An Open Letter to Tishaura Jones
It’s become clear that you have your hands full with the effort to allocate federal stimulus funds to North City small businesses and not-for-profit organizations. The complications are compounded by the fact that your administration must complete the process in fewer than 90 days. An effort which ought to be one of your biggest triumphs is going south. You can still fix this but you’d better hurry, because you’re almost out of time.
$37 million For North City Economic Development.
The Board of Aldermen approved spending $37 million in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) dollars to fund badly-needed economic stimulus grants for North City. According to one of your agency heads, none of these funds have been distributed yet. Per federal law, the money will be forfeited if not contractually obligated by December 31, 2024.
An Ugly Turn
In recent weeks, this effort has become controversial. Other elected officials, as well as the media, have expressed grave concerns about the process used to select recipients, citing incomplete registrations and some business addresses which turned out to be vacant buildings. Other prospective recipients appear unable to effectively accomplish stated goals with the funds awarded. Clearly, there were some failures in the selection process; a second third-party firm was contracted to provide an additional round of vetting before the “final” selection of recipients.
Unforced Errors Make Matters Worse
Amidst these struggles, you took to social media to rightfully extol the virtues and accomplishments of your son on the occasion of his 17th birthday. I, for one, read it with that warm feeling one enjoys when reflecting on the promise of our young people. And then—SMACK!—you ruined the moment by offering his CashApp electronic address for gifts, if the reader was so inclined. You then wrote “This is not a solicitation”, a comically inadequate disclaimer.
Let’s be clear: while preparing to distribute tens of millions in discretionary funds, you offered interested parties the opportunity and mechanism to send secret cash gifts to your son.
As unforced errors go, this one is a doozy. Offering circumstantial evidence of public corruption has damaged your reputation. And every organization that ultimately benefits from this program will bear the weight of suspicion; despite recipients two-year effort to obtain these grants, observers will wonder whether they sent a ‘birthday gift’ to the Mayor’s son to gain favor.
Mayor Jones, you can fix this. But time is running out. The Feds ‘use it or lose it’ date is 90 days away.
Rehabilitation Plan
Identify a retired, respected federal prosecutor and hire them to do a quick but thorough review of the awards process. If something looks questionable, learn about it now and fix it.
Immediately return and then disclose all gifts given to your son after your posting. Err on the side of transparency.
Finally, tell the public every step you take, the results of your investigation, and what you’ll do about it.
You can fix this, Mayor, but you have to act now.
—Nancy Rice
