Uma Ramiah Photo
Pat Wallace.
Yoga and tai chi for seniors topped a list of requests, as city officials pleaded with aldermen for their piece of a shrinking pool of federal block grant money.
“Obviously it’s a tough year in state government and there’s lots of competition,” said Patricia Wallace, director of elderly services for New Haven. “But we’re committed to doing innovative things that will bring exercise to the elderly, so people don’t just sit in their rooms.”
Wallace was one of six city department heads who presented reports to an aldermanic committee at City Hall Thursday night on Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) money. CDBG funding is on the chopping block this year — cuts from the federal government could be anywhere from 15 to 50 percent, and New Haven not-for-profits and city organizations providing social services are scrambling to cope.
In response, the Board of Aldermen’s Joint Community Development/Human Services Committee asked each department head looking for funding to prepare a report detailing their previous use of CDBG dollars in addition to this year’s application.
Marcus Paca.
When Wallace took her turn, committee co-chair Marcus Paca, an alderman from Edgewood, took Wallace to task for missing a deadline for her report. While her CDBG application had been submitted on time in November of 2010, she turned in the additional paperwork Thursday night.
In front of the room, Paca accused Wallace of “jeopardizing funding for elderly” by turning in paperwork three months late.
“I’m working with no administrative staff,” Wallace replied, “60 or more hours a week to make sure everything is moving forward for the seniors in this city.”
Downtown Alderwoman Bitsie Clark came to her defense, questioning the purpose and clarity of the additional form and defending Wallace’s skills and intentions. She was shot down by co-chair Sergio Rodriguez of Westville, who threatened to end questioning.
In her appeal, Wallace asked aldermen for money to expand exercise and health initiatives, including yoga and tai chi for seniors.
“Even a small level of activity makes a huge difference in people’s cognitive, emotional, physical state,” she said. “I’m interested in using whatever funds are available to us to get people up and out, to get them moving.”
Representatives from the Livable City Initiative (LCI), health, engineering, transportation and City Plan departments also took turns explaining plans for using reduced funding in the upcoming year.
LCI chief Erik Johnson detailed how budget cuts will hurt city services.
Erik Johnson.
“The good thing is that we’re going to be able to finish the projects we have in the pipeline,” he said, including a new code enforcement and anti-blight tracking system and improvements with the city’s residential licensing program.
“The bad is that we’re not going to be able to continue our energy efficiency rehabilitation assistance program, we’ll have to reduce the amount of private property maintenance, and there’ll be less public space inspection. There may also need to be staff reductions at LCI,” he said. “We just can’t support certain activities if we have lots of personnel costs.”
Each department offered its plan for continued programming, even under the CDBG cuts. Health department officials plans to use block grant money for lead hazard control. Karyn Gilvarg of City Plan said the city plans to move forward with development of Downtown Crossing. Transportation chief Jim Travers pitched bike lanes. City Engineer Dick Miller said he’d repair 15,000 feet of sidewalk in the city.
Aldermen will review those requests over the course of four more CDBG hearings this month. Up next: the not-for-profits.