Montgomery County staff from the Office of Emergency Management and Homeland Security (OEMHS) and the Office of Grants Management (OGM) briefed the County Council’s Public Safety Work Session on Oct. 27 about the county’s Nonprofit Security Grant Program and recent administrative changes.

Ms. Cummings, briefing the committee on the packet, traced the county program’s roots to FY19 security funding following the Tree of Life tragedy and said the local program was formally established in FY21. She explained awardees may use grants to augment the cost of security personnel, security planning and training, security cameras, and — as of FY25 — a FUSUS core device. "Applicants can request up to $15,000 per facility," she said, noting the FY25 cap replaced a prior $20,000 cap.

Program funding was $900,000 originally in FY25 and increased to $1.2 million after a $300,000 appropriation, Ms. Cummings said. The packet shows most grantees used funds for security personnel (about 36%), followed by cameras (about 27%), and that 27 FY25 recipients were first‑time awardees. The office said organizations may apply for multiple facilities separately.

OGM director Rafael Puermelejo Murphy and OEMHS director Luke Hodgson described co‑administration of the grant program (OGM began co‑administering in FY23) and iterative process improvements to speed awards and reduce administrative burden. OGM staff said they work to help applicants resolve minor application errors within a brief window — typically two business days — while clearly ineligible applications (for example, organizations that do not meet statutory requirements) will not be cured through that window.

Deputy Director Nicole Markowski (OEMHS) described outreach to faith‑based and community organizations and emphasized technical assistance for applicants that do not write grants regularly. County staff told councilmembers they can produce a reconciliation of which grantee cameras are integrated with the county’s Moco Connect system, but that matching requires manual reconciliation and will be provided on request.

Committee members asked whether current eligibility language excludes legitimate requests; OGM and OEMHS said they work to resolve technical or document errors but will not change fundamental eligibility criteria. Staff also discussed lump‑sum agreements added to the process to give awardees flexibility if needs change between application and award.

Ending: Staff characterized the co‑administration as successful and iterative; OGM and OEMHS said they will continue outreach to increase awareness among eligible nonprofits and will return data, on request, reconciling camera awards with Moco Connect participation.