City of Miami Reneges on $1 Million Pledge to Nonprofit

More than a yr after Mayor Francis Suarez introduced an outsized, million-dollar test to the Black-led nonprofit Circle of Brotherhood, the City of Miami has reneged on the contribution.

Suarez introduced the test to the Circle of Brotherhood at an October 2021 ceremony, praising the group for its work establishing applications for youth growth, crime prevention, and financial sustainability in predominantly Black neighborhoods. The closely promoted occasion was held earlier than the funding was formally accepted by town fee.

When push got here to shove final night time, Commissioner Alex Diaz de la Portilla voted in opposition to the funding, inflicting it to fall in need of the 4 votes wanted to cross.  

The contribution would have been paid out from a $137 million bundle town obtained via the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), which supplied stimulus to communities to deal with the financial impacts of the pandemic.

“That’s 1,000,000 {dollars} in federal cash that won’t go to primarily Black and brown neighborhoods for wellness and violence prevention,” says Lyle Muhammad, government director of the Circle of Brotherhood.

As first reported by New Times, town fee repeatedly held up the cash promised to the Circle of Brotherhood, deferring the merchandise since its introduction early final yr and declining to vote on it till yesterday.

Facing scrutiny from commissioners Diaz de La Portilla and Joe Carollo in regards to the Circle of Brotherhood’s funds and infrastructure, Muhammad famous that since its inception practically ten years in the past, the group has been awarded tens of millions in federal, county, and metropolis funding. He added that the group obtained funding from town’s anti-poverty initiative and is slated to obtain grants from the Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund and the Department of Justice for applications to deal with gun violence.

“I did not know we needed to divest our monetary portfolio,” Muhammad mentioned on the January 26 fee assembly.

Carollo requested Muhammad if the group has the sources and applications in place to warrant the million-dollar contribution because the cash could be supplied as reimbursement for present expenditures.

“I discover that query fairly insulting as a result of we now have greater than enough quantity of funds in our checking account proper now to cowl any reimbursement that we probably can get from town,” Muhammad responded.

Both Muhammad and Leroy Jones, the pinnacle organizer for the Circle of Brotherhood, famous that whereas the fee has been fast to approve ARPA funding to different neighborhood organizations, it incessantly delayed following via on the million-dollar pledge to the Circle of Brotherhood. Earlier within the day, the fee had swiftly accepted an ARPA allocation to a special group.

“Nobody that has gotten this cash… went via this,” Jones mentioned earlier than the fee.

Jones, chairwoman Christine King, commissioner Manolo Reyes, and a metropolis price range worker reassured the remainder of the fee that approval of the merchandise didn’t imply the group could be instantly awarded the funds. The nonprofit would nonetheless have wanted to submit documentation for overview and work out a contract with town.

“Regardless how a lot cash the contract is, if we won’t spend the cash, then we can’t entry it and the cash goes again to town, so nothing is misplaced. Or if we do one thing that’s not accepted underneath the contract, we don’t get reimbursed,” Jones asserted.

Despite calling the allocation very regarding, Carollo accepted it, voting “a really sad sure.” He mentioned he voted for approval out of respect for the chairwoman.

“This is one thing I’d usually vote no for as a result of I simply see pink flags all over the place,” Carollo claimed. “The metropolis doesn’t have the personnel to undergo so many accounts that they need to supervise and have a look at, and admittedly, lots of our personnel don’t have the abdomen to do what is correct after they see issues which might be improper.”

Diaz de la Portilla didn’t budge even after the chairwoman requested him if he wish to change his vote.

The measure might have handed with a four-fifths vote, however solely 4 commissioners have been current on account of District 2 Commissioner Ken Russell’s stepping down final month.

Muhammad tells New Times the questioning over the allocation of the cash felt “utterly staged.”

“When this subject first got here up, we requested each single commissioner if they’d any points or considerations and all have been quiet as a church mouse till at present,” Muhammad says.

Circle of Brotherhood leaders have urged that town fee over-scrutinized them as a result of they’ve been outspoken critics of the fee’s takeover of the majority-Black board of the Virginia Key Beach Park Trust. Jones and different members of the group participated in a vocal protest of the takeover at metropolis corridor this previous October.

“It is clear within the metropolis of Miami that when Black males get up with respect and dignity and defend their proper to do work of their neighborhood, some individuals have an issue with that,” Muhammad tells New Times.

Mayor Suarez was not in attendance on the assembly to talk on the funding he promised. His choices at the moment are restricted with regard to following via on the pledge.

Muhammad says that though he does not blame Suarez for the withholding of the cash, “the ball is in his courtroom.” He believes the mayor was “honest about what he proffered” and “didn’t count on opposition from the fee.” 

“If we now have a mayor of integrity and respect, he ought to take a stand on that subject,” Muhammad provides. “Our work and fame converse for themselves.”