Fort Lauderdale officials debate role of Budget Advisory Board in vetting nonprofit funding

Fort Lauderdale city commissioners and members of the Budget Advisory Board (BAB) met April 15 to discuss whether the BAB should continue its role in scoring and recommending nonprofit grant recipients and to request direction on how the city should organize nonprofit funding going forward.

The issue matters because city staff said the general fund operating budget is about $450,000,000 and current annual allocations to nonprofits total roughly $2,600,000, shrinking the pool of discretionary support as personnel and other costs rise. The BAB said past public scoring drew dozens of applications and significant staff time; some commissioners said the process lacked clarity for applicants and sometimes produced recommendations that did not align with commission priorities.

Bill Brown, chair of the Budget Advisory Board, told the commission that in a prior cycle the BAB received about 72 applications, used a scoring matrix to narrow the list and spent multiple nights reviewing proposals. Brown said some board members now question the value of repeating that labor-intensive process if the commission does not adopt the board’s recommendations.…