ASHEVILLE – The City Council is set to take a final vote Sept. 14 on where to spend $26.3 million in federal COVID-19 aid as well as award a nearly $366,000 contract to a reparations project manager.
Following months of anticipation and deliberation on where American Rescue Plan Act funding would be spent, city staff are recommending 10 categories, according to Asheville Internal Auditor Patricia Rosenberg:
- Affordable housing
- Aging resident care
- Infrastructure
- Community communication
- Domestic violence prevention and assistance
- Food systems
- Homelessness services,
- City tax and other revenue losses
- Small business recovery
- Workforce development
The categories comply with restrictions set by ARPA, Rosenberg said in a report submitted as part of the Sept. 14 council meeting.
As of Aug. 24, the council had already earmarked $5.5 million, with $1.6 million going to make up for lost parking revenue and the rest to homelessness aid programs, the biggest of which being $2 million to help the nonprofit Homeward Bound convert a Tunnel Road hotel into long-term housing for the chronically homeless.
Rosenberg said the money will aid in recovery from “devastating economic and health effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.”
“(And it) provides equitable solutions to repair harm that was exacerbated by the pandemic and build resilience for the future,” she said in the report.
If the council approves the categories the city staff will put out “community-wide” requests for proposals for projects to fill the needs, she said.
On Aug. 31 the Buncombe County Board of Commissioners voted 7-0 on allocations for $11.3 million of the $50.7 million in county ARPA money with the biggest allotment going to high-speed broadband internet.
$366,000 for reparations manager
The council is also set to vote on a contract to award a $365,583 to TEQuity, LLC, to fill the newly created reparations project manager position.
At an Aug. 24 council meeting, Asheville Equity Office Interim Director Brenda Mills named TEQuity as the likely candidate. The company is run by Debra Clark Jones, vice president of the historically Black St. Augustine’s University in Raleigh.
Among the manager’s duties are helping form the Reparations Commission and guiding it in recommending what kind of restitution should be given to Black residents for historic wrongs such as slavery and discrimination.
Mills at the time did not give the pay for the position and told the Citizen Times it would be available by Sept. 10. It was included in the documentation for the upcoming council meeting.
Mills did not respond Sept. 13 to Citizen Times questions asking the exact length of time of the contract, how the amount was determined and whether it was understood to be for one person or a multi-person staff. The money will come from $2.1 million currently set aside for reparations, meaning 17% of that fund.
The current timeline presented by Mills says the manager will provide multiple reports to the council with a report on short-term goals in January 2022 and a final report in April 2023.
Vice Mayor Sheneika Smith did not respond to a request for comment.
