CDBG committee asks members to finish social-service scores; staff clarifies two applications ineligible

The CDBG Allocation Committee opened its meeting and turned a social-service follow-up to staff member Rowan, who asked committee members to finish scoring the social-service applications by the end of the day Monday and explained two outstanding case files required follow-up.

Rowan said Greater Portland Family Promise submitted a written response but did not identify additional committed funding sources; for Maine Needs staff clarified proposed numbers and eligibility after reviewing which clients could be counted as presumed beneficiaries. "I feel comfortable moving forward with them," Rowan said about Maine Needs after clarifying the documentation.

Rowan reminded members applicants can request anonymized scorecards and that the committee’s comments appear on those scorecards. "Your names are removed from them, but they're able to take a look at your comments and scores," he said, urging reviewers to add helpful note text in the scorecard for applicants to understand why a score was low or high.

Staff also said two social-service applications were not forwarded to the committee because staff could not verify they served enough Portland residents to meet eligibility (one appeared to serve roughly 10–20% Portland residents and did not respond to clarifying outreach). Rowan said he attempted outreach and, without clarification, those applications were excluded from the committee review.

The committee discussed practicalities for completing scoring and next steps. Rowan said he had added a staff-scoring section directly into scorecards (applying either 5 or 2 priority points depending on staff assessment) and asked members to reach out if they had questions about scoring before the next meeting.

The committee will receive a finalized social-service section in the draft committee letter ahead of Thursday’s meeting once all member scores are submitted.