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Commissioners direct staff to exit HOME consortium with City of Sarasota and prepare county to administer future funds
Summary
After discussing options, the board directed staff to pursue option 3: disband the existing HOME consortium led by the City of Sarasota and prepare Sarasota County to receive and administer future HUD HOME allocations; commissioners asked to leave previously awarded funds with the city while staff prepares MOU/transition steps.
The Sarasota County commission voted June 4 to pursue exiting the long-standing HOME consortium with the City of Sarasota and to prepare the county to serve as lead entity for future HOME program allocations.
Steve Hyde told commissioners the consortium—operating under an interlocal agreement since 1991 and with the current agreement in place since 2001—brings roughly $800,000 per program year to the county. He also said there is about $8,000,000 of previously awarded but unexpended HOME funds still held by the City of Sarasota. “It is a little over $8,000,000 of funds that have been awarded to the consortium with the City of Sarasota,” Hyde said.
Staff outlined three options—no change, swap the lead entity to the county, or exit the consortium. Commissioners favored a clean break that allows county administration of future HOME funding and instructed staff to notify HUD and the City of Sarasota and to pursue administrative steps required to effect the change, with a mid-June notification deadline to HUD noted by staff.
Commissioners also discussed risks of transitioning older, unexpended funds and supported working with the city to leave currently awarded funds in place while the county sets up its administration procedures. The board authorized the county administrator to take necessary administrative steps and voted unanimously to proceed with Option 3.
Next steps: staff will send required notifications to HUD and the city, draft any memorandum of understanding needed for currently awarded funds, and bring an updated county action plan and program administration materials to the board for adoption.
