department

2:12:15does with a CDC when it's not operating up to the standards that it should be because

2:12:21the standards that's happening now it's not it's not doable to what to what is needed

2:12:30in ward three right now so I'm glad to know that the upcoming changes the upcoming changes

2:12:39is going to be happening because our citizens need to be in a broader more opening structural

2:12:47meeting with the CDC's instead of the same folks at these meetings at the CDC's that

2:12:54are just common common knowledge to them but not but not knowledge enough for other

2:13:03citizens to understand what a CDC supposed to provide for the residents of all the residents

2:13:14in the community and I will also echo Councilman Joe Jones when he stated that residents are

2:13:23having a huge problem when the CDC is providing grant home a grant funding for home repairs

2:13:34and when they are approved they don't notice the long lingering process that has to be

2:13:42approved along the way but then if they're waiting six months to a year then they get

2:13:48a call saying well you're not approved because we out of money then they have to start the

2:13:52process again that is that is a unacceptable because the council get their butt kicked

2:14:01behind that wondering what happened and now I got to start over again and will I be and

2:14:08will I be approved for another program which they wouldn't be because their income is

2:14:15over that program that's why they apply for that program through the CDC because their

2:14:22grants are different than the affordable grants that we get through the HUD single

2:14:28citizen programs and most of these other citizens are under 60 and if they can go

2:14:34through a CDC to get a so much funding to get covered on some things then they can't

2:14:42then they have to wait the next the next cycle to get something done and then they

2:14:49roof has fallen apart they porches have deteriorated more so that's more frustrating on them we

2:14:57get the calls more frustrating on us so I think that this particular changes in the

2:15:04citizen participation plan to understand what the CDC supposed to provide to help the resident

2:15:12I mean you know have the council to get the information out that that I will I will commend

2:15:21you on this and as you know we had a conversation because I'm fighting like all the outdoors

2:15:28right now to make those changes okay so thank you for that and also you're holding two

2:15:35community public meetings one one in person one virtual you're holding one city council

2:15:42hearing one in person one televised because since since some of the language and the structure

2:15:50is changing that is really needed because it can get confusing for some of councils

2:15:58I'm a new council been here five years so I am learning to understand more of the process

2:16:05of the language you know with this format for me to explain to our citizens how things

2:16:13work so I wouldn't have to be frustrated with these CDC's and that's a travertine

2:16:20so I just want to say thank you for that and also one huge director to the director

2:16:27I mean chair to the director one huge concern that you know I've always had a problem with

2:16:34but I'll tell you something is Davis has been a gym she has been a gym working with

2:16:40me with the paint program so so will that be able to be able to be implemented back

2:16:50into this change of funding because of what still is is approved but we have some people

2:17:01still waiting I want to know if that process when that process when all this is changing

2:17:08I still like to a heat to all those residents who've been waiting still for the for the

2:17:18for their homes to get painted through the approval process and that's one thing that's

2:17:23that's majorly that I am experiencing to the day you know people are low income they

2:17:29can't afford it if they could they would have had their homes painted but their income

2:17:36would not allow it because it cost a lot the time and labor that someone could do it

2:17:42and that's unfortunate that some people have to wait they wait instead of doing it because

2:17:48they can't get it done so you know that's one of the programs that was approved under

2:17:53the previous administration but you approve you but but you agree to continue it I've

2:17:58been working with Miss Davis and she's been a wonderful advocate holding off on this

2:18:03but could you let me know how that you know how that would still be implemented in the

2:18:11new process moving forward chair to the director to the councilwoman through the chair we are

2:18:17wrapping up those projects for you hopefully overall one of the things that we're thinking

2:18:23about as part of part of future home repair offerings we're thinking about shifting to

2:18:29siding it's more expensive but it's more durable and and so as we start to re-envision these

2:18:37home repair programs overall we're really thinking about like how we can invest in in

2:18:45the housing stack in a way that it's a durable repair rather than a paint job that needs

2:18:51to be redone in in five to ten years anyway you know another challenge that we see with

2:18:56paint is that like the clapboards are deteriorated to the point that that that they're not really

2:19:03paint to believe in anymore and so like how can we offer something to folks in those situations

2:19:09yeah and the the other drag on the paint program is that it is seasonal and that we

2:19:13have such a short window every year to to get those jobs done but it is you know part of one

2:19:19of the many elements of home repair that we're thinking about as we start to go forward and

2:19:24think about piloting some new some new things all right thank you for that and just one more

2:19:30thing uh why the upcoming changes of the citizen participation program how will the cdc's be more

2:19:38adequate in um uh in uh constructing their meetings with the citizens um because i know

2:19:48they are i know they're underwater they're under staff and they also need more professional staff

2:19:56in their cdc's to understand how to provide the services to our citizens in the community

2:20:05because that's kind of a struggle of that i been having per se uh so um uh they also need to

2:20:16understand how to participate not only what your department with the council better for us to

2:20:23understand how to provide the services that all councils want to have um in our community so we

2:20:31can uh um use the money um you know use the funding more effectively so chair to the director

2:20:38thank you councilwoman to the councilman through the chair i think um you know one there's sort

2:20:43of two sides to that one is that we're always happy to work with cdc's and and one of the ways

2:20:49that we're looking to support them is finding different kinds of technical assistance that we

2:20:54might be able to provide um but on the other end of that um you know we are also hoping that as we

2:21:04do these citizen workshops and and look to be collecting more information from the community

2:21:09that we're not necessarily creating special meetings but participating in meetings that are

2:21:14already happening so things that are happening in the cdc's things that are happening in your wards

2:21:19how can we use those things as opportunities to to get input from citizens as well so looking

2:21:24forward to it okay thank you chair appreciate it thank you vice chair i know you had two minutes to

2:21:29go yeah thank you madam chair i i left myself two minutes i just want to um i'll be very brief uh

2:21:35since we've got three new members here or at least in your first term i just want to point out a

2:21:39couple things because i think this is worth noting for everybody um first off had i known

2:21:4412 years ago how much my life would evolve around cdbg i might have made different choices um but

2:21:50when i was the housing director at metro west we also had to deal with the cdbg and i had to do the

2:21:55reporting for hud uh let me reassure everybody here um hud has been unhappy with our arrangement

2:22:01since 1977 uh cdbg was passed in 1974 um the first objection to it we found some objections

2:22:09in 1977 the general office of accounting was not happy with the way hud even accepted our

2:22:14application back in 1977 so these objections from the federal government over the way the cleveland

2:22:19handles and processes this has been decades in the making none of this is new it's all very much

2:22:24par for the course um the second thing is that i regarding public input we have been doing public

