Board of County Commissioners Leon County, Florida www.leoncountyfl.gov

Issue Briefing:

This agenda item seeks Board acceptance of the status report on the County’s efforts to maximize leveraging opportunities to attain federal and state grant funding for priority County programs and approval of the quarterly “Grant Leveraging Report.”  It also includes information on the status of the current Community Human Services Partnership (CHSP) process.

Fiscal Impact:

Leon County started the current fiscal year with more than $9.9 million in grant funding, consisting of $133,862 in County matching funds and $9,761,800 in grant funds, for a leveraging ratio of 1:73.  At the end of the Third quarter, there was a total of $21,688,737 in grant funding consisting of $233,862 in County matching funds and $21,454,875 in grant funding, for a leveraging ratio of 1:92.  The extremely high ratio of County dollars to grant dollars is unusual and is based upon unmatched stimulus funding, the inclusion of capacity fees in the analysis and the large Disaster Recovery grant received in April 2010.

Staff Recommendation: 

Option #1:   Accept the FY 2009-2010 Third Quarter County Grant Program Quarterly Leveraging Status Report.

Report and Discussion

Background:

Traditionally, the County has aggressively sought state and federal grant funding to support County projects and initiatives and has achieved considerable success in leveraging County dollars.  Recent events however, including the ongoing economic recession and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, a $787 billion stimulus package, have given the county the opportunity to maximize grant revenues.

These activities are primarily the responsibility of the Grants Program Coordinator (Coordinator), supported by the development of “Quick Response Teams” to bring additional County personnel to the process.  Currently the Coordinator, along with these teams are exploring and pursuing federal, state and private sector grant funding and reimbursement opportunities in furthering priority County programs and projects.  The Coordinator seeks grant sources, writes or assists other County staff in writing grant applications, monitors applications through the approval process, maintains an oversight function to ensure that all grant regulations are complied with, and provides limited management and reporting services.  The Coordinator submits a quarterly summary of all grant activities to the Board in the month following the end of each quarter. 

In addition, the Coordinator is assigned to represent the County in the Community Human Services Partnership (CHSP), the mechanism utilized by the County, City of Tallahassee, and the United Way of the Big Bend to fund social service programs within Leon County.  County policy requires that all agencies with CHSP eligible requests seek funding through this process.

Analysis:

To keep the Board fully apprised of the success of the County’s grant funding leveraging efforts, the following reports are submitted to the Commission covering the third quarter of the 2009/2010 fiscal year:

·        Table 1 - Grants Leveraging Report (Attachment #1).  This report shows a cumulative total for the current fiscal year and displays the project name, the County dollars required match the grant, the grant dollars allocated to the project, and comments relating to the grant such as funding source.  The County starting the third quarter with a total of $11.3 million in grant funding, consisting of $208,862 in County matching funds and $11,275,643  in grant funds, for a leveraging ratio of 1:54.  At the end of the third quarter, there was a total of $21,688,737 in grant funding consisting of $233,862 in County matching funds and $21,688,737 in grant funding with for a leveraging ratio of 1:92.  The extremely high ratio of County dollars to grant dollars is unusual and based upon unmatched stimulus funding, the inclusion of capacity fees in the analysis and the large Disaster Recovery received in April 2010.  This table will be updated each quarter to document the addition of new grant funding.

·        Table 2 - Grants Received Report (Attachment #2).  This report shows grants that have been received during the reporting period, the name of the project, the amount of the grant and comments relating to the grant.  The current Grants Received Report shows one grant was received in the Third quarter, with a value of $10,179,232.  Table 2 will be updated on a quarterly basis, showing a cumulative total at the end of the fiscal year. 

·        Table 3 - Grants Researched/Submitted Report (Attachment #2).  This report reflects the grants that have been either researched or researched and submitted.  For the second quarter of the current fiscal year, two applications have been submitted.

A second major responsibility of the Grants Program Coordinator is to represent the County in the CHSP program and manage the commitments to specific social service agencies funded through this process.  The CHSP program has been utilized to distribute social service funding in Leon County since 1997.  During that time, the partners, consisting of Leon County, the City of Tallahassee, and the United Way of the Big Bend have awarded more than $30 million to support those agencies providing vital human services.  Leon County has allocated approximately $7 million of general revenue to the process during that time.  

The funding allocation process for the 2010/2011 fiscal year started in October 2009, with CHSP staff, consisting of County, City of Tallahassee, and United Way personnel, setting dates, and preparing the curriculum for applying agencies.  All agencies that plan to request funds through this process must attend grant application training, necessary to familiarize them with the application process and important deadlines, such as the due dates.  This training took place in January 2010.  The CHSP applications were submitted on February 23, 2010.

Once received, the applications were distributed to the Citizen Review Teams (CRTs) during their March volunteer training sessions.  The 2010-2011 review of the applications by the CRTs started April 6 2010, and ran through May 20, 2010.  During this time, the CHSP staff accompanied the teams on 79 site visits during which 113 programs were reviewed.  The CRTs have developed funding recommendations and the agencies will be notified of the proposed funding and be allowed to appeal if they disagree with the proposed level of funding.  The final recommendations will be brought before the Board in September 2010.  

It is important to note that funding through the CHSP process is considered to be funding from all three partners, regardless of the specific contractual obligation.  CHSP staff has attempted to streamline contractual and reporting requirements by utilizing the minimum number of agreements necessary, as opposed to requiring each agency to execute an agreement with each of the funding agencies.  Additionally, it should be noted that, during the pursuit of grants conducted by the Coordinator, funding opportunities for social service agencies are often noted.  The Coordinator notifies the appropriate agency within the community to give them the opportunity to bring additional resources into Leon County.  Attachment # 3 is a list of current County-funded CHSP agencies. Finally, at the January 15, 2009 Commission meeting, the Board requested that this report contain information concerning the grant budget of the Leon County Sheriff’s Office.  That information is included as Attachment #4.

Options:

1.      Accept the FY 2009-2010 Third Quarter County Grant Program Quarterly Leveraging Status Report.

2.      Do not accept the FY 2009-2010 Third Quarter County Grant Program Quarterly Leveraging Status Report.

3.      Board Direction.

Recommendation:

Option #1.

Attachments:
1.                  Table 1 - General Grant Report
2.                  Table 2 - Grants Received Report and Grants Researched/Submitted Report
3.                  2009/2010 CHSP Activities
4.                  Leon County Sheriff’s Office Grant Activities – Third Quarter