Your guide to NYC's public proceedings.
REMARKS
DCLA's equity reforms and their impact on funding processes
3:03:36
ยท
3 min
Commissioner Cumbo explains the equity reforms implemented by DCLA and how they have impacted the funding processes. She emphasizes that these changes, while time-consuming to implement, have moved the agency towards a more equitable approach.
- DCLA brought back language access and disability considerations
- Created a cultural equity fund and increased support for local arts councils
- Implemented changes to support organizations that received capital allocations
- These reforms aim to create a more streamlined and equitable approach to funding organizations
Laurie Cumbo
3:03:36
I don't want to just receive fundamentally flawed because that would mean that it is a process that is almost unfixable.
3:03:46
Or that what happened was not as a result of major transformative change that has moved the agency in a far more equitable place.
3:03:58
So the time that it took to move the agency into bringing back language access, bringing back disability, creating a cultural equity fund, increasing local arts councils by 15%, providing funding for organizations that received a capital allocation, the additional support that they need to open their new facilities.
3:04:19
These are things and measures that took time in order to implement, and essentially a rule change that allows us to be able to make these fundamental changes that's going to allow us to operate and move the agency forward in a far more efficient, equitable way that's now more streamlined.
3:04:42
So we are moving in a direction that's going to bring us into a place of a more streamlined and equitable approach about how we fund organizations.
3:04:52
But I hear you and I can't reiterate it enough.
3:04:56
I don't want to sound like I'm beating a dead horse in that way, but I have absolutely sat in the same seat that many of those organizations that are calling Councilmember Brewer, that are calling you, that are calling me.
3:05:11
I've lived it.
3:05:13
I've eaten it.
3:05:14
I've not eaten it.
3:05:16
And I understand what it means to run a not for profit organization and how these delays in your timeline, your delays in funding, But really probably the most heartbreaking is the delay in being able to pay people.
3:05:31
And them not being able to pay their rent, provide after school programming for their own children, and to put food on the table.
3:05:39
So I really get it and understanding the immediacy and the importance and the power of making sure that we are exhausting all resources to get this funding back in a timeline that better serves the institutions that we represent.
Carlina Rivera
3:05:57
Yeah.
3:05:58
And I hear you.
3:05:58
I know I know these things take time.
3:06:01
It's just the timing of the letters just seem to be that problem just seem to be getting worse and worse.
Laurie Cumbo
3:06:09
That's right.
Carlina Rivera
3:06:09
But I understand sometimes to clean things up you've got to get a little messy.
Laurie Cumbo
3:06:13
We got messy.
Lance Polivy
3:06:15
But we're cleaning now.
3:06:17
Got our gloves on.
3:06:19
We've got our cleaning supplies.
3:06:21
And what I can tell you is that we went from an application that was launched in mid May last year to telling you that the application is going to launch this year in the next two to three weeks.
3:06:31
So it's very concrete how we make up time.
3:06:34
It means that the application has to launch earlier than it did the prior year.
3:06:38
And so we're going to make up that time this year.
3:06:40
And then next year we can do the very same thing and keep winning back these valuable, valuable weeks to get on your timeline.
3:06:49
So there's no band aid that we can rip off and say awards will be in July in FY twenty six.
3:06:54
But what we can do is get this application launched, get the process finished all of those weeks earlier this year and then relaunch right again and keep gaining back this valuable period of time like we are this year.
Laurie Cumbo
3:07:07
And that's why he's my general counsel.