by J. Brooks Terry
Staff Writer
Despite early resistance from the City Council’s Finance Committee, the First Coast Black Business Investment Corp. has received a recommendation for a $300,000 general services grant.
Originally, consideration was given to eliminating the non-profit group’s funding entirely after Finance Committee member Glorious Johnson questioned BBIC policy and fiscal accountability. However, at Monday’s committee’s budget review, appeals from the black community overpowered Johnson’s concerns.
Johnson reportedly requested interest rates and “success stories” from BBIC President Tony Nelson and claimed she was given “insufficient and outdated” documentation before the committee’s initial recommendation was made weeks ago.
“This is not a personal issue of mine against Tony Nelson or the BBIC,” said Johnson. “I asked for information and it wasn’t given to me. There is no reason why they shouldn’t be held accountable for what they are doing just like every other group is. They come back every year and want more money without an explanation.”
Council president Lad Daniels supported Johnson, saying “This is a tight fiscal year and every group should be prepared to satisfy the questions of a Council member if they want funding from us.”
Nelson, who said he was “very, very disappointed” that he had to defend the BBIC against allegations of unreasonably high interest rates and poor performance, claimed the group “worked hard” and had “done a good job.”
“I feel like I am a victim of doing what I have been asked to do,” said Nelson. “I’m proud of our success but we can’t ask the people we’ve helped to talk about where they got their money from.”
Nelson and a slew of over 50 advocates including former City Council member Denise Lee urged the committee to rethink cutting BBIC funding.
“I implore the Council to do the right thing based on the merits of this group,” said an emotional Lee at the podium. “My fear is that, if it can happen to the BBIC, it can happen to other organizations that are working, too.”
Lee admitted she was unfamiliar with the BBIC’s lending policies or with the majority of current projects, though claimed it was the only local organization that provides “dollars for African-American small businesses.”
Small business owner Renee Harris agreed, saying the non-profit group was both “needed by and helpful to [the black community.]”
“When we wanted to improve and expand our business,” said Harris at the hearing, “the BBIC was the only one who stayed with us.”
A study conducted by the Jacksonville Community Council’s JCCI Forward initiative found that loans across all demographics were hard to secure and declined to speculate if race was a factor.
“I can say that there is a need in the community for a service like the one provided by the Black Business Investment Corp.,” a representative from JCCI Forward said.
Money funneled from the proposed cuts to the BBIC and Enterprise North Florida Corporation grants — nearly half a million dollars — was to be reapplied to service grants for organizations including the Clara White Mission and the Liberty Center for the Homeless.
Representatives from both groups appeared before the Finance Committee and thanked them for the inflated appropriations, though they stressed they were not advocating the BBIC’s possible grant termination.
Despite that support, Council members Reggie Fullwood and Elaine Brown said it was not the intention of the Finance Committee to take from one service to provide for another.
Fullwood called the BBIC cut “devastating” while Brown said the committee didn’t want to “put a halt on any business” before the Committee unanimously voted to reverse their earlier ruling.
Currently, a Council audit is being performed on the BBIC and Johnson said yesterday’s fund restoration may be a “temporary action.”
“People have called my house and have claimed that I have ‘forgotten my people,’” said Johnson, who speculated the Council had not questioned the BBIC before because they wanted to avoid “the race card.”
“I know I’m black. I’ll be black until the day I die, but I just want to know that I’m doing what is right,” she said. “After the audit is finished, we’ll know the truth.”