New Haven Peoples Center Back On Bond Agenda
by Christine Stuart | May 24, 2012 4:47pm
(6) Comments | Commenting has expired
Posted to: Town News, New Haven, Nonprofits, State Budget, State Capitol
A state lawmaker and members of Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s administration defended the $300,000 renovation of a New Haven community center run by individuals with ties to the Communist Party on Thursday at a Capitol press conference.
The New Haven project was flagged as questionable by Mary Plaskonka, a former state employee who emailed members of the state Bond Commission to ask why they would be giving money to an organization which operates on a part-time basis and hasn’t filed a 990 tax form with the IRS since 1999. It was pulled from the April 27 agenda after questions were raised but it’s now back on for June 4 meeting.
In the email, Plaskonka questioned why the state would be giving money to an organization which lacks “the financial resources to operate the facility to begin with.” At the end of the email she added links to Al Marder and Joelle Fishman who run the center and are members of the Communist Party.
The money was requested by Sen. Toni Harp, D-New Haven, who said it will go to repair what was a part of New Haven’s landscape long before it became the New Haven Peoples Center. She said the 160-year-old building has architectural and historical significance for the state.
“The building is an official part of Connecticut’s African American Freedom Trail because of its contributions toward breaking down racial segregation in Connecticut in the 1940s and the 1950s. No one denies the value of preserving that link to Connecticut’s past as a reminder of the closed-minded, repressive way of thinking that perpetuated racism and segregation in our country,” she said.
The building has been home to New Haven’s first interracial theater group, first interracial basketball team, and also to the first campaign to end employment segregation, Harp said.
The structure now houses the New Haven Peoples Center, which Harp said is an all-volunteer organization that strives to improve the lives of others in the community.
“Today this building, a time-honored testament to so much rich history in our town, needs a facelift,” she said.
But Rep. Sean Williams, one of the two Republican members of the Bond Commission, said the concern with the project is that there is no documentation so it’s impossible to determine whether it’s a worthy project.
“If it wasn’t for Mary Plaskonka we would have never known about this,” Williams said in a phone interview Thursday.
He said the Bond Commission project is problematic because it’s projects like the People’s Center that aren’t being properly vetted.
“It’s a legislative earmark and that’s all we know,” Williams said.
Malloy’s Budget Director Ben Barnes said the amount of money the center will receive matches the work they’re doing on the building. He’s previously defended the fact that the organization hasn’t filed a form with the IRS in several years because it brings in less than $50,000 and is exempt.
Harp, who requested the money on behalf of her constituents, said the building needs masonry repairs, roof replacement, woodwork repairs, an upgrade to its heating system, and window replacements.
Barnes defended the work and the organization saying that the “political affiliations of an organization are irrelevant,” when it comes to the work of the Bond Commission.
“Frankly though this project is not at all political. I mean it’s political in the sense that a member of the General Assembly asked that we do it,” Barnes said. “Today, Senator Harp stood up and said why. I think that she is right in the value of the organization and the needs of the building.”
Williams disagrees. He said there’s a “stench associated with doling out public money to political allies,” and in the case of the People’s Center he believes there’s a “much stronger political connection than they would have you believe.”
Williams argued if a nonprofit organization like the Yankee Institute asked for funding from the state Bond Commission they would not be on the “top of this administration’s list.” But then again, the conservative think-tank wouldn’t ever ask for state funding, he added.
The Bond Commission should stick to funding projects pertaining to public safety, public health, and infrastructure, Williams said. Playgrounds and gazebos are nice but he doesn’t think that’s how the taxpayers want the state spending their money.
But Harp argued there’s a return on the state’s investment when it comes to this project.
“Return on the state’s modest investment is inherent in the community-based programs and services delivered by this all volunteer organization. Allocated funds will be wisely and frugally spent by an organization accustomed to operating with extremely limited resources,” she said.
Hugh McQuaid contributed to this report.
