"The Jennings administration has a hard time playing by the rules," writes Albany mayoral candidate Shawn Morris. "This week saw evidence of that when the city’s planning commissioner failed to show up at a meeting scheduled specifically for him, to discuss the city’s plan for nearly $1 million in additional community development funds being made available through the federal stimulus package."
According to a Times Union interview with Councilwoman Carolyn McLaughlin, members of the council found out about the mayor's intended use for this money--demolishing 12-14 buildings and stabilizing two--only after his office issued a press release (thanks Jordan). The councilwomen point out that leaving the council out of the discussions about the CDBG funds does no one any good, considering that they were elected by many of the people who will be affected directly by this money.
"Now the city has drawn up a plan for spending that money," Morris continues in her blog post. "But they haven’t shared it with the Common Council, as the rules say they should. They put an outline of the plan somewhere on the city website. Unfortunately, most of the people who live in the affected communities don’t have access to the internet. I also heard that they “advertised” in the newspaper. I didn’t see it, and well, neither did virtually anyone in the affected communities."
Read the rest of Morris' post at shawnmorris.metroland.net.
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