County staff ask commissioners to fund additional grants staff and contracted services to pursue federal and state grants

Missoula County's Grants and Community Resources (GCR) staff presented a suite of budget enhancement requests aimed at retaining an existing grants administrator position and adding new full-time equivalents to create an internal grant services function and expand federal/state grant administration capacity.

Staff said the top priority is to retain an existing grants administrator; the request was described as a FY26 ongoing personnel cost of $98,360 that would move the position from ARPA funding into the county's base budget. A second request would create an "internal grant services" division position to provide centralized grant support to county departments; staff said that FY26 request had a stated start date of Oct. 1, 2025, but the exact FY26 dollar figure in the recorded remarks was not clearly specified in the transcript. A third request seeks a federal-and-state grants administrator position, which staff presented as $49,330 for FY26 and said the ongoing annual cost would be $98,360 beyond 2026.

GCR staff explained deliverables for the requested positions: manage a competitive annual application process for roughly $1.2 million in county funds; oversee contracts and projects funded through the substance-abuse prevention mill levy, alcohol-tax fund and mental-health fund; create a countywide grant inventory and a public-facing grant dashboard; and pursue specific federal and state grant opportunities that staff estimated could total $2.5 million (CDBG and EPA Brownfields opportunities). Staff said many grants include administrative-cost allowances that can offset personnel costs (for example, CDBG allows up to 10% for administration and EPA Brownfields typically allows 8'10%).

Staff described the internal grant-services position as revenue-generating in the long term and said the role would help other county departments prepare stronger competitive applications. The federal-and-state grants position was presented as necessary to pursue Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) public-facilities grants (examples given: up to $1.5 million for two public-facilities grants, up to $500,000 for housing rehab programs, $50,000 for planning grants) and an EPA Brownfields grant (up to $500,000). Staff said some personnel costs could be offset by grant administrative funds and estimated up to $602,000 in offsetting grant admin funding available between FY26 and FY28 for the federal/state work.

Commissioners and county staff discussed prioritization: retaining the existing position was the highest priority, followed by freeing up current staff time so the internal grant-services role can focus on countywide support. No formal vote or appropriation occurred at the presentation; the items were budget enhancement requests to be considered through the county's budget process.

Ending: Staff asked commissioners to consider the requests during budget deliberations and emphasized the role of additional grant staff in managing audit risk and maintaining competitiveness for external funds.