WEED AND SEED BOARD APPROVES NEW BUDGET

SIKESTON -- As Southeast Missouri Weed and Seed approved a fiscal year 2000 budget of $675,000 on Thursday, board members tried to solve personnel and organizational issues that have gone unanswered since the first grant money was issued a year ago.

Weed and Seed, which is a U.S. Department of Justice program in several states, is designed to fight crime in targeted neighborhoods and implement grass-roots initiatives for change.

Southeast Missouri Weed and Seed began drawing money from its initial grant of $750,000 last December.

Along with the budget, board members attempted to reach conclusions on job descriptions, employee status and equipment.

The board's administrative coordinator, Alaina Shroyer, said she was hired a year and two days ago and still does not have a job description or a contract.

The Weed and Seed coordinator for community initiatives in Caruthersville said he has been shuttling his own televisions in and out of a community center, called a "safe haven," to facilitate program activities.

"Because the safe haven is actually running, we need those things that we were originally supposed to have," said Johnny Hood, the coordinator.

The question of how to handle salaries for coordinators in the five Weed and Seed cities in Southeast Missouri was discussed. It had been made an issue when Weed and Seed's national office in Washington this fall audited the local board's activities.

The auditors had said the board's executive director, administrative coordinator and various coordinators in the five cities should file time cards.

This could create trouble if coordinators started to work overtime, and the money wasn't available to pay them, said board member Steve Borgsmiller, Sikeston's city manager.

Salaries for seeding coordinators like Hood, who works to maintain and create programs in targeted neighborhoods, was another topic brought up by auditors.

The variance between annual salaries, ranging from $18,750 in Poplar Bluff to $12,000 in Cape Girardeau, needed to be corrected, the auditors stated.

It should take another two months to resolve outstanding personnel problems, said Lisa Lane, who was hired in October as the board's second executive director.

In other budget matters, Lane said a $150,000 budget addition would be granted by the national office to cover expenses until the new budget is approved. The board's first annual grant officially ended on Nov. 30.

Progress is being made, Lane said, because the year 2000 budget will be sent to Washington next week. The original deadline for sending the budget was Jan. 31.

Based on past experience with Weed and Seed's executive office, the budget will definitely be returned with suggested corrections, said John Wade, professor of criminal justice at Southeast Missouri State University.

Funding for Southeast Missouri Weed and Seed had been suspended by the national office in September.

Along with having a federal employee as interim director, the national office cited several small reporting errors in documentation.