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Council adopts community improvement fund policy to guide donated-project decisions
Summary
Council approved policy setting eligibility, review, and approval thresholds for projects funded by the newly formed Augusta Community Foundation; staff will use a $10,000 threshold for administrative approvals and route larger proposals to council.
The Augusta City Council adopted a policy on April 7, 2025, to govern how donated funds received via the Augusta Community Foundation will be evaluated and used for community improvement projects.
City staff proposed a standardized submission form for project ideas, a staff-level review process to check feasibility and planning compliance, and a decision threshold below which the city manager may approve projects administratively. The draft policy uses $10,000 as the administrative threshold: projects estimated at $10,000 or less may be approved and managed by staff; projects exceeding that amount would require formal council approval before the foundation issues funds.
Staff emphasized that the community foundation (a local advisory body working with the Central Kansas Community Foundation) will be the custodian of donated funds and will issue distributions to the city only after the city approves eligible projects. Shauna, who worked directly with the foundation and staff, said Central Kansas Community Foundation representatives reviewed the draft and had no objections to the proposed process. “They approved of it,” Shauna said when summarizing the foundation’s response.
Council members discussed practical examples, including benches and playground equipment, and asked how ongoing maintenance and budget impacts would be handled. Staff said small ancillary costs (for example, a concrete pad for a donated bench) could ordinarily be covered through existing departmental maintenance budgets but that major, ongoing maintenance obligations would be highlighted in the staff review and would be part of council’s decision-making for larger projects.
Council voted to adopt the policy; staff said it will be used as the operating guide for submissions and the foundation’s distribution requests going forward.
