CITY COUNCIL AGENDA ITEM
ACTION REQUESTED:
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Approve the proposed CY2022 SECA Grant Fund Program allocations
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DEPARTMENT: Community Services
SUBMITTED BY: Dawn Portner, Special Events Coordinator
BOARD/COMMISSION REVIEW:
The SECA Commission met on Saturday, November 13 to receive applicant comments and ask any outstanding questions regarding the application. On Wednesday, December 1, 2021 the SECA Commission met and reached a unified consensus on CY2022 award allocations.
BACKGROUND:
Each year, $1.9M from the City’s Food and Beverage Tax revenue is allocated to the SECA Grant Fund Program. Much of that allocation is dedicated to commitments that must be funded in accordance with an ordinance, resolution, Intergovernmental Agreement, or in support of fund administration. These are non-discretionary and categorized as City Obligations.
At its August 17, 2021 meeting, the City Council approved $1,123,717 for the CY2022 City Obligations (File 21-1021). The remaining balance, plus 2021 underspend from events impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, was made available to the SECA Commission for a total of $964,317 to be allocated in discretionary funding.
DISCUSSION:
Application review
The SECA Commission reads all grant applications, hosts meetings with applicants, and ultimately reaches consensus on a unified funding recommendation. The City Council is then asked to review the allocations and make individual funding recommendations. This year, the City Council received all applications and the SECA Commission on January 5, 2022 with a due date of January 19, 2022.
Once all Council recommendations are received, staff compiles them to determine where there is consensus. As is practice, the only awards that are pulled for discussion are those where councilmembers do not reach consensus with the SECA Commission allocation.
For CY2022, a consensus of councilmembers concurred with all but one of the SECA Commission funding recommendations, Pride Fest - Operations in the amount of $69,155.
Staff Recommendation for CY2022 SECA Grant Fund Program Allocations
For the item that the City Council did not concur with the SECA Commission, staff applied the methodology used for the Social Services Grant Program and calculated an average of City Council funding submissions and recommends a new award of $47,533 for Pride Fest - Operations.
Approving the $47,533 will leave a CY2022 SECA Grant Fund Program balance of $21,622. Staff applied the following criteria to distribute the balance:
1. Limit any proposed award increase to events/projects where the City Council concurred with the SECA Commission
2. Propose an increase to only events/projects that the SECA Commission would have allocated a larger award had the funds been available
3. Invest in capital items
4. Fully fund City Services for all parades
After evaluating the applications against the criteria, staff recommends the balance of $21,622 be distributed among three capital projects and two parades as shown below:
FISCAL IMPACT:
$964,317 from the annual Food and Beverage Tax revenue will be allocated to the CY22 SECA Grant Fund Program recipients.