If you are reading this, do you know what SEUALG does? You might have seen their vehicles in town with that acronym on the door or driven by the old Reeves School (known now for many years as the Business and Technical Assistance Center) on south Carbon Avenue and know that the agency resides there.
But do you really know what they do?
If not, then that is Geri Gamber’s mission as she takes over as Executive Director of the Southeastern Utah Association of Local Governments.
‘Know what we do’
“I want this to be an agency that people feel comfortable with,” she said last week. “My honest vision for this agency is that when someone mentions ‘the AOG’ they know what we do.”
The Association of Government agencies across the state were established in 1969 under the original Interlocal Cooperation Agreements Act. The AOG was originally a regional planning organization. A lot of what they have dealt with over the years has to do with public lands.
There are seven AOGs in Utah. The two urban agencies are more into transportation planning while other organizations run the social programs.
In the rural areas the AOGs do it all, while transportation planning is very small because there is no mass transit. The fact that block grants were available to areas was one of the main reasons the state started the program, so that money could be applied for, divided up and used in local areas.
But the presence of the organizaton and knowing what the presence means is just one of her goals. She also wants the local AOG to be more independent, not so reliant on the whims of Washington, D.C.
“I want to have a thriving agency in five years,” she said referring to the fact that many of the block grants the agency relies on have been on the chopping block for years and that the present administration is saying that all these kinds of grants could be zeroed out. “We are so restricted being a government agency (in terms of funding) that maybe we can put together some alternative funding sources. I want to change that direction of being so reliant on federal funds.”
A relative newcomer to the agency, Gamber has a lot of good financial and leadership experience that will aid her in her vision. Born in Florida, she spent some time in Virginia growing up and then her father was offered a job here that didn’t work out so well. He later took a job at Plateau Mining.
“I grew up in Elmo and graduated from Emery High,” she said. “I then went to CEU and later graduated from the University of Utah.”
She later obtained an MBA from the University of Phoenix.
She started out her work career as a financial analyst with H and R Block. She then took some time off to be a mom as she also worked as a controller for a tire store in Sandy. Then she got a job at the DWS (Division of Workforce Services) and spent nine years there, much of it in St. George. She has been with SEULAG for three years as the program manager.
In that position she has handled the community service department, She has been over handling the HEAT program, the food bank, the VITA program (volunteer income tax assistance) and rapid rehousing program for the four county area (Carbon, Emery, Grand and San Juan).
And now she is also working with the Circles Program (intergenerational poverty) as it begins its work in the region. This program is being funded by the federal government to the tune of $800,000 in the region and is presently putting together teams to work toward goals starting in September. She is the one that actually wrote the grant to get the money to operate it.
‘A beautiful program’
“It is a beautiful program,” she said. “It is very focused on a specific age group (children) because that is what is necessary to break them out of the cycle of poverty. Even the DWS, who used to focus on adults, are focusing their efforts on children. Circles is a focus on the entire family to achieve those goals but it relies on the community to surround those involved and to help pull them from low income thinking to middle class thinking.”
But by changing hats in the agency she now takes on a whole new ball of wax along with what she has been doing.
“I think the most challenging thing for me in taking over the executive director’s job is that I have to move from just handling problems for people in poverty, to working on the economic development side as well,” she said. “That will be the basis of what I am paid to do.”
This includes a whole host of new challenges.
“Now I will also be over weatherization, aging services (for all but San Juan County which has its own agency), ombudsmen, the revolving loan fund, housing rehabilitation, self help, the Olene Walker program and USDA programs,” she stated. “It’s quite time consuming.”
The job will also mean managing the EDA (Economic Development Administration) for the area.
“The agency employs over 50 people, depending on the time of the year,” she says. “We also have a lot of volunteers that help us.”
Funding could become a huge challenge to SEUALG, as it has been in the past. As a government agency, it does not get money from private funding partners, so the any new way of doing things at the federal level could cause large problems.
“The programs here are very beneficial to rural America,” she says. “To consider cutting them out would hurt a lot of people. Congress may well reduce the funding. Many of them have been on the chopping block for years. There are some serious challenges in this area that need to be addressed.”
The direction the agency takes in this part of the state is led by a board which consists of eight members. Included are some mayors and county commissioners from the four county area with representation from each county. Board meetings take place once a month, usually on the fourth Thursday.
The idea of alternative types of funding is intriguing. If that could be worked out the agency could still use federal funds to run programs, but would have more leeway and with that more money to do other things because they could apply for grants from private foundations.
“There are $500,000 grants out there which we could apply for,” Gamber explained. “There are a lot of challenges in trying to get everything to work and that could help a lot.”
Literally all the funding the agency gets if from the federal government with the exception of a few small funds that come from the state. The counties also contribute money, all on an equal basis, thus it is the association of governments.
The state legislature also just passed HB 198 which requires AOGs to have a UCA board (Utah Communications Authority). This will be another challenge the new director will face in setting it up and making that run.
For Gamber it is a challenge, but one she obviously relishes. Transparency is important to her and she wants the community to know that this agency is there to help them both in terms of support but also with programs. She also wants to get going on what she has planned.
For Gamber July 1 cannot come soon enough.