Board of Aldermen 11-09-2021 Page 10
Alderwoman-at-Large Shoshanna Kelly
Alderman-at-Large Lori Wilshire
RELATIVE TO THE ACCEPTANCE OF $16,138,777 FROM THE CORONAVIRUS STATE AND LOCAL FISCAL
RECOVERY FUNDS “SLFRF” PROGRAM ESTABLISHED BY THE AMERICAN RESCUE PLAN ACT “ARPA” TO
COVER ELIGIBLE EXPENSES AND/OR REVENUE REPLACEMENT IN RESPONDING TO COVID-19 IMPACTS
Given its second reading;
MOTION BY ALDERMAN HARRIOTT-GATHRIGHT FOR FINAL PASSAGE OF R-21-167, BY ROLL CALL
ON THE QUESTION
Alderman Harriott-Gathright
Last night, Director Cummings was in our meeting and he mentioned that he had comments on the website for economic
development. He also asked that the public actually spread the news to reach out to economic development so that he
can get additional comments. Most of the comments that he's received thus far is for housing, affordable housing, which
is great but he wants more comments that come in from the public. So all of you out there, please contact Director
Cummings.
Alderman Lopez
| wanted to point out that while we're developing the plan for this, this motion and Alderman Gathright correct me if I'm
wrong, is just to agree to accept it not necessarily to identify exactly how designating it (inaudible). That’s where that
comment is very important.
President Wilshire
That's correct Alderman Lopez.
Alderman Klee
Thank you Madam President. | did want to add what Alderman Lopez said that yes, that was to accept it but that's okay.
The other comment that | did want to make was in addition to what Alderwoman Harriott-Gathright had said, Director
Cummings had asked us to send people to his website - his page. Under projects, you'll see ARPA. Under ARPA there is
the feedback. It's a very limited questionnaire so if you do have comments that go beyond that, you can send them to
Amy Deroche and her email address is on there, too. I've had a couple of constituents who have sent me an e-mail and |
said that I’d forward to it. In these two cases, they had nothing to do with affordable housing. However, affordable
housing seems to be the number one where they want to spend the money. We were given a number of scenarios if |
remember correctly back in September, in October. They have had some presentations and the PowerPoint slide that we
saw is also on that website. | think questions should be directed towards Director Cummings and Ms. Deroche. Thank
you.
Alderwoman Kelly
Most of the things | was gonna say have been said, but that's fine. | just wanted to remind everybody, again, that we are
only accepting these funds and that to Alderman Harriott-Gathright’s point, we are going to continue to get feedback in
what the community would like to see us use these ARPA funds for. Reminding the Board here and the public that we did
have a special meeting where we talked about the different options: one was downtown, one was affordable housing and,
you know, I've personally have heard overwhelmingly that the affordable housing piece is really critical to people in the
community, especially right now. And so I'm hoping that that is where we will land.
A couple of points that were brought up by Director Cummings last night. He has reached out to all the directors in the
city to get a wish list from them and that'll come before us as well when we talk about this and he also mentioned bringing
on a consultant to help make sure we're using the ARPA funds correctly. So, pieces that will come as we continue with
this piece that | just wanted to give some of that information.
President Wilshire
Anyone else?
