Syracuse City research bureau outlines grants tracking, staffing and records-management needs

Janet Burke, director of research for Syracuse City, told councilors the Bureau of Research now handles both grant writing and grants management for city departments and provides quarterly updates to the city clerk and council.

"The Bureau of Research is kind of a multifaceted place. We, write grants, we manage grants, we do projects on behalf of the mayor's office, and we are kind of the, information keeper for many of the departments here in the city," Burke said. "Our primary goal our primary, point is writing grants and managing grants."

Burke said the office has shifted more toward managing grants than originating them and that the bureau tracks every grant that appears on the Common Council agenda on an internal spreadsheet. "I have sent you every quarter a list of the updated grants," she said, adding that the list is sent to the city clerk and, she assumed, to councilors.

Councilors and other meeting participants asked how the bureau handles reporting and staffing. Burke said the person who helps write a grant generally follows that grant through reporting and fiscal oversight, but when workloads exceed staff capacity others in the department sometimes take over. She told the council the bureau has six positions and that those positions are filled.

Burke explained a recent staff reduction was the result of a grant-funded role ending: a CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) grant that supported a project manager concluded and the related position was not continued once the grant closed. "That was the CDC grant that has ended. That was reimbursed by a grant. So that grant ended," she said.

On technology and records, Burke said the bureau still uses spreadsheets to track grants and has evaluated commercial grants-management software but lacks budget funding for a system. She described the city's records inventory: several thousand boxed records previously stored at City Hall Commons have been relocated and the bureau records the contents of each box along with retention and destruction dates according to the state schedule for records retention. "We keep track of every box, what's in the box, the date of destruction, the date that we took it into, into our inventory and we filed the state the state schedule as far as how long we need to keep them," she said.

Burke said the bureau also sometimes partners with outside organizations on grant applications, naming Syracuse University and the Salvation Army as examples. She praised a contract grant writer identified only as Sarah for stepping in to manage a grant when the grant manager left for a different position.

Councilors asked whether the city should budget for a dedicated grants position. Burke said a single person to scan grant opportunities and coordinate cross-department projects would be useful, and described two staffing options: a lower-level position to search and alert departments to opportunities, or a higher-level position able to coordinate multi-department strategies.

There was no formal vote or motion recorded on staffing, software purchases or other actions during the presentation. The exchange closed with councilors thanking Burke for the update.