2:22:30input for 50 years uh with cdbg and you know if you ever read randy cunningham's book democratizing

2:22:37cleveland 1975 the 1985 community organizing is a really good uh primer on what was going on

2:22:43in that decade there were some fairly large community meetings the union miles civic

2:22:48association drew hundreds of people and they would discuss cdbg funding um and how to apply

2:22:53those funds uh that heyday sort of tapered off um and and for the last for this century

2:23:00we have been stuck i had one of uh i hosted one of councilwoman house jones uh what's in

2:23:04your wallet meetings at the rec center i think we got 15 people there which is pretty normal

2:23:08when we have a public meeting for budgets because it's just not that interesting to

2:23:12as many people these days but i just want to let everybody know that uh some of these

2:23:15problems have been decades in the making uh and um yeah i just that's all thank you

2:23:24thank you i just wanted to say part of the reason why people don't attend is because we

2:23:28don't effectively communicate no one knows that exist and i am this has been my number

2:23:35one complaint being here in this body is and across the city we do not effectively communicate

2:23:42we do not have a comprehensive strategy that should incorporate all the different ways that

2:23:46people communicate texting phone calls literature drops social media that's a comprehensive

2:23:53communication plan and when we do decide to do it we'd be like oh did nobody show up didn't

2:23:58nobody know and ain't nobody gonna adjust their schedule when you let them know the day before

2:24:02that's all just want to make sure we put that on thank you just small point and mailing because

2:24:09that's important to a lot of citizens when you're trying to reach them you need to melt to them a

2:24:14lot of times when we're communicating from the executive side of things we just go social media

2:24:19so we don't really pull into people who are really impacted so when you do have these

2:24:23sessions and these meetings you have to put all those things that um madam chairman stephanie

2:24:27house jones talked about in addition to mallards thank you thank you director proceed with your

2:24:34presentation well we can just keep writing going so the um only bit that's really remaining today

2:24:42i think we kind of went through some of already um as the discussion kind of flowed to i will

2:24:53just keep clicking there we go um to uh the sort of reflecting on our 2025 grants um oh it is it

2:25:07might be helpful here to just pause here for a second and talk about how um we are dividing the

2:25:15dollars that we have been awarded by the needs as they exist um and so you can see that we have

2:25:22allocated about 10.2 million to affordable housing both the um expansion of supply and the

2:25:29preservation of existing um about 570 000 this is cdbg alone to homelessness and at-risk

2:25:38homelessness remember that there is um a full other grant that is dedicated to homelessness

2:25:45at 1.7 million dollars um we also um are um at about 3 million for neighborhood revitalization

2:25:55a lot of that goes to what we call project clean so this is the department of public works and

2:25:59their maintenance of vacant lots um access to housing opportunity housing an opportunity that's

2:26:06about um 728 000 and that's really going to focus on financial empowerment programming

2:26:12programming in the middle neighborhoods these are soft cost programs rather than construction work

2:26:16primarily um and then finally our public services is at about 1.1 million and then we're at about

2:26:233.9 for planning administration um to be honest uh the next slide takes me to day two um so i i

2:26:32don't know if you want us to i could go onto the next thing or we could just pick up tomorrow um

2:26:40the the first slides on the next presentation so um there's a good chunk of things that are

2:26:46programmatic and so we would need other folks to who are coming tomorrow to join us to present

2:26:52those we could go on to talking about process improvement but we can talk about that tomorrow

2:26:56too but i mean the process improvement require staff that is not here process improvement does

2:27:02not but other programmatic things do okay are you guys okay we go into process improvement

2:27:09i mean we set a harsh stuff at four yeah okay four four thirty four thirty four three okay so

2:27:15we still have time so yeah madam chairwoman yes my concern is is that we're prepared for a two-day

2:27:22presentation and um you know in order to give the members enough time to go through a lot of this

2:27:29information some of us have but this is still a lot more here that we need to really review some

2:27:33of us i know i'm one of them and to have the because we one of the things i'm concerned about

2:27:40is that in years past we've had these big presentations before this gives us an opportunity

2:27:46to really look back at what was talked about where are we fundamentally right now and it

2:27:52gives us an opportunity madam chairwoman to talk about really the production and and success and i

2:27:59would just suggest that if this is what we're going to talk about we're going to go into another

2:28:03zone that's supposed to be for tomorrow i would say we keep to the agenda of the days that we got

2:28:08and allow the director to go there unless madam chairwoman we're going to open up uh why we're

2:28:13not funding cdc's with this money no i think we're going to leave that for tomorrow but can

2:28:18you just go through the because that gives us some time to and then we'll yeah we'll finish it off

2:28:23like i said we were on the schedule to 430 so so so this is that with you guys because tomorrow

2:28:28scheduled from 9 30 to 5 i'm sure i know that gives us a whole day yes and it's a lot of

2:28:34information today was only from 1 to 430 i see madam chairwoman i i would yield to your wisdom

2:28:40go ahead let's see um sorry um i'm gonna turn things over to um assistant director

2:28:49levenger who's gonna um describe some of the process improvements that we're

2:28:53can everyone hear me i'm a little quiet i just want to okay

2:29:09it's the same um c8 yeah great um so i think we've um director has talked a lot about kind of

2:29:22process improvements and the challenges that we're facing um the idea is that really um we want to

2:29:28work together with council and our partners to kind of get to the solutions we want as she

2:29:36mentioned just to really help you achieve the goals that you want to do in a compliant way

2:29:41and make that happen so um so basically one of the things that we have a challenge with

2:29:50right now with nda is that it's kind of triggered at different points throughout the year

2:29:56as requests come through um that leaves this having the whole contracting cycle over and over

2:30:02and over again um and that creates a lot of extra work on our our staff to kind of go through that

2:30:08process which takes two to three months to kind of get through everything so that's one of those

2:30:13challenges so what we're proposing for a future state is that we would take um that type of kind

2:30:22of more ad hoc and have a process with which we would do that kind of at one point in the year

2:30:29where we would identify the needs in collaboration with you right this is meant to be a collaborative

2:30:34process and so um we will outline i think later like more details in that in that process about

2:30:41nda but the basic overall principle is that we would work collaboratively with you at the

2:30:46beginning of that year to identify what your needs are and the best way to go about procuring

2:30:52those needs right so we want to make sure that we're getting into a compliance state with

2:30:56federal procurement regulations and our environmental compliance um so help us let

2:31:00us help you make sure that we get your needs covered and do it in a way that doesn't get us

2:31:05in trouble with that um so we have cdb cdbg funded things um overall we're looking at the

2:31:13cdc's as being a non-competitive process with an application that means that they will be

