Committee moves community-grants changes and weighs $1.5M nonprofit resiliency program

The Government Operations and Fiscal Policy Committee examined proposed FY27 changes to the Community Grants nondiscretionary account and discussed a new nonprofit federal resiliency grant funded in the executive's recommendation. Ms. Clemens Johnson, council staff, said the county executive recommended a $301,283 (2.25%) increase in the Community Grants NDA and included $1.5 million in programmatic additions, highlighted by a proposed nonprofit federal resiliency grant to help organizations that may lose federal funding.

"The recommendation includes $1,500,000 in programmatic additions that the committee should consider," Ms. Clemens Johnson said, and staff flagged one item to the reconciliation list per council president guidance. OGM Director Rafael Murphy told the committee the original NOFO attracted 21 applications but that many applicants were partially or fully ineligible because they could not demonstrate the federal funding loss required by the initial rules. "Many of the applicants could not demonstrate that they had federal funding or that their federal funding had been impacted," Murphy said, adding that OGM planned to send award recommendations to the CAO and to consider a revised NOFO that would allow projected (rather than only demonstrated) losses.

Council staff presented two options for the committee: concur with the executive and fund the full $1.5 million, or reduce the allocation to $1.0 million in order to maintain consistency with other nonprofit program funding levels. Committee members discussed the trade-offs; Chair Stewart directed that, consistent with council president guidance, the $1.5 million allocation be placed on the reconciliation list and that the committee accept the suite of proposed reductions to legacy and other community grants. Those reductions include a recommended $504,834 decrease reflecting 10 legacy renewal awards not being continued into FY27; staff said affected recipients received notice in March and were given options to engage in the council process.

Director Murphy said OGM remained in active review of non-priority-deadline applications and that, depending on CAO recommendations, OGM might reopen the application or otherwise allocate unused funds. He also noted that a supplemental $750,000 strategic-planning grant (CFY26) had drawn $3,000,000 in applications and that recommendations were with the CAO.

The committee directed staff to carry the reconciliation-list placement to full council and to document the award status and outstanding questions in the full-council packet.