Republicans have labeled the Neighborhood Recovery Initiative as a failure—but was it?
State Rep. Ron Sandack says according to the state auditor it was, and that’s what prompted this week’s hearing on the anti-violence program by the Legislative Audit Commission. Sandack admits the program may have done some good while being mismanaged in other areas, but the problem is the program’s effectiveness was never quantified.
“Sure, it can be somewhere in the middle,” Sandack said, “but we don’t have any metrics to this day.”
Barbara Shaw, who ran the Illinois Violence Prevention Authority, which oversaw NRI, says the program had long-term strategies that would have been difficult to measure. Even so, she claims the audit ignored NRI’s successes.
“What the audit doesn’t speak to—and it’s not its purpose—but what the audit doesn’t speak to was what we did accomplish, and how much was done,” Shaw testified Wednesday.
The commission will question more officials involved with the program today (Thursday), including Gov. Pat Quinn’s former chief of staff, Jack Lavin.