KALAMAZOO (WKZO AM/FM)– Kalamazoo City Commissioners are poised to move forward with the paperwork creating the Foundation for Excellence paperwork in two weeks, on the brink of something completely new.
Plenty of organizations rely on gifts and foundations to keep their operations afloat, but this will be the first time that a city has ever tried it. Kalamazoo City Officials have “The Promise” as a model and the encouragement of a couple of philanthropists.
Kalamazoo also has one of the highest concentrations of poverty in the country, little space for new development and state laws that really limit what they can do to raise cash.
The ground work has been set for a vote in two weeks to establish the bylaws for the Foundation For Excellence, a first of its kind municipal trust fund that City Officials hope will preserve Kalamazoo as the kind of place people want to live in.
Some Commissioners say it will be a pivotal moment in the community’s history.
Monday night they tweaked the structure of the Foundation Board, adding two neighborhood representatives, increasing the size of the panel from 13 to 15 members.
They rejected a motion that would have ruled out donors being able to specify how their money should be spent, fearing it might turn some donors off.
The bylaws already clearly state that the money must be spent on city projects or it won’t be accepted, and the City Commission has final say on how all dollars are spent.
