Chair seeks council approval to finalize EPA grant partnership with Friends group

The chair opened a motion to approve a partnership agreement between the Friends of the wellness center group and Denison City for an EPA Community Change grant and reviewed changes to the draft in council members' packets. "The friends group had a meeting this morning ... and they were not comfortable with some of the language and being the primary applicant," the chair said, explaining the draft had listed the Friends as lead applicant and the city as the statutory applicant.

The chair said the Friends were concerned because the lead applicant role in the draft carried responsibilities such as overall project management, receipt and expenditure of federal funds, and complying with applicable grant regulations — tasks the chair said are properly the city's responsibility. The chair said the Friends may accept being the statutory applicant, pending counsel review, and that staff proposed edits to swap the lead and statutory applicant roles.

The revised draft would make the Friends' role primarily supportive, add a city hold-harmless and indemnification clause for the Friends, and allow the city to replace the Friends as statutory partner in writing if necessary, the chair said. The chair also noted language was changed to clarify the agreement "does not supersede any prior city authorized resolutions or agreements pertaining to non grant matters," addressing a concern from the Friends about prior council-approved engagements referenced in the packet.

The chair emphasized the timeline: "The grant submission deadline ... is due tomorrow at 10:59 PM," and said staff would work tonight and tomorrow to update the agreement and prepare the application if council agreed to proceed. The chair said the packet draft had been placed in members' inboxes the previous day and that the Friends planned to meet again after council action to consider becoming the statutory applicant.

Clarifying details in the transcript include an isolated reference to "3,000,000" without context; the transcript does not specify whether that figure refers to dollars or another unit or which agenda item it relates to. The transcript also references prior engagements with "Nova Grama" and a "new market tax credit" in relation to earlier council resolutions; the record does not specify additional details about those agreements in this meeting.

Next steps recorded: staff will take council direction back to the Friends group, continue drafting revisions with counsel as needed, and work to submit the grant application by the stated deadline. The transcript does not record a formal vote count or final disposition of the motion in the provided segments.