2:31:18sub-recipients um and we are federally allowed to do that as a non-competitive process but it

2:31:23does require an application and so we would go through that and then for our city-wide public

2:31:27services and word-based projects it will be a bit of a mix of sub-recipients which can be

2:31:32done through a non-competitive process with an application but we are primarily focused on

2:31:37making that a more competitive process where we would issue an rfp and allow folks to to bid on

2:31:44that whether that be a cdc or a non-profit that is something we could define in the process of

2:31:49developing that rfp we will remain the non-cdg funded funds will remain kind of casino enough

2:31:55and those are things that we can um you know take as a one-off but we can also work with you

2:31:59and kind of provide a service where if you have an idea that you want to do with your casino funds

2:32:03we have a service where we can help you design the program to develop an rfp um and that type

2:32:09of thing too sorry you said development fee if you help us with your chargers to help us

2:32:15with the casino funds so the councilman through the chair we're not uh necessarily charging you

2:32:22explicitly at this point um i would say that we do have a general fund position whose role is to

2:32:29work strictly with casino funds thank you so we have a lot of opportunities for council in this

2:32:37new process so our proposal to you and like i said we'll go into that in a little bit more detail

2:32:43is that really in this first iteration that we would use the beginning of this cycle to

2:32:48collaboratively develop what the priorities are and how we are going to kind of procure

2:32:52the programs that will address your priorities um we would do that collaboratively and i think

2:32:58we can also design some of that process collaboratively at the beginning as we kind of get on

2:33:02our feet with a new process um we would come to you with kind of a kickoff but then we can

2:33:07work with you in small groups or as individual council persons with your staff to do that um

2:33:13obviously you would help inform the rfp development process and then you can be included so if we

2:33:18issue an rfp for something that's a priority that we i think we had we didn't mention um with council

2:33:23woman hudson about kind of maybe 10 you know houses and your ward you could also you would

2:33:28help us develop the rfp but you could also be as um on the committee that reviews and scores the rfp

2:33:34so you can kind of have some input there and then obviously we would liaise with you guys

2:33:39throughout that process covered this one already um but just to kind of highlight contract volume

2:33:49yeah these casino applications are from cleveland city council correct okay and i would add you

2:34:03know and this is not i don't mean this to be directed at any particular person i know that

2:34:09this is the process i am often hearing about casino contracts for the first time in a council

2:34:15meeting when the legislation comes up i don't have to sign off on that legislation it's the

2:34:21legislation authorizes the department to enter into the contract but we don't ever get to say

2:34:28hey maybe that's better administered by public health or by pio like you know what i mean we

2:34:34don't get to um we don't get the chance to say our volume is really high right now can we do this

2:34:38so it would it would be i think really helpful to us to have that be a little bit more of a

2:34:44conversation director really quick and i'll let you get through your have you identified the

2:34:48breakdown of why you are being notified when we're hearing it on this is what process improvement

2:34:56is for so it's just not in the process it was it never came up and so i think for us it's it's just

2:35:03part of this larger work of saying okay step one you know let the let the department know that

2:35:10you're going to do this you're going to ask this of them and and we have you know this is all

2:35:16sort of yet to be determined ready to be fully refined but it needs to change so that we can

2:35:22better manage your requests okay client's context um we talked about this a little bit but i think

2:35:32really hud is monitoring us to make sure we're compliant with the cdbg regulations federal

2:35:38procurement regulations environmental review regulations um and there is a lot of things

2:35:44that we need to do to improve in that space um let me get a little bit more into that um so these

2:35:51are kind of the changes that we're proposing to get there um and so we we mentioned this the

2:35:56timeline and deadline for council on directed project selection so we want to kind of set that

2:36:01project selection out up front um to get it into the um the annual action plan and then part of

2:36:07the citizen participation um we want to um so we are planning to fully fund the cdc's for 2026

2:36:20and 2027 um and that is a combination of departmental contribution and award contributions

2:36:30and then um yeah so the biggest thing here is that discretionary projects that come in they

2:36:38have to align with the consolidated plans needs and goals um it's a level of detail too far for

2:36:44this kind of meeting but there is kind of a matrix of our proposed projects in the annual plan

2:36:50and the types of activities that are eligible and allowable under those projects and so

2:36:56as requests for funding kind of come in on that on those ward based public services we have to

2:37:01make sure that they are aligned with that consolidated plan that is a um if it's not

2:37:07aligned it's not really an allowable activity um we're gonna really clean up our project

2:37:14initiation process and make sure that we have kind of a more defined process and more controls

2:37:20in that um and we really don't want the funds to accumulate over program years so in addition to

2:37:26HUD measuring our performance based on our accomplishments that the number of homes that

2:37:32we've rehabbed and the number of people we're serving they are also measuring our success

2:37:36based on how we expend funds right so if funds accumulate we get dinged on our performance

2:37:42by HUD um and so that's an important thing that we expend those funds in a um timely manner

2:37:49i can if jeff wants to talk more about that we can i would like to hear that yeah madam chair

2:37:56through the chair are we talking about the rfp participation for nda the council funds you want

2:38:03the applications to go to cd for our funds they currently do come to cd for the nd okay so do

2:38:11you want to lump then the funds that cd is always made available to third parties with the funds

2:38:17that we have is that what you're saying into one big rfp process no i i think what we're saying to

2:38:24the councilman through the chair is um that we have there are two separate processes it's it's

2:38:36things there are two separate processes one is based on identify a need find someone to fill the

2:38:42need the other is i want to fund this organization to do this work they're two different one is a

2:38:49competitive process one is a non-competitive process so that is how the the projects are

2:38:56categorized rather than are they nda or not nda because it's all the same the nda is not really

2:39:03a thing and through the chair why do you want to do it this way because it because there's a

2:39:09level of compliance with the federal procurement standard that is not currently being met and so

2:39:15we are more concerned about compliance with the procurement standard than we are whether it's nda

2:39:20funds or public services funds or city-wide grant funds the dollars are all the same to us

2:39:27it's all the same kind of contract what's important to us is how the vendor is chosen

2:39:33and why is that of higher importance because that is what the federal procurement process

2:39:40requires of us to have either competition or qualified subrecipients and we need to treat

2:39:48them differently when we as we monitor and contract and we need to be able to identify

2:39:57which is which currently one of the things that we get dinged all the time on is that we have

2:40:04folks that are technically contractors that we're treating as subrecipients and subrecipients that

2:40:10we're treating as contractors melissa can do a much better job of describing the difference

2:40:16between those things but i and i will let you do that yeah sure so i the federal government

2:40:21um it's like one page of cfr it's pretty easy read but basically um there's two categories

2:40:28there's a subrecipient and there's a contractor and they've got like a good little table here

