SITKA, ALASKA
A measure sponsored by Mayor Cheryl Westover and Assembly member Terry Blake sets up a new application process for distributing $100,000 in grants. The application includes new restrictions on eligibility and requires pages of documentation and reports.
Representatives of three nonprofit organizations spoke out against the proposal, including Connie Sipe, executive director of the Center for Community. She said the application’s new categories – “essential and emergency services” and “other services” – were too vaguely defined.
“I think you were striving, both of you, the sponsors, for transparency,” Sipe said, “but because you’re coming into an area that has its own terms of art and what people are used to hearing, then the use of these new words and qualifiers actually looks more subjective than transparent to people out here. Because we’re all sitting around talking to each other ‘Does this qualify? Does that qualify?’ We don’t really know.”
The new rules would also prohibit nonprofits that have received a city loan from applying for one of the grants. And the money could not be used for salaries. Westover said she sponsored the measure for many reasons.
“I have a problem in why we don’t support our for-profit businesses that are suffering,” Westover said. “I don’t understand why we’re paying salaries of nonprofits and why we’re not taking care of our for-profit businesses that are going under.”
Westover also said it’s time to start trimming back on city expenditures, especially when the city is having trouble paying for infrastructure improvements.
But advocates of nonprofit funding said the city does support for-profit businesses, through tax breaks and tax holidays. And they said the money given to the nonprofit sector helps provide important services to Sitkans who most need assistance.
Assembly member Phyllis Hackett spoke at length, going through the proposal page by page and listing off her concerns. She pointed out that the city’s 2012 budget, which earned final approval at that same meeting, laid out $40-thousand dollars more than the new proposal called for.
“I believe that the current amount of support that is in the budget for nonprofits is meager,” Hackett said. “It is very meager for what it provides for the residents of this community, and how we show support to help our residents thrive.”
In the end, the Assembly postponed the measure until its next meeting in two weeks. Between now and then, a committee consisting of Hackett, Westover and Assembly member Larry Crews will meet to find some middle ground on the plan.
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