The committee considered multiple consent and small-business-obligation (SBO) items related to grants and program funding.

Skyler Brown described a pass-through grant from the Association of Washington Cities and Commerce for $272,292 to cover required energy audits for city facilities; the grant covers 100% of audit costs though the full contract includes administrative fees. Brown said incentives available after the audit could recover substantial additional funds and that net city cost could be low after incentive programs.

Staff also proposed reallocating remaining ARPA funds to cover administrative costs associated with ARPA program delivery. The administration said the grants analyst and accounting staff who have run the ARPA program have been underfunded for administration expenses and suggested moving approximately $220,000 of leftover ARPA to administration to cover average annual admin costs and avoid future budget gaps.

Jason Oconoske discussed apprenticeship-program penalty funds totaling roughly $100,000 identified as available for pre-apprenticeship grants. Staff proposed increasing the per-entity cap from $2,500 to $10,000 to support more robust pre-apprenticeship programming and to require evidence of program impact.

Council members asked questions about administration costs, incentive recoveries, and the scope of allowable ARPA administrative uses. Staff said legal review concluded the reallocation is allowable and currently administrative allocations to the city would remain small (about 1% of total ARPA remaining in the city's administration). No votes were taken in committee.