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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowThe Indianapolis Parks Foundation will administer the city's tax-supported crime grants program, under a proposal approved Monday night 26-0 by the City-County Council.
The council this year has set aside $2 million for the grants, which are funded by income tax revenue.
The proposal received unanimous approval from the Public Safety Committee earlier this month.
Applications will be reviewed and decided by a new seven-member board. Five members were nominated by the parks foundation: Brian Scott Ellis, Marco Moreno, Kevin Osburn, Harini Rajagopalan and Jennifer Voreis.
Osburn, a principal at the landscape architecture firm Rundell Ernstberger Associates LLC, is a member of the parks foundation board of trustees. Ellis works at Mentors of America; Rajagopalan is a market-research analyst; Voreis works at R.W. Armstrong; and Moreno is a partner at Lewis & Kappes.
The mayor will have one appointee, and the remaining slot will be filled by the clerk of the council, Melissa Thompson.
Cindy Porteous, executive director of the parks foundation, said the new board will not rely on recommendations from the parks foundation staff. “This is a working board,” she said.
The process gets under way on March 11 with a meeting for potential applicants. Preliminary applications are due March 25, and awards will be decided by May 20. The minimum grant will be $50,000, and Porteous said applicants will have to show that they have other sources of funding.
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