CDA funds disbursal revised

Council expects to approve the CDA budget next month.
By DAVID SKOLNICK
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- City council plans to take drastic steps to reduce -- and eliminate in some cases -- money allocations from its community development agency fund to city departments.
Council's community development committee voted Thursday on a revised CDA budget that takes thousands of dollars away from departments such as public works, street and fire.
The three-member committee recommended that money be allocated for housing rehabilitation and rent credit for low- and moderate-income residents, and the demolition of abandoned and dilapidated buildings.
The revamped CDA budget should have little trouble getting approval by the full seven-member council.
Besides the community development committee members, three other councilmen attended Thursday's meeting and expressed support for the recommendation. Jay Williams, the CDA director, was the only city department head at the meeting.
Vote coming up
Council will vote on the $5.26 million CDA budget -- funded entirely through the federal Community Development Block Grant -- at either its April 6 or 20 meeting.
"A lot of these expenditures [in the CDA budget] should have been in the general fund years ago," said Councilman Rufus Hudson, D-2nd and the committee's vice chairman. "The department heads will have to prioritize their expenses if they don't have the money. They may have to cut overtime, travel and equipment. We need to give this money back to the people."
Councilman Michael Rapovy, D-5th and a committee member, agreed.
"CDA money has to go back to the people, and not to supplement city departments," he said.
Taking the biggest individual hit is the public works department.
The CDA has traditionally paid the salaries of the department's code enforcement officers. But the committee recommended council remove the entire $325,000 amount budgeted to pay for those seven or eight officers, and have the department fund those costs.
The committee also recommended the entire budgeted amount of $20,000 for litter control be removed, and have the street department find the money in its budget.
The fire department had $64,000 in the CDA budget to help fund the lease of a firetruck. That amount was eliminated by the committee Thursday.
The committee increased its proposed allocation for housing rehabilitation by $101,122, added another $100,000 for demolition, and $74,000 more for Interfaith, a nonprofit organization that provides housing maintenance for the poor.
Dwindling grant money
Youngstown, like other cities with declining populations, has seen its federal Community Development Block Grant allocation decrease over the years. The city received about $7 million a few years ago for the program that provides assistance for low and moderate income residents. The 2005 amount is $5.26 million.
President Bush is proposing a 50 percent funding reduction for cities in the CDBG program. Federal officials want communities to concentrate on providing services to the poor and those with modest incomes, Williams said.
"There is extreme concern out of Washington about funding city departments," he said. "They don't want cities to supplement funding for departments through the CDA."
Every year, the committee and the CDA face the problem of having to tell nonprofit agencies and low-income homeowners that there isn't enough money to help them, said Williams and Councilman Richard Atkinson, R-3rd and the committee chairman.
For example, the CDA received requests totaling $7.9 million from nonprofit agencies and city departments for funding this year, and only has $5.26 million to allocate.
"Poor people come to us and ask for money for housing rehabilitation, and we don't have the money because we're using it for something else," Rapovy said.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the agency that administers the CDBG program, needs the city's CDA budget by May 15, Williams said. HUD typically approves the city's recommendations for how to spend the money, he said.