Citizen scores victory over police rec centers
Consider it a victory for the little person.
Ever since Baltimore's police commissioner and recreation and parks director announced that the Police Athletic League centers would close, with most of them taken over by the rec department, it had sounded like a done deal.
There was a news conference and officials talked about how this was good for the city, a way of consolidating centers under one department and putting more cops on the street. The news took residents by surprise.
Robert Hunt, the head of the Rosemont Improvement Association, found out his center was on the chopping block when he saw television cameras outside. Even at a forum at Rosemont Thursday night, residents said they were not properly informed. Hunt called me just a few hours before the hearing to tell me about it -- the city gave me a schedule of 17 hearings but didn't give him one. City Councilwoman Agnes Welch said she too learned of the closures from the media.
Now, many people felt Thursday's forum was a waste of time, that their input was only sought after the decision had been made. "If you take it out, take it out," Rosemont resident Robert Brunt said at the hearing. "But don't do it behind our backs."
Recreation officials said they informed the public as quickly as they could but on Thursday night in the gym at the Rosemont PAL, Rec and Parks director Wanda S. Durden backpedaled. In her opening remarks to a hostile crowd, she nodded to Leticia Fitts, who helps run a nonprofit that is parterning with a PAL Center on Pennsylvania Avenue, Robert C. Marshal, and is fighting city bureaucracy. She is monitoring the hearings.
"This is not a done deal," Durden emphasized, noting Fitts' victorious smile.
Is the very point Fitts has been trying to make. She's flooded city officials with e-mails demanding they announce scheduled votes and stop talking as if these cuts due to budget constraints are in fact set in stone. She is distributing a pamphlet explaining the city's budget process noting exactly where we are in, and on her chart we are no where near the end. She's titled her presentation, "It's not a 'Done Deal.'"
At least on this point it appears she has beaten City Hall. Whether this means she can save PAL is another matter. Rec and Parks is holding a series of hearings this month and next -- one at each PAL Center -- and if they go as the last three have, and resemble the e-mails I'm getting -- the city will have a mound of testimony supporting PAL and decrying the cuts.
But the City Council is not voting on PAL in June. Lawmakers are voting on the entire budget, and whether opposition to this one issue will be enough to hold up the budget remains to be seen. But at least the discussion is where it should be -- with the residents. And their words can still mean something. Here is a complete schedule of hearings on PAL centers:
Comments
As a concerned tax-paying citizen, yes I am aware of the "discovered money" and have already read the rationale that the Mayor's Comptroller's Office has given to where the money is planned to go towards. First, of all I am and other citizens are concerned and disturbed that the money that has been coming out of OUR paychecks has been going into an UNKNOWN account. I have read all 74 pages of our Mayor's PROPOSED budget and understand her intentions are to cut back in all areas of our youth in the areas of intervention and prevention. However, I also understand from being in attendance of the police hearing meeting that the Baltimore City Police Department already can't account for their money in their deficit that deals with that current audit. I am also aware that major donations have been given to PAL which has not been given to them. I further understand that money is allocated for the Baltimore City PAL Department that has not been being disbursed for many years for it to thrive they way it once did when they were a Nation-wide model program. However, they have still managed to provide 'safe havens" for youth in the most crime ridden areas and have a great impact on the lives of the youth they have serviced. I am currently trying to find where this money has been going if they have not been receiving it. Any assisstance in this matter would be greatly appreciated. In light of this, I can't understand how under the Mayor's PROPOSED budget it is still slotted to give millions of additional money that they already can't account for in the areas of patrol and overtime?! As an advocate for the youth and citizen, I am requesting that from the millions that is PROPOSED to be given over to the Police Department and the new money found that the current Mayor's PROPOSED cut backs to the youth prevention and intervention programs that are being affected are not cut. Eventhough up to this point in the budget process, "we the people" (who are the governing force of our democratic government) have not been properly informed, misinformed, and blatantly have been ignored, I really hope that the our elected officials will not only listen, but will use the citizen's input as the driving force in any and all decision making. In the unpublicized meetings and forums that have occured thus far, the majority's message that we as citizens have been expressing towards the issues in our Mayor's PROPOSED budget is that we are not in support of it. Finally, I am requesting that the necessary and proper funding is given to the youth prevention and intervention programs and that accountability measures are put into place to monitor all city funding given to ensure that all programs are actually flourishing to the effectively meet the diverse needs of our Youth and Community.
Respectfully,
Leticia A. Fitts
Posted by: Leticia Fitts | April 17, 2009 12:26 AM
CALL TO RALLY at Tax-Payer's Night by “The Baltimore City’s Coalition of Concerned Citizens” against the Mayor’s Budget Proposal and Initiatives and the affects it will have
on OUR Youth and OUR Communities!!
Come Stand up, Rally, and Make our Voices Heard against the closing of the PAL Centers city-wide and ALL proposed budget cuts that affect our Youth and Community!!!
When: Monday, May 11, 2009 at 5 p.m.
Where: City Hall of Baltimore, 100 North Holliday St. (Tax-payers’ Night)
Why:
*The “governing force of our Democratic City” is the Citizens of Baltimore. As citizens, we have NOT been involved, informed and misinformed when trying to participate in our Mayor’s Proposed Budget and the decision making process of decisions that directly affect OUR youth and OUR Communities.
*Over $40,000,000 has been found in a City account through an audit. As the citizens of Baltimore, we want this money to not only prevent the current Mayor’s Proposed Budget Cuts for the current Youth Intervention and Prevention Programs, but we want it to be used as funding for their expansion with accountability. More money hidden money continues to be discovered. We are calling for a thorough audit to locate other misallocated and hidden tax-payer’s money.
*We are opposed to all Proposed Budget Cuts that will affect our Youth by depleting necessary preventions and interventions, while increasing money for Police on Patrol and Overtime which includes the following:
(1) Some pools, day care centers, and recreation centers are proposed to be closed. The hours and length of operation of libraries, pools and recreation centers are proposed to be cut down. However, more money is proposed to be added to street patrol.
(2) Department of Recreation and Parks is proposed to take over the Police Athletic League Centers, which are located in the most “crime ridden” neighborhoods and provides a FREE “safe haven” and programs for our youth in these communities. This will deplete the entire Department of the Police Athletic League, in order to deploy the mere 24 PAL officers to street patrol. We are demanding that PAL’s misallocated funding for the last three years is released.
*Instead of funding the new “Curfew Center” that will be using PAL vans to transport youth to a central facility, we want this money to go to extending the hours of operations at the PAL Centers during the Summer.
For more information or if you need a ride, please contact Darren Muhammed at 410-878-5298 or Leticia A. Fitts at L_FI@msn.com
Posted by: Leticia Fitts | May 10, 2009 9:26 PM