Tags: Toni Harp, New Haven, Peoples Center, Communist, Ben Barnes, Sean Williams, dh
(6) Comments
posted by: Cornelia | May 24, 2012 7:50pm
What a disgrace that we are bonding such a pet project for the representatives in New Haven. The good legislators forget that this is a state debt that we can ill afford in these economic times. The state must enter into debt to give the People’s Center money for their project because it isn’t money that we currently have in the state’s checkbook. It is basically credit card debt in the amount of over $300,000 that the taxpayers of Connecticut will have to pay for years to come. Since this is a volunteer organization which one of the great volunteers has the expertise to put the project out to bid. All projects which are funded with state funds must be advertised and publicly put out to bid. How will the accountability on the expenditure of these funds work when it comes to the volunteers. Do they have the expertise for that. Grants require the submission of proper reports - if the volunteers are there on a part time basis how will the state get its reports on the expenditure of these funds or even be able to contact someone at their offices since it is a part time operated facility. I would recommend that the good legislators who are in support of this project open up their personal checkbooks and write out checks towards this organization if it is so worthy and necessary. I for one have to limit my credit card debt so should the state. In addition to this what if a Neo-Nazi group wanted funds to renovate their facility are we OK with that too. If they provided the same types of services such as the People’s Communist Center would they also get public funds. Any funding of a facility which has a Communist affiation, the taxpayers do not want to fund. Too bad the good legislators have forgotten the Vietnam war and why we fount against Communism and speak to the people who escaped the Communist rule of Fidel Castro in Cuba - they would tell you what Communism means. Speak to the people who continue to live under communist rule and they will tell a story and it is not kumbaya. Speak to the people who lived in East Germany under Communist rule learn what Communism truly is all about. Go live in China and see if you will have the freedoms afforded to you which you have in the United States of America. As a decendent of the oppressed people who lived under Communist rulers I thank God for the United States of America and may the Communist party and its members go live in a Communist country which would be more to their liking.
posted by: DrHunterSThompson | May 24, 2012 9:49pm
First interracial theater group and basketball team? Huh? No serious right?
HST
posted by: meridenite | May 25, 2012 1:00pm
Barnes stated on the ct-now news conference that he agreed with the organizations agenda, does that mean he agrees with the communist party of ct’s agenda?
posted by: gutbomb86 | May 25, 2012 3:26pm
@meridenite and the rest of the “red scare” crowd - What a bunch of embarrassing comments you’ve made here and elsewhere. How can people be so Pavlovian in their response to the word “communist” ... it’s a community center and it apparently has been getting a lot of use and providing a lot of services already, but somehow no one from the Communist Party has managed to take over the state. How can that be? If political party affiliation is the test for whether a project gets public money, then I would suggest that no one who has ever joined a political party or even voted for anyone in a political party should ever receive public money for a project, no matter how worthy it may be. Republicans and Democrats alike.
You anti-communist robots are ridiculous. NO ONE CARES about the communist party or anyone’s affiliation with it. Holy cow - I’ve driven my car through New Haven where there’s a communist sympathizer! They’re going to lock me up by association! I’d better get down into my bunker!
Is it 2012 or 1950? There is ZERO danger that the Communist Party is ever going to hold any major or even minor public office in Connecticut. If you think otherwise, you are fooling yourself into thinking your blind opposition is necessary or pertinent.
Here’s a news flash - you’ve been programmed. The government fed you anti-communist propaganda back in the day. There’s still a remnant of it floating around in pop culture, and all of you rubes bought the nonsense hook-line-and-sinker and essentially gave your government a blank check to do whatever they wanted, anywhere in the world, to further their own interests under the guise of the red scare. Are your proud of yourselves? Need I remind you that a shortsighted piece of “containment” helped create Osama bin Laden? Good for you. Now grow up. It’s a community center. If you’re that scared of communists you probably shouldn’t leave your home at all, because I GUARANTEE you that the average capitalists you run into on the street every day are FAR MORE LIKELY to rob you blind.
I miss >George Carlin, who was spot-on correct about this stuff.
posted by: GMR | May 25, 2012 4:49pm
So is fixing this community center a valid function of state government? Regardless of the political party involved?
Gutbomb86: would you feel the same way if an organization run by a Fascist party or the Black Panther party or any other party?
posted by: gutbomb86 | May 27, 2012 1:11pm
@GMR - that’s just backpedalling. The party affiliation of the people who volunteer to operate a community center really shouldn’t come into the discussion - but it has, and that’s where I targeted my criticism. For all you know they might have been voting Republican or Democrat all these years. Bottom line is that people in CT and all over the country are still repeating this nonsensical 1950s red scare garbage as a means to partisan political ends. It’s embarrassing to all of us.