New Harmony Gazette Publisher Request That The Names Of The Five Members COVID Review Committee Be Made Public

WHO ARE THE MEMBERS OF THE COVID-REVIEW COMMITTEE?

By: Dan Barton

PUBLISHER OF THE NEW-HARMONY GAZETTE.

January 2020

In the December 2020, edition of the Gazette, I left you with the promise that The New Harmony
Gazette would pursue the names of the members of the Five Member Review Committee that
was left out in Town Council President Alvin Blaylock’s discussion at the Council meeting of
October 20, 2020; or let you know if it’s a dead-end. Well, it’s not exactly a dead-end, but it is a
bit of a conundrum.

I said, that as the publisher of the New Harmony Gazette, I would request the names of the Five Member Review Committee and I did so, from Town Clerk Karla Atkins and from Town Lawyer Erin Bauer.

Town Council President, Alvin Blaylock had reported that such a committee existed and that
The committee “looked at the 32 qualified businesses and recommended dividing the Grant Funds ($263,750) equally among the 32 businesses.” Originally, Atkins turned down my request for the 32 businesses, but after she consulted with the Town Attorney, the request was granted and the names of the recipient businesses were released in the November 2020 edition of The New Harmony Gazette.

Then, it only seemed natural to request the list of the Five unknown Officials who made the
recommendation on how, and to whom, to spend the public COVID Funds with, since I already had the names of the 32 businesses who were recipients of the grant money.

Other businesses, not on the recipient list, were left out of the grant for various reasons. Either they were not notified by the Town Council personally that they should apply, as some of the grant recipients were personally notified, or they waited too long to file and missed the filing deadline or they didn’t think they had met the criteria for eligibility. However, all of the grant applicants who applied in time were approved. It appears, though, that some of the grant recipients may not have met the criteria description, but were funded anyway.

In that regard, I include the criteria for eligibility that was released by Karla Atkins, Town Clerk, as follows

* Be a sole proprietorship, corporate franchise, LLC, corporation, or independent contractor

* Must be considered a small business (100 or less) and actively operation prior to the COVID

pandemic or whose opening was impacted boy the COVID pandemic.

* Demonstrate the direct correlation of their business disruption to COVI-19 in their impact

letters.

* Primary office or business location must be within the New Harmony corporate boundaries.

* Provide a letter about how the influx of the grant funds will help retain a certain number of

employees, and

* Provide documentation of company employees, positions, the average number of hours worked

per week, and average annual salary (based upon the last three month’s salary x 4)

* Full-time equivalent (FTE) is defined as more than 32 hours per week.

* Micro-businesses/sole proprietors must receive W-2 or 1099 to apply.

* No cash wages will be considered as wages.

* Businesses receiving other COVID-19 assistance such as PPP, EIDL are eligible to apply.

* Business receiving prior OCRA-19 grant assistance are not eligible to apply

* Non-profits are not eligible

Atkins went on to state: The Economic Development Coalition of Southwest Indiana will be
providing program management, oversight, and administration of the funds for the communities.

By way of comparison, the description of what The Economic Development Coalition was
responsible for, regarding the grant, as was explained by G. Michael Schopmeyer, attorney for The Economic Development Coalition of Southwest Indiana, in the following manner:

He said, in part, in his letter to the Gazette, dated, November 25, 2020; “The Coalition itself is not a “public agency,”…but is rather an Indiana nonprofit corporation serving as a grant writing body for the promotion of community development, in the Indiana Southwest Region. Its relationship to the Phase II funds…is to act as a resource for the recipient communities and to ensure they comply with the rules established by HUD and OCRA.” Schopmeyer turned down the Gazette’s request for a list of the Five Members of the Review Committee and suggested that our inquiry be directed toward the New Harmony Town Council. Which was done by the Gazette, twice.

Erin Bauer, New Harmony Town Attorney, replied to The New Harmony Gazette’s request for the names of the Five Members, as follows: “As I stated on November 7, 2020, the Town of New Harmony does not maintain such a list of names. The Town is not required to create a list of names. Request denied.”

Mr. Joseph Basile, Director of Legal Services, (and an attorney), Office of Lt. Governor Suzanne Crouch was contacted by the New Harmony gazette regarding the Review Committee list. He responded in part by saying: “ Per my discussions with my colleagues in OCRA, it appears that … OCRA does not possess any records that are responsive to your request.” So, it would appear, unless I’m misinterpreting some of the word parsing and legalese, included in some of the statements, that neither the State, the Region nor the Town of New Harmony, including the Town Council of New Harmony, have any list or know anything about a Five Member Review Committee, that according to Council President Alvin Blaylock, “looked at the 32 qualified businesses and recommended dividing the Grant Funds equally among the 32 businesses”, as Blaylock said during the October 20th Town Council meeting.

If the responsible government bodies and extra-governmental bodies involved did not know anything about the Five Member Review Committee, where did Mr. Blaylock get his OK, beyond the vote taken by Town Council on October 20th, after Blaylock’s remarks were already made, to divide the funds equally among the 32 businesses? His statement to his Council colleagues appears to be based on invalid information. But, the Council on October 20th, proceeded to vote for the passage to divide the funds equally, anyway, based on the recommendation from Blaylock, without any questions from them about who was on the committee. The Council vote was three YEA’S for the passage; Blaylock, Watson, and Alsop; and Two Council members abstained.

The two who abstained were Tom Williams and Roger Wade, both of whom were on the list to receive the grant funds. Neither one questioned the validity of Blaylock’s statement or asked for the names of the Five unidentified committee members.

So, who, Mr. Blaylock, were the Five Members on that COVID Review Committee list? Or was there a COVID Review Committee at all? If there was no list of Review Committee names that OK’d the allocation of the funds in equal parts, then it sounds like the Town Council voted to pass the ordinance based on invalid information, disseminated by Council President Blaylock.

If you know the names of these five people, that you say we’re on the COVID Review
Committee, Mr. Blaylock, then you should release the names, so the people of New Harmony know that you and the Council are operating above board, and not under the table, or in a secret backroom conference. Let the citizens of New Harmony fully participate in their Town government. Do not hide the facts.

There was nothing in any of the New Harmony Town Council minutes over the past four months, whereby the Council voted to authorize a Covid Review Committee.

FOOTNOTE: THE CITY-COUNTY OBSERVER POSTED THIS ARTICLE WITHOUT BIAS, OPINION, OR EDITING.