Mayor Eddie Moran urged City Council to speed the process of getting more than $5 million in American Recovery Plan Act funds into the coffers of Reading nonprofits.
“We should move forward because we care,” the mayor said Monday at a council committee of the whole meeting. “We understand that this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to support the organizations providing critical services to our community.”
Reading received $61 million from the plan passed by Congress last year and signed by President Joe Biden.
Council introduced an ordinance last week that would allocate $5,197,000 in ARPA funds to 10 nonprofits selected by a review committee and an additional 15 recommended by Moran.
The earliest action on the ordinance could be taken at council’s next regularly scheduled meeting Aug. 22.
To avoid any possible conflicts of interest, most council members agree the proposed ordinance should be amended so the nonprofits can be voted on individually rather than as a group.
While some council members said they are ready to approve funding for some of the nonprofits, others have said they are concerned about the validity and completeness of some of the applications, the fairness of the application process and the way in which information was disseminated.
“There is a very unfortunate state of affairs that some members of this council body have chosen to dispute and challenge the process we could absolutely agree on while doing so in a public forum,” Moran said.
Councilwoman Donna Reed said last week she is unwilling to take any action until she is assured that every nonprofit in the city had an opportunity to apply.
At least two applications were sent to the wrong email address and were not initially seen or considered by the committee, Jamar Kelly, city finance director, said last week.
Representatives of some of the nonprofits spoke to individual council members and others to various city administrators and may have gotten inconsistent information, Councilwoman Marcia Goodman-Hinnershitz said.
The councilwoman said she wants to take a closer look at each of the proposals before making a decision, especially since some of the proposals presented by the nonprofits to council during a special session last week differed from what appeared in their applications.
Despite the hurdles, Goodman-Hinnershitz said she shares the mayor’s goal of getting the funds into the community in the most equitable way possible.
“I think we can reach that goal,” she said. “And I don’t think it’s going to take a long time to do it.”
Council agreed in March on the mayor’s recommendation to reserve $5 million for grants to nonprofit agencies to support community needs. The agreement came after nearly six months of discussions with council regarding how the funds would be spent and distributed, the mayor said, expressing frustration with the delay in allocating the money.
“Let us get one thing straight right off the bat,” Moran said Monday. “We can fund each of the proposals received at whatever level of funding we find appropriate, period.”
Under federal guidelines, Moran said, the city’s ARPA funds can be spent to limit the negative economic impact of the COVID public health emergency as well as provide economic stabilization to our businesses, tourism and hospitality industries.
The funds cannot go to replenishing the budget, creating a rainy-day fund, paying interest or principal on debt, pension deposits or on personnel past 2024.
The city must come up with a spending plan for the funds by Dec. 31, 2024, and spend the money by Dec. 31, 2026.
All the time spent on putting together an application process for nonprofits and reviewing applications, has delayed movement on a small business development program, residential home-improvement program and support for the collegiate partners that provide both educational and economic anchors in our community, the mayor said.
“We can do big things again, folks,” Moran said, “especially now that we are out of Act 47. In order to accomplish big things, however, we need to get out of our own way. I’m gonna say that respectfully one more time. We need to get out of our own way.”
