PWAs, Pull Up a Chair
Sellman urged the Planning Council last week to make sure ASOs bring PWAs on board
The feds say that a New York City Ryan White Planning Council resolution passed last week doesn’t violate any federal rules, paving the way for a groundbreaking new policy mandating that some AIDS Service Organizations that receive Ryan White funding include HIV-positive clients on their boards of directors.
The Council voted 20 to 2 that non-profit organizations receiving Ryan White Part A funds that primarily serve HIV-positive clients must have a consumer (someone who uses the organizations’ services) sit on their boards of directors. The members of the New York City Department of Health (DOH) who sit on the Planning Council cautioned last Thursday that the resolution might be nonbinding because of Human Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) policies. However, HRSA’s said otherwise.
“There are no HRSA rules that either allow or prohibit the Council from making rules that influence the make-up of boards of organizations receiving Ryan White Part A funds,” said HRSA spokesperson David Bowman.
A spokesperson from the DOH said it is consulting with its legal department because the resolution “has numerous implications that need to be explored.”
Last Thursday, the Planning Council voted 20 to 2 “that all non-profit organizations receiving Ryan White Part A funds shall be required to include no less than one (1) HIV-positive consumer, who is willing to be known as such to the public, and who has been elected by other consumers of that organization to its board of directors, except in the case of grant recipients not directly serving primarily HIV-positive clients, in which case the consumer representative(s) may be elected to that organization’s existing board of directors, advisory board or other appropriate body.”
DOH, as the feds’ grantee, is required to carry out the Council’s resolutions. If the DOH doesn’t comply with Council resolutions, the Council can refuse to pass motions that the grantee needs to operate, fail the grantee in its yearly assessment or call for HRSA intervention.
But hopefully it won’t come to this. Asking organizations receiving city funding to alter personnel and hiring practices is nothing new.
“I’m outraged that the DOH has any doubts about carrying forward this resolution,” said Housing Works President and CEO Charles King. “The Planning Council resolution is no different than San Francisco requiring organizations to amend their personnel policies to requiring city contractors to provide domestic partner insurance coverage.” Housing Works supports the Council’s resolution.
Denver Principles in action
This resolution was an outgrowth of the PWA-empowerment-focused Denver Principles Project, which most New York AIDS service organizations have endorsed. At the Planning Council meeting, speakers accused these groups of hypocrisy for endorsing PWA involvement without having a board member who is HIV-positive.
Although this resolution will affect many nonprofit organizations receiving Ryan White Part A funds, the resolution was of particular interest to members of the Gay Men’s Health Crisis Client Advisory Board (CAB), which has been calling on GMHC to have a seat on their board of directors for the past two years.
“I suspect we’ll get some pushback from the leadership at GMHC. If we have to, we’ll pursue legal action,” said Joseph Sellman, a member of GMHC’s CAB.
GMHC didn’t respond to the Update’s request for comment by deadline.
Posted on June 25, 2009 at 4:56 pm
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