Contract Review Committee finalizes FY26 human services contracts, plans Sept. 12 award presentation

The Contract Review Committee of Nantucket County on May 30 discussed finalizing fiscal year 2026 human services grant agreements and agreed to a public award presentation on Friday, Sept. 12, 2025.

Committee Chair Veronica Bolger, chair of the Contract Review Committee, said the panel wanted to increase public awareness of the grants by holding a formal award presentation and publicity around the recipients. “We discussed doing an award presentation as part of our efforts to, basically announce and, you know, better public relations and just awareness of what we do and what the town does,” Bolger said.

Jericho Veil, administrative staff, told the committee the grant agreements should be completed by the coming Monday and asked whether the committee wanted input on quarterly reporting terms. “The grant agreements for fiscal year 26 should be done, if not but probably not today, but by Monday. I’ve got about I think I’m through all of the human services grants,” Veil said. He said he would circulate reporting terms and welcomed committee feedback before the next meeting.

The committee discussed specificity in contract language for program purposes. Veil said where proposals included multiple service lines the contracts typically separate use cases and allocate funds accordingly, citing past practice that split interfaith council awards by food, fuel and rental, utility relief and overnight shelter. “If there’s multiple parts to the program, that’s when I would add so, like, for example, we had, for last year’s interfaith council, we had one for food, fuel, and rental, one for utility relief, and one for overnight shelter,” Veil said.

Members asked for earlier circulation of reporting terms so they could suggest specific quarterly metrics. Bolger asked staff to provide an outline of proposed reporting items before the committee’s next meeting so members could review and send suggested changes in advance.

Veil also outlined an effort to make reporting data machine-readable. He said the town currently receives many PDF reports and invoices that are hard to analyze and that staff will try to collect data as spreadsheets or through web forms to support analysis. “What I’m gonna try and do now is try and collect that data either as an Excel spreadsheet, as an online web form, something that I can then use to start building out use amounts of use and then try and figure out if there are ways we can use that to determine needs or to determine where we have gaps,” Veil said.

Committee members approved the agenda and minutes by roll call during the meeting and agreed to send a save-the-date for the award presentation on Sept. 12. Staff will prepare contract language that specifies allowable uses where applicants proposed multiple service lines; the committee asked to review reporting terms in draft before they are finalized.

The committee’s next regular activities on human services grants include applicant interviews for other grant tracks on June 6 and deliberations expected June 27; committee members asked that reporting terms be circulated before the June 6 meeting to allow time for feedback.

The discussion did not include award amounts or specific contract language; those details were described as in preparation and to be circulated by staff.