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Council signals interest in hiring a grant writer; staff to return contract options and ROI scenarios
Summary
Councilors discussed hiring a contract grant writer and agreed they want to reserve funds in the budget for a contractor. Staff will circulate proposals, costs and recent town examples to let council weigh cost versus potential grant revenue.
Councilors discussed a staff recommendation to contract for grant-writing services. Members cited other towns' recent successes and asked for an RFP-style comparison of contractor rates, fee structures and outcomes.
Councilors and staff noted that several municipalities use contractors rather than full-time employees for grant writing; the workshop referenced local examples where a contractor helped secure significant grant awards. Multiple councilors asked staff to draft either a one-year contract with measurable deliverables or a short trial period (for example, a 30- to 90-day engagement with regular progress reporting) so the council could evaluate return on investment before committing to longer-term staffing.
Direction: staff to prepare an RFP and sample contractor agreements, provide typical contractor rates (monthly and per-project), and model hypothetical ROI scenarios using recent local grant-award examples. The council discussed a provisional allocation approach (e.g., $60,000 as a placeholder contractor budget) and asked staff to recommend a funding source (capital match, contingency, or reallocated expense lines) for the first year.
