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Bend committee praises Climate Action Partner grants but debates partial-funding, transparency and conflict rules
Summary
City staff confirmed all Climate Action Partner awardees accepted grants and are finalizing agreements. Committee members recommended sharing scoring matrices, limiting partial funding, and asking council to revisit recusal rules after several members were conflicted out of votes.
City staff confirmed that all Climate Action Partner Grant awardees have accepted funding and that grant agreements are being finalized, with signatures expected within weeks. "We notified all the awardees. Everyone accepted their awards," a staff member said during the committee meeting.
Committee members welcomed the speed and quality of applications but debated whether the city should continue allowing partial funding. Several members said partial awards complicated implementation and recommending clearer guidance for applicants. "Regularly doing that makes it harder to apply for projects," one committee member warned, arguing partial funding can encourage applicants to add removable elements to be trimmed later.
Members suggested practical improvements to increase transparency. Multiple participants urged staff to provide the scoring matrix used to evaluate applications so committee members and applicants can understand how points were assigned. "Sharing the scoring matrix could help with some transparency," a committee member said.
The committee also discussed conflicts of interest and the operational effect of recusals: five members were recused from parts of the grant review because of broad language pulled from state law. Staff said council could revisit the resolution that governs recusals to narrow the definition of conflicts and allow the council to make final funding decisions in cases where committee expertise would otherwise be lost.
Staff noted the grant program’s initial budget of $150,000 and said demand exceeded supply: applicants requested roughly $832,000 in total, underlining interest in future rounds and prompting members to suggest private partnerships and other funding sources.
Next steps: staff plans further process planning in early summer to refine eligibility, clarify acceptable Climate and Community Action Plan (CCAP) actions, consider setting maximum request amounts, and run a short working group or additional committee meeting focused on scoring and process improvements. Any changes to recusal rules would require a council resolution.
