Council adopts Cultural Access Review Board recommendations, distributes roughly $385,000 in impact grants

The San Juan County Council on April 21 adopted Cultural Access Review Board (CARB) funding recommendations for the inaugural impact-grant cycle, approving staff’s proposal to award roughly $385,000 in proportional partial awards.

Parks & Fair Director Brandon Andrews explained the review board scored eligible nonprofit applications and recommended awarding each applicant the percentage of their request that matched their score. "So as you go down and you look at the percentage of points total, and what they asked for and what the proposed funding is, is their percentage of that amount," Andrews said, describing a method intended to make partial awards more objective and transparent.

Andrews told council one application was deemed ineligible and removed from consideration. He noted the program’s distribution rules: 20% of collections are set for schools, an additional 8% for school transportation, and up to 10% may be withheld for program administration per state rules. Council members praised the transparency of the percent-score approach and asked staff to provide the exact dollar amounts destined for schools and to issue a press release with award details.

A motion to adopt the review board’s recommendations was moved, seconded and approved on the record. Andrews said staff will send the finalized award amounts and a public communications plan to the clerk and that schools will report reimbursements and outcomes under the reimbursement-based process described in the grant guidelines.

What happens next: Staff will finalize award letters, publish a press release and provide detail on school allocations and reporting requirements.