Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Public Health Grants topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Supervisors press DPH on retroactive grant approvals; department says explanations were submitted but clerk wasn't CC'd
Summary
Board members on Feb. 23 publicly questioned why five accept-and-expand grant resolutions from the Department of Public Health appeared on the board—s agenda retroactively without the written explanations the clerk—s office expects for such items.
San Francisco supervisors pressed the Department of Public Health on Feb. 23 for written explanations after five retroactive grant acceptance and expand resolutions were placed on the board—s agenda.
Supervisor Aaron Peskin moved to continue items 10, 12, 13, 14 and 15 one week so DPH could provide additional documentation for the public record. "I find this to not be responsive. I find it to not be good public policy," Peskin said on the record after the clerk—s office reported that the department had not provided the clerk with explanatory materials for four of the five items.
DPH staff told the board that explanation documents had been prepared and submitted but were sent only to the budget-and-finance committee clerk, not to the clerk of the full board. "Unfortunately, we did not CC the clerk of the board on these emails, but they were all submitted," said Bridal Fleischer of DPH. Fleischer said the department would forward the documents immediately and add them to the legislative file.
The five items included acceptance and expansion of federal or philanthropic funds for public-health activities: an NIH increase tied to an evaluation project; a $200,000 monetary gift from the Joan Kelly Bequest to support Laguna Honda programs; a CDC/ELC CARES grant award passed through a partner; a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation grant to evaluate a street-crisis response team; and a $3 million state Department of Public Health award for a home-visiting program. On the record, DPH said timing and multi-year grant accounting explain why the items required retroactive approval.
Why it matters: Grant acceptances that are retroactive trigger questions about transparency and fiscal control. Supervisors said the board—s role includes safeguarding public funds by ensuring departments provide clear public explanations when action is requested after a grant has already begun.
What happened next: Supervisor Peskin withdrew his continuance motion after DPH staff provided to some supervisors a copy of the email with explanations and committed to forwarding the material to the clerk. The board then adopted the resolutions unanimously.
Ending: DPH committed to forward the materials and to work with the clerk—s office to avoid future communications gaps. Several supervisors urged a standard operating procedure requiring departments to include the clerk on grant-explanation communications when seeking retroactive acceptance.
