For 12 years, Springfield's Solid Rock Church of God in Christ has run an AIDS prevention program aimed at young people. The project trains teenagers to serve as peer leaders, who talk to other teens about avoiding risky behavior.
Over the years, the program's budget has varied, from as much as $40,000 a year to as little as $25,000, depending on the level of contributions from funders, according to the church's pastor, the Rev. Talbert Swan II. Those funders have included the national Church of God in Christ as well as local private foundations including the Davis Foundation and the Community Foundation of Western Mass. The program has also consistently received financial support from the city of Springfield's Community Development Block Grant program. That funding, too, has varied over the years, from a high of about $15,000 to a low of $5,000, Swan said.
But when the new fiscal year starts on July 1, for the first time since its founding, the program won't get a penny from City Hall. While that won't kill the program, Swan said, it will take a substantial chunk out of its budget, which in the current fiscal year included an $8,000 city grant.
Swan suspects his church's AIDS program was the victim of politics. The minister has been critical of the administration of Mayor Domenic Sarno on several fronts, leaving him to wonder if the decision to eliminate funding for the church had less to do with policy and more to do with payback. The mayor's office, meanwhile, calls Swan's claims unfounded. Decisions about CDBG money are made by a committee that evaluates the needs of the community and the effectiveness of applicant programs, and follow federal regulations, a mayoral spokesman told the Advocate.
While the amount of money in question is small—$8,000 out of a city budget of $530 million—the political implications are bigger and messier.
AIDS remains an important public health issue in Springfield. According to 2007 figures from the CDC, there were 2,216 people with AIDS—or 15.5 people for every 100,000—in the Springfield metropolitan area (which includes surrounding communities as well as the city). By comparison, the statewide rate is only 9.5 people per 100,000. The national rate is 12.4 per 100,000.
Swan maintains his program has been successful, especially given its goal of reaching young people before they engage in risky behavior. And, he notes, the city's request for funding proposals included the same goals and criteria as the previous year's, when his program received a grant. Swan contacted Sarno a couple of weeks ago to ask why his program lost its funding. As of late last week, he said, he'd yet to hear back from the mayor.
Swan did speak informally to a member of the mayor's staff, he said, who told him the funds were cut because the program didn't serve enough people. Swan, however, questions that rationale, since the figure cited by the staffer referred only to the number served with the $8,000 provided by the city—a relatively small chunk of the program's overall budget of $40,000.
"How many do you realistically expect us to serve with $8,000?" Swan said in an interview with the Advocate. "The fact we can leverage those funds to serve more kids is a feat unto itself. &
"They had no problem all of the other years we were funded with the number of people we were providing services for," he added.
Instead, Swan believes the decision had to do with critical statements he's made about the mayor. While Swan backed Sarno in his 2007 campaign, he's also chastised the mayor for letting the Community Complaint Review Board, which is charged with reviewing complaints against city police, lie inactive for months. Swan has also criticized the way the mayoral staff has handled the state Shannon Grants program, which funds violence-prevention efforts. (Swan is assistant executive director of Springfield's Northern Educational Services, which last year received $50,000 in Shannon funds for an anti-gang program.)
"As I have always done throughout my career, I've been vocal concerning issues that I have, and the way that the administration has handled those issues," Swan said. "I think that once again my public stance on some issues has garnered a response by the administration, and that response has been to cut the funding for our church."
Indeed, Swan added, since he began questioning the funding cut, he's received word that the city's Community Development Office plans to conduct program and financial evaluations of his church's program—despite the fact that the fiscal year ends in less than a month. Over the previous dozen years that his church received CDGB funds, it had only been reviewed a handful of times, he told the Advocate.
"No credence can be put in Mr. Swan's assertions that his funding has been cut or an evaluation of his program will be done because he has been critical of the mayor," Tom Walsh, Sarno's spokesman, told the Advocate. "When all the applications were reviewed and the committee looked at the totality of the services that the various organizations would provide, the committee did not feel that Mr. Swan's organization would have the greatest impact on the community.
"Programs are evaluated as part of the CDBG program process," Walsh continued. "The city has a fiduciary duty to ensure that the funding it awards is being spent properly.
"Is Mr. Swan suggesting that the city simply award this money to organizations without having any oversight or accountability?" Walsh added. "This will not occur under the Sarno administration."
Talbert Swan isn't the only member of his family to tangle with Sarno in recent months. His uncle, state rep Benjamin Swan, protested when the mayor cancelled a city contract with the Springfield Towing Alliance for lack of compliance. (The STA's president, Bobby Jones, is a friend and campaign supporter of Swan's.) Late last year, Swan temporarily blocked a bill to extend the payback terms on a loan Springfield had received from the state until state officials agreed to review the contract cancellation.
That caused considerable tension between Swan and Sarno, who told the Springfield Republican at the time that the state rep was "working to sink the city of Springfield for purely petty personal politics."
Talbert Swan has found a backer in City Councilor Jimmy Ferrera, who wrote his own letter to Sarno, asking why the church's AIDS program was left out of the new budget. "I am hoping that this was not a political process and the grant was chosen on need for the community," Ferrera wrote to the mayor.
Last week, Ferrera said he'd yet to hear back from Sarno. The councilor told the Advocate that he had spoken briefly to Denise Jordan, the mayor's chief of staff, who told him funds for the Solid Rock Church program were cut because that program overlapped with other AIDS programs in the city. But, Ferrera noted, according to a draft Community Development Block Grant spending plan, the only other AIDS-related program to receive money is a program that helps people with AIDS find housing—a worthy program, he said, but different from the church program, which is preventive.
Like Swan, Ferrera questions whether decisions about CDBG spending were based on political considerations. "It's highly suspect that other programs that have some type of attachment to the mayor's staff have been funded, and this program has not been funded," he said.
According to the draft funding plan, for example, $7,000 will go to the Academic, Athletic, Arts Achievement Association (also known as "5A Football"), a youth sports organization. Denise Jordan has served as that organization's clerk, and her mother, Donna Jordan, is listed with the city's Parks Department as the program's contact person. In addition, $27,900 is slated to go to summer programs at the South End Community Center, where Sarno was executive director before being elected mayor.
"Councilor Ferrera is correct in pointing out that Denise Jordan had been part of the 5A organization," Walsh told the Advocate. "Ms. Jordan is proud of everything that this organization has accomplished and all that it does for the youth of our community. It is important to note that every cent of the funding that 5A receives from the CDBG funding goes towards the youth. None of the CDBG funding is used for administrative expenses."
As for the South End Community Center, Walsh said, questions about how the center spends its money would best be directed to its current executive director: Chae Swan, Talbert's brother.
"My main point is saying that I hope this was not a political decision," Ferrera said. "The motive could be questionable."
Whether the funding cut was motivated by politics, it will, no doubt, have political consequences. While Swan supported Sarno for mayor in 2007, it's unlikely he'll back him again this fall, when Sarno faces a challenge from City Councilor Bud Williams.
