LONGVIEW — The incorrect use of federal funds to build the Archie Anderson Park police station landed Longview under federal agency oversight for a long stretch of 2023.
Interim City Manager Jim Duscha raised the issue at the tail end of the April 11 Longview City Council meeting. The city was under heightened oversight of the Department of Housing and Urban Development for several months of 2023 over incorrect use of Community Development Block Grant funding.
In 2020, HUD had rejected the city’s proposal to use CDBG funds to help build the Longview Police Department’s satellite station. A planning department employee, who no longer works for Longview, revised the environmental review after the fact to make the project exempt from HUD review and move ahead with the construction.
The department reached out to the city early last year after finding the issue. To make up for the violation, HUD required the city to follow stricter oversight rules until Nov. 23.
“It was an opportunity to learn from the mistakes of others, to learn from HUD’s knowledge to develop our new policies,” said Kenny Robinson, federal program coordinator in Longview’s planning department.
Assistant Public Works Director Chris Collins said the city consulted with HUD on the environmental review of every project funded by CDBG for months. Robinson worked with the department to create new policies and procedures to prevent future violations.
“In some ways, that extreme oversight was a blessing for us because it allowed Kenny to start these from the ground level,” Collins said.
The city also had to correct the record on how those funds were spent. The original CDBG funds for the police station were replaced with a different federal funding source, the American Rescue Plan Act. HUD approved a city plan to shift the funding to a new project to install streetlights in the Highlands neighborhood.
Collins said the lighting project is in the final procurement stages and is expected to begin work this spring.
