Concerns expressed by San Benito Health Foundation officials – over a similar outside agency staking territory here by partnering on a neighborhood improvement grant application – have ended up raising serious questions about the local organization itself.
Some Hollister City Council members openly expressed concern at last week’s council meeting over the proposal to support a “Promise Neighborhood” federal grant for $500,000 – which would go toward rejuvenating the west side.
The funding sought by a dozen local partners is a particularly exciting opportunity considering the severe deficiency of money available in government and nonprofit coffers to address failing neighborhoods, while fixing the west side should be a top priority for area leaders if the city hopes to build a base for future economic development.
Debate last week was the culmination of building tensions between supporters of the health foundation and its adversary, Watsonville-based Salud Para La Gente. Both organizations serve many of the same needs – dental and medical care for low-income residents – but traditionally in different geographic regions.
Gang Prevention Coordinator Al De Vos is among those leading efforts to contract with the Watsonville group on the grant application through the U.S. Department of Education. He noted to officials at last week’s meeting that local organizations have been meeting monthly for more than a year – that supporters of the effort repeatedly asked for a local partner and how the health foundation simply never stepped forward to show interest. De Vos said foundation officials attended several of the planning meetings. In the end, the grant partners had no choice but to move forward without a local application partner because the submission deadline is July 27.
Which begs the obvious question: Why is the health foundation crying foul after the fact when it was given every opportunity to take part and be a leader in the application process? Why did it show no interest – whether solicited from local partners or not – in a $500,000 grant?
Even foundation Board Member Jim Gibson, who argued against the Salud Para La Gente contract in an interview with the Free Lance, seemed openly perplexed about the local group’s lack of proactive involvement.
“I’m not really sure why we couldn’t have pursued that,” Gibson told council members, later acknowledging it is not a relatively difficult grant to obtain.
He argued against the Salud Para La Gente contract by underscoring the primary agitation from the local organization – that the health foundation would end up losing out on federal funding with the Watsonville group in town – especially in light of coming changes from the Affordable Healthcare Act.
The bottom line is that the health foundation could have been involved. For whatever reason, its leadership sat on the opportunity and eventually lost it. You have to actually apply for the $500,000 to get it. You have to show some initiative.
Gibson and other health foundation officials – those unaware of the debacle before recently – should look for blame in their own organization, which slept through the process, and quit curtailing the opportunity for the rest of the community.
As for the council, it is disturbing that some members are so shortsighted and stubbornly territorial that they would consider sacrificing a half-million dollars toward such a pressing need. They and county supervisors should endorse the contract, or the rest of us will lose the chance at $500,000 to improve the area of Hollister that most sorely needs it.
