City council adopts Climate Action Partner Grant program; ECC to recommend awards after staff scoring

The Bend City Council adopted a resolution on June 4 to establish a Climate Action Partner Grant Program, city staff told the Environment and Climate Committee (ECC) at its June meeting. Cassie, a city staff member, said the next formal step is a June 18 council budget action to allocate $150,000 per year for the program.

The program, as described to the ECC, gives applicants two years to complete awarded projects and explicitly allows planning and scoping work, capital costs and subcontracting with private entities. Cassie said staff broadened the list of eligible uses from the earlier draft and adjusted scoring so that “project impact is the highest now,” with equity and accessibility also carrying substantial weight.

Why this matters: the grant program is intended to channel local funds to community projects that further the city’s Climate and Carbon Action Plan (CCAP). ECC members will review staff scoring and recommendations and advise the city manager on awards; the city manager will make final funding decisions.

How the awards will be decided: city staff will screen applications for eligibility, score them using the revised rubric and propose recommended awards and amounts. ECC members will deliberate and vote on recommendations to the city manager. Meaghan, a staff member, described the role of staff as providing a “starting point” for ECC deliberations: staff will score and recommend, and the committee may accept or change those recommendations in public session.

Key scoring and timeline details provided to the committee: - Project timeline: awardees will have two years to implement projects. - Eligible uses: planning/scoping activities, capital costs, subcontracting with private entities; the program is not restricted to only new programs. - Scoring allocation (documented in the staff memo): Project impact — 42 points; Equity and accessibility — 22 points; Organizational capacity, feasibility and alignment with CCAP goals — 12 points each. - Outreach and schedule: staff plan to open applications in late July, close in late September, and bring applications and recommendations to ECC for discussion in October; council budget adoption on June 18 is expected to make the $150,000 per year available on July 1.

Conflicts of interest and process safeguards: staff added a program-specific recusal rule beyond baseline ethics requirements. Because ECC will be making recommendations (not the final award), staff advised committee members to disclose potential conflicts and, if a direct financial interest exists (for example an applicant employs a member or a household relative), to recuse from deliberations and votes involving that applicant. Cassie said the city’s recommendation is to recuse for the entire meeting in which awards are considered if the conflict could affect allocation outcomes.

Public transparency: staff told the committee that staff scoring and supporting materials will be public records and that staff will present scores and application materials to the committee in an open meeting. Chris O’Brien, the city’s grants coordinator, attended the ECC meeting and was introduced as a staff resource who will help scale administration and scoring.

What remains unresolved: the ECC discussion flagged several items staff said they will clarify in program materials or in the RFP/administration design: exact grant award sizes, how many awards will be made, and operational details about how staff scoring will be presented (individual staff scores vs. aggregate scores) and how many applicants will be invited for Q&A at the ECC meeting.

Ending: staff plan to publish program materials, host information sessions after the application opens, and return with applications and scoring recommendations to ECC in October so the committee can finalize recommendations to the city manager.