Minneapolis neighborhood groups want a voice in how windfall money is used

Neighborhood groups said Monday they deserve a fair share of the windfall that is projected in a pot of money that fuels their operations.

Speaking to a council panel, about 20 advocates for neighborhood groups said the mayor's intention to redirect the funds outside the city's neighborhood department deserves more vetting. The debate over the projected windfall is the first major test of the city's relationship with its neighborhoods since their funding was brought more under city control in 2011.

"It would be very ironic for this policy shift to happen to the community engagement money without any community engagement," said Jenny Fortman, president of the Sheridan neighborhood organization.

The issue arises out of city projections that a number of special taxing districts will produce at least $14.8 million more over the next five years than when they made the estimate in 2011. The districts, established before 1979, include areas like the North Loop and Downtown East, which are booming.

Traditionally, that money has been earmarked just for the city's 70 neighborhood groups, the city's neighborhood department and Target Center debt payoff. But despite the projected growth, neighborhood groups would just see an inflationary increase to their funding in 2015, which will stay at 3 percent.

Mayor Betsy Hodges has instead proposed spending $424,000 of 2015's excess on closing the city's port and hiring two multilingual communications specialists. That annual excess is only expected to grow between now and 2020, when it might approach $2 million.

"Allocating these funds to other purposes represents a significant change in policy, one that we believe as a commission deserves a more robust, inclusive public process," said Ishmael Israel, chair of the city's neighborhood community engagement commission, which advises the city on neighborhood matters.

"This is not huge amounts of money and it creates an enormous amount of goodwill among the citizenry," said George Jelatis, who served on the board of the now-defunct Neighborhood Revitalization Program. "And it gives citizens a chance to participate in making decisions about things that need to be done in their very local areas."

Council members had mixed feelings about the mayor's plan.

Council Members Lisa Bender and Jacob Frey stressed that neighborhood group funding is still getting inflationary increases in the next budget.

"This is the only department in our entire city where we account for inflationary reasons outside of things that have general commercial flux" like asphalt, Frey said.

Council Member Alondra Cano said she could support the decision to invest some of the money in the city's port, known as the Upper Harbor Terminal, if there was more discussion about what the policy is for this money.

Eric Roper • 612-673-1732