COA to ask city for $200,000

Group says costs up, funds down

Advocate staff photo by RICHARD ALAN HANNON -- East Baton Rouge Council on Aging employee Charlvette Millican serves lunch to Ruby Overstreet, right, as, from left, Margaret Bradley, Billie Ray and Olivia Luna look on Wednesday, a slow day for the center with only 65 meals served. The agency averages 90-100 meals per day according to server Evelyn Holden.

The head of East Baton Rouge’s Council on Aging said she will ask the Metro Council for the extra $200,000 the agency requested but was denied by Mayor-President Kip Holden in his proposed 2013 budget.

The budget as proposed by the mayor allocates $876,300 to the Council on Aging, the same amount it received in 2012.

Council on Aging Executive Director Tasha Clark-Amar said the extra money the agency requested is desperately needed because of the sharp increase in the number of seniors being fed at senior centers throughout the parish. In addition, she said, the Jindal administration cut $140,000 in the state’s construction budget that would have helped the agency modernize its kitchen.

The COA has a contract with the state Office of Elderly Affairs to provide 70,000 hot meals to seniors at senior centers located in the parish, Clark-Amar said. In order to reduce costs and improve quality, the COA upgraded its kitchen and began preparing the meals in-house, she said.

The in-house meals are of higher quality than last year, meaning more seniors are showing up to eat, Clark-Amar said.

The COA will serve 70,000 meals before the end of January, just seven months into the fiscal year, Clark-Amar said.

“It’s putting me in a crisis,” she said.

The 70,000 hot meals served at the centers are in addition to the 125,000 frozen meals that the COA contracts to have delivered to the homes of seniors through its Meals on Wheels program.

Councilwoman Donna Collins-Lewis said she asked the mayor to include the funds in the 2013 budget after Clark-Amar told her the extra $200,000 was needed to better serve the parish’s seniors.

“The building they are in, they are leasing it from the city,” Collins-Lewis said. “They have been having some issues with the air-conditioner.”

The request for funds for the Council on Aging came as part of a larger request for $775,000 in funds for community programs, Collins-Lewis said.

The request was denied in Holden’s proposed budget.

Holden, in a Nov. 1 forum for mayoral candidates hosted by the agency, said he would support placing a dedicated tax on the ballot to fund the COA’s operations.

William Daniel, Holden’s chief administrative officer, said the mayor’s office would be willing to consider putting the additional COA funds into a budget supplement after the first of the year.

“We are going to try to get with the council and look for ways to work with them on some of their projects,” he said.

Clark-Amar will make her plea before the Metro Council on Monday when the council hosts the third of a series of budget informational meetings on Holden’s proposed budget.

Holden submitted the budget to the council Nov. 5.

The Metro Council, which has the ability to move line items in the mayor’s budget with eight votes, will vote on the budget Dec. 11.

Comments

1) Comment by Illuminate - 26/11/2012

ChooseLife_GOP1980: I'm not a contributor, just an observer. And enjoy that Kool Aid. When an agency makes endless pleas for public money, some of us do research. A simple visit to the COA's website (http://www.ebrcoa.org/PageDisplay.asp?p1=5306) reveals a listing of their board members. Inner-workings? No. Accessing published information? Absolutely.

2) Comment by MBW - 26/11/2012

Hey folks-- the tax forms of non-profits are public documents. You can go onto websites like www.guidestar.org and look up the form 990 for nearly any non-profit (including EBRCOA).

3) Comment by ChooseLife_GOP1980 - 26/11/2012

Illuminate, The COA as most nonprofits, are required to post their financial statements with the Secretary of State's Office. It is a toss- up as to how many do or do not publish their records on their site. As to the organization being in a crisis; the current ED found the agency in a"mess" and since so many let the previous ED Mr. Dykes run the organization into the ground it will take more than a y ear to turn it around. Illuminate, since you seem to be so knowledgable about the inner-workings of The COA and their board it seems maybe you were a contributor to the current crisis instead of the solution.

4) Comment by Illuminate - 26/11/2012

Most respectable non-profits (who have nothing to hide) post their annual reports on their website for all to see. After visiting the COA's website (www.ebrcoa.org), I see no annual report or any information disclosing their finances. Where is the transparency?

5) Comment by phil - 26/11/2012

I generally believe the COA does some good in the community. However, they appear to be a nonprofit that receives local, state and federal funds. I think before any more money is given to this organization they need to release an itemized detailed accounting of revenues and expenses, including salaries and other compensation of the top people in the organization. I think too many organizations in EBR Parish are asking for more tax dollars that the public just does NOT have.

6) Comment by Duckyluve - 26/11/2012

Typical liberal way of thinking,,,,,keep spending and everything will get better.

7) Comment by retiredinbrla - 26/11/2012

@Being_Stupid - congratulations on approaching your 100th birthday! Do you get Medicare? SS? Surely you (or someone in your family) rely on the government to "take care of" yourself in some way.

8) Comment by Being_Stupid - 26/11/2012

I am old and nearing 100. I don't need the government stealing young people's money so they can pay for me to eat some free hamburgers and hang out at a free civic center. I would much rather young taxpayers keep their money and use it to build their dreams and be afforded the opportunities I had when I was their age. I can take care of myself. I don't need government to take care of me. If I want to eat hamburgers and hang out with old people my age, all I have to do is drive to one of the three bowling alleys we have here in Baton Rouge and pay for this type of entertainment myself. I don't need government doing it for me.

9) Comment by MBW - 26/11/2012

@Being_Stupid--- Or maybe you should just tell granny to let go of her walker and go get a job for once in her life.

10) Comment by MBW - 26/11/2012

@Being_Stupid---- Clearly if "makers" such as yourself and other private citizens would step up to help, these seniors wouldn't need to rely on the government as much, now would they?

11) Comment by Being_Stupid - 26/11/2012

I miss the old days when old people knew how to take care of themselves and not rely on local government.

12) Comment by Being_Stupid - 26/11/2012

More Socialism Please. Thank You. (The Takers outnumber the Makers)

13) Comment by Illuminate - 26/11/2012

Seems like someone bit off more than they could chew. How long as this ED been in the driver seat? I little over a year? And already, they're "in a crisis." Of course Councilwoman Lewis is going to go to bat for EBRCOA (she's a board member).

14) Comment by markedwardmarchiafava - 26/11/2012

This is an excellent example of what happens when the churches shirk their responsibilities and allow government to become the caregiver.