Monroe County Legislature denies contract for troubled Neighborhood Collaborative Project

The Monroe County Legislature Tuesday blocked the appointment of a new fiscal sponsor for the troubled Neighborhood Collaborative Project, with two Democrats joining 13 Republicans in voting no.

The resolution would have installed Starbridge Services, a local nonprofit focusing on people with disabilities, to handle the financial and administrative component of about $6 million in remaining federal funding intended to reduce homelessness and other social ills. The first administrator, Community Resource Collaborative, was jettisoned after major irregularities surfaced with its handling of the money.

The question that now splits the Legislature is not simply who should be appointed as fiscal sponsor, but whether the Collaborative Project in its present form should be funded at all. Democrats Rachel Barnhart and Mercedes Vazquez Simmons said that it should not.

They cited unusually high administrative costs and the inclusion of for-profit companies among the Neighborhood Collaborative Project's 12 member entities, among other things. They and the 13 Republicans urged County Executive Adam Bello to reconsider how best to ensure that the federal funding reaches those in need.

"We recognize some of the members of the Neighborhood Collaborative Project did good work and are waiting for much-needed funding," Vazquez Simmons said in a press release. "But we have to do this in a legal and responsible manner. ... We are asking the administration to bring us an improved proposal."

Without a fiscal sponsor in place, the project's member agencies cannot be reimbursed for work they already do or as they continue to do it going forward. Many of them have laid off employees or scaled back their operations until the funding matter can be resolved.

More: Community Resource Collaborative financial crisis takes toll, impact grows

'Exacerbates the plight of those already struggling'

The Democratic majority caucus criticized Barnhart and Vazquez Simmons for their defection and insisted funds distribution process has been strengthened to prevent further misuse.

"Denying our constituents this chance because of a personal agenda is completely unfair to the agencies involved, and exacerbates the plight of those already struggling," Majority Leader Michael Yudelson said in a statement.

Barnhart and Vazquez Simmons singled out in particular Beatriz LeBron, executive director of the Father Tracy Advocacy Center, one of the Neighborhood Collaborative Project's anchor agencies. They criticized her for paying herself $3,900 to serve as a vocational trainer rather than hiring someone else, and said she threatened Vazquez Simmons at a public meeting.

More: Money shifting, excuses, head-scratching questions: The story behind CRC's fall

LeBron, who is also vice president of the Rochester school board, said Vazquez was lying about their interaction.

"Two (legislators) who lack any real experience in nonprofit management, procurement or grant oversight procedures continue to share uninformed and unqualified opinions that misrepresent and mischaracterize the work of grassroots service providers who are in the trenches of this community daily," she said in a statement. "They have ensured that more Rochesterians will stay in crisis, go hungry ... and be removed from critical services they need to survive."

— Justin Murphy is a veteran reporter at the Democrat and Chronicle and author of " Your Children Are Very Greatly in Danger: School Segregation in Rochester, New York." Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/CitizenMurphy or contact him at jmurphy7@gannett.com .

This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Monroe County Legislature denies contract for troubled Neighborhood Collaborative Project