Wednesday, August 28, 2013
August 26, 2003 Kokua Council program: Funding Nonprofits: Who gets funded and why
The funding of non-profits in Honolulu has recently been the subject of some controversy (see Related, below). For those who are following the issue, here is video from Kokua Council’s August 26 meeting at which they hosted a panel discussion to get responses to audience questions.
Panelists:
Ann Kobayashi, City Council Member
Pam Witty-Oakland, Honolulu C&C Community Services Director
Lisa Maruyama, Executive Director, HANO (Hawaii Alliance of Nonprofit Organizations
Moderator and organizer:
Jim Shon
(click the little thingy at the lower right for full-screen)
Related:
- Honolulu City Council Keeps Controversial Earmarks For Nonprofits ...
www.civilbeat.com/articles/19217/
Jun 5, 2013 - If council people don't step up to the plate only these well funded huge non-profits will get all the funding for example who did he award all the ...
- Should The City Earmark Millions For Favored Nonprofit Groups ...
www.civilbeat.com/articles/19189/
Jun 3, 2013 - "Many of the nonprofit organizations that are now included in the operating budget bill do not even qualify for CDBG funding as was implied.
- Where's The Pork? Honolulu City Council Dishes Out The Earmarks ...
www.civilbeat.com/articles/19041/
May 14, 2013 - Millions of dollars in taxpayer funds are being funneled to nonprofits and other special interest groups with little public vetting or oversight .
Note: video is All Rights Reserved, does not fall under the Creative Commons license.
Thank you for posting this discussion. As Councilmember Kobayashi mentioned several times, they put ~$8 million into the current budget for specific nonprofit organizations. Some of those nonprofits were not in compliance with federal or state laws. One spent only about 15% of its funding on programs -- most of the money went to travel costs for administration/management of the organization.
These organizations were not properly vetted. Yes, there were council meetings on the budget, but these particular funds were put in as line-item additions at the committee level. There was no application process. There was no discussion about the programs. And there was no coverage of these line-item additions until the mayor sent out a press release about them. That is not the proper way to handle taxpayer funds.
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