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Sister Cities Committee to draft special-revenue fund after trust option stalls
Summary
Portsmouth’s Blue Ribbon Sister City Committee agreed to draft a proposal for a city special-revenue fund to accept donor-restricted gifts after trustees raised legal and policy objections to a standalone trust.
The Blue Ribbon Sister City Committee authorized staff to draft a proposal to create a city-managed special-revenue fund to hold donor-restricted gifts after attempts to form an independent sister-cities trust encountered legal and policy objections. The committee voted to ask staff to prepare a proposal the group can review and then send to the City Council for acceptance.
Committee member Bob Sullivan told the group that trustees raised “technical objections,” “legal objections” and a “policy objection concerning who will be able to authorize expenditures from the trust.” Sullivan said the committee’s workaround is to have the city create a special-revenue fund so donated money can be held beyond a fiscal year if the donor and finance department agree.
Sullivan said donors would set terms for spending and the city would accept the donation and implement those donor terms. “The person donating the money gets to determine entirely what the terms and conditions and process will be for spending that money,” he said. He added that the city manager would determine whether proposed expenditures fit the donor’s stated purpose.
Committee members emphasized trade-offs: a special-revenue fund can be set up quickly and makes donations tax-deductible, but each donation would require a separate Council acceptance and set of terms, rather than a single pooled trust. Sullivan described that disadvantage: “It has to be repeated for every single donation… it cannot operate the way a trust would have been able to.”
After discussion, the committee approved a motion to draft a proposal for a special-revenue fund and solicit a donor letter to serve as the template for terms the Council would accept. The committee will return the draft proposal to the group before formal submission to the City Council.
No changes to the existing ambassador trust fund — a separate trust not controlled by this committee — were made. Committee members noted that an existing mayoral line item and other legacy funds remain separate and governed by their original donor terms and trustees.