2:40:33that will help but basically a subrecipient is somebody that manages the entirety of a program

2:40:40so let's think about um like uh we currently contract with community housing solutions for our

2:40:48furnace repair replacement and hot water tank replacement um they manage the eligibility

2:40:54process so they they bring in the applicant um they make sure that they're financially eligible

2:41:00for the federal funding they go through administering the process um and they are

2:41:05responsible for following all federal guidelines right so they are managing a program so that's

2:41:13kind of the primary thing subrecipients manage a program on the flip side a contractor provides

2:41:19goods and services right so um senior transportation yeah that's a perfect one so we contract with

2:41:27senior transportation center they provide a service we ask them to provide so much transportation

2:41:32to senior citizens and they provide that for us and that makes them a contractor and the

2:41:38responsibility for making sure all the federal requirements are met falls on us the city as the

2:41:44grantee if you are a subrecipient we are going to pass that down to to to them to kind of also we

2:41:50will monitor them but they are also responsible for that and through the chair these are required

2:41:55these are a hundred requirements for the cdbg fund they are to the councilman through the

2:41:59chair federal requirements for any federal all federal dollars federal funds right right yeah so

2:42:04through the chair the you know swap which we're murmuring about bypasses all of that it just leaves

2:42:11you with cdbg funds that we said the councilman through the chair it leaves us with the city's

2:42:16procurement process which is also which is also restricted restrictive but different it's just a

2:42:21bit different um understood thanks yeah um so in terms of accumulation um the plan is to make sure

2:42:33we have spent all nda balances um at least have them under contract by march of 2027 um i believe

2:42:41there's about three million in change hanging out five yeah is that council's allocation um and i

2:42:47have to put out there that is not our fault i i'm just putting that out there i mean i understood

2:42:53sent information and it's taking a year to fund um esperanza so i just want to put that out there

2:43:00and to to all of council through the chairwoman we are happy to help you identify projects we're

2:43:08help happy to draft rfp's we can help facilitate the spending of those dollars so going back to

2:43:14your point and i'm sorry i want to get let you get through this like let's just say i am funding

2:43:19esperanza do they have to go through rfp process understanding that they're the only latino

2:43:25education okay yes so that really falls back to um federal procurement regulations and so

2:43:33um there's dollar value thresholds that kind of set the competitive procurement requirements

2:43:41so there's micro purchases which for hud is up to fifteen thousand dollars there are

2:43:46simple acquisition which is between fifteen thousand and three hundred and fifty thousand

2:43:51dollars which is where most of the things that we are working on and talking about here

2:43:55kind of fall into that process that typically requires soliciting at least three bids to make

2:44:01sure that you are having um you know good price and then there is kind of full and open competition

2:44:08which is for hud anything over three hundred fifty thousand dollars um again this is for contracts

2:44:14right so if it is a sub recipient we are able to do a non-competitive thing if it is a contract

2:44:21for goods and services and it is the only organization in your ward that can provide

2:44:27that service there is a sole source procurement justification that we can look into i think the

2:44:32moral of all of this is come to us let us help you i think we can help you figure out what the

2:44:39right procurement avenue is that make sure we do our best to make sure that you can fund what

2:44:44you're trying to um and that we can do it in a way that is federally compliant we're doing this

2:45:03so this kind of takes us to the end i'm happy to answer i'm sure there's going to be a lot of

2:45:08questions in this section um so when does this implementation start ideally to the to the chair

2:45:19we would like to start in november um the need to identify projects that will go into our annual

2:45:29plan because that annual plan is due april 15th which means it has to go out for public comment

2:45:33about the first week of march so are you asking council members to submit all their yearly plan

2:45:39in november we are asking for as much as you can in november and when i when we say uh to

2:45:46the chair when we say projects all we require really is a description like a couple of sentences

2:45:53description um and the idea that we get as much as we is that we get as much as we can into the plan

2:46:03we can again with through our amendment process we can do a second round at some point over the

2:46:09summer if there's like still funds to be spent and still needs to be met which hopefully i'm

2:46:15sure there will still be needs to be met um so we can make amendments to our plan as the year goes

2:46:20on but in order for these projects to be vetted through citizen oversight they need to go into

2:46:28the plan and so if there's an amendment there's also a another public comment period so they get that open

2:46:34so really quick so i have my allocation i sent you some of my yearly um proposals what if something

2:46:45comes up in the middle of next year that i want to fund to the chair i i think we can all agree

2:46:53that this is not the best source of funding for emergencies but we can we can find we can find

2:47:00ways to make it happen maybe not immediately but we can find ways to make it happen okay i'll let

2:47:07me go ahead so through the chair if i understand correctly um so ward whatever number old brooklyn's

2:47:15been for decades has given four hundred thousand dollars to the old brooklyn cdc for i don't know a

2:47:21long time is that something you think the public should be reviewing and we should get public

2:47:26oversight on whether or not i distribute those funds to the old brooklyn cdc yes yeah um through

2:47:32that so we've never done that we've allocated from council directly to whatever cdc or whatever

2:47:39organization is approved or or eligible um and then they go off and do their work um and you

2:47:47believe that that is what we should open up to public scrutiny to the councilman through the

2:47:51chair that is what hud demands so all of my screaming over the last seven months about

2:47:59changes that need to happen around uh transparency and and public scrutiny it's it's about nda at

2:48:08the root because nda is a lump sum that is then dealt after the public sees the plan which is

2:48:18completely taking from the public their opportunity to scrutinize and comment so the public sees the

2:48:26community development plan the five-year goal plan um but that doesn't account for about 40 percent

2:48:34of cdp which is the nda carve out and you're saying that that missing 40 percent is the problem

2:48:41correct yeah so that's been a problem for 50 years correct um it's never stopped us from

2:48:47operating the way we do uh and we are on the precipice of changing how we actually distribute

2:48:53those funds entirely away from distributing them to the cdc's to begin with but you believe that

2:48:57for one year we should have a cdc allocation process that starts in a week and a half and

2:49:05goes up for public scrutiny uh by before march that's the proposal to the councilman through

2:49:10the chair yes that is the proposal okay want to make sure everybody understands that uh because

2:49:15that is a wild break from everything we've been doing for uh many many years and that is i think

2:49:20is that the elephant in the room or is there a bigger one uh to to the councilman i believe

2:49:23that is probably the elephant in the room but i i cannot stress enough that we as stewards

2:49:31of public dollars cannot assume that the federal government is not scrutinizing everything that we

2:49:38are doing looking for waste fraud abuse violation of regulations they are looking for every reason

2:49:45that they can find and i for one do not want to be responsible for the loss of those dollars

