After long debate, Peoria City Council approves $1.4 million in anti-violence funding. Here’s where it will go, and why

PEORIA, Ill. (25 News) – Over a series of votes, Peoria City Council approved more than $1.4 million in violence prevention funding.

The following funds were approved for Greater Peoria Family YMCA, Peoria Public Schools, Peoria Regional Office of Education, Peoria City/County Health Department, Goodwill Industries of Central Illinois, and Friendship House. The amounts given are listed below.

Some of these programs are headed by taxpayer-funded departments like PPS 150 and PCCHD. That raised flags for some council members, though the funding was ultimately approved with a few “no” votes.

District 2 Council Member Chuck Grayeb, a former teacher and administrator, expressed concern that the program PPS applied for tackles problems like literacy in second-grade students, which he feels has loose connections to preventing crime.

“It causes me great concern to see such a large taxing body that has so much in terms of resources to be getting $300,000,” Grayeb said. “I thought [District] 150 got 54 cents out of every property tax dollar to educate our students.”

A PPS representative later defended the program before the council, saying their analysis showed reading ability was an indicator of how likely students were to stay in school. PPS was also questioned on its truancy problems, though much of that work is handled by the Regional Office of Education.

Grayeb voted against providing funding to PPS’s program and PCCHD’s program.

Council members Kiran Velpula and Mike Vespa took issue with the fact some of these groups already received funds during the first round of grant money in October. Community Development Director Joe Dulin defended the recommendation, saying some of these groups applied to get funding for new programs, which is why they received the money.

Vespa did not vote against any of the applications. Velpula only rejected the application for Friendship House.

When the council approved grant money criteria, they did not implement any way to make sure tax-funded entities could get funds, there was also no rule in place to make sure groups couldn’t get funded twice in a row.

Goodwill Industries was one of the groups to receive a second round of funding. A representative of the organization said it will continue the work started using the money from the first grant.

Another two-time recipient, PCCHD, said the money is another round of funding for Cure Violence.

Mayor Rita Ali told dissenting council members they needed to vote on the rules as they are, though she welcomed a session to discuss those rules and possibly change them.

Council member Zach Oyler was concerned funding these programs aren’t creating results, especially in the wake of recent violence.

“We have people getting shot, people getting killed, Cars getting stolen, burglaries happening in the city of Peoria every single day,” Oyler said. “This money is to deal with the most critical needs to stop the bleeding.”

“I do not feel looking at this list that we are dealing with the most critical needs to stop the bleeding when we fund second-grade reading,” he continued.

Oyler voted against funding programs from PPS and PCCHD. Council member Andre Allen disagreed, saying this is how the city can implement change against violence in the community and that these programs address the root causes of violence.

“In terms of gun violence reduction,” Mayor Rita Ali said after all the votes were cast, “we have to work as a community. We can’t say we’re not going to work with this entity because it’s government, we shouldn’t work with this entity because they got money last time.”

Ali also noted the grants fund programs and not departments.