As the borough prepares to distribute millions of dollars in government development funds, some of the community leaders who will play a large role in deciding how the money is spent have been selected.
At the same time an advisory committee of borough residents has begun setting the ground rules for choosing from the many proposals that community groups, developers and entrepreneurs are expected to submit in coming months. Only bids that pass muster with the committee will qualify for government funds.
Organizers are touting the community advisory process as a major advantage of the borough's approach to the empowerment zone, a federally sponsored urban development program to channel up to $51 million into Hunts Point, Longwood and Port Morris over 10 years.
"As someone who's been here, who grew up here, who was born in this particular community, I have seen things many times that were designed to help that just created a milling of money with no results at the end," said Carlos Padilla, who was chosen to sit on the screening committee.
He believes this process will be different. "This is the first time they've ever had broad participation from the community," Padilla said.
Four screening committee representatives were selected by the Citizens Advisory Committee, a group of volunteers participating in the development of guidelines and priorities. The advisory committee was divided into two working groups.
One, the employment and training group, elected Padilla, owner of a medical equipment sales company in Mott Haven, and Ron Peterson, a community development consultant. The second, the quality-of-life group, elected Ade Rasul, director of the Woodycrest Center for Human Development, and Fred Daris, director of the South Bronx Community Action Theatre.
"I was encouraged to be a watchdog by the openness and fairness of the process -- even at the expense of making a proposal myself," Rasul said. He said the open cooperation of the group overcame his initial skepticism.
Five other members of the screening committee will be appointed by the borough president's office, Community Boards 1, 2 and 4, and the Bronx Overall Economic Development Corp.
At four consecutive Saturday meetings ending April 1, the working groups discussed the requirements and scoring systems that will be used to determine which bids will get funding.
In principle, these detailed bid requirements, also known as requests for proposals, and their scoring systems will make the selection of programs objective.
The zone will seek bids for programs in basic education, entrepreneurial training, contracting and procurement, apprenticeship training, general job training, transition from welfare to work and day care.
The development corporation is incorporating the comments made during these meetings into the bid requirements. By May 4, drafts for these requirements will be released for 30 days of public review and comment, corporation president Kevin Nunn said. The deadline for comment is June 4.
The drafts will be available at churches, libraries and community board offices. A town hall meeting on the drafts will be held May 20 at a time and place to be announced.