Valparaiso City Council member Robert Cotton expressed repeated concerns Monday to council constituents about the process for the spending of $7.6 million in American Rescue Plan Act funds, and provided an independent consultant’s evidence for what he says is a skewed representation of information gathered in recent months.
An automated one-page form was available throughout the month of February on the City of Valparaiso website designed as the portal used to gather input for how the money should be distributed.
“I have a concern for the picture this information paints, and that it’s not a sufficient sample to reflect the entire community,” Cotton said at the March 14 Valparaiso City Council meeting.
“It’s problematic because of the number of people who seem to not have a clue about what this money is for, such as those asking it to be used for building a new youth sports complex.”
Cotton, D-2nd, said he delivered the portal data that was provided to him and the rest of the council to consultant Kathleen DeWitt of Valparaiso, to secure her opinion, citing her 35 years of experience in market data analysis.
“When I looked at the open ended responses in the portal, however you folks tabulated the data, it came in as exactly the number of respondents who participated in the study and that idea, that all 134 respondents would say just one thing is not likely, which was the first thing that jumped out at me,” DeWitt told the council Monday, explaining her findings.
Cotton told Valparaiso Mayor Matt Murphy that expecting council members to respond “in an expedient manner” with suggestions for spending ideas for the funds was not beneficial to the community and he urged the council “to spend time paying attention to what the numbers are actually telling us.”
“Permissible uses” for the government ARPA money granted, as outlined in stipulations, must be consistent with any of four uses: COVID-19 Response, Premium Pay, Reduction in Revenues and Infrastructure.
“I’m not sure where we are going with this, Ms. DeWitt, but this was not on the agenda,” Murphy said as DeWitt began her report.
“I’ll be happy to take your comments during the public comment portion of our meeting.”
Cotton said he remains skeptical of gathered portal feedback, which DeWitt said only included 43% of respondents urging the funds be used for economic aid for entities such as assisting the first responders who continued their key positions despite safety concerns during the pandemic.
The rest of the council members voiced no opinions or concerns about the process and the council charged with providing feedback to Valparaiso City Manager Mike Jessen to craft the spending plan with Murphy for a final approval of a funds plan that will be passed by the Valparaiso City Council.
Valparaiso City Council President George Douglas and council member Jack Pupillo were absent at Monday’s meeting.
“There’s a better way of including everybody, and not just 134 (portal respondents),” DeWitt said, when delivering her report during the public comment portion of the meeting.
“This isn’t a true representation of the community, without demographics provided for who these respondents were, their age, their education and their income, for example. Maybe those people most impacted by the pandemic aren’t even people with access to internet to have been able to use the portal provided to respond.”
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