HomeMy WebLinkAbout2001-06-05; City Council; 16210; Grants Funding For Boys & Girls ClubCITY OF CARLSBAD -AGENDA BILL
AB# / 6, c;l@ T’TLE:
MTG. 6/5/01 COMMUNITY ACTIVITY GRANTS FUNDING
DEPT. FIN FOR BOYS & GIRLS CLUB
DEPT AD.
CITY ATTY. &SE l
CITY MGR. %‘H
RECOMMENDED ACTION:
Direct staff on selected option.
ITEM EXPLANATION:
At the March 20th council meeting, Council took action to allocate the current year Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds. During the discussion of this item, several council
members supported a request by one of the council members to find alternative funding for the
Boys & Girls Club. In addition, the Mayor expressed an interest in finding alternative funding for
Join Hands-Save a Life. Thus, staff was requested to return at a later date with some options for
Council to consider.
There are basically three funding options available for these types of programs: The City’s
General fund, the Community Activity Grant funds, and the CDBG funds.
Currently, the Community Activity Grant program has $1 million set up in a separate fund. The
annual interest of about $55,000 is used to fund grants that enhance the quality of life for
Carlsbad’s residents and/or visitors. The grants are intended to compliment other City programs, such as the CDBG, by providing grants for services that may not be eligible under these other
programs. Thus, any organization currently receiving funding from another City program is not
eligible for a Community Activity Grant. Each fiscal year, applications for the grants are submitted in September. Then a Citizen Review Committee reviews the applications and makes
recommendations to Council in December.
The CDBG Program provides federal funds to help provide affordable housing and other services
for low and moderate-income families and individuals. Of the approximately $650,000 in funding
available each year, 15% (roughly $97,000) is available for public service activities that benefit
low to moderate income families and individuals, 20% covers the administrative costs of the program and the remaining 65% is for facility improvement projects. Each fiscal year,
applications for the grants are submitted in December. Then a Citizen Advisory Committee reviews the applications and makes recommendations to Council in March.
The following are several options for Council to consider as a means to provide additional
funding for the Boys & Girls Club and Join Hands-Save a Life.
Ootions Available
1. One-time funding - If Council wishes to provide additional funding for these programs for this year only, there are two ways which this may be accomplished:
a) Appropriate the funding from the Council’s contingency account in the General fund.
b) Appropriate the funding from the Community Activity Grant fund. There is currently a
balance of $1,039,000 in this fund. If $50,000 were taken out of it for these programs, it
would leave a balance of $989,000 in the fund. This would generate about $25,000 in
interest over the next six months for distribution under the current grant program in the
fall.
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2. On-going funding - If Council wishes to provide ongoing funding to these two agencies every
year without impacting the operating budget, options would include:
a) Transfer sufficient funds to the Community Activity Grant fund from the General fund in
order to generate enough interest every year to fund these programs on an ongoing
basis. For example, if Council wanted to give $25,000 annually to each of the two agencies, then $1 million would need to be transferred to the Community Activity Grant
fund to generate at least $50,000 in interest every year. This $50,000 of grant money
would be earmarked for these two programs and the remaining Community Activity Grant
money would be available for applicants under the current program.
One of the requirements to be eligible to receive Community Activity Grant funds is that the organization cannot have received funding from any other City source that year. If
Council would still like these organizations to be eligible for CDBG funding, then they
would need to exempt these organizations from this requirement.
b) Designate $50,000 of the City’s annual allocation of CDBG money to be allocated to
these two programs. The committee would then review and make recommendations on
the allocation of the remaining amounts as in past years.
Once Council determines which option they wish to select, staff will bring back the appropriate
paperwork at a later date for Council to adopt.
FISCAL IMPACT:
The following is the fiscal impact for each option:
Option 1 - One-time funding
a) $50,000 would be transferred from General fund contingencies. Currently there is over $2.6
million available in General fund contingencies.
b) Appropriating $50,000 from the Community Activity Grant fund would leave a balance of
$989,000 in the fund. This would generate about $25,000 over the next six months in interest
for distribution under the current grant program in the fall.
Option 2 - On-going funding
a) $1 million would be transferred from the General fund to the Community Activity Grant fund
to fund these programs on an ongoing basis. Then General fund balance is expected to be
approximately $55 million at June 30,200l.
b) Designating $50,000 of the City’s annual allocation of CDBG money to be allocated to these
two programs would leave a balance of approximately $47,000 to be distributed to other
public service programs under the CDBG program.
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