Toledo Council is right to carefully study the proposal from a Cleveland-based nonprofit for $50,000 from city funds.
At issue is JumpStart Inc., which opened in Toledo in January and which aims to mentor entrepreneurs and small-business owners, with an emphasis on guiding women and minorities. As pitched to the city of Toledo by the administration of Mayor Wade Kapszukiewicz, JumpStart would help attract and mentor minority contractors for city projects.
The city denied JumpStart’s application for Community Development Block Grant earlier this year. The city of Toledo has fought to end the practice of awarding CDBG funds to nonprofit community development groups, that, though well-intentioned, sometimes ended up just paying the salary of an executive director and support staffers who accomplished little or nothing.
As Councilman Sandy Spang has pointed out, too much of the annual grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development is spent on deep administration, such as rent on One Government Center. The money needs to be spent where it can be seen in the community.
JumpStart’s request for $50,000 in general funds makes more sense and does not create the same expectation of annual renewal. And it is possible that JumpStart has much to offer.
The organization exists in the city because it has been contracted by KeyBank, which has made a $24 million investment in a multistate contract with JumpStart. The contract stems not from the goodness of KeyBank’s heart but as part of the $16.5 billion promise the bank made in 2016 to invest in neighborhoods and local economies following its purchase of Buffalo-based First Niagara.
Key worked with the National Community Reinvestment Coalition to offset controversy over the job losses and branch closures caused by the acquisition.
JumpStart already has a large amount of corporate and local nonprofit support and may well prove to do valuable work in this community. Those donors include the Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority board, ProMedica, Mercy Health, the Toledo Community Foundation, University of Toledo, Bowling Green State University, and Huntington Bank.
JumpStart spokesman Kara Carter said it will take about $1 million annually to run the nonprofit’s Toledo programming, which includes technical assistance and mentoring to entrepreneurs. JumpStart also intends to form a Small Business Growth Collaborative to bring together existing economic development organizations in Toledo to try to streamline services.
The city’s $50,000 would fund a portion of the salaries of JumpStart staff “delivering direct assistance to small business owners in Toledo.”
Certainly the work JumpStart proposes to do is needed. And the city of Toledo needs a strong and robust economic development office, which suffered a setback when the former commissioner of economic development, Bill Burkett, resigned after he was charged with striking and severely injuring a pedestrian while driving under the influence of alcohol.
If city council does agree with the administration’s proposed contract with JumpStart, it will be able to assess the organization’s effectiveness at business expansion and new employment before renewing or amending the expenditure in the following year.
First Published August 5, 2019, 4:00 a.m.
