05-28-1996 Council Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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COUNCIL MEET1NQ MAY 2 8 1996 REQUEST FOR COUNCIL ACTION OTYOFOnONO DATE: May 20. 1996 ITEM NO:N Department Approval: Name Title Item lOescription: Administrator Reviewed:Agenda Section: 1997-99 Urban Hennepin County Joint Cooperation Agreement (CDBG) As part of the city ’s participation in the CDBG program the city approves a Joint Cooperation Agreement with Hennepin County, who administers the grant program. Currently, the Community Development BU>ck Grant (CDBG) program and Joint Cooperation Agreement provide a specific allocation of funds to small cities based on their needs determined through a formula. As part of the County’s review of the functioning of the CDBG program, it has changed the method of allocating CDBG funds to small cities. The change is that rather than automatically allocating funds to each city according to a formula, all of the funds that would be available to the group of small cities will be pooled and made available to individual cities through a competitive grant process. A list of the cities included in a consolidated pool for a competitive grant process is attached. The impact on Orono is that rather than being guaranteed a grant of appro.ximately $22,000, Orono will compete with a group of 27 cities for a pool of appro.ximately $329,000 of grant funds. The County objective in making this change is to provide for a more effective use of the CDBG funds. Currently the cities in the pool group receive in the range of $800 to $27,000 as their CDBG allocation. These amounts do not go ver> far in terms of having an impact on housing needs. The pooling process would enable cities to plan more significant projects that meet key needs in the community that could not be met, or at least could not be met effectively, in small increments. Because the cities will no longer receive individual allocations which enable individual funding of human serv ices organizations. 15 of the total amount of pooled funds will be set aside for human services. Because this is the level at which Orono funds human services from its grant amount, it is not anticipated that there would be a significant change in funding for the human services oreanizations that are currently funded by Orono. The decision process regarding allocation of the pooled funds, including allocations to human services organizations, will involve representatives of cities working with county staff to develop review criteria and then serve on a review committee to make funding recommendations. It is important that the grant review criteria enable a focus on the specific areas of need in each community, rather than focusing on the overall economic picture of each community, to ensure fair and reasonable allocation of the CDBG funds.