On Monday, June 2nd, after more than 6 hours of intense debate, the Atlanta City Council voted to authorize the Atlanta Neighborhood Development Partnership (ANDP) to form the Coordinating Responsible Authority (CoRA) and transferred its oversight responsibilities of the unexpended Title XX funds ($58 Million) and the tax incentives associated with the Renewal Communities Initiatives to the CoRA.

Throughout the legislative process, AHAND has advocated in favor of an administrative process that eliminated inherent conflicts of interest, provided favorable treatment to unfunded projects that were approved by the Community Empowerment Advisory Board (CEAB) and Atlanta Empowerment Zone Corporation (AEZC) boards, and contained a fair and balanced public procurement process.  Although we did not fully win each of our respective battles, we were partially successful in several aspects.  Here is a brief summary of the key amendments (primarily introduced by Councilwoman Starnes) that were adopted:

1. AHAND will appoint one resident of the Atlanta Empowerment Zone to serve on the CoRA Board;
2. The CoRA's subcontractor (ANDP) will be permitted to manage the benchmarks related to CDC grant making, capacity building, and lending, but will not receive any additional administrative fees for doing so (the services will be included in the $5,000,000 );
3. The CoRA's subcontractor (ANDP) will be permitted to compete for the Title XX funds, but will be required to:
i. Identify which projects they are interested in in writing ii. Agree to be monitored by the City of Atlanta iii. Remove themselves from the RFP Process iv. Partner with a Community Development Corporation (CDC) if the project is within the service area of an existing CDC.
4. The CoRA will not be permitted to unilaterally appoint ANDP as the development partner for CDC's that lack the capacity to undertake "complex" development projects;
5. The CoRA's board members will be subject to the City's ethics regulations;
6. Projects that were approved by the CEAB and AEZC boards but did not receive funding will receive favorable treatment in the rebenchmarking process;
7. The City Council will confirm the Mayor's appointments to the CoRA Board.

Although the resolution was overwhelmingly passed by the Atlanta City Council, Councilman Boazman informed his colleagues that he intends to make a motion to "recall" the Council's vote at the upcoming City Council Meeting.  Accordingly, the adopted resolution can not be presented to the Mayor until Councilman Boazman formally introduces his motion at the 6/16/03 council meeting.  In short, this provides a two week window to continue to advocate for the issues that remain of great concern.  Please go to www.ci.atlanta.ga.us/citycoul/contacts.htm and contact your Councilperson by following the appropriate link.

For your review, the text of Councilwoman Starnes' amendments have been placed on the AHAND website.  Please click here to view the text of her amendments.