Council hears federal advocacy briefing from The Ferguson Group

The council received a presentation from The Ferguson Group on federal advocacy, grant strategies and how the firm would support the city’s federal engagement.

Jennifer Imo, managing partner of advocacy at The Ferguson Group, described the firm’s legislative, regulatory and funding work on behalf of local governments and said the firm has a grants team and federal advocacy practice that can assist the city with appropriations, competitive grants and earmark requests. “We’ve helped our clients secure $6,500,000,000 in federal funding,” Imo said, and she noted that since earmarks returned in 2022 the firm has assisted clients in securing additional congressionally directed spending.

Imo described three primary service areas — legislative monitoring and engagement, regulatory comment and intervention, and funding assistance — and said the firm would work with city staff to develop a 2026 federal agenda and to identify projects for potential appropriations requests. She also said the firm will provide regular reporting and can help coordinate hill meetings, talking points and leave-behinds when city officials meet members of Congress.

Councilors asked about the scope and cadence of engagement with the federal delegation and whether the city had adequate grant-writing capacity; Imo said the firm can benchmark the city’s federal grant performance against peers and provide grant-writing or grant-administration services under separate task orders if requested.

There was no formal council action tied to the presentation; staff said follow-up meetings would produce a draft federal agenda for council review.