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Tumwater staff recommend limiting number of Community Human Services awards to boost impact, ease contracting burden
Summary
City staff asked the council for guidance on whether to reduce the number of $15,000 community human services awards so each recipient receives a larger grant and staff and nonprofit contracting burdens shrink. Council members generally favored awarding fewer, larger grants and asked staff to review contracting requirements and application steps.
Finance Director Troy Naimauer told the Tumwater City Council on Feb. 11 that the city’s Community Human Services program distributes $15,000 each budget cycle and staff wants guidance on whether to reduce the number of awards to make each grant more impactful.
Naimauer said last year the program received nine applications and made eight awards, producing average payouts between about $1,666 and $1,875 per applicant depending on how the math is done. He said splitting a relatively small fund among many recipients creates a substantial administrative burden for staff and can be onerous for small nonprofits required to comply with the city’s contracting and insurance requirements.
“The idea we thought might make these awards more impactful was perhaps to limit the number of awards that are given out,” Finance Director Troy Naimauer said. “If it was three awards, that’s $5,000 a piece. Or if it’s four, that’s just under $4,000 a piece.”
City staff and council members discussed options ranging from three to five awards. Several council members said $3,750 (four awards) or $3,000 (five awards) would be more useful to small organizations than a large number of tiny awards.
“Those small amounts of money make a difference to smaller nonprofits,” Council member Kathy said. “I’d like to suggest that we give it to four. That’s $3,750 and that is significant.”
Council member Delbock urged staff to look at the application and contracting steps in parallel with any change in award count so that the process isn’t so burdensome for nonprofits. Staff member Lisa agreed, saying the contracting requirements — including commercial general liability or automobile insurance in some cases — discouraged at least one organization from accepting an award last cycle.
“It’s the contracting process and some of our basic contracting requirements that are pretty typical when we’re talking about dealing with consultants, but a little more difficult and somewhat cumbersome for nonprofits,” Lisa said.
Council members noted that the Budget and Finance Committee (a subset of the council) ultimately recommends awards and that the council can revisit funding levels as part of mid‑biennium budget reviews. Multiple speakers said the council could consider a budget amendment later in the biennium to increase the total pool from $15,000 toward a previously discussed target of $20,000.
Staff said they will open the application with language stating how many awards will be offered for the cycle if the council wants that clarity and will review contracting steps to reduce barriers for small nonprofits. No formal vote or amendment was made at the meeting; staff said they had enough direction to return with proposed application and contracting changes for the budget committee’s review.
Members of the council who spoke on the item included Council member Delbock, Council member Jefferson, Council member Kathy, Council member Von Holtz, Council member Swartha and others. Finance Director Troy Naimauer and staff member Lisa presented and answered questions.
