New committee will give city advice on where federal money should go
By Kyle Jorrey kjorrey@theacorn.com

Every year the Simi Valley City Council must undertake the unenviable task of deciding which community groups will receive available federal government funds-called Community Block Grants-and which will not.

After listening to each applying organization present its case over the course of two meetings, council members must return to chambers and make a fair and fiscally responsible decision about how the money is allocated.

With so many local groups doing so many good things in the community, said Councilmember Steve Sojka, the process of elimination can be an extremely hard.

"It's usually one of the toughest meetings of the year for us council members," Sojka said. "We just don't have enough funds for the amount requested every year, and all the organizations are doing great work."

To help them with these necessary decisions, city council members voted last week to form a Community Development Block Grant Advisory Committee to make recommendations on the awarding of funds for public services.

The funds, which the city gets from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, are given out annually to local nonprofits as well as to housing and community development projects. This year, the city received and allocated about $817,000 from its HUD grant for 2006-07. Simi Valley nonprofits received $112,000.

"We thought we could get a little more community--more grassroots input, by setting up a committee that can take more time to look at all the applications and more thoughtfully consider the options," said Mayor Paul Miller, who in May originally asked the city staff to set up an independent committee.

After a spirited discussion on the matter, the council decided Aug. 21 that the new committee should consist of a Simi Valley Chamber of Commerce member, two people from Neighborhood Councils, a member of the Council on the Aging and the chair of the Planning Commission. Each of the organizations will have the power to decide which of their members will sit on the committee.

Though it was originally suggested by city staff that a member of the council sit on the committee to provide procedural oversight, council members decided against it, ultimately selecting the planning commission chair to fill that role.

"We see these organizations year in and year out. What we wanted to have was an unbiased, unfiltered view from the community," said Sojka, who initiated the discussion about keeping the council off the committee. "I didn't want it to be steered in any direction by any council member."

It was Councilmember Barbra Williamson's suggestion to include a member of the Council on the Aging on the committee.

"We get a lot of nonprofits that talk about the seniors, so why not get a senior on the committee to make sure those groups are doing what they say they are doing?" Williamson said.

The new committee will meet once during the first part of next year and then give a recommendation to the council, which must make its final decision in May. The council is still considering what form that recommendation will take-a ranking system or specific allocations.

Councilmember Glen Becerra said the ultimate goal of the new committee is to help ensure that the groups that have the most pressing needs and do the most for the citizens of Simi get the funding they deserve.

"That's the hope, because the decisions are very serious, the people they affect they affect in a large way," Becerra said. "We just want to make sure we're doing everything right and covering all our bases."