KALAMAZOO (WKZO-AM) — The Kalamazoo City Commission accepted a $78,000 grant from the Justice Department that they will share with the Kalamazoo County Sheriff’s Office to train new public safety officers and sheriff’s deputies.
City Commissioner David Anderson said it was not easy. He says the conditions that are placed on the recipients of Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grants, and the hoops they have to jump through are quite extensive.
He says it takes 20 pages just to describe the program, the restrictions and the conditions for using the money.
“What comes from the feds is nine overarching acts, and a description that we have to comply with this grant, 51 individual special conditions, many of them recording conditions which require us to complete extensive reporting on this particular grant,” Anderson said. “Several of them have subsections as well.”
“It’s not a great amount of money but it takes a lot of work to do that, and it’s certainly a resource we need in this time when we have been getting reduced federal assistance here in the city of Kalamazoo,” Anderson said.
He said one “odd” condition is that the city has to send them any stories that are written about the grant.
“I suppose so they can aggregate that and say what a good job they are doing,” Anderson said.
He thanked the staff for taking the time, calling the amount of compliance “astounding.”
Anderson, who is also chairperson on the county housing commission, has had a lot of personal experience filling out government forms for housing grants. Right now, given the financial situation of governments at all levels, its one of the few ways they have to supplement their revenue stream.
Sometimes, they fill out the forms and comply with all the requirements and still don’t get a cent.
