The church run by the Over-the-Rhine minister who has led protest marches on City Hall and called for an economic boycott of downtown businesses is being paid $196,000 by the city for a neighborhood cleanup program.

Lynch

Luken

        Mayor Charlie Luken and some City Council members say the Rev. Damon Lynch III, who also co-chairs the mayor's race relations panel, should never have been awarded the contract, and they would like to rescind it.

        “People are going to say he is getting paid to clean up a mess he had a part in creating,” Mr. Luken said Friday. “If there is a way to back out of the contract legally, I'd be all for it.”

        The Rev. Mr. Lynch says the contract with the New Prospect Baptist Church serves a double purpose: It puts people to work and helps to clean up a blighted area.

        “It has nothing to do with riots. It has everything to do with creating a clean, safe community,” he said. “I receive no benefit at all from this.”

        Mr. Luken said he was unaware of the contract until being told about it this week by The Enquirer. Other council members said they only found out after it was approved by city administrators.

        The contract was awarded in August, two months after city council passed a resolution discouraging members of the race panel — called Cincinnati Community Action Now — from creating programs that would benefit themselves or their families.

        “It certainly has the appearance of impropriety,” Councilman Pat DeWine said of the contract to the church. After the April riots he co-authored a motion to provide money for extra cleaning in Over-the-Rhine. “When the head of the CAN committee gets a contract, it certainly looks as if the bid process was poorly managed.”

        He said that he will raise the contract in a council committee next week.

        Mr. Luken said it is a close call whether council's resolution applied to the Rev. Mr. Lynch and the cleanup contract.

        “While this doesn't fit exactly, one of the things Cincinnati CAN is working on is cleaning up Over-the-Rhine,” he said.

        Even if the contract can't be revoked, Mr. Luken said he will work to strengthen the wording of council's resolution.

        The Rev. Mr. Lynch said he has not talked to the mayor or council about the contract. He reiterated that he is not getting any financial gain out of it.

        “We have been in the business of community development and providing jobs for years,” he said, adding that the contract fulfills the mission of New Prospect Baptist Church. “We are getting paid to turn lives around. That's what we do.”

        Public Services Director Daryl Brock, who oversees the Over- the-Rhine Enhanced Cleaning and Training Program, says the contract was awarded properly. He said the church has met all its goals.

        “I have driven through Over-the-Rhine and I have seen the people and they are working,” Mr. Brock said. “They are trying to get the community to take responsibility for the environment that they live in.”

        He said eight employees hired by the church are on the streets — picking up litter, cleaning vacant lots — eight hours a day, six days a week. He said the church provides work sheets every two weeks showing what was accomplished. The services augment regular city trash cleanup.

        Although the church has held the contract for more than a month, the city has not finished auditing payment vouchers and no money has been released.

        Mr. Brock acknowledged that he never talked to the mayor or council before awarding the contract, but he did issue a memo afterward. The contract was also approved by the city manager.

        New Prospect was one of four entities to submit bids for the cleanup project. A panel of sever al city employees reviewed the bids and split a $387,500 contract between New Prospect and the Cincinnati Institute for Career Alternatives.

        The reason for the split, Mr. Brock said, is that New Prospect has no experience with cleaning contracts while the other agency does.

        The review committee rejected a $500,000 bid from the Jireh Development Group and another from Brantley Services, which contracts with Downtown Cincin nati Inc. for cleaning several downtown sites.

        Mr. Brock said when City Council approved the extra funds — to be paid through a federal grant — it requested the contract go to a local firm, preferably a non-profit organization.

        But Mr. DeWine said he anticipated the contract would go to a company with experience.

        “I was stunned ... I have no idea what was going through their heads,” he said of city officials.

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