Interview: Kris Kolluri, President & CEO, Camden Community Partnership, Inc.

county recovers. While it may take well into 2022 to see pre-pandemic levels of employment, the county’s bond ratings are a telltale sign that the recovery is not a question of if but rather when. Cushioned by funding from the CARES and American Rescue Plan acts coupled with sound budgetary practices, the county’s outlook is stable, according to Moody’s 2021 rating report.

In April, Moody’s Investor Service assigned a “Aa1” rating to Camden County’s General Obligation bonds, outperforming the state as a whole. That’s an upgrade from “Aa2,” highlighting the county’s ability to service its debt obligations. For comparison, in November 2020, Fitch Ratings assigned the state of New Jersey a rating of “A-” on its General Obligation bonds. “The ongoing pandemic has had only a modest impact on the county,” Moody’s wrote in its rating report. “While a number of revenue streams have been negatively impacted, the county has made budgetary adjustments to offset these losses. The stable outlook reflects our expectation that the county’s finances will remain strong despite the impact of the pandemic. The outlook also takes into account the county’s very large, diverse tax base and strong resident wealth,” the report said.

Infrastructure and transportation A look across Camden County reveals the results of guided economic development efforts. With companies such as American Water, Subaru, NFI industries and( ) Kris Kolluri

President & CEO Camden Community Partnership, Inc.

What is the Partnership’s role in Camden?

The Camden Community Partnership has been around for 36 years. We started as a waterfront development corporation. One of the reasons why we recently changed our name is because the work we’ve done in the last decade has seen us move our focus from the waterfront into almost every neighborhood in Camden. We thought it was more representative of the work that we do. We say that we are a resident-first organization because everything that we advance — whether it’s the development of parks or infrastructure, updating infrastructure or creating new jobs through our Camden Works program — is all targeted at improving the social well-being and health of Camden residents. This has been our singular focus over the last decade.

What have been some significant accomplishments for the partnership?

If you look at our parks work, we’ve managed or have helped manage the development of over $110 million worth of parks, and we’re overseeing about $45 million worth of infrastructure work. We also just implemented an arts project called A New View. It’s a $1 million grant that the Partnership, Rutgers University – Camden and the city of Camden received from Bloomberg to highlight the issue of illegal dumping by using art as a way to change the perceptions of this city. Two hundred cities competed for this grant and we were one of the 12 that were chosen.

During the pandemic, we shifted our focus completely to help with COVID-19 testing logistics in the city and partnered with other nonprofits to distribute food to those in need. One of the ways we look at our station and standing in the community is to make sure that we can always be nimble enough to adapt to changing environments and the changing needs of the community. That, I think, is one of our proudest achievements as an organization. Organizations this old — we’re 36 years old — often get structurally inflexible and what we try to do is maintain a sense of flexibility so we can pivot quickly.