January 20, 2006
NYCWatch:
BOROUGHS FIGHT BACK
 |
MAD MOM: Bronx PWA mom Ruby Garner decries loss of funds to her boro last week at City Hall protest |
Last week, we reported that an array of outer-borough groups providing HIV/AIDS services were joining forces to protest and demand an investigation of an apparent shift in Ryan White funding away from outer-borough community-based groups to a smaller list of larger agencies, mostly in Manhattan.
This week, the pushback is well underway. One week after a City Hall rally (see photos) held by the outer-borough 718-AIDS Coalition—the group reunited Wednesday to buttonhole City Council members as they convened for a meeting to name new committee chairs and members (see item below). According to Housing Works city advocacy director terri smith-caronia, a 718-AIDS member, Bronx Councilmember Joel Rivera—who would shortly be named the new chair of the Council health committee (see below)—seemed surprised to hear of the defunding—but not so Brooklyn Councilwoman Diana Reyna, who said she was "horrified" by the news and intended to be part of the follow-up on the issue among Brooklyn councilmembers.
 |
718 SQUAD: Bronx agency head Chris Norwood (speaking) and Brooklyn legal-services provider David Bryan (left) blast the defunding, which hit them both. |
Thursday at 3pm at Brooklyn's Restoration Plaza, 718-AIDS Coalition will join with its cousin group, Brooklyn United Communities Coalition, at a meeting of the city's HIV Planning Council, which sets Ryan White funding priorities. At that meeting, Judy Verdino, director of HIV care services at the non-profit Medical and Health Research Association (MHRA), which scores and grants the funds in question, will make a presentation to "go through what the general process is for reviewing and ranking proposals," she told AIDS Issues Update on Wednesday—and to show maps illustrating the whereabouts of funded sites citywide before and after the latest round of contracts.
Verdino declined to discuss details of the funding shifts on the record before the presentation, but said, "I think the information the community has been putting out there is not clear...and when the maps are [shown], I believe it's going to look different to people than what they have in their mind."
Meanwhile, David Bryan, an attorney at Brooklyn Legal Services Corporation A, which has just lost about $300,000 to provide legal services to HIV-positive residents of outer Brooklyn, says he has been rounding up clients to take to the Planning Council meeting—and investigating with prominent public-interest attorney Norman Siegel possible infractions of city regulations in the process of scoring and granting contracts. "I want to see the scores," he said. "I want to see who reviewed [the applications]. Were they all [officials at] Manhattan-based hospitals? If so, that should be made public."
Verdino said she would not be unveiling individual contracts or scores at the meeting. But Bryan said he believed that the law protected his right to see the details of how his own agency scored—"Did we hit the baseline for fundability or were we well above it?," he asks—and says he has filed a Freedom of Information Act petition directly with the city Department of Health in order to learn just that. In recent correspondence he showed to AIDS Issues Update, MHRA has told his agency that it would provide an overview of its response to his agency's proposal, but would not show the actual score, or proposals and scores from groups who were awarded contracts.
Next week, we'll have a report on the Planning Council meeting, which we're hurrying off to right now, and any other new developments in this story—including reports that groups that did receive Ryan White funding for legal services are now being told by MHRA to severely limit the kinds of cases those funds can be used for.
MUSICAL CHAIRS
Briefly before we sign off, we'd like to report the names of those newly appointed to the City Council's health committee, which plays a key role in most matters related to HIV/AIDS. In addition to committee chair Rivera—who has virtually no background in health and/or HIV/AIDS but we hope is open to being educated on these issues by the community—we'd like to congratulate Manhattan's Inez Dickens, Miguel Martinez and Rosie Mendez; Brooklyn's Yvette Clark, Kendell Stewart and Al Vann; the Bronx's Carmen Arroyo, Maria Baez and Helen Foster; Queens' John Liu and Helen Sears; and Staten Island's Michael McMahon.
Many of these folks have also been named to the important contracts committee, which we hope makes for a promising network of collaborations as we work together toward optimal funding for HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment and services in all five boroughs.