Non-profit favored to distribute city's EZ funds

COURTESY NEW HAVEN OFFICE OF BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT EZ DOES IT: The Enterprise Community committee will vote next week on the creation of a nonprofit group to oversee federal Empowerment Zone funds.

In January, the federal government "empowered" New Haven with $230 million over the next 10 years. Now the question is not where the city's Empowerment Zone money will go--but how it will get there.

On Wed., Apr. 14, and Thurs., Apr. 15, two city committees will hear and vote on a proposal to create a nonprofit board to oversee the Empowerment Zone (EZ) funds. Those committees are the Enterprise Community (EC), an existing jobs-creation program in New Haven, and the EZ Implementation Committee, created specifically for this purpose.

"It is likely that the overall effort [of dividing the money] will be led by a new nonprofit organization with representation from neighborhoods, business, government, and institutional partners such as Yale," said Michael Morand,
SY '87, DIV '93, Yale's assistant vice president of the Office of New Haven and State Affairs.

Although many community leaders like the grassroots feel of this idea, Pete Stein, DC '99, an urban fellow and neighborhood activist in Dixwell, believes a nonprofit governing board would be a smokescreen for city officials to control the EZ funds. Stein said New Haven's historically corrupt city government would never let $230 million slip out of its hands. "What's happening now is a perfect example of using the rhetoric of neighborhood empowerment" to advance city officials' goals, Stein said.

But with "accountability" a buzzword in New Haven government after so many dollars misspent on programs like the Community Development Block Grants, activists agree with Morand that community control is the way to go. "Accountability is going to be built into the structure of the EZ from beginning to middle to end," EC Board Member William Battle said. "Either you can perform or you can't." Battle explained that the EZ will develop and fund only programs that can demonstrate tangible results.

City government wants to make sure that in addition to maintaining productive programs, the proprosed nonprofit board itself remains responsible. "The Enterprise Community process is open. The Empowerment Zone has had a number of meetings open to the public," James Horan, executive assistant to Mayor John DeStefano, Jr., said. Suzanne Miller, executive director of New Haven Habitat for Humanity, pointed out that the nonprofits are required by law to keep all records open to the public. "That will also help keep the process honest," she said.

Stein, on the other hand, expects the proposed board to include a much smaller proportion of neighborhood residents than the current EC committee, which is two-thirds neighborhood residents. And compared to the fight for the EZ award itself--one of only 15 in the nation--he's not sure the fuss over distributing the funds is worth it. "People at the Dixwell Management Team worked extremely hard to get the EZ title," Stein said. "People in the neighborhood waste their time fighting issues like this--frankly, they're demoralized."

But although the makeup of the boards has yet to be determined, Alder Jorge Perez isn't worried that his poor constituents will be overlooked. "I have faith in the structure of the system, because it includes representatives from the neighborhoods, from the business community, from
the Board of Aldermen, and from the city government," Perez said.

Rhoda Zahler of the New Haven Office of Business Development believes the city will profit from creating a nonprofit board separate from city government. "It will help to attract those [businesses and organizations] with resources who are interested in staying in New Haven after the funding is gone," Zahler said. "Although the mayor and the city will still ultimately be responsible for the successes and failures of the EZ, removing the EZ from the center of city government may help to alleviate some of the distrust of government and perceptions that it is too political."

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