NORWALK, Conn. – Some representatives of Norwalk Economic Opportunity Now (NEON) are crying foul over the city’s award of a hefty grant to the South Norwalk Community Center (SNCC).
The center had no programs when the application for a Community Block Development Grant (CDBG) was written – the programs it took credit for were being run and funded by NEON, former interim CEO and President Pat Wilson Pheanious said. Yet, not only did the center get $100,000 in federal grant money awarded through the city government, it also got the matching fund requirement waived – a fact that both Pheanious and board member Jack O’Dea are incensed about, given the ridicule NEON got when it couldn’t come up with the money to match a $21,000 grant recently.
Common Councilman Warren Peña (D-At Large) was involved in the process of getting the center a grant, which, they said, looks fishy, given that he is chairman of the SNCC board.
“To me, it reeks of conflict of interest,” Pheanious wrote in an email. “Back room deals, favoritism and lack of fair play. NEON wasn’t the only grant-seeker applying for CDBG dollars in that round. Has anyone else wondered why this application was funded? When public dollars are distributed on the basis of big mouths, BS and wishful thinking it makes me wonder who is getting paid for what.”
It’s a fair question, said O’Dea, who angrily asked, “Why is that overlooked?”
Peña voted for the grant at the committee level.
“I asked Council President Doug Hempstead if I needed to recuse myself and he said that I did not need to,” Peña said in an email. “He suggested that service on a particular board does not disqualify a council member from voting on CDBG grant applications, provided they receive no compensation. If simple service were to be the conflicted standard, most of the councilman would have issues in some way on most CDBG related funding requests.”
Peña recused himself when the entire council voted on the matter. That may have been unusual, he said.
“Historically, you should also note that council members have served on the NEON board and have equally voted to authorize CDBG funding for that organization without question,” he said. “My role as chairman of SNCC was fully disclosed in the application and was evident to anyone who reviewed it.”
Poppycock, Pheanious said.
“So the city funds and waives the dollar-for-dollar match required of NEON? I didn’t see any provision … in the federal law allowing a waiver. Does that mean the city paid the feds the match? How does that happen? The city supports a member of the City Council in such a blatant manner? So what if Warren recused himself from the vote. Give me another break.”
Redevelopment Authority Executive Director Tim Sheehan said the federal government does not require matching funds from local organizations receiving the money provided by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). The city requires matching funds to make the dollars stretch further, he said.
“As this match is a local program requirement and not a HUD requirement, the legislative body (Council) can, at their discretion, choose to waive it,” he said. “The sufficiency of the case for waiving the match is for the legislative body to determine. There is no making up for the lack of a sub-recipient match should the council choose to waive the requirement. That sub-recipient is simply awarded a larger share of the CDBG grant resources than they otherwise would have been if the match had been available and required.”
Matching funds are routinely waived, he said. Five organizations applied to get that requirement waived in the last cycle, he said.
Why wasn’t the matching fund requirement waived for NEON’s $21,000 grant to fix bathrooms at the Ben Franklin Center?
“They didn’t ask,” Sheehan said.
SNCC’s application for a grant is attached below. The money will be used to upgrade the first floor of 98 South Main St., the building the center shares with NEON, it says. The proposed improvements will benefit 5,458 people, of whom 3,527 will be low income, the application says. The center helps 30,000 people a year, the application says.
The application, which was submitted in late February, was ridiculed by Pheanious.
“If this application had come from or with NEON what is said therein could be true,” she wrote. “We do serve hundreds of people on the first floor. The problem is that, to the extent the grant is being made to SNCC with no mention of NEON’s role in this picture, nothing in here is true. Under the circumstances, it seems incredible to assert what is said. At the time this grant was submitted, SNCC had no paid staff. To the best of my knowledge, they still don’t.”
The center has one part-time worker at present, Peña said.
The application is fraudulent, Pheanious said, which is especially serious given that federal money is involved.
The application cites $79,083 in revenue from a Hispanic Human Development grant from the Connecticut Department of Social Services.
DSS spokesperson David Dearborn said the HHD grant is given to NEON. “We do not have a grant relationship with the Community Center,” he said in an email.
In addition to the lack of income going to the center, NEON has been paying the entire freight of expenses for the building, Pheanious wrote.
“The people being served from 98 South Main St were and are being served by NEON,” Pheanious wrote. “SNCC doesn’t even pay reasonable expenses of ownership.”
Pheanious said the application’s depiction of the center’s history is “at best a wishful thinking memory.”
“This grant application makes it seem like the city built the center for SNCC,” she wrote. “As far as I can tell, the South Norwalk Community Center (the group) took that name after the South Norwalk Community Center (the building) came into existence. I see incorporation papers say 1995. The building was built in the ’80s.”
Her version of the center’s history is attached below.
“When this grant was written, SNCC had no programs,” Pheanious said. “They still don’t. Not in recent years anyway. Or, well, there was arguably one. That program (an after school homework program) had to be shut down because of SNCCs failure to see that the program was licensed. The program wasn’t licensed in part because of inadequate bathroom space. NEON couldn’t afford to get that fixed. No waiver or other support from the city then. And guess who had to pay the fine? NEON.”
It all adds up to a pretty iffy application, said Pheanious, who recently said Norwalk has many “snakes in the grass.”
“The city knows all this,” she said. “They knew exactly what they were doing for whom and why. Maybe the voters understand this logic. But it leaves me wondering. … The city funds SNCC when, with Warren as the chair of the board and a City Councilman (using that title as he takes every public opportunity to bash NEON), (it) puts in a grant with this level of illusion, apparently no back up documents to support the claims, and without evidence of the consent, or knowledge of the building’s co-owner (remember NEON, the one who pays all costs)? Give me a break.”
Sheehan said he remembers Hempstead questioning the application at the committee level, although that isn’t mentioned in the minutes. Hempstead made a motion to cut the grant because it was a first-time applicant, Sheehan said. The motion failed.
The vote to approve the grant in the council meeting was unanimous, except that Peña abstained.
Sheehan said council members felt the quality of the center’s new board was sufficient to merit the grant, even given the center’s lack of productivity before Peña got involved. Board members have significant business experience, according to the application, although SNCC spokesman, Patrick Ferrandino said the board is currently “in transition.”
Ferrandino’s wife, SNCC Executive Director Marina Ferrandino, a volunteer, also has significant business experience, having run a travel agency that was among the top 10 agencies for a major cruise line, according to her husband. She has the equivalent of a master’s degree in business administration from a Columbian university, he said.
Mayor Richard Moccia was a “dear client” of hers, Patrick Ferrandino said. Moccia was one of the first people to call and congratulate Marina Ferrandino when she became SNCC executive director, he said.
The Ferrandinos became involved with the center in March, he said. The application was filed in late February, given preliminary approval on March 7 and given full approval on April 23.
Pheanious said she hopes for the best.
“I guess my reaction to the proposal is, ‘If only it were true. If only it were fair. If only it weren’t fraud.’ I guess we will see,” she wrote. “I hope people get it. And I hope the people of Norwalk who really need help get it. In the final analysis, let the facts, the services and the voters speak for themselves.”
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