CARLTON FLETCHER: Citizens question City Commission’s decision to fund summer program

Rules and regulations … who needs them? Throw them out the door.

– Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young

By deciding to end its long-standing run of sponsoring the National Youth Sports Program, which has provided beneficial summer activities for tens of thousands of youngsters over the years, Albany State University officials have placed the city of Albany in what is basically an unwinnable position.

The city voted this week to sponsor a summer youth program run by United Way of Southwest Georgia at a cost of $350,000. That’s quite a chunk of money coming from a city that already is reportedly planning to dig into its reserve funds to balance its Fiscal Year 2027 budget.

While most but the cruelest among us would not begrudge a summer program that will provide hundreds of kids food, activities and educational opportunities, there are already grumblings about the commission’s vote, which passed 4-3.

“Are the taxpayers of Albany responsible for feeding the kids in this community?” one disgruntled individual asked in a message sent to this newspaper. “At what point are the people who had these children going to be held responsible for them?”

Another questioned the details of the proposal.

“Wait a minute: United Way is getting more than $122,000 for ‘administrative costs?’” the person asked. “How much of that money is going to go to the ‘administrators?’ It sounds a lot like these nonprofits who use most of the money they take in to pay exorbitant salaries.”

One sourly noted: “Another ‘minister’ coming to Albany to hop aboard the gravy train.”

The City Commission was presented a couple of other options before voting on the $350,000 windfall. One called for a $59,000 program to provide subsidies to fund 120 youngsters at a cost of $24,000. Under this proposal, the majority of the funding .– $35,000 – would have gone to pay United Way a “consulting fee.”

The third proposal was for the city to spend $200,000 in funds from its Recreation and Parks Department budget to operate the summer collaborative effort itself.

But Commissioners Willie Weaver, Diana Brown, Colette Jenkins and Vilnis Gaines decided to use $350,000 from the city’s shrinking reserve fund to pay for another program whose astronomical administrative costs make it a questionable investment, at least to the ever-shrinking tax base whose funds will pay for the program.

This newspaper has reached out to Albany State officials in an effort to find out why the university chose to end its affiliation with the NYSP program, which marked its 50th-year in the community last year. So far, there has been no response from ASU.

When making a decision on funding events using money collected from an already frustrated tax base, officials must decide if the benefit outweighs the cost. Certainly providing wholesome activities for kids is beneficial, if only for the fact that such a program keeps many kids off the streets and less likely to come under the influence of gangs.

But when those same frustrated taxpayers see what many are calling “fuzzy math” when it comes to administration of the program, they wonder why a less costly program, one that would actually have involved city employees, would not have made more sense.

Only time will tell if commissioners made a correct choice in allowing United Way officials to run the youth program. A detailed accounting of where the tax money was spent is recommended.

Email Carlton Fletcher at [email protected].