City Of Albany: Mayor Sheehan, Co-Chairs Michael Whalen And Jahkeen Hoke Present Coronavirus Recovery TaskForce Final Report

Press release from the City of Albany:

August 31, 2021

Comprehensive Report Is Culmination of Three-Month, Community-Wide Effort to Identify And Maximize Critical Investments, Prioritize Equity, & Build Back Better

“The Task Force strongly recommends funding a limited number of highly-impactful programs that can produce profound results, rather than thinly spreading resources.” – Recovery Task Force

ALBANY, NY – Albany Mayor Kathy Sheehan and City of Albany COVID Recovery Task Force Co-Chairs Michael Whalen and Jahkeen Hoke today announced the release of the task force’s final report, which lays out priority focus areas for relief funds, as well as recommended strategies and initiatives to assure the entire City benefits from future investments.

The 76-page report is the result of a four-month process that included robust community participation through two public surveys garnering more than 1,000 responses, more than 60 direct meetings with community members and stakeholder groups, and 17 task force and working group meetings, steered by the expertise of a diverse group of 41 volunteer task force members appointed and first convened in April.

Albany Mayor Kathy Sheehan said, “When we learned of President Biden’s commitment to helping our city build back better from the unprecedented impact of the COVID crisis, we knew right away we needed a plan to ensure that every resident, business, organization, and neighborhood would benefit. Under the leadership of its two co-chairs, this task force has done that – and more – putting together a concise and strategic course of action. I cannot thank the members of the Task Force, and the community at large, enough for believing and participating in this process. While we have years of work ahead of us, we now have a lens to look through and a way to navigate the path forward to equitably making significant positive impacts in our City with this funding.”

The task force established five working groups to correspond with the impact areas eligible for funding under the American Recuse Plan (ARP), including:

These working groups conducted a holistic needs assessment for every area of focus and through that process developed Impact Areas and programmatic recommendations for how the ARP funds could be best spent to meet the most acute needs. The task force was not asked to specifically line out how and where dollars should be spent, but rather to create a suggested framework for evaluating projects, programs, and proposals, that could be implemented for years to come.

This press release was produced by the City of Albany. The views expressed here are the author’s own.