For the first time, a City Council member publicly has criticized procedures and decisions tied to the record-setting $52 million federal ARPA grant received in 2021.
Monique Lamar Silvia says the Guidehouse consultants should be scored with a “report card,” in the same spirit that the American Rescue Plan specialists have graded various block-grant type programs that received third-party contracts, and she cited rapid staff turnover with three managers since David Sernick stepped down in 2022 to become a top City of Detroit administrator.
Furthermore, Silvia asserts that she sees that “nothing has happened” with the council’s $5 million allocation toward the $100 million downtown “medical diamond” project, featuring the Central Michigan University College of Medicine as the anchor tenant. The County Board also has put forward $5 million and the state another $30.3 million, with another $3.3 million from the feds.
City Manager Tim Morales responds that organizing for the facility is on target, with a $100 million match approved late last year by the CMU Board of Trustees toward a 2030 target, with hopes of creating at least 1,000 jobs. He also reported satisfaction with Guidehouse, which received an $850,000 city contract off the top from ARPA, while also assisting Saginaw County and the City of Detroit among hundreds of communities across the nation with new rules in the $1.9 trillion allocation, aimed to help communities bounce back from COVID-19’s damage.
Discussion took place June 3 and could resume at the next meeting, 6:30 p.m. Monday, June 17, even if ARPA is not included in the pre-meeting posted agenda. Council members have made their recent ARPA decisions through last-minute “miscellaneous business” when it may appear their meetings already are finished.
Other members have raised questions through the three years with the Rescue Plan Act. George Copeland said the council should have used a scoring system to rate the proposals, Michael Flores opposed bailing out past general fund budgets, and even Mayor Brenda Moore has reflected that the most effective program has been home-repair grant because of low overhead costs.
However, Silvia’s blandishments are the strongest so far. “Medical diamond” is a term coined by Dr. Sam Shaheen with downtown at the geographic top, the central parks and Old Town forming the bottom point, and the sides being Covenant and Ascension St. Mary’s
To view Silvia’s remarks, click here.
