Community Development Commission Meeting

UNAPPROVED MINUTES COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT COMMISSION RESCHEDULED MEETING Tuesday, February 26, 2019, City Council Chambers 400 South Vine Street, Urbana, IL 61801 Call to Order: Anne Heinze Silvis called the meeting to order at 6:08 p.m. Roll Call: Alyssa Jaje, Community Development Specialist, called the roll. A quorum was present. Commission Members Present: Anne Heinze Silvis, Michael Braun, Chris Diana, Rev. Robert Freeman, and Abdulhakeem Salaam Commission Members Excused/Absent: Jerry Moreland Others Present: Sheila Dodd, Grants Management Division Manager; Alyssa Jaje, Community Development Specialist; and Katherine Crosby, Courage Connection. Approval of Minutes: Reverend Freeman moved to approve the minutes of the January 22, 2019 Meeting, and Commissioner Salaam seconded the motion. The motion carried unanimously. Petitions and Communications: Commission members asked if a phone number should be posted on the front door to the Community Development Department for members of the public who might be late and want to attend the meeting. The door is locked at night and commission members want to comply with open meeting regulations. Audience Participation: Chair Person Heinze-Silvis stated that audience members could speak if they so wished or after a particular item is presented, no one from the audience stepped forward to speak Staff Report: Sheila Dodd, Grants Management Manager, said she and Alyssa Jaje are still settling in to their new positions, but are moving along with several program activities. Two properties have been submitted to IHDA (Illinois Housing Development Authority) for the Abandoned Properties Program. The Grants Management Division (GMD) is having budget conversations with the HOME Consortium to determine funding allocations for the coming fiscal year. The HOME Program is progressing and GMD is still getting sub-recipient grants signed for FY18-19. The Consolidated Social Service Funding application launches this week (2/28/2019). Sheila is going to Bristol Park payment meetings with Champaign. Urbana oversees the process along with Champaign staff. Transitional housing currently has one vacant unit. The other unit has a tenant that needs to vacate. GMD will reach out to Courage Connection, the Mental Health Center, the Housing Authority, and others with tenant-based rental assistance to fill these two units. Sheila has been monitoring the budget for the Emergency Shelter Grant. CU Men’s Shelter and Crisis nursery are current grantees. The Men’s Shelter is still deciding if they want to apply for the next funding period. The Blight Reduction Program (BRP) is complete. BRP targets specific residential properties for demolition, greening, and eventual reuse or redevelopment. Habitat maintained several properties during this program. They will now be building on one of the lots. Randy is taking phone calls and applications for the Emergency Repair Grant. This week there have been several sewer problems. Old Business: Amend bylaws. Mrs. Dodd and Chairperson Heinze-Silvis updated the bylaws. The Carle Master Plan was removed as an example under Section 10 of the bylaws and replaced by “other applicable projects.” The updated preamble was very lengthy and Chairperson Heinze-Silvis suggested not defining community development. Rev. Freeman added that the definition of community development will most likely change over time. The proposed amendment to the preamble had three paragraphs. Commissioners agreed that the third paragraph was sufficient and the first and second proposed paragraphs were unnecessary. Chairperson Heinze-Silvis asked if there were any other discussion items regarding the bylaws. Mr. Braun asked if the new meeting time of 6 pm worked for everyone. Mr. Diana said it was a little difficult with his schedule, but should continue to work. Chairperson Heinze-Silvis makes a motion to approve the bylaws with the updated preamble and Carle Master Plan removed from Section 10. Rev. Freeman moves the motion. Mr. Salaam seconds. The motion was approved unanimously. New Business CSSF Priorities Mrs. Dodd gave background on how the Community Development Commission has set priorities for using Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) money to fund the Consolidated Social Service Funding. Chairperson Heinze-Silvis said the Commission has wanted to give the city staff as much leeway to support the programs they saw necessary with funding in previous years. Chairperson Heinze-Silvis and Mr. Diana said the Commission has supported job training, homeless services, youth services, and the low-income in other years. They have supported as broad of a spectrum of priorities as possible. The memo recommended funding priorities for FY 2019-2020 to (1) Support services and training for low-income persons, and (2) Support 2 homeless needs. Chairperson Heinze-Silvis asked if there was any discussion on the priorities for FY 2019-2020. There were none. Mr. Braun moved to support services and training for low- income persons and support homeless needs for FY 2019-2020 CSSF priorities. Mr. Salaam seconded the motion. The motion was approved unanimously. Katherine Crosby, Courage Connection Ms. Crosby said she was the new grant-writing assistant at Courage Connection. She gave a brief description of Courage Connection programs. Study Session: There were no items for this agenda. Adjournment: Seeing no further business, Ms. Heinze Silvis adjourned the meeting at 6:30 p.m. Recorded by Community Development Specialist 3