New London — Residents have now had two weeks to review the city’s proposed use of more than $26 million in federal pandemic relief funding, and it’s clear not everyone is satisfied with the recommendations.

Residents and representatives from local nonprofits spoke up at a public hearing on Monday, calling for revisions to the proposed spending plan and more transparency in the process while advocating for their own causes.

The public hearing comes as the City Council looks to adopt a budget for the first half of the $26.2 million in funding.

Much of the criticism came from advocates for FRESH New London, a group that during the pandemic led a successful food distribution program that reached hundreds of people in need.

Nicolo Festa, secretary for the FRESH New London board, said the budget proposal suggests its creators are “out of touch with the needs of the community.”

“I don’t know how they came up with the current allocations for particular projects, but in some areas, they appear to be tone deaf as to what New Londoners want as priorities,” Festa wrote.

FRESH New London is in line to receive $225,000 over two years under the city’s proposal. It had requested $500,000 to fund a series of initiatives that include growing food to address food insecurity, building vegetable gardens and helping fund a large urban farm on Cottage Street.

Others questioned the size of the more than $2.7 million allocation to the police department and advocated for more funds to the Black and Hispanic communities.

Regina Mosley, president of the Board of Education but speaking as a private citizen, advocated for FRESH New London and urged the city to address racism as a public health issue. She also joined others to criticize the city’s proposal to provide $1.98 million to New England Science & Sailing, saying the money is better spent on a New London-based organization.

The funding proposal now being considered by the City Council will take two more votes before it passes.

Mayor Michael Passero said there was “nothing hard and fast” about the proposals and allocations could change as the council makes adjustments with input from the community.

Asked about why some requests were fully funded and others were not, Passero said hashing out how to divvy up the funding was complicated and came down, in some cases, to how detailed a proposal was.

For instance, he said, $1.98 million in funding for summer and after school programs for middle school students builds on an existing partnership between the city’s Recreation Department and New England Science and Sailing. Passero said other organizations requested funding for what appeared to be great ideas that were not ready to move forward.

“I think we can all work deliberately together and take the greatest advantage of this opportunity that the federal government has provided us,” Passero said.

The $26.22 million in federal funding is expected in two installments from the federal American Rescue Plan Act. The city has broken the funding into five categories: public health, negative economic impacts, services to disproportionality impacted communities, infrastructure and administration. The city has proposed that a bulk of the funds, 40% or $10.4 million, be shifted to programs or services to disproportionality impacted communities.

In comments to the council, resident Aaron Ide urged the council to invest and not spend the money on programs or initiatives that will burden the taxpayer when the funding runs out in 2024.

"I would challenge the council to make the responsible decision that none of these funds be spent on recurring programs," Ide wrote in remarks to the council.

g.smith@theday.com