A Major Task Ahead For New Leader

February 5, 2005
By JEFFREY B. COHEN, Courant Staff Writer

Sure, it's nice that Frederick E. Smith is beginning his job at ONE/CHANE at the same time that the neighborhood organization is reworking its strategic plan and setting new goals.

"But the other thing that would be even nicer is if the sky opened up and a big pool of money came down to provide the resources to do all of those things," Smith, the organization's new executive director, said Friday. "These are all lofty goals and visions, but there must be resources to actualize them."

As he finished his third week on the job, Smith said it is time for his organization to refocus and get back to its roots - community organizing and advocacy. But to do that, Smith said, ONE/CHANE needs money.

"One of my most immediate missions is fiscal accountability for the organization," he said. "We're in dire straits right now." So dire that next week's bill can't be paid?

"It's not that imminent," he said. "But it's imminent."

ONE/CHANE is a community improvement organization in north Hartford that made its name as an advocate for community interests but has most recently been involved in housing development. Last March, the organization's board fired its executive director, Larry Charles Sr., after it decided his tenure was too controversial to allow him to continue.

But Smith isn't interested in all that, he said.

"We can always look behind us at what's been, but we have to look forward to what can be," he said.

Smith, 53, is a South Carolina native who has been in Connecticut 10 years. A Bloomfield resident, he last worked as the director of substance abuse prevention and education at ALSO-Cornerstone in New Haven.

ONE/CHANE hired a consultant and held an executive search funded by the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving, executive board president Terry Waller said. It interviewed more than 30 candidates before selecting Smith, Waller said.

"He has the right temperament, the background, the skills ... and he has the experience and the rapport with funders," Waller said of Smith. "He really has a lot of courage to take on the task."

On Jan. 12, Mayor Eddie A. Perez, one of the founders of ONE/CHANE, welcomed Smith to the job with a meeting at city hall.

"They've got some work to do in order to get back to the work they were doing before," Perez said Thursday. "Going back to their roots is really what they need to do."

Smith said his job began with an honest look at the books.

To operate as is, the organization needs between $300,000 and $350,000, Smith said. To operate at a level Smith thinks appropriate would take an annual budget of roughly $500,000, he said. He would not, though, say how much the organization now has in the bank.

So one of his jobs is to start knocking on doors that used to be open, he said.

The United Way was a funds provider, but isn't anymore, he said. It's time to re-establish a relationship, he said.

And, he said, it's time to be brutally honest.

"I can't do this in a vacuum," Smith said. "It takes a board, it takes a community, and, third and foremost, it takes resources."

"He's certainly correct," Waller said. "And the funding community had it right. They understood that we needed to restructure and to reorganize. So we're heading in a new direction, and we're working on the major concerns [of] our funders.

"They understand exactly what type of neighborhood we're in, and they understand they're going to have to step in and help."

ONE/CHANE will hold a "meet and greet" session for Smith on Thursday from 5:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at its office at 2065 Main St. And Smith will no doubt get the question again.

"People ask me, `Why did you take this job?'" Smith said. "And I say, because it's a challenge. And, like I said, it's my community, too."

"You know what? If not me, then who?"