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Davenport CAC recommends Year 50 CDBG allocation slate, sends package to City Council
Summary
At a March 3 meeting, the Davenport City Citizens Advisory Committee voted to recommend a Year 50 CDBG allocation plan — including $270,000 for public services and staff-approved non-public service lines — and authorized staff to make limited across-the-board adjustments if the HUD award differs from the estimate.
Davenport City’s Citizens Advisory Committee (CAC) on March 3 voted to recommend a Year 50 Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) allocation plan to City Council and approved a set of contingency rules for adjusting the slate if the final federal award differs from the estimate.
The CAC’s recommended package assumes an estimated entitlement of $1,641,373 and includes a public-services allocation of $270,000, with the remainder assigned to planning/administration, housing rehabilitation staffing and supplies, and an economic development fund. The committee also authorized staff to make across-the-board increases or cuts of up to 20 percent if the final HUD award differs from the estimate; changes larger than that would return to the CAC for further action.
Heather, a CDBG program staff member, summarized the scoring and allocation process the CAC used, telling members that applicants completed applications in December, presented in February and were scored by 12 CAC members. "CDBG funding comes to the city, but one of the requirements...is that we do a planning process," she said, and explained that the CAC’s numerical scoring is run through a formula that converts points to dollar shares.
Heather said the public-service category is capped by HUD and "we cannot award more than a total of 15% of our entitlement plus 15% of our estimated program income," and explained how the formula handles unawarded points (this year about $27,000 in unawarded dollars) by distributing them in ranked passes, then splitting any remaining cents evenly among applicants.
The CAC reviewed nine public-service applicants, including Project Renewal; Friendly House Youth Program; Family Resources (SafePath/Survival Resources); Humility of Mary (shelter and housing); Big Brothers Big Sisters (including a local QC affiliate); Vera French; Iowa Legal Aid; Salvation Army Family Service Center; and Common Cord (listed in the materials as "common cord"). Heather drew the committee’s attention to a tie between Humility of Mary and Big Brothers Big Sisters; the established tie-breaker favors the applicant with a higher score in the "maximize and leverage resources" category, which placed Humility of Mary ahead in the formula ranking.
A motion to shift $299 from Humility of Mary’s calculated award to Iowa Legal Aid was made and seconded; the motion failed on roll call. After discussing each applicant, the CAC voted by roll call to approve the public-service allocations as presented.
For the non-public-service lines, the committee voted to approve the planning and administration request and the housing-rehab staff and supplies request as presented (those two lines are handled by memo rather than scored application because they do not fit the standard scoring categories). The CAC then approved funding for the housing rehabilitation program fund and the economic development fund as shown on the staff-calculated spreadsheet. The committee also voted to allow the economic development staff to use up to $51,809 of program income toward staff costs in the upcoming year; staff noted that the $51,809 comes from program income rather than new HUD entitlement dollars.
At the end of the meeting, Heather told the CAC that City Council will consider the committee’s recommendations in March (the packet identifies the third and fourth Wednesdays of the month as the council cycle for these items). She also cautioned that Congress’ budget timeline could delay HUD’s grant announcement: "we have been told that we should not expect to receive our allocation amounts potentially until late May or early June... HUD then has 90 days after the budget is passed to give us our allocation amounts," which could push certainty later in the year. To address that uncertainty, the CAC authorized staff to make across-the-board adjustments of up to 20 percent if the actual entitlement differs from the estimate; changes larger than that must return to the CAC.
The CAC’s role is advisory; the committee’s votes forward a recommended allocation slate to Davenport City Council, which may accept or modify the recommendations when it reviews the package later in March. Members voting on the allocations used roll-call votes for each formal action.
