Rockford Sun

City of Rockford Community Action Agency Executive Committee met April 15.

Here are the minutes provided by the committee:

I. CALL TO ORDER 

Attendee Name	Organization	Title	Status	Arrived
Karen Hoffman	City of Rockford	Alderman	Remote
Dorothy Redd	City of Rockford		Present
Jeremiah Griffin	City of Rockford		Absent

II. ACTION ON MINUTES 

1. Approval of Minutes from the Meeting held on March 18, 2025

RESULT: LAID OVER Next: 5/20/2025 11:00 AM

III. GENERAL INFORMATION 

A. Community Action Bylaws 

1. Anqunette Parham: We are going to need any suggestions or input for the bylaws submitted by the next CAA Board meeting on May 20th 2025. So far have we had any recommendations be submitted?

i. Ebron Tyson: None from the board. Staff did have recommendations.

2. Karen Hoffman: I support the recommendations from staff. They look reasonable to me.

3. Anqunette Parham: With the way the bylaws are structured, the way we add community members is by election but there is no definition of what that means. In the past, Community representatives would come from various neighborhood groups. Each of those groups would have a process and choose someone. For example, a current board member is from Rockford Housing Authority. That person was duly elected by their resident council. Some organizations will fill committee seats with people from agencies who serve our client base. That is something for us to consider. Ever since I came into this position, the strength of neighborhood organizations has looked different.

4. Karen Hoffman: I’m going to agree with you. Prior to 2020, we had some very strong neighborhood groups. It was common to have 40 to 100 people show up to meetings. When flooding occurred, we had multiple groups work together. We became a voice. Today if you go to some of those groups, they are not what they once were. There are block groups but they do not represent their neighborhood.

5. Owen Carter: One more thing with the elections: If a neighborhood group gets a nominee, the mayor & council would seat them. But shouldn’t that also come to this board for approval?

i. Anqunette Parham: It does. It may not say that in the bylaws but I know it’s something we implemented. We vote on them before that person is seated. It depends on the timing. Sometimes council voted on it before our board did. That nominee isn’t seated until our board votes in support of that person.

6. Anqunette Parham: The mayor did ask me about open vacancies on the board. With new council members coming in, they are preparing recommendations.

i. Owen Carter: It would be nice to build a waitlist.

ii. Anqunette: The State is coming back to us quarterly about the board not being full. We have to provide an explanation on that in our quarterly report. We want to come into compliance on that.

7. Christopher Greenwood: Before we get the number of vacancies to the mayor, the board needs to decide the number of seats the board would have.

i. Anqunette Parham: Now that we have secured an initial level of support from City Council, we want to prepare ourselves to ask other communities, municipalities, and villages for support. It is probably not the wisest thing to reduce our board size because that would mean less representation from those communities.

ii. Christopher Greenwood: The board minimum is 9 but we can have up to 51.

8. Karen Hoffman: In the newspaper this morning, mayors from the region are asking for Chairman Joseph Chiarelli’s powers to be returned. That has meant he is a figure head; he is not allowed to make decisions like our mayor does. He cannot appoint or remove people. Chiarelli understands poverty a little differently than other board members that come from other communities. If there is a change at the county, we may have stronger community groups.

9. Anqunette Parham: Because we have not engaged in those conversations with other municipalities, we do not know what they would like to see from CAA. They may want more representation. If they do, we can at least have some wiggle room with the board size of 15.

10. Faniqua Hughes: So, our plan is to bring the bylaws to the board in May?

11. Anqunette Parham: We have to provide the modifications to the board. They would have a set amount of time to review that and then vote. The deadline for the board for any suggestions is May 20th. We would collect them all by that date. Then we would come back to be voted on in the next board meeting.

12. Owen Carter: The good news is we can end the 3rd quarter being compliant. In June we might be close.

13. Christopher Greenwood: Some members of the board still have not been approved by the council. We may say they are on the board but there is no record of it being voted on. The term for public is yearly. Private and client is every three years. There are no term limits for public. Private and client can serve two 3-year terms. We can also go with a waitlist for board membership as well. Have some people sitting in the wings.

14. Owen Carter: We will get there. We can definitely clean it up. 15. Christopher Greenwood: One thing we need to do is hold people to task. If someone misses three consecutive meetings, we need to move on. The bylaws state that.

16. Owen Carter: Especially if they are unexcused absences. It just takes an email to the ED to give notice for that meeting.

17. Karen Hoffman: Are we allowed to vote if we are virtually attending? i. Anqunette Parham: No, we are not allowed to vote on the board by zoom. Only the members in person are counted towards the quorum.

a. Karen Hoffman: Is there a way to get that changed? Is there something that can be done with the ADA Act?

b. Anqunette Parham: The guidance from our legal

department has stated those privileges come from the state of emergency from 2020. That allowed for exceptions for that rule. Since that is over, that is not up to city council to change. I don’t know how that intersects with ADA. It would be handled by the Illinois Attorney General’s office.

18. Anqunette Parham: When this meeting is over, we will take the steps to have the bylaws ready. We will send another reminder out to the board. We may even be ready to go on May 20th.

B. Federal Staffing 

1. Anqunette Parham: Since the last meeting, many staff at the US Department of Health & Human Services were let go. Among those were staff from the region 5 office of Head Start. The staff in Chicago we communicated with are no longer there. We have not been assigned a new person yet. You can submit correspondence but we do not have a program specialist or fiscal specialist. We have a pending change in scope application but we don’t know who or when that will be reviewed. On the bright side, we did receive our notice of award for Head Start’s grant year. We are funded through the end of the continuing resolution which is September 30th. It is flat funding and there are no cost adjustments.

2. Anqunette Parham: We also got notice for the payment management system for head start. Going forward, any draws would require an explanation for what the funds were being used for. Our fiscal department made a draw and we did receive the payment. There has been word of possible changes to all HHS programs. What this means is Community Services may have this too.

IV. OFFICER REPORTS 

A. Dorothy Redd: For home repair, is that a separate category? If someone is handicapped, where would they go?

1. Anqunette Parham: That would possibly go under Weatherization.

2. Owen Carter: If you have a resident who needs the assistance, they

would have to be someone who is receiving weatherization services. You cannot be jumped to the front of the line for that. Community Services or Community Foundation could possibly help. Some stuff like grab bars are possible, not a whole walk-in shower. A ramp to get into their home or a chair for a disabled person taking a shower are possible.

3. Anqunette Parham: The city itself has rehab and repair programs through Community & Economic Development. That is opening up later this year. Those requirements are different than our programs.

B. Karen Hoffman: I wanted to say I had a wonderful experience at UW Health. Staff were excellent in the emergency room. The nurses were wonderful.

V. ADJOURNMENT 

The meeting was closed at 12:31 PM

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