The Observation Deck

Here is the link to the Lakewood Alive 2009 Annual Report:
http://www.lakewoodalive.com/news/2010/ ... eport.html

Shawn,
I have a question for you...can the salaries for all three LA employees only be $16,283? Or is the salary number in another location?

Can you help me?

Rhonda - Not only are the salaries cheap but apparently they have no costs for accounting, paper and office supplies, copies, etc. Amazing. Simply amazing.

Looks like the amount attributed to signage is higher than originally quoted. Wonder if that includes all the banners they string up around town.

Hmmmm, Shawn, answers? Waiting here.

Shawn,
Still waiting for a response.

Shawn,
Just a reminder...I am waiting for a response.

From Shawn Juris ,March 3, 2010

Maybe this time now that we've got everyone here on a Saturday afternoon, what information do you want on LA?

From Rhonda Loje,

]Here is the link to the Lakewood Alive 2009 Annual Report:
http://www.lakewoodalive.com/news/2010/ ... eport.html

Shawn,
I have a question for you...can the salaries for all three LA employees only be $16,283? Or is the salary number in another location?

Can you help me?

Why is this such a hard question to answer?

Shawn,

Since I have not heard back from you I pulled the application for CDBG funds that LakewoodAlive submited:
http://onelakewood.com/pdf/CDBG%20Appli ... 20FY10.pdf.

See page 9.

Am I reading this right?

Total salaries for LA are projected to be $121,000 for 2010.
Total budget for LA is projected to be $236,400 for 2010.

Does that means that that LA uses 51% of its income for salaries? Please correct me if I am reading this information incorrectly or have misinterpreted this information wrong.

Sharon,
To answer you question...on page 9...they planned to used $98,400 for operating costs.

So...$98,400 for operating expenses.
And ..$121,000 in salaries.
Total....$219,400.

So that would be 93% of total income that is being used for salaries and operating expenses?

Shawn,

Am I reading this correctly? Please correct me if I'm wrong. I don't want to disperse incorrect information.
I am still waiting for your response.

Rhonda - here's a link to what LA actually recieved in CDBG funding...see page 16.

http://www.onelakewood.com/pdf/DCD-CDBG ... n_Plan.pdf

Lakewood Alive's Housing Outreach program is designed to help low- and moderate-income households understand the City's compliance codes and provide these households with information regarding financing for exterior improvements. In 2010 the program will receive $30,250 in CDBG funding to serve 20 households. 2009 was this program's first year and it received $42,280 in CDBG funding.

Charlie,
Thank you for the link...
I found your $30,250 for 20 units, on page 13.
But you missed $45,000 for 100 units, on 39.
So that total is $75,250.

Right??

Charlie,
The reason I used the link above is because it was their plan.
It includes salaries and what they expected to receive to CDBG and other income.
If the CDBG money was less than expected...then the (as far as I know.....because I can not get anyone to confirm the salary information about LA) % of salaries to income is even worse.

But again,
Shawn,
I hate to quote myself...but...
[b]

From Rhonda Loje,

]Here is the link to the Lakewood Alive 2009 Annual Report:
http://www.lakewoodalive.com/news/2010/ ... eport.html

Shawn,
I have a question for you...can the salaries for all three LA employees only be $16,283? Or is the salary number in another location?

Can you help me?

[/b]

Shawn is good at dishing disdain and short on info. That's kind of the LA model I'm familiar with.

Rhonda- I'm math deficient but you may want to tackle some of the math for this.

Since the CBDG money is for specific projects, the staff for the projects can have their salaries and the peripherals paid for by the grant, 10% for the exec dir. and that's it.

This money is not to be used for any other staff.

So minus project staff and figuring about 30% (I don't know if this figure is still correct - for peripherals i.e. SS, Workers comp.) what are the amounts left for salaries for the other three staff people?

Might be interesting. Also, other grant monies can only pay salaries for staff on those specific projects.

I think there may be some creative bookkeeping there along with the lie on the annual report.

Methinks there is something rotten there.

Shawn,
I need to be fair and revise these numbers with new actual information that Charlie Page gave me.

Here are the old numbers.....

Rhonda loje on Mon Mar 15, 2010 4:54 pm

Total salaries for LA are projected to be $121,000 for 2010.
Total budget for LA is projected to be $236,400 for 2010.

Based upon that new information:
Total salaries for LA are projected to be $121,000 for 2010.
Total budge for LA projected to be $216,150
That would mean that 55% LA Income would be used for salaries.

Shawn,
Am I reading this correctly? Please correct me if I'm wrong. I don't want to disperse incorrect information. I am still looking forward to your response.

Rhonda loje wrote:Charlie,
Thank you for the link...
I found your $30,250 for 20 units, on page 13.
But you missed $45,000 for 100 units, on 39.
So that total is $75,250.

Right??

The link I posted last night, it comes up as page 16 for me in the pdf. Also, the 45,000 on page 39 (page 78 in the pdf) is to provide "technical assistance to business in Lakwood to help facilitate low-mod job creation" and is supposed to create 100 job opportunities. It's not for the housing outreach activity.

So that means the housing outreach money is $30,250 for 20 units. That's about $1,500 per unit (house). The housing outreach purpose is "educating property owners about repairs necessary to maintain properties at specified standards" and to "educate about government financial assistance available to eligible low and moderate income households for exterior house maintance".

I may be over simplifying this but, in my mind, what this boils down to is that LA has received over $72,000 (2009 and 2010) to tell people what to fix and where to get gov't help to fix it. Basically, our tax dollars are paying for them to tell others how to get tax dollars to fix stuff!

Maybe someone can jump in and correct any misperception I might have...please.

Charlie,
Maybe if we could get a response from members of the CAC board that approved this plan and passed it to City Council and the Mayor for approval we could understand their reasoning a little bit better. Right now it is very hard to understand.

It seems excessive for this purpose and as if this money could have better spent in this current economic atmosphere in a different way (ie North Coast Ministries, Charitible Assistance Corp.) that would directly affect those in need.

From what I understand, the focus of the distribution of CBDG monies should go to those in the most need.

Shawn and CAC Board,
If I am wrong please correct me. I am looking forward to your response.

Does any know members of the Citizen's Advisory Board that approved this LA proposal?

Maybe they could help us understand the reason for the approval of this plan.
I know they are hard working volunteers.

I think we all should understand how the process works.
So we can all attend these meetings in the future and voice our concerns.

When do they begin planning for the upcoming distribution of the CDBG funds for 2011?