NORWALK, Conn. – The need to continue services for Norwalk’s needy is the reason it has taken so long for Norwalk Economic Opportunity Now (NEON) to determine a course of action as bankruptcy looms, state Sen. Bob Duff (D-25) said.
“That’s always been very important,” Duff said. “If this has taken longer than anybody thought it might, it’s because we’re really focused on helping to ensure that the services are still here in Norwalk, however this all plays itself out, so that if they’re in bankruptcy and there’s a new CAP (Community Action Program) agency the services are all here in Norwalk and not someplace else.”
NEON leaders and city officials have been looking into Chapter 7 bankruptcy for the agency, which would mean liquidation, or Chapter 11, which would mean reorganization, at least since December, when it became public knowledge during a board meeting.
“I think either way, NEON as we know it ceases to exist and a new CAP agency at some point is formed,” Duff said.
It isn’t possible to decertify a CAP agency and have a new one ready to step into its place, Duff said.
“There are two parts to NEON right now,” Duff said. “One is the judicial end, which is bankruptcy. The second part is decertification. You can’t decertify one agency and then certify a new CAP agency at the same time, from what I understand. That can’t be parallel. I believe you can do bankruptcy and decertification in a parallel fashion.
“I believe if it’s voluntary decertification it can take a few months,” he continued. “If it’s involuntary decertification it can take up to a year and a half. … I believe it will be voluntary.”
NEON board Chairman Mike Berkoff said in February that NEON is eligible for $1.2 million in state funding to rebuild the agency, but fellow board member Jack O’Dea told NancyOnNorwalk on Monday that it is unlikely that NEON or the people involved would try to re-establish a CAP agency.
Will NEON go Chapter 7 or 11?
“My sense is that – I don’t know this for sure, I don’t want to say, but my sense is that they will file and liquidate their assets,” Duff said. But, “There’s not a whole lot of assets there.”
While NEON owns a few buildings, it does not have enough assets to pay its debts, Duff said.
Mayor Harry Rilling has said that dealing with NEON has taken a large chunk of his time. That includes phone calls with NEON transitional CEO and President the Rev. Tommie Jackson every other day.
Rilling said Monday that Jackson said there would be a development by early May.
“I don’t know what the timeline is, but I would probably agree with that,” Duff said.
The important thing is that NEON’s clients continue to get the help they need in Norwalk, not in Bridgeport or Danbury, where there are already CAP agencies, Duff said. They also need to get one-stop shopping in Norwalk, which means that 98 South Main St. will probably be the home of whatever CAP agency rises from NEON’s ashes, Duff said.
“You don’t want to have it, obviously, in different towns, but you also don’t want to have services that are in multiple locations throughout the city of Norwalk,” Duff said. “The idea of NEON, one of the things, is to have services in one-stop shopping. That’s part of the HSI (Human Services Infrastructure) model. That’s important so that when people come in we serve as kind of a whole, all the needs, not just one piece of it, because the goal of NEON is to help people that are in poverty but also get them out of poverty. So if it comes to food stamps or health care or fuel assistance or job training whatever it is, it’s all in one place not multiple locations, inside or outside the city. Those discussions take time to work out and that’s part of the overall process we’ve been dealing with over the last six to nine months.”
Leave a Reply
You must Register or Login to post a comment.