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City staff outlines nine‑phase community‑funding process; council chooses limited liaison role
Summary
Staff proposed a nine‑phase, measurable funding cycle for community organizations for FY2028 with a three‑year funding cap and mandatory impact reporting; council favored limiting members' role in direct evaluations and chose liaisons to receive recommendations rather than score applications.
Trey Burch presented a recommended framework for the community and regional organizations funding program for fiscal year 2028, built around three principles: accountability, transparency and strategic alignment. He proposed nine phases for the cycle—goal setting, advertising and outreach, an application window, staff completeness checks, evaluation and scoring, recommendation and feedback, budget adoption and award notification, impact reporting, and iterative debriefing.
Key policy guardrails included a three‑year consecutive funding cap for organizations, an annual application requirement, mandatory impact reports, limits on the number of previously funded organizations in each cycle and measurable program goals to allow apples‑to‑apples comparisons during scoring.
Burch offered two options for council involvement in evaluation: Option A would seat one or two council members on the evaluation team that scores applications; Option B would have council set the priorities and weights and appoint liaisons who receive recommendations but do not participate directly in scoring. Council expressed concern about perceived conflicts of interest and the appearance of impropriety if members sat on the evaluation team. City attorney and staff said the full council would still approve awards as part of the budget adoption process, but the evaluation team could be staffed by city staff and non‑voting liaisons.
After discussion, council indicated a preference for Option B and appointed two liaisons (Councilwoman Thomas volunteered and Councilwoman Bryant was named) to work with staff and report back to the full council. Staff will finalize evaluation criteria, a standardized application packet and an outreach plan; final awards will be incorporated into the manager’s proposed budget and presented for formal adoption.
Burch said the process is intended to balance support for proven organizations with opportunities for new entrants and to require measurable outcomes so the city can track program impact.
