Urban Renewal Agency Meeting — February 20, 2019
Protecting City Employees and Retirees
On Wednesday officials of the Mount Vernon Urban Renewal Agency met about urgent issues facing the city and they received alarming news.
The executive director of the Mount Vernon Urban Renewal Agency, Chantelle Okarter, described how Comptroller Deborah Reynolds and the City Council have failed to act regarding outstanding audits that lost the city’s credit rating, failed to transfer funds that pay for services to the city’s neediest residents and failed to pay outstanding health and retirement bills for retired workers.
There are two members of the URA who are required to be on the board of directors but who didn’t show up — City Council President Andre Wallace and Comptroller Reynolds.
Their absence reflects a spirit and pattern of noncooperation and obstruction. Here’s how:
Moody’s Investors Service pulled its assessment of Mount Vernon’s creditworthiness because of a lack of financial data. This stems from the fact that the city’s finances can’t be completed without performing outstanding audits for the URA.
Efforts to resolve outstanding audits for 2016, 2017 and 2018 go back to at least Aug. 15, 2017, when the Board of Estimate and Contract was scheduled to adopt a resolution authorizing funding for the URA, only to be rebuffed by the former comptroller and former City Council president. Again, earlier this month, the City Council and Comptroller neglected the city’s responsibility to the URA by adopting a 2019 budget without a proposed $400,000 for completing the audits. Mayor Richard Thomas vetoed that budget.
Then there’s the question of $892,000 in money that the federal government gave the city to serve the needy. Comptroller Reynolds won’t release the money, which means that the agency can’t give 25 students their scholarships this spring or fund afterschool programs or pay the February rents for clients in the city’s Continuum of Care program.
Think about it. Disabled and formerly homeless individuals could be thrown into the streets by their landlords soon because Comptroller Reynolds won’t release the funds given to the city by the federal government.
There is also a ripple effect that comes from not releasing federal funds into Mount Vernon. If the affected individuals don’t have their subsidies, then they have less money for everything else, such as buying goods and services in our retail corridors. So Comptroller Reynolds’ conduct is also a blow to local businesses.
Lastly, there’s the matter of City Hall retirees.
The city is responsible for paying $603,000 in health insurance and retirement bills to former employees. Commissioner OKarter explained that last March the City Council approved $94,000 to be paid for our retirees, yet the money has not been released by Comptroller Reynolds. How can the city abandon its former employees?
The board of the URA will not allow elected officials to renege on their sworn oaths to serve the public. Nor will the board allow inaction to derail essential services.
That’s why the URA board members in attendance voted on Wednesday to adopt resolutions that will allow the federal government to circumvent Comptroller Reynolds and transfer money directly to the URA. The hope is that this action on Wednesday will remove some of the threats to the city’s most fragile residents and persuade Comptroller Reynolds and the City Council to work for the benefit of Mount Vernon.
