Waco City Council to Consider Establishing a Poverty Solutions Commission

RES-646 will be considered at the next Waco City Council meeting. This will establish a Poverty Solutions Commission. Details of how this commission might work were discussed at the council meeting on September 21, 2010. A summary is below.

After the initial planning of nine to ten months, a full-time city staff position may be considered in the next budget cycle.

Summary of the Poverty Solutions Presentation to City Council on September 21, 2010

Video: http://www.waco-texas.com/videos/Gallery/wccctv-council-meeting-work.asp - search for “Poverty Solutions” in the “Search Videos” box at the top right.

Jeff Wall made a presentation to the city council during the work session. There was a roomful of people who were there to support the initiative. I noticed that Ralph Cooper was there as well as former mayor Virginia DuPuy.

Waco’s poverty is high. Wall believes Waco is the 5^th highest in Texas. The Waco rate is 27.6% compared to 13.2% in the U.S. and 15.8% in Texas.

In September 2009, the Poverty Solutions group was formed. They met every two weeks. They also held focus group with community leaders and “listening opportunities” with community groups with people who are currently in poverty. In April 2010, they made a presentation to the council requesting a resolution in support of solving the poverty situation in Waco.

They do not believe they can make meaningful progress with volunteers meeting every two weeks. They are asking the City of Waco to be a full time administrative agent to facilitate it. Wall stressed that this is a community-driven initiative and not a City of Waco staff-directed initiative.

Key points of the resolution are that:

• Chronic poverty drags down our economy.
• A small reduction in poverty can improve quality of life for everyone.
• The people in poverty are “us” – not a separate segment of the population.
• Poverty is commonly thought of as a financial issue, but it is related to poor health and educational deficiency.
• People involved in job creation must work with people focused on education, poverty alleviation, and social issues to outflank the problems.
• The Mayor and Council should commit to work to develop and implement ad results-oriented plan to reduce poverty over the next 10 years. That means they would bring together organizations and individuals currently dealing with poverty and prosperity and they should support the research, planning and ongoing administration necessary for this poverty reduction initiative.

The next immediate step is for Dr. Yancy and The Baylor School of Social Work will work to help to begin to formulate the plan.

Longer term steps:

• Identify a champion
• Put an administrator in place, perhaps a full-time person working for the City of Waco to oversee the project. Wall states that current staff can handle this in the short-term, but longer term it may require a full-time dedicated person.
• Establish a board or commission to drive this initiative.
• Establish cross-organizational task teams, subcommittees.

Questions:

Toni Herbert - Q: How would board fit in with boards/commissions for City of Waco?

A: Similar to the Homeless plan. The city would schedule and help administer meetings, but the members would make decisions and report directly to the council. City staff would assist with research.

Randy Riggs - Q: Stated that 26.7% were in poverty – how is that measured?

A: Measured by gross income.

Q: Some of those are students?

A: Had a Baylor student pull those out and the number was still about 24%

Q: He supports this initiative, but he concerned about resources.

A: Can support with staff in short-term. PSG is prepared to seek funding for a person for at least one year.

Malcolm Duncan - Q: Is a year too long? Can we have something in place to be able to make a decision about if this new person is a worthwhile expense?

A: Yes, about 9 to 10 months would be a workable time frame.

Alice Rodriguez - Q: Would this come under purview of boards and commissions or just council decisions?

A: A lot of folks will have interest in this issue and will discuss it with their council representative. He doesn’t know if it would be a board or if it will be similar to other initiatives where they just report to council.

Toni Herbert - Comment: We can’t focus on just financials, but also health and education. Non-profits are already working on this, but they are constantly putting out fires and cannot work on the problem from a base level. Small changes can make a huge impact.

Jeff Wall - We already have a master student working on this full-time and a class at Baylor working on it.

Malcolm Duncan - Q: Can we set a timeline on having the plan?

A: General agreement.

Toni Herbert - Q: Can we hear something about the class?

A: There are seventeen master degree students in their last year. It is for an advanced practice class. It’s not just crunching numbers, but seeing the end product and the people who they are helping. They are divided into teams and will be operating as if they were a 501(c)(3). An unpaid intern will be working with the city 35 hours per week starting in January and possibly another for 16 hours per week.

Kenneth Moerbe: They are working with Greater Waco Education Foundation. It’s important that this be seen as a community-wide effort.

Wilbert Austin - Comment: The African-American clergy will also be involved.

Unidentified offscreen voice: RES-532 was asked to be pulled. According to meeting minutes, it passed 6-0.

Toni Herbert - She wrote the philosophical statement that the council passed on September 21, 2010.