The Davenport City Citizens Advisory Committee on Nov. 3 reviewed the draft Year '52 Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) application and evaluation criteria and set a timeline for the winter allocation process.

Heather, a city staff member overseeing the CDBG program, told the committee the city solicited public input over the summer and that the local objectives recommended by the CAC will go to the City Council at its committee-of-the-whole meeting the following day. “We did public input, and we brought that information back to you here last month,” Heather said.

The discussion centered on the structure of the application and the scoring matrix. Heather described which elements are federally required and which have been added over time by the CAC, and she said members will have one more week to submit suggested edits before staff finalizes the application for the workshop. “We'll have the conversation here today, but you'll have another week to think about it,” Heather said.

Members asked staff to add administrative clarity and stronger outcome reporting fields. Member Johnson asked that the application record which individual completed it and pressed for a larger, more detailed “proposed outcomes and measuring that outcome” section so evaluators can assess measurable impacts. “To me…it’s the most important part,” Johnson said of the outcomes section.

Staff said the application workshop will be held the week after Thanksgiving as an online session; applicants will have about one month after the workshop to submit materials. The timeline staff outlined: distribute applications in January, an optional scoring workshop mid-January, presentations in February (with meetings shifted one week to Feb. 9 because of staff availability), and the allocation meeting in March.

Heather also reviewed subrecipient outreach: the office maintains a list of nonprofits that have expressed interest and will invite them before the workshop. She noted several recent new subrecipients, including Common Cord and Iowa Legal Aid, and cautioned that federal funding imposes administrative requirements that not all nonprofits can meet.

On audit compliance, Heather reminded members that subrecipients’ audits are due within six months of their fiscal year end (commonly Dec. 31) and that the CAC’s long-standing policy requires any request for an audit extension to be filed by Nov. 1. “In this case, this year, we did not receive any extension requests,” Heather said; staff said noncompliant subrecipients would be ineligible to apply for next year’s funding.

Staff said packet dates and examples will be updated before the application is posted and that more substantive format changes can be made in future cycles if members request them.

The CAC asked members to promote the application workshop through their networks. The committee does not require attendance at the online workshop for CAC members, but staff encouraged participation, especially from members who can help recruit eligible applicants.