Grants Review Committee

City of Takoma Park, Maryland GRANTS REVIEW COMMITTEE MINUTES DATE: Tuesday, September 6, 2022 TIME: 6:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. LOCATION: Zoom Virtual Meeting: GRC meeting Tuesday, September 6 · 6:30 – 8:00pm https://meet.google.com/ybh-huap-peu A. Call to Order and Welcome GRC Attendees: Susan Rosenblum, Mike Schoenke, Lucy Moore, Jim Sebastian. HCD Staff: Makena Kirkham, David Eubanks. Note: Note: there was no quorum. HCD staff provided updates and we did not vote on any matters pertaining to the agenda. ● Meeting Notes opened, (Mike took notes) ● Adoption of Minutes (May 3, 2022) (deferred; no quorum) ● Adoption of Amended Minutes (April 20, 2022) (deferred; no quorum) B. GRC Administration ● “Getting to Know You” - HCD staff and GRC members introduce themselves (Deferred) ● Staff Update - Housing & Community Development (HCD) Transition (Makena, David) - David Eubanks gave an update on the position for Grants Coordinator(previously held by Jennifer Hale). The plan is to hire a full-time Grants Coordinator in FY24. A full-time person is needed to administer not only Community Quality of Life Grants but other grant programs and grants the City applies for and receives from other sources. Funding the full-time position requires Council’s approval. City plans to hire a contractor to do this work through June 30, 2023. Hopefully, the City will have a contractor on board by October or November. Until then, Makena will continue as GRC’s point of contact. If GRC members know someone who is a good grants administrator, please encourage them to apply, once the City issues an announcement for the position.  City of Takoma Park, Maryland GRANTS REVIEW COMMITTEE MINUTES ● Status of FY23 Contracts (Makena) - Makena reported that contracts for all FY23 grantees are done and under review by the City attorney. Once he signs off on them, they become official. Grantees officially started their programs on July 1, 2022. ● Use of Unspent funds from Emma’s Torch FY23 - Because Emma’s Torch withdrew from the FY23 grant period, HCD proposes using unspent funds to cover Elite Soccer Youth Development Academy (ESYDA) outstanding FY22 invoices. While ESYDA submitted invoices, they cannot be processed until they do the FY22 site visit. On Friday July 15, ESYDA contacted Makena to say that GRC staff could come on Monday July 18 at 6 pm to do a site visit. With no advance notice, GRC members were not available for that time.Since ESYDA's invoices were not entered into the City's system by Tuesday 7/26, they forfeited those funds. Despite several attempts by HCD to ask ESYDA to schedule the required FY 22 site visit, this did not happen. In response to HCD’s request, ESYDA sent a written explanation on August 10 for not doing the required site visit. ESYDA cited staff turnover at HCD and timing of site visit as reasons for the delay. Makena and David followed up with ESYDA and asked for a more detailed explanation of the delay. ESYDA has not yet responded. Makena and David plan to talk with them on September 7. ESYDA does important work with youth, but HCD needs assurance that the grantee has administrative capacity to carry out the FY23 grant. ● Proposed FY24 Grant Calendar (Deferred discussion until next meeting.) Mark raised a question about HCD’s outreach to nonprofits that may not know about the grant opportunity. C. Site Visits ● Suggested Process for Scheduling FY23 Site Visits (Makena) Timing and scheduling site visits - Many grantees usually invite GRC to do the site visit at the end of the year or at a special event. This piles up the site visits and is not convenient for GRC members. Makena will email GRC members to find out which months we are most available to do visits. We should plan to do two site visits per grantee. This allows us to see the program in action before the year-end event. David asked if there was a requirement that two GRC members do each site visit. Susan said that we did not have that requirement, but having two members ensures more than one perspective. E.S.Y.D.A (Makena) - ESYDA suggested three dates in September for a site visit. Makena will let us know the outcome of HCD’s conversation with ESYDA before scheduling the visit.  City of Takoma Park, Maryland GRANTS REVIEW COMMITTEE MINUTES o Thursday, September 15th 3:30pm-4:30pm o Tuesday, September 20th 3:30pm-4:30pm o Thursday, September 22nd 3:30pm-4:30pm D. Other Site Visit Reports (Deferred) ● Ethiopian Community Center (Nadine and Keli) ● Cyberninjaz (Mark and Derek) E. Status of FY22 Final Reports The due date for FY22 final grantee reports was July 15, 2022. Makena said that all grantees submitted them. Susan suggested that Makena upload the Final Reports to the FY22 GRC Dashboard. This will be helpful as we visit returning grantees and prepare our FY22 Report to Council on grantees’ outcomes. E. Adjourn.