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Nearly Out of Time to Spend It, Commission Redirects Funding for Youth Programs

Commissioner Tiffany Taylor. Source: Athens-Clarke County Unified Government

Festivus is still a couple months away, but Athens-Clarke County commissioners decided to air their grievances early while discussing funding for youth programs.

At its Oct. 1 meeting, the commission narrowly passed a proposal to divert federal funds it had placed in a “bucket” for youth development and violence prevention to other projects, such as fixing courthouse elevators, buying new police cars, paving dirt roads, a new library HVAC and renovating the Costa Building next door to City Hall. The transfer did not sit well with a number of residents nor several commissioners, but ultimately time was running out to spend the money or give it back to the federal government. Meanwhile, the commission had no consensus on specific youth development programs and a number of pressing needs elsewhere.

Gym owner and former NFL player Willie Green told commissioners that he had requested $1.2 million over two years for anti-gang programs, but they opted to fund police cars and courthouse repairs instead. “What are we telling our kids?” he said. “We’re not preparing you to be future citizens or future leaders. We’re preparing you to go to jail.”

Artist Broderick Flanigan said the East Athens Development Corp. submitted a $1.8 million proposal that was not accepted. “There are people like me who make it out of public housing, but we don’t do it without a certain type of support,” he said.

District Attorney Deborah Gonzalez chided the commission for prioritizing jail inmates over youth. “I’d rather climb five sets of stairs than take money away from children,” she said.

The fifth floor of the courthouse—formerly a jail—is not accessible by stairway, only by elevator. And only one of the three courthouse elevators is working; the inmate elevator is broken, requiring deputies to lead jailed defendants through public areas to get to a courtroom. 

Funding those elevator repairs and other capital expenses out of federal American Rescue Plan Act funds frees up money in the general fund for things like youth programs, Commissioner Mike Hamby argued. “Certainly youth development is an urgent need, and we’ve addressed that with the Boys & Girls Club and others,” he said, but courthouse elevators are also an “urgent need.”

Commissioners have had more than two years to decide how to spend ACC’s share of ARPA funds—about $57 million out of $480 billion distributed to state and local governments and school districts to help pay for broadly defined pandemic-related expenses. ACC has already spent most of its share on a variety of programs like affordable housing construction, eviction prevention, a homeless camp, an inpatient mental health facility, after-school activities and more. 

But $3.7 million remains, and if that money is not formally allocated by the end of the year, it must be returned to the U.S. Treasury. Use it or lose it. “The clock is ticking,” Mayor Kelly Girtz reminded commissioners. “We have to sign contracts for every penny of these expenditures by Dec. 31 of this year, and we’ve already kicked the can down the road.”

Commissioner Ovita Thornton blamed her colleagues for not listening to the public and for dragging their feet.

“That is a fair critique. That’s on all of us for not getting it done,” Commissioner Jesse Houle said. “But it’s unrealistic to sit here tonight and vote no and pretend we could do something else instead… There’s just no realistic way we can spend this money on creative new solutions with the amount of time that’s left.”

The commission “never found a way to count to six [votes]” on youth development, and now “the unfortunate reality is we’re out of time,” they said.

Thornton seemed to take Houle’s response personally. “I always bring stuff forward, it’s just never heard,” she said. “I feel as though I speak on this commission, and nobody listens, and then when we get here I catch blame from the rest of y’all.”

Commissioners Allison Wright and Patrick Davenport noted that the Clarke County School District received a similar windfall through ARPA. “The school district has, what, 50-something million dollars? I’m thinking they might do something youth-related?” Wright said. “I don’t know, call me crazy. We’re infrastructure. We’re services to the [whole] community.”

So why was a drop in the proverbial bucket for a government with a nine-figure annual budget causing such heartburn? Commissioner Tiffany Taylor explained, sharing publicly that her 15-year-old son was shot in the chest at an unsupervised party and is now facing a police investigation for initially saying he had accidentally shot himself, as well as potential expulsion from high school.

