As posted in the Tulsa World Sunday 3/15
Tulsa Development Authority under fire by: P.J. LASSEK World Staff Writer
Sunday, March 15, 2009
3/15/2009 3:44:12 AM
The Tulsa Development Authority and the Grants Administration Department came under fire last week by several city councilors.
No one from the authority attended a special meeting on Thursday to discuss TDA's goals, objectives and measures of progress, problems and successes in the wake of a federal penalty that resulted in the authority having to repay $1.5 million it misspent in grant funds allocated by the council.
"We are way past frustration with TDA," said Councilor Rick Westcott.
By state law the authority has autonomy from the city, and its actions are not subject to council approval, nor are the volunteer members subject to city ethics policy.
The authority has no staff of its own but uses city employees to do its work.
Tension has been building between the council and authority over several issues, ranging from possible conflicts of interest related to the downtown ballpark to holding land it obtained in the 1960s.
Recently, the council has been unsuccessful in getting a progress report from the authority. Instead, a member of the mayor's staff continues to speak on its behalf.
"It would have been nice for them to come and say this is what we've been working on and here's the update," Councilor Bill Martinson said.
"Seriously, this screams for some sort of oversight or something," he said.
Cathy Criswell, chief risk officer for Mayor Kathy Taylor, told the councilors Thursday that TDA Chairman Carl Bracy had a work conflict and couldn't attend.
She said the authority is currently trying to define its new mission after an investigation by the Inspector General's Office of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development led to a $1.5 million penalty connected to misspending Community Development Block Grants for city salaries.
Martinson and Westcott pointed out that the authority also has property it has been sitting on with no apparent plans.
"I think we have an entity that is out of control," Martinson said.
Another change the city has made as a result of HUD's probe is the establishment of a Grants Administration Department.
Westcott and Councilor Jack Henderson grilled Dafne Pharis, director of the city's Grants Administration Department, about CDBG funding that has yet to make it to subrecepients.
World Won Development Center was allocated $50,000 in 2007 and has yet to receive its funds, Henderson said.
The Redfork Main Street program also was allocated $50,000 the same year and hasn't receive funds, Westcott said.
Pharis said the two groups have not met the necessary requirements to get the money.
Henderson accused the administration of arbitrarily changing the rules.
Westcott said that it was Taylor who suggested that Redfork Main Street seek the grants, and "now the administration is preventing them from getting the money."
Many of the new rules implemented have come from HUD or are new best practices established by the city. Pharis said there were several other grant subrecepients that have yet to receive funds. Its no surprise that TDA finds itself in this situation again. If you remember, TDA failed to show up during the ballpark land question once before and had to be 'formally' invited. Since then, any TDA involved controversy has sparked responses from the Mayor's Administration and not TDA itself. This begs the following:
- Why are City Administration officials answering for TDA actions? Particularly in light of the fact that the adminstration has even told Council that TDA is a separate legal entity with no real connection to the City. And that the City, and particularly the Mayor, can not vote or influence TDA actions.
- Why has no one from TDA or City Administration provided the names of those responsible for the misappropriation of federal funds to pay City employee salaries?
- The TDA board has at least 5 members, why couldnt at least one of them have attended a meeting that had been scheduled well in advance?
- How is TDA a separate legal entity when according to its own posted Agendas its the City Adminsitration drafting and preparing a work services contract for TDA to sign?
- Why is Mike Bunney, City Economic Development Director, facilitating the TDA planning and mission retreats? (Also on the meeting agendas)
- And why on earth has TDA been buying and holding property since the 60s? I thought their mission was to buy property in blighted areas and then sell it to redevelopers in the hopes of encouraging further redevelopmend and investment in the area...am I wrong?
As far as Grant Administration goes, why are they holding onto funding that was apparently approved by Council last year? These are development funds that are supposed to strengthen and encourage development in areas that are in need. If they were already approved by Council doesnt that mean these proposals already met the required criteria? I'd have to say that on the surface it would appear that Ms. Pharis is changing the rules or she didnt do her job right in the first place before putting this before Council and is trying to make up for her short comings now and is being caught. Either way, none of this is helping get the money to these projects any faster.
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