Regardless of opinions regarding their choices, recent City Council actions on ARPA show that members have dropped any pretense of taking an organized, systematic approach to putting final touches on their record-setting $52 million federal grant.
Decisions have come at the very end of meetings, without discussion to compare the merits of the various contending competitors for several million dollars that remain available.
This is virtually the same group of elected leaders who promised three years ago to follow an open process with public hearings, a citizens advisory committee, an online portal for proposals, and professional organizing from the aptly-named Guidehouse national consultants, which suddenly became heavily hired in cities across the nation in 2021, after President Biden and Democrats passed the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan Act.
If the pattern continues at the next meeting — 6:30 p.m. Monday, June 3 — a last-minute proposal will come forward, not on the agenda, and it will be anyone’s guess which program or agency will be the next to find the council’s favor.
More than a year has passed since anyone on the nine-member council made any reference to following recommendations of the 15-member citizens advisory panel, which had been formed to include people of more influence than the regular residents who voluntarily serve on the Human Planning Commission.
For three years, city leaders have asserted that their process has been “careful” moreso than “slow” in taking time to make the best-qualified choices with the one-time windfall. But during 2024, actions have become scattered.
Council members Michael Flores and Monique Lamar Silvia, outsiders until now, have won “motions and miscellaneous” votes prior to meeting adjournments, as viewers struggle to find out precisely what is happening. On May 6, members approved a Flores motion to add $75,000 for Women of Colors and $60,000 for the Mexican American Council. Next, on May 20, Silvia won a proposal to add $50,000 for the Saginaw African Cultural Festival’s new Freedom Schools, which will teach the basics during a June/July summer school format.
By best estimates, Saginaw has about $1 million remaining from the original $52 million. At least another $3 million in bank account interest has been accrued, and for this sum ARPA rules need not be followed. Council members have yet to discuss whether to use this money in the intended anti-poverty spirit, or to take the cash for boosting the general fund budget. Council meetings air on YouTube, on Saginaw Government Television (SETV, Spectrum 191), and at saginaw-mi.com.