“These are the realities of our youth,” Taylor said. “As a mom who sits on this board with children who go to the Boys & Girls club, who play basketball at Nellie B, this bucket is kind of personal. I’m the only mom that has a voice to speak on the things we go through, but there are thousands of moms just like me who go through the same thing with their student on a daily basis.”

After the commission rejected Commissioner Melissa Link’s motion to hold the youth development allocation again, Hamby’s proposal came up for a vote. Crafted at a recent commission retreat in Greenville, SC, it included: $300,000 to extend the Boys & Girls Club’s previously funded gang prevention program, $165,000 to continue subsidizing CCSD after-school sports, $558,000 for Costa Building renovations, $550,000 for dirt road paving, $750,000 to replace the library HVAC, $847,000 to replace old police cars and $600,000 for courthouse elevator repairs. 

Hamby’s commission-defined option passed 6–4, with Davenport, Wright, Houle and commissioners Dexter Fisher and John Culpepper in support. (It was an odd coalition—Houle and Hamby are rarely on the same side, as both acknowledged.) Link and Commissioner Carol Myers supported delaying the vote. Taylor and Thornton voted no on both.

Despite the split, perhaps the frank discussion bodes well for a commission that has appeared frustrated and had communication issues for the better part of two years. “I think it opened the door for more transparency between the community and this body as a whole,” Taylor said.

Affordable Housing Approved

The commission also approved an affordable housing development off Lexington Road originally called Lexington Flats—though the developer offered to change the name, since it irked Wright.

In response to previous criticisms from Taylor, developer Birge & Held of Indianapolis, IN, added 12 three-bedroom units, bringing the total number of beds to 240. “I appreciate all the work that went into making this affordable, as well as accommodating more three-bedrooms for families,” Taylor said.

Jeff Carter of Carter Engineering also reassured commissioners that the development will not be for students. It’s being built utilizing federal Low Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTC) distributed by the Georgia Department of Community Affairs. “There’s no students allowed in this development,” Carter said. “That’s part of the LITC agreement.”

LIHTC ensures that the apartments will remain affordable for at least 30 years. In this case, “affordable” means 30% of income for a person making 60% of the area median income as identified by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, which varies based on family size. According to documents filed by the developer, it is aimed at tenants making $30,000–$45,000 a year, so rents would be in the $800–$1,200 range.

Carter also addressed concerns that the development is located near Athens-Ben Epps Airport, noting that the airport authority, as well as the planning commission, recommended approval.

Election Odds and Ends

  • U.S. Rep. Mike Collins was a no-show—perhaps too busy yassifying photos of JD Vance—but his Democratic opponent, Lexy Doherty, did appear at a candidate forum in Collins’ hometown of Jackson. View the video at facebook.com/ButtsChamber. In other news, Doherty was endorsed last week by state Rep. Spencer Frye (D-Athens), who said she has “the same willingness and ability [as Frye] to work in a bipartisan manner to push for higher wages, lower rent and resources for our working families in Northeast Georgia.”
  • The Western Circuit Bar Association is hosting a forum for district attorney candidates, incumbent Democrat Deborah Gonzalez and independent challenger Kalki Yalamanchili, at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 15 at Hill Chapel Baptist Church (1692 W. Hancock Ave.). Athens native Tharon Johnson, a prominent Democratic political consultant and pundit, will moderate.
  • Advance voting also starts Tuesday, Oct. 15 at the Lyndon House Arts Center (211 Hoyt St.). Hours are 7 a.m.–7 p.m. on weekdays; 9 a.m.–5 p.m. on Saturdays, Oct. 19 and 26; and noon to 3 p.m. on Sundays, Oct. 20 and 27. More sites will be added later.
  • Rumors flew late last week that Donald Trump would be visiting Athens, but it was just a campaign bus. Onboard were Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) and state Sen. Frank Ginn (R-Danielsville), who stopped at the local Republican Party’s Milledge Avenue headquarters Friday, Oct. 4. Meanwhile, Trump himself visited hurricane-damaged Augusta, then held a rally in North Carolina.

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