Decisions on ARPA spending by the City Council continue on a rocky path, during the third year to follow the federal windfall’s arrival.
Even Mayor Brenda Moore reflected the ups-and-down Monday night, at one point asserting, “I can read,” and at another point asking, “Who’s doing it (making the motions)? I don’t know.”
Making the motions was Councilwoman Monique Lamar Sylvia, designated by Moore to a “bucket” committee with Reggie Williams II and Priscilla Garcia to make proposals on funding shares for community-based, block grant-type programs.
The 2021 American Rescue Plan Act, ARPA, has been like a super block grant, with a one-time pot of $52 million, roughly the same sum as two combined decades of CDBG. These are anti-poverty funds, not for basics like public safety and street cleaning. Saginaw’s share is from $1.9 trillion nationally, aimed to combat COVID-19’s damage to local economies and services.
Council members have taken periodic ARPA actions during the past two years, by and large with scant public discussion. These have been unposted on pre-meet agendas for the public to review, much less be made aware that voting will occur on what their leaders have described as a “transformational” sum of federal aid.
They have agreed upon almost all the money, $48.5 million, for an array of projects that mostly are capital with some operations mixed in. These range from fixing City Hall, to upgrading the parks and cemeteries, to home repairs for poor people in need, to familiar agencies like First Ward and Neighborhood House and Mexican American Council, for example.
For the public services portion, $2.49 million has remained.
Mayor Moore, from the start, asked council members to choose roles that interested them. Sylvia focused on the public services bucket in large part rooted in her own family’s experience with a block grant agency, New Alternatives Youth Center, that was based at Wolverine Baptist. Still, council majorities have rejected her line items for more than a year, saying in part she had failed to include Williams and Garcia. Postponements and delays now lead to a longer-term deadline because all decisions must be final by the close of 2024.
The council finally got started on the remaining $2.49 million Monday with a $745,000 package, leaving $1.75 million for “a few (more) programs we have on hold,” Silvia said, pending specific details that Guidehouse consultants are nailing down. She again did not offer details, similar to when her most recent plan was tabled at the council’s annual January planning session. Neither Williams nor Garcia spoke during the series of votes.
Programs that received approval are:
- $228,000, Saginaw African Cultural Festival, for ownership of building and grounds set-up materials, starting with canvas tents and shade coverings. This eliminates a need for annual rental fees, allowing those monies instead to support artists and activities.
- $192,000, Saginaw Fire Department, child education through an updated version of the old Fire Safety House trailer, now named “Smoke House.”
- $150,000, Major Chords for Minors, music education.
- $100,000 for the Youth Protection Council facilities.
- $100,000 as seed money for a multi-million addition to the Hunger Solutions Center, home to Hidden Harvest and the East Side Soup Kitchen.
- $75,000 to the Lawn Chair Film Festival equipment and screen. (Attendees still must bring their own seating.)
A notable omission remains Mission in the City, which seeks $250,000 for repairs to basketball courts at Sixth and Janes, and construction of a neighborhood splash pad mini-water park. Monday’s outline also does not include AMusBE, a Museum of Black Experiences.
A subsidized grocery named Food Club, and Women of Colors, both received funds in the initial round but so far not received support for more dollars.
To view Monday’s discussion and decisions, click here.
Overall, council members have used the ARPA infusion for infrastructure, including City Hall, for home repairs, for the Medical Diamond project and an array of purposes. To see a listing, click here.