2:49:53absolutely i think that's why the swap legislation is so urgent um to get out from underneath uh

2:50:00that scrutiny um because we don't need the federal government um trying to tell us what's

2:50:05best for our neighborhoods that's why we were elected um okay that's all i want to make sure

2:50:09i understand that i'm not sure madam chair how we operationalize that other than with a

2:50:14whole bunch of it's i imagine like taking paper and cramming into paper balls and trying to like

2:50:20push it through holes um i'm not sure how we get paperwork like that done under such a immediate

2:50:29deadline it's to the councilman through the chair we the deadline is really not until january like

2:50:35we just need to start discussing it now and we as a staff are prepared to educate to train

2:50:44to work with um you know tony tell to do all of those things that are necessary and it's part of

2:50:50our larger process so so then let me say it this way from the for anybody watching this is why our

2:50:55eyes are rolling we are today's october 22nd we are this is the 10th month of the year we are

2:51:02about seven months behind our normal process for handling the cdbg and now we're being asked by

2:51:08the department to bump up next year's by four months over what we normally did for the last

2:51:1340 years to begin with so we are trying to wrap up 2026 while you're saying do 2027 within the

2:51:19next month and a half to the councilman through the chair i don't think that's exactly right

2:51:24we would normally get this at the end of next year's budget we would start cdbg you're saying

2:51:28start cdbg now i'm well to the councilman through the chair what i'm first of all what i'd like to

2:51:36remind you of is that what we are discussing right now is 2026 so is the 2026 program year

2:51:43which ends in may so traditionally the the when we you know depending on when congress makes

2:51:52appropriations and when we get our allocation that would traditionally determine when the hearings

2:52:00and our legislation to expend would take place ends in june it's july 1 to june 3rd our program

2:52:06year with hud is june 1 to may 31st cdbg has always been july 1st of june you are councilmen

2:52:17with all due respect you're incorrect it is uh june 1st to may 31st that is our program year

2:52:24with hud okay um so as all of that unfolded traditionally you were not as a body being asked

2:52:36to contribute anything to the plan we are now asking you to contribute to the plan in what we

2:52:43believe is a small and manageable way that we will walk you through um i i don't think that what we

2:52:51are asking for is outrageous and and as i was saying to to the chairwoman does not have to

2:52:57be more than a couple sentences um we have lots of time to to hammer out the nuts and bolts

2:53:03but we we need this to to be a part of this plan that gets submitted april 15th and we're

2:53:11just trying to give ourselves enough time to talk to everyone and and get through you know

2:53:18what we need to get through for each of you in order for that to happen i'm a little confused

2:53:26are you saying like we have to submit we have to submit by january the three million that's in the

2:53:33pop of no no no no no no no no no no no for everything for 2027 for 2027 and that and i

2:53:41totally believe in a plan but there's also leaving room that there are some last minute things that

2:53:48that would still go through the cdbg process correct and the contract but and i think it's

2:53:57just very hard to plan that much but i i appreciate that and and i also appreciate that we are asking

2:54:06we are asking for something different um but we are also asking for collaboration and i think the

2:54:13the lift on your side is not is not going to be as substantial as you are concerned that it is

2:54:21really we are going to continue to do most of the work as a department um this process does not

2:54:27have to be onerous it doesn't have to be there are just some boxes that we need to check and

2:54:34and to your comment councilman about um this being a one-year thing first of all we have no guarantee

2:54:43that it's a one-year thing for cdc's second of all these grants and this process is applies to

2:54:49much more than just cdc's and so we need this process to be in effect whether cdc's are general

2:54:56funded or not um and and this is part of what we've been asking for as far as reducing our

2:55:02administrative burden so that our department can actually manage the work that you need us to do

2:55:07um and and i i think it's all part of the same it's part of the same reform that's going to

2:55:14give you faster payments it's going to give you more effective contracting this is a department

2:55:21in need of a dramatic overhaul and so i i i hope that you know when i when i open this

2:55:29conversation i opened it with optimism because i know that my team can do it i know that we're

2:55:34ready for it we all want to change we all want to be more effective at our jobs we need your

2:55:39support to give us that chance to let us be effective to let us turn things around and to

2:55:44let us get compliant with HUD so that we don't lose these grants we're asking for your cooperation

2:55:49thank you i know i was running in uh when you first started just for context everyone at the

2:56:02table can you introduce yourself and uh through the chair how long you've been in community

2:56:07development department so i can jeff kacharski about four years with an 18th month hiatus at

2:56:18gas question yeah uh aaron miller tate about three years about seven months in this role

2:56:25uh melissa levinger a year about three months in this role two months no problem so the reason

2:56:35why i ask that because i am confused on between this presentation and then where we are talking

2:56:42and i'm not going to to be honest because i'm gonna call the people that i know in community

2:56:48development to get me understand this but i see one in the crowd is it okay chair we ask joy

2:56:55anderson to come to the table so i can ask her some some some real questions to understand

2:56:59something if possible to the director if if bureau chief anderson is willing to come up i i suppose

2:57:10because the kind of the reason why i'm asking that because i am a foreign believer that some

2:57:15meetings might happen after before the meeting before the meeting and everything that we're

2:57:19talking about i i do have trust in in the things that joy from her experience and community

2:57:26development upstairs can break it down for me to understand clearly so uh one of the challenges

2:57:33that i think we're trying to hear is community development has been working on the last few

2:57:38months to try to get in compliance with as it relates to community development and the allocation

2:57:44of hud funding with the rules that the federal government have in place we've seen a presentation

2:57:50of different ways of how we're going to do different projects how we want to get the

2:57:53dollars out the door how we want to be um in partnership with council and as a city overall

2:57:58to get these dollars now directed to the chair to miss anderson what basically are we doing

2:58:06just like help me out to make just i i want to make because because because there's a lot

2:58:14you know she's got like like eight more days of work yes i just just like i know i know you

2:58:22wasn't thinking no one to come to the table or anything just for the breakdown as as as simple

2:58:29as possible what are we actually trying to do time frame how to be in compliance and

2:58:35what does it actually look like so i can better understand what what we're trying to accomplish

2:58:40through the through the chair to the councilman um i will try to to articulate um a change that

2:58:51has been necessary for many years i think that as a department over the years for many of the

2:59:00people who are sitting at this table were in the department i really don't think that the um

2:59:07leadership did an adequate job of conveying to council um how important it is for the funding

2:59:17decisions that you make as a body become a part of our citizen participation process um and um

2:59:27i do think that prior to this administration it was not clear that such a large share of community

2:59:38but development block grant funding being placed under the discretion of the body um without that

