Remone Wagner is changing his life for the better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Describing himself as once \u201clost,\u201d Wagner is changing his life path. But he said he could not have done it with the assistance from Emerge, a community nonprofit serving the residents of North Minneapolis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWithout Emerge I\u2019d probably be sitting in a cell somewhere,\u201d said Wagner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI was lost before Emerge. I needed a job and they helped me get one. I didn\u2019t want to make money the wrong way (alluding to dealing in narcotics).\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And while Wagner is making money the \u201cright way,\u201d others may not be as fortunate. That is because a large portion of Emerge\u2019s funding has been halted. Same for the Minneapolis Urban League, Sabathani Community Center, Stairstep Foundation and Minneapolis Public Schools \u2013 all a part of the Unity Opportunity Collaborative (UOC).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 2016 $4.2 million was appropriated to the UOC by the Minnesota State Legislature to address income and employment disparities among Blacks and whites in Minnesota. The money was not given directly to the UOC, but disbursed through the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Opportunity (DEED). Since Sept. 1 of last year those disbursements have been suspended do to what DEED is calling malfeasance and mismanagement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The member organizations of the UOC say they have done nothing wrong and contend that with each passing day citizens are not receiving the resources owed in accordance with the Legislature\u2019s intent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe have had to let go 27 people because of this,\u201d said Mike Wynne, president and CEO of Emerge. \u201cIn my 30 years of community work I\u2019ve never seen anything like this.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Wynne said while all UOC accounting was above board, he could understand if DEED had questions, but any and all questions asked of the collaborative have been addressed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cDEED brought up 28 issues and we felt we answered all DEED\u2019s questions with six issues requiring advisement from DEED,\u201d said Wynne. \u201cThe findings (by auditor Mark Felton) were minor in nature. We\u2019re talking about minor administrative issues, but again and again, the state agency is being intractable. This has put our reputations in question. Our (accounting) books are open. We have nothing to hide.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to members of the UOC, issues in question were as minuet as printer and toner usage at Sabathani.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAnd then they (DEED) tell us we (Sabathani) can\u2019t serve Laotian people,\u201d said Bill English, vice chair of the Sabathani Board. \u201cHow can you as a state agency say that? That\u2019s discrimination.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With funds in limbo, UOC took DEED to court this past February, earning a March verdict of $568,000 for reimbursement of funds but DEED appealed the ruling and both sides entered into mediation. On May 23 DEED requested a 49 percent reimbursement of already incurred expenses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIf DEED wins this fight Sabathani will have to pay back $500,000,\u201d said English. \u201cWe don\u2019t have that kind of money.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sen. Bobby Joe Champion, who was one of the architects of the legislation that called for funding of programs to serve disadvantaged communities, said DEED is not acting in good faith.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAccountability is always important, and these organizations have been clear they want to be held accountable; that\u2019s not the issue. All should be held accountable, including our state agencies.\u201d said Champion. \u201cBut when you hear that issues revolve around toner people say, \u2018No, it has to be more than that.\u2019 They can\u2019t believe these are the issues coming up. And the overall impact is the community is not being served.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Insight News<\/em> reached out to DEED for comment and received an email statement reading, \u201cThe Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED) is committed to building a successful economy for individuals, businesses, and communities by working to improve opportunities for growth throughout the state. DEED takes very seriously its responsibility to ensure outcomes and accountability of public dollars on behalf of Minnesota taxpayers. DEED has an obligation to ensure that grantee organizations are in full compliance with state laws and grants management policy. Due to the ongoing litigation on this matter DEED will not provide further comments.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Remone Wagner is changing his life for the better. Describing himself as once \u201clost,\u201d Wagner is changing his life path. But he said he could not have done it with the assistance from Emerge, a community nonprofit serving the residents of North Minneapolis. \u201cWithout Emerge I\u2019d probably be sitting in a cell somewhere,\u201d said Wagner. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":4451,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[26,3],"tags":[2785,2783,2784],"class_list":["post-4449","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community","category-news","tag-deed","tag-remone-wagner","tag-unity-opportunity-collaborative-uoc","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Insight-News-Website-Images-4-3.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4449","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4449"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4449\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4452,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4449\/revisions\/4452"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4451"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4449"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4449"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4449"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}