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Durham approves contract to reconcile federal housing and community grants
Summary
As part of the consent agenda the City Council approved a contract to hire Corporate Facts to reconcile Community Development Block Grant, Emergency Solutions Grant and HOPWA allocations with federal records and the city's ledger; staff said the work is technical and needed to meet HUD reporting requirements.
Durham City Council voted to include a contract with Corporate Facts on the consent agenda to reconcile records for three federal entitlement programs: Community Development Block Grant (CDBG), Emergency Solutions Grant (ESG) and Housing Opportunities for Persons With AIDS (HOPWA).
City staff said the contract will align the federal reporting in IDIS (HUD's online grants system) with the city general ledger to ensure the balances match and federal reporting deadlines are met.
Reginald J. Johnson, director of the city's Community Development Department, told council the work is largely technical and accounting-focused. "The purpose of this item is to engage [Corporate Facts] to help us with some reconciliation of three of our entitlements," Johnson said, adding that HOME had already been reconciled. He explained the task requires precision between the IDIS federal "checkbook" and the city's general ledger and noted the department has been working internally but needs outside expertise on technical regulatory aspects.
Council members asked whether the city has the internal staffing capacity to do this work in future years and whether administrative portions of the grants were already being used to cover staff salaries. Johnson said the department uses administrative allocations to defray some staffing costs and other minor administrative expenses, and executives explained staffing shortages during and after COVID contributed to the need for outside assistance. The city manager's office told council that the contract will be paid from Community Development's operating budget under special contractual services funds.
The contract was approved as part of the council's consent agenda during a motion to "settle the agenda," which passed with the council voting in favor. The transcript does not record a separate roll-call vote on the individual contract.
Council members said they expect the department to build internal capacity over time so the city can avoid recurring consultant costs for routine reconciliations.
A note on scope and authority: staff repeatedly referenced HUD and the IDIS system as the federal reporting mechanism; council members and staff referenced HOPWA, ESG, CDBG and HOME specifically when describing which entitlements would be reconciled.
The council moved on to other agenda presentations after the consent action.
Ending: Staff said they will return to regular reporting channels and that the reconciliation work is intended to bring the accounts and federal records into exact alignment so future reporting to HUD can be made on time.
