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Committee narrows eligibility and applies guardrails for Eastside grant program, votes to remove cash-match and require project completion safeguards
Summary
The committee approved amendments to the draft Eastside grants ordinance: applicants must be active and in good standing (reduced existence requirement to two years), both for-profit and nonprofit Florida corporations may apply, the cash-match requirement was deleted for many projects, scoring rules were established (minimum five scorers per funded
Jacksonville’s special committee on Eastside CBA grants approved multiple amendments to the draft ordinance that define who can apply for Eastside funds and how those funds will be allocated.
Key changes the committee approved include:
- Active status and good-standing requirement: The committee approved language requiring applicant organizations to be active and in good standing; recorded motion and voice vote passed to add this language to the ordinance.
- Organizational existence and documentation: The committee reduced a prior three-year existence threshold to two years and adjusted related documentation requirements (tax returns/audits) accordingly.
- For-profit and nonprofit eligibility: The ordinance will explicitly allow Florida corporations—both nonprofit and for-profit entities—to apply unless the council amends eligibility later.
- Cash match removed (subsection k): After extended debate about whether a dollar-for-dollar match was appropriate for capital projects and whether smaller organizations would be excluded, the committee voted to delete the cash-match sentence in subsection k. Staff and finance noted that capital awards and larger projects may still require different assurances and that the remaining disbursement rules will continue to apply.
- Capital payout protections: The committee added a requirement that capital allocations at or above $25,000 carry a restrictive covenant and that funds above that threshold will not be distributed until substantial completion of the project—intended to prevent partial funding of unfinished capital projects.
- Scoring participation: To ensure robust review of applications, the committee required that at least five board members score each funded category; board chairs will assign members to categories and ensure each assigned scorer completes reviews.
- Double-funding guardrails: The committee added the Public Service Grants (PSG) program to the ordinance’s list of city programs that would normally make an applicant ineligible for duplicate city funding absent a council waiver.
Staff (OGC and finance) will produce a red-lined ordinance reflecting these changes and prepare comparative charts of the opioid and PSG programs for the next meeting. Committee members asked staff to circulate the redline and materials to East Side stakeholders several days in advance of the next session.