2:59:47those plans put into our presentations to hud i don't think it was clear that um that has

2:59:57consequences for the funding um we have new um administrators at hud um who have their own

3:00:07pressures um and um they have been working very closely with this administration to right the ship

3:00:15they've been very patient with our department but i do believe that hud is saying to this

3:00:24department city of cleveland that you must change and you must change now thank you and the reason

3:00:37why like i said uh was interesting no i i pop up like yo can you can you help me out with this

3:00:44because what i'm hearing from the cdc doesn't doesn't make sense or what i'm hearing from some

3:00:50colleagues it don't make sense break it down so i can understand so i can do what i need to do

3:00:55from it so basically we have to get more in compliance and if we're going to process and

3:01:01accept dollars from hud we have to have our application with our projects included in that

3:01:08overall package not just saying hey we're going to do a whole bunch of other stuff in low modern

3:01:13income neighborhoods but really don't have an airmark or any descriptions of the projects

3:01:18that are taking place with the usage of these dollars to the councilman through the chair that

3:01:24is correct um we are we we really we need this stuff to be nailed down we need a clear application

3:01:32with a clear application date we need a process that says hey community development i'd like you

3:01:40to begin this work now in a way that's not just literally picking up the phone and saying hey i'd

3:01:44like you to begin this work thank you and from that standpoint to from that point that you just

3:01:49used directed through the chair um when you say description of projects that you are trying to do

3:01:56in nine days um explain like explain how that how what that looks like like what are you saying

3:02:03you need or prioritize what councilman star needs to send over to you because you know what

3:02:09i mean councilman star needs to call we'll set up a meeting with councilman star where we will say

3:02:15hey what are you thinking about and you'll say i'd really like to have more opportunities for

3:02:20youth to be occupied after school and we will say okay let's think about how that project is

3:02:27eligible and how it's allowable so we need to know who you want to serve and we need to know

3:02:33how many you want to serve and how many programs you want to do we need to know about what kind

3:02:40of dollars we're talking about here and then that's really it and so we can determine whether

3:02:47that is eligible and we will help you shape an rfp to find someone to perform that service

3:02:54or we will if you've identified say councilman as you've said maybe Esperanza for their after

3:02:59school programming we will work with Esperanza to create the proper kind of procurement agreement

3:03:06that enables that programming to go forward and then we're good all right so is this mainly

3:03:11through the process of the i believe 70 000 of social service allocation or is this for the

3:03:17complete four hundred thirty seven thousand roughly that council usually gets how so um yeah

3:03:24so we're thinking about to the councilman through the chair uh as i described it an internal ear

3:03:29mark of about 425 000 and so if you want um some of that money to go to a cdc if you want some of

3:03:37that money to go to a public service that would be that would be the process if you were thinking

3:03:43about something a little bit more complex like a housing project for example or contributing some

3:03:48of those funds as i know many of you do to to existing home funded projects or other projects

3:03:54that are going on your ward that's the piece that um we just need to know that you want to

3:04:00contribute the dollars and we we will have to um because we no longer have after the reorganization

3:04:07we don't really have expertise in our department to manage construction contracts like that anymore

3:04:12so we'll we would like figure it out with department of development how the contractor

3:04:17get managed does the dollar do the dollars just get added to the existing contract what happens

3:04:21we can do those negotiations um but but really it's not much more complicated than the other

3:04:27process yes and then obviously with some of us having different dollars and different accounts

3:04:33um and i believe is it uh five years we have to send the money back to hood um have we been

3:04:39able to get a clean updated document of where we are at and standing breaking down for each ward

3:04:46of where their dollars are at and how much we need to get those dollars out the door

3:04:50um prime example with this new process is it um serve a great greater purpose to be able to say

3:04:59with these projects that we're trying to do we want to use these dollars that we currently have

3:05:03that needs to get out the door first instead of that new funding because sometimes what was

3:05:08occurring like you heard from from miss ederson like it wasn't prioritized to telling us everything

3:05:14unless you possibly asked as a council member and then you found out like hey you got a month

3:05:19or you got to tell the end of this year to spend those dollars similar to some of the work we're

3:05:23doing with the dollars to get get the outweigh boiler down so from the breakdown if it's possible

3:05:29we can send over that request to council to let us know that hey if you got dollars that's um

3:05:35was allocated through cdbg that was in 2019 if you have an air market for a process or moved it to

3:05:43uh a project those dollars may be in jeopardy of being sent back because we haven't done nothing

3:05:49with it and it just shows in our reporting um that you still got a lot of x amount of dollars

3:05:55which is a red flag for the hood department who possibly is looking at those different things

3:06:00and basically saying why we're asking for 28 or 19 more million when you already got 10 million

3:06:06sitting there so you possibly only need 9 million which then comes into audits and concerns without

3:06:12us doing anything so but there are tools under your bill in your department that you could be

3:06:17able to say hey if a council person is looking to stack those dollars for a major project

3:06:22that they're looking for if we're talking about 425 000 right if you're saying hey

3:06:27that might be the range that we get for the next three years and you're talking about close to

3:06:31almost one in 1.2 million on a major development which we can do we just need to make sure it's

3:06:38earmarked year in a year in so therefore once it come up we ain't getting flagged or dinged we're

3:06:44letting you know that this project is persuaded to happen in three years or four years and that's

3:06:49when we're going to legislate that dollars to get to that actual project yes yes to the councilman

3:06:54through the chair that is absolutely correct and so if you have a project in mind that's coming

3:06:59down the road we can allocate your dollars over multiple years if you'd like us to do that

3:07:05we can help you work towards those goals but again it's about a conversation and collaboration

3:07:11and and us being better communicators because as you said and as director former director

3:07:17what's your title bureau chief Anderson um had shared that we um have not always been

3:07:23very communicative and clear about about what our requirements are and and sort of sublimated our

3:07:30needs to the to the will of the body which we just can't really afford to do anymore yep and

3:07:35um and i think i think i kind of get understand but i definitely would also ask obviously if the

3:07:41swap is completed right through this process that means the entire 19 million uh will be

3:07:49in the community development department or how does that break down from you because

3:07:54me and my colleagues we've been talking we've been talking back and forth to understanding

3:07:59of it obviously swapping general fund dollars um to the council members of 15 different ways

3:08:05broken out um is utilizing those dollars then that mean the original dollars of cdbg

3:08:11come straight to your department correct through the chair to the councilman through the chair if

3:08:17the if the swap if we can identify funds to swap and and they are able to be swapped um my

3:08:25understanding is that we would still be able to contract your general fund dollars in the same

3:08:31way so we could still do the things that we are talking about like helping you write rfp's and

