The West Tisbury community preservation committee has asked to see a tape of the annual town meeting last April before voting on a recent request from the Island Affordable Housing Fund to release $50,000 from a restricted account. The housing fund, whose financial troubles have come into the public spotlight in recent months, wants to use the money for the 250 State Road affordable housing project.

Spokesmen for the fund and its sister organization, the Island Housing Trust, appeared before the community preservation committee at its regular meeting on Dec. 9 to ask for the release of the $50,000 that was approved by voters last April for the Go Green Fund.

Robert Wheeler, co-president of the board of directors for the fund, and Philippe Jordi, executive director for the trust, both appeared before the board. The two housing nonprofits are affiliated.

Committee members expressed reservations about releasing the money, recalling that Patrick Manning, former executive director of the fund, told voters at town meeting that the money would not be used for the 250 State Road project.

The committee postponed action on the request in order to allow members to review the tape of the town meeting. A tape of the meeting provided to the Gazette by MVTV confirms there may be some discrepancy between the request made in April and the one now before the community preservation committee.

The tape shows that Mr. Manning was questioned on the town meeting floor by Virginia Jones about whether the $50,000 would be used to pay for construction costs at 250 State Road.

“No it is not,” Mr. Manning replied. “I will tell you that private money raised just for green building is going to be used for 250 State Road; I fund-raised privately and many said they believe in this project — people from outside this Island have given money for this West Tisbury project, but not this money.”

In an overview of the funding request, Mr. Manning said the money will be used to make all new homes built through the partnership of the housing trust and fund become more energy efficient and less expensive for the homeowner.

“The last thing we want to do is to build these homes and then find out that most of the dollars are going through the windows and doors in the form of energy costs. Affordable housing does not mean cheap housing, it means affordable to buy and maintain,” he said.

He also said the fund initially requested $150,000 from the community preservation committee. “They said they would only consider $50,000, only to be used in West Tisbury, and they said you would need to come before us before you do anything with the money . . . we said that’s fair, we totally understand that,” he said.

Held and managed by the housing fund, the Go Green Fund is described on the fund’s Web site as follows: “The fund allows the affordable housing community to be in the forefront of green building that protects our fragile Island environment and doesn’t squander our finite resources, and also assists the Island Housing Trust’s efforts to build or renovate housing stock that remains affordable to own and maintain.” The housing fund’s 2008 audited financial statements reported that the fund had $200,000 in it.

The community preservation committee will revisit the request to release the Go Green Fund money at their next regular meeting on Jan. 6.

Tony Nevin, administrative assistant to the West Tisbury community preservation committee, said the committee wants to be sure the recent request matches the request made in the town meeting article.

“I think they [committee members] wanted to be absolutely sure that their understanding of how the money will be spent is the same as the town’s understanding. Rather than simply leave it to recall, it was agreed to watch the film of the town meeting,” he said.

Mr. Nevin said he reviewed the language of the article and found nothing to prevent the money from being used for 250 State Road project. But he acknowledged there is some confusion about how the housing fund framed the funding request, both before and after the town meeting.

Minutes from the March 25 community preservation committee meeting, held before town meeting, state: “Pat [Manning] summarized the importance of Go Green funding to reduce the energy expenditures for owners of affordable housing and noted that it was especially appropriate for the Habitat house at 250 State Road, because the homes built by South Mountain are already designed to be energy efficient.”

But minutes from the April 22 meeting, held after town meeting, state: “The question of whether Go Green funds could be used for new construction at 250 State Road was raised and answered No, although it is understood that those funds must be used for new construction.”

The town already has invested heavily in the 250 State Road project; voters previously agreed to devote $570,000 in Community Preservation Act money to the project, which involves the construction of highly energy efficient homes with solar panels and other state-of-the-art materials.

Mrs. Jones said the housing fund should make a new application to the community preservation committee if they want to use the money for the Habitat for Humanity house at 250 State Road. She also questioned the logic of using Go Green funding to offset the costs of building a home that was billed as already highly energy efficient.

“The project [at 250 State Road] was already supposed to be top-of-the-line energy efficient. I support affordable housing, and I support green homes, but they are asking the town to subsidize energy efficient amenities that many people in town can’t afford themselves,” she said.

Community preservation committee member Sean Conley took a different view. He said voters supported the intent. “I hope people don’t get caught up in the details. As long as it’s still affordable housing, we shouldn’t be so picky. I think some people right now are overlooking all the good things these groups do for the Island. These groups are working to put people in homes they can afford,” Mr. Conley said.

He concluded: “And with the economy being what it is, more people than ever may need affordable housing.”