Lacey commissioners back staff's recommended approach for human services grants, delay rubric vote to April

LACEY, Wash. — City staff told the Human Services Commission on March 5 that the city budget includes $300,000 for the 2026 human services grant program and recommended what staff labeled Option 3: remove an administrative cap, keep a practical award ceiling around $30,000 and add points in the scoring rubric for direct service to Lacey residents.

"As you know, we had again 300,000 allocated for the 2026 year in the budget for the city of Lacy," said Michelle Chavez, the commission's human services coordinator, during a staff presentation recommending the changes.

The proposed changes aim to focus limited funds on narrower priority areas staff and commissioners identified through outreach: homelessness prevention, youth services and behavioral health. Chavez said the city's current policy allows awards up to $50,000 but that recent average awards have been roughly $30,000, which informed the staff recommendation to use that figure as a practical guide while avoiding a restrictive administrative cap.

Commissioners pressed staff for clarifications. Chavez reiterated that applicants must be nonprofit agencies and must serve Lacey residents to qualify, but service providers need not be headquartered inside the city. She added that capital projects paid for with grant dollars must be physically located in Lacey.

"If you're providing a service or a program your agency could be in Olympia," Chavez said, "providing a benefit to Lacey residents. But if you wanted to build something physical and use this grant, it would have to be located at least [in Lacey]."

Several commissioners emphasized child care and youth services as local priorities. Commissioner Tiffany Walker and others said the commission should ensure the rubric rewards programs that directly reach Lacey residents and produce measurable participant counts.

There was particular discussion of the rubric's section 1.9: commissioners proposed adding weight for the number of Lacey participants served and narrowing the program focus to the three priority areas without increasing the total available points in the rubric. Staff said the changes would simply reallocate points rather than expand the scale.

Commissioners stopped short of a final vote on rubric weighting. Chair Brandon Stevens and others agreed to postpone final approval to the April meeting so absent commissioners (Angelina Goldwell and Lester Dixon) could review and weigh in. Chavez will email the updated materials in advance.

What happens next: Staff will revise the policy language and the rubric per tonight's discussion and return to the commission in April for a final recommendation to the city council. City council approval is required to change the adopted grant policy and funding parameters.