3:08:36contracting the dollars um the funds the cdbg funds would instead of um would instead of being

3:08:47uh put towards projects in our department would probably be put towards potentially a capital

3:08:54project um so we would continue maybe to have some compliance role but we would not be

3:09:01responsible for the the implementing and monitoring of those projects got it so therefore you can use

3:09:09utilize it for capital projects infrastructure upgrades um demolition all those different things

3:09:17that can help the eligible activities eligible activities and those eligible activities are

3:09:22basically listed under guidelines would that get back to my hundred plus ways to utilize

3:09:28ideas it does and and then from that standpoint you're basically not essentially but you're

3:09:35eliminating those three bucket tiers but more being more broad and intentional to be able to

3:09:41find ways to get the dollars out instead of just saying these are only three ways because you're

3:09:45going to hire more staff to also help assist with that completion of doing this thing through the

3:09:50through the chair and to the councilman through the chair i'm glad you said that because i think

3:09:54one thing that we um would be able to do in sort of continuing to monitor cdc performance

3:10:03is we would be able to fund them for the things that we need them to do and that they're good at

3:10:08right like we don't need to fund them to refer people to thank you like we need to fund them to

3:10:14have events in their communities and to build you know to be place makers to be

3:10:20to to to do green space work like all of those things that um all and i will also say in defense

3:10:28of the community development corporations we as a city have not done a good job of telling

3:10:33them what we need from them and so i think it is our it is incumbent on us as as community

3:10:41development leaders to be much more transparent with them about what our expectations are when

3:10:47we're funding them we can't just give them money and then be mad when they don't do what we want

3:10:51them to do we need to be clear about what the what what we're funding them for and and and

3:10:57they need to agree to that work i think you you hitting the nail right down there on the head of

3:11:04the coffin um i see ed over there shaking his head yeah yeah yeah yeah you you you right there

3:11:12you you right there i know my colleague um uh my former colleague and good brother after the

3:11:18Harrison is sitting at home i text him already um and i told him if ed starts shaking his head

3:11:25i mean i might we might be on to something and i seen him shake his head three times um so i know

3:11:31as i wrap up chair um i just want to say thank you bureau chief Anderson um like i said

3:11:39she does an amazing job her and deborah they they they they put me in my place when i need to be i

3:11:47will say and what i mean by that is because they they understand that as a council member you have

3:11:54you get hit with so many things you're trying to accomplish and want to do and they say okay

3:11:59let's come back to earth this is what you can do this is what we can't do this is how we get it done

3:12:06but this is what i need from you and we're going to send it over and those things kind of align

3:12:11align me to be able to do something so as i close um i'm out of chair i just i want to say

3:12:17that one of the biggest things i i need to use cdbg dollars or any tools in the um an opportunity

3:12:25that we have with dollars from taxpayers in the city um for grocery store i have to get some

3:12:31grocery stores in my neighborhood and i need them not to not today but tomorrow um as soon as

3:12:39possible yesterday and and everything because one of the biggest challenges we have is um how do

3:12:47we use them dollars to be able to do something that's that is needed i do have um buildings

3:12:53and plazas that's that haven't been operated especially the arbor park plaza i mean it's

3:12:58owned actually by a cdc bird and bell car um have only one business operating in there

3:13:05um that currently but in order to get the plaza back up i've talked to some grocery operators

3:13:11um they got some magical ideas if there's a way to allocate these dollars to get the

3:13:17plaza up and running and get an owner operate get an operator inside of there i think from

3:13:23a grocery store standpoint we can make that the anchor institution we can figure out what to do

3:13:27with the other five um six storefronts in there to be able to utilize that but grocery store is a

3:13:33heavily heavily important topic an issue for me and i yield church um councilman um michelle uh

3:13:47chair i just want to clarify we have till 430 or yes okay um thank you i appreciate the walk

3:13:55through um i wanted to understand under this new proposed process what would be the steps

3:14:03or the controls we would have on the back end for um the subrecipient monitoring and compliance

3:14:11and how are we going to make sure that we're not here back again um to the councilman through the

3:14:18chair and assistant director lavender if you have um so i've the slide that i've put up here is um

3:14:26just to bring everybody's attention to it is sort of a timeline that slide 85 if you're following

3:14:31along on your tablets um i think to the councilman i think we have a a real project ahead of us

3:14:42in terms of cleaning up our monitoring processes but it's it's the the product of many years of

3:14:52as i said like sort of building up of idiosyncratic and we see this all over government right that

3:14:58there's there's an obstruction and instead of working through the obstruction we work around

3:15:02the obstruction and that working around leads to more working around leads to more working

3:15:07around and before you know it nobody's really sure what the actual requirements are and what

3:15:12are just the requirements of all the workarounds and so really our strategy is in in many cases

3:15:19to kind of start fresh um we are revising all of our current uh public service and homelessness

3:15:26services rfp's we're looking at um as i was saying new processes with um council budget

3:15:34discretionary budget staff to figure out what is the best way to get a project from your office

3:15:41to our office in a way that um checks all of those compliance boxes but also just in terms of

3:15:48process that that it's something that we're able to accomplish and so really our hope is that over

3:15:54the next couple months as as on the council side there's a focus on identifying what the projects

3:16:02are on our side of the of the aisleship boat whatever side we're outside good whatever uh

3:16:10on our side we're really focused on making sure that um our step one to step two to step three

3:16:17to step four is in order so that we have all the information we need to make sure that we're not

3:16:22in that's i guess i'm looking for like are we gonna have how many positions are going to be

3:16:29dedicated to making sure that these uh contracts are being checked up on the following year i'm

3:16:37looking for more concrete things of what's the plan for making sure they're in compliance we

3:16:42currently have um four eight positions dedicated to this kind of work whether on the general fund

3:16:49side and on the cdbg side we are filling our vacancies we're getting the process in order

3:16:56we we have the staff and we're building the technology getting the technology that we need

3:17:00to to make this all more efficient and clearly clearly executable and have you considered a

3:17:07public dashboard as part of this process so that we can actually have more of that transparency

3:17:12in the lifetime thing councilman council to the chair if i can um we're currently working with

3:17:21urban ai they have a team in the department that's specifically tasked to help us with a power bi

3:17:27dashboard and that dashboard will be public facing it will have a number of the sort of the

3:17:35yeah the indicators the the touch points that you talked about a little bit

3:17:39that would have um you know on a regular basis being updated in real time so that anybody could

3:17:47see the progress that we're making in terms of whether it's units being served or individuals

3:17:53being served in the in the variety of areas that we've talked about already in terms of in the plan

3:17:58those large um sort of like earmarked places that we're looking at so that that will be in place

