Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Child Advocacy Funding topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Council presses managing director on Support Center for Child Advocates funding and lack of performance measures
Summary
Council members criticized the budget presentation for listing $7 million in funding for child-advocacy contracts without accompanying strategic goals or performance measures; managing director's staff said some contracts are administered in partnership with other departments and agreed to provide goals on follow-up.
Several council members raised concern that the managing director's FY26 budget detail lists the citys contribution to the Support Center for Child Advocates and related legal-service contracts but does not include strategic goals or performance measures.
Council Member Katherine Gilmore Richardson and others said the absence of goals was troubling given the vulnerable population served. "We're spending $7,000,000 a year and yet we have no strategic goals and no performance measures," one council member said. Members requested clearer accountability and metrics for the programs funded by the managing director's office.
First Deputy Managing Director Tara Moore explained that some contracts are joint-funded or administered in collaboration with other departments, such as DHS, and can be displayed differently in the budget. She said the managing director's office would work with the relevant providers and DHS to produce strategic goals and FY25 performance metrics and to improve how the budget details those items.
Why it matters: The Support Center for Child Advocates provides legal representation for child victims of abuse and neglect. Council members argued that contracted providers receiving city funds should be held to measurable standards and that those measures should appear in the budget detail.
What’s next: The administration agreed to supply strategic goals and FY25 metrics for the Support Center for Child Advocates to the council and to work with the budget office to make future budget displays clearer.