3:18:05very soon we've already met with them a number of occasions uh we've already planned the kpis

3:18:10that we'll be looking at in order to to monitor that's sort of a large scale the smaller scale

3:18:16really will be when sales force comes online and we're able to monitor the grant process

3:18:21and these applications through throughout wherever they are in the process and that will allow us

3:18:27to monitor it internally through the managers program managers through bureau chiefs and then

3:18:32assistant directors making sure that we have you know accountability measured throughout the process

3:18:38and we can have that built into report to council on a regular basis or if you're looking for

3:18:44something very specific we certainly could meet with you and your team to make sure that you're

3:18:48aware of what's going on and how it's progressing through the process i appreciate that offer and

3:18:54what i i guess i'm looking for when i say the public dashboard does i want as part of this

3:18:59process right we said we don't want just HUD compliance we want genuine public participation

3:19:03and transparency and you know i don't want to have to go explain to people and be the middleman to

3:19:10explain how we're spending our funds i'd much rather they can just check on that and understand

3:19:15what kind of progress the city's making on these things that we've committed to councilman uh and

3:19:23chair uh the the power bi dashboards would be public facing okay and so anyone can access it

3:19:30at any time it'll be on the the website and uh they'd be able to toggle through a variety of

3:19:35different data that'd be more specific so if i'm looking for specifically a ward or or an area

3:19:41geographic area they would be able to look and see what the stats say in that particular section

3:19:46what i'm hearing then through the chair to the director and the team is you're committing to

3:19:50having a public facing dashboard where as soon as we submit or whenever you know shortly within a

3:19:57i don't know week whatever you think is reasonable after we submit the annual plan to hud

3:20:02that would also be visible and publicly accessible so people can see what the status of those things

3:20:07are to the councilman through the chair the the annual reporting for hud is already available

3:20:12publicly um and we we probably it's not feasible for the public to directly access it from hud's

3:20:21website or for us to put it on our dashboard necessarily but the dashboard we are committing

3:20:27to a public facing dashboard and the the assessments are publicly available um i want

3:20:37to understand a little more about the citizen participation portion of this i know you indicated

3:20:43earlier kind of like the what the hud recommendations were of the two per i think you can go back to

3:20:50the slide right it was on that slide and i believe these are taken straight from the hud

3:20:54recommendations am i right exactly to the councilman through the chair um hud requires

3:21:01two public hearings um and a 30 day public comment period sorry i can't

3:21:13so we are proposing the addition of these citizen workshops uh the workshops it the intent of the

3:21:20public hearings is to tell the public what you are doing the intent of the workshops is for us

3:21:26to learn what the public needs and so um taking those two things together we believe that our

3:21:32citizen participation plan will be much richer and much more um and much more uh much more

3:21:42like just responsive and able to to articulate um what our residents have asked us for um the

3:21:49other piece that is ours in addition to what hud requires is um the plain language summary

3:21:55pieces that i think are really important so that just you know normal non wonky people like us

3:22:02can actually understand what the plan is asking i look forward to that and i would encourage you

3:22:08know having those are having more i think more would make sense because we have i mean just east

3:22:13and west i mean different words all these things right um i would encourage more of those workshops

3:22:19and are they going to be available like in different languages are we going to have

3:22:24is there any more thought about those um when we did these workshops in the spring um we offered

3:22:32translation services by request it's very challenging you don't know who's going to show

3:22:37up you don't know what language services you're going to need um but we did last year we did one

3:22:44east side one west side and i i think the idea really as i said is to get more of this from

3:22:52more meetings so being you know taking part more in ward meetings and having more of these

3:22:59conversations in existing meetings that our cdc partners are holding but those two specific

3:23:06citizen workshops i think for our staff capacity we can probably really only do two of those

3:23:12because not only are we then are we doing those but we then have to like process all of the

3:23:16information and figure out what to do with it create reports so that we can go back to the

3:23:21public and say yes we heard you and this is what we heard um all of which is is really important

3:23:26to that citizen engagement process um so i think i think it's a it's it's a yes and like all of the

3:23:35things as many of the things as we have the capacity to do we want to be able to do this

3:23:39is what is in our official HUD citizen participation plan i hear that um and for now the only other

3:23:48question i have is um going back to that actual process um is just wanted to kind of understand

3:23:54which thought process or how are we going to make like when we have conflicting contradictory

3:24:01council requests and demands and a request for more than what we have how is the department

3:24:11planning on making those choices and making those tough decisions um as of right now kind

3:24:18of walk me through what you're thinking well i think first of all um multiple projects that are

3:24:24all in alignment with the plan as it exists should not be contradictory um but by nature if you are

3:24:31aligned with these priorities we're on your side um as far as taking more than you're entitled to

3:24:40i'm gonna say that that's a council problem and not a me problem but if it comes down to it i

3:24:46will say no that's all i have for now chair that's all i have well council woman hudson go ahead

3:25:03thank you chair um i just have a quick question um would council members be working directly with

3:25:10community development or would that be going through a staff member on council i think to the

3:25:17councilwoman through the chair that's up to you i think we're happy to do it any way that it gets

3:25:21done okay i mean the the most efficient manner possible um you know want to avoid any bottlenecks

3:25:28and that's that's very helpful councilman and i think that we um you know as we start to think

3:25:35about the best ways to receive this information from you it may you know we've always worked very

3:25:40closely with tony tell for example um and you know are happy to um to work with any of your

3:25:47individual staff whatever whatever makes this easiest is is we're willing to do do you have

3:25:53the capacity to work with individual council members on we do okay okay thank you thank you

3:25:59for asking and i would just add what i like about this plan is that we have to get to a place where

3:26:05we're not being reactive you know that's the way i feel like constantly this urgency so aligning

3:26:13whatever the 10-year housing plan is whatever administration plans whatever council members

3:26:20plan is and ensuring that we're grabbing those three priorities and putting our full energy and

3:26:26funding to it so that we could move the needle and i think those things in my opinion should be

3:26:30building wealth right and i know that we'll have those conversations but at least we're moving to

3:26:34something that's like more organized and structured so um it's still a little confusing it's going

3:26:40to be hard because we've been doing certain things away but if it's going to help add value to our

3:26:45resident's life then i think it's a good thing sincere offer like we're here to kind of support

3:26:53and collaboratively work through this process so we'll be available to you or is there any other

3:26:58questions okay well here no other questions uh that concludes dps first day of cdbg hearing

3:27:08tomorrow we will be here at 9 30 a.m to four i will not be here councilman harsh will be um

3:27:15chairing but i hope that everyone also participates because we're going to go through the housing

3:27:20all the programs that are funded through city cleven okay well uh we are now adjourned thank you