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Cervantes blasts new grant process |
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Tuesday, 02 October 2007 |
By Jon Klusmire
Register Staff
New grant applications for obtaining county funding for community events and projects were recently handed out and were not exactly greeted with a round of applause by some local chambers of commerce that will probably be applying for the county grants.
Fifth District Supervisor Richard Cervantes was not as restrained. He blasted the whole “Community Project Sponsorship Program” as “overkill” and voiced concerns about the overall concept, the grant application, the grant review board, the time it would take volunteers to fill out the grant applications and the time it would take county staff and the supervisors to approve the grants.
Leeann Fields of the Big Pine Chamber of Commerce commented that “time will tell how labor intensive it is” to apply for the grant and comply with its conditions. She said all-volunteer groups might decide the entire grant effort, from start to finish, takes too much time and effort, especially for a smaller grant of $5,000 or less.
First District Supervisor Linda Arcularius replied spending two hours working on a grant and other paperwork to get $5,000 would probably be “a pretty good use of time.”
The grant guidelines and the detailed criteria for evaluating the grants make it clear what the county expects and will require groups to do in return for the money, said Arlene Grider of the Independence Chamber of Commerce. “It should be a fun experience,” she said without a trace of fun in her voice.
The county, the chambers and other nonprofit groups will get to try out the application process almost immediately. The county will be accepting grant applications starting in October. Another round of grants could also occur in May of 2008.
The community project-grant program has become one part of the county’s new approach to using county funds for marketing and promoting Inyo County. Until two years ago, the county Advertising County Resources program provided lump-sum payments to local chambers of commerce to help them put on events, promote the area and pay a portion of their expenses and overhead.
This fiscal year, marketing and event promotion have been split up, with the county setting aside $100,000 for local organizations to use to hold special events or promotions. The county will be taking bids from chambers of commerce and other nonprofits for grants up to $10,000 per event. The grant applications will then be evaluated by a review board using on a long list of criteria and a point system, with the Board of Supervisors making the final decision about awarding the grant funds.
The group can get about half the grant paid upfront, before the event, and can use a portion of the money to cover staff time and expenses associated with the event being funded.
In return for the cash, the county wants to be specifically listed as an event sponsor, and wants to see promotional material and other advertising for the event before it is made public.
After the event, the group will have to report how the county money was spent.
That entire process, especially for grants that could be $5,000-$10,000, was called “overkill” by Cervantes.
The county and staff have already “spent too much time” on revamping a program that worked just fine in the past, Cervantes said. Since the board decided to change its promotional-funding and chamber-funding mechanism a year ago, “we’ve beat it to death,” Cervantes said, with the only result being “taking money away from the chambers.” The chambers “did advertise county resources,” Cervantes said, and were accountable and did so with far less interference from the county. Now, the county will devote far more time and money to, eventually, give money to local chambers.
More specifically, the new procedures are especially cumbersome, Cervantes said, when compared to the previous process which involved simply having each chamber of commerce or other promotional group fill out one application and get its money for all its marketing programs, events and some expenses.
The idea that the county had to approve or even check the advertisements or promotional materials for each event getting a grant, and then have each group come back and report to the board and fill out a form outlining how it spent the money was also cited by Cervantes as part of the plan that made it time-consuming for volunteer groups.
Cervantes also questioned whether the project-grant program would eat up a large amount of county staff time. Staff would likely help get the grant applications out to nonprofits and explain the process, review the grant applications, be part of the review board, hand out the money, check the materials mentioned above and probably review the final reports submitted.
The intent of using a standardized grant application and final report form was to “streamline the process” for both grant applicants and county staff, said Kevin Carunchio, deputy county administrator. The final report, he noted, would probably be a page long and the group could also simply give the board a verbal report on the event.
Arcularius didn’t seem to mind that some county staffers would be involved in all phases of the grant program, since that would provide “oversight for county dollars.”
Under the new project-grant process, funding requests for each event will require a separate grant application, and all the applications submitted will be competing for the $100,000 pool of cash. The most any one, single event can be awarded is $10,000, but a group can apply for grants for several different events, Carunchio noted.
There could be more grant applications than those coming just from chambers, too. The guidelines allow all nonprofit organizations to apply for county funding for their events or projects. That would allow grant applications from organizations which haven’t received county funding in the past, such as the Big Pine and Independence civic clubs, or the Friends of the Mt. Whitney Fish Hatchery. Or, some nonprofits that receive some other source of county funds could ask for additional county money for specific events, such as Wild Iris or the Inyo Council for the Arts. (Note: The groups mentioned above are cited as examples; there has been no indication which groups will apply for the county project grants.)
No county department or group related to the county (a friends of the library group, for example) can apply for project funding. “The intent is the county can’t fund itself’ or any of its promotions or programs, Carunchio said.
The panel that will review the grant applications will include representatives from the county, the Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management.
Cervantes blasted that concept, too. He said he didn’t like having “members of the government” deciding which community project gets funds. “The Forest Service and the BLM dictates who gets grants? I don’t think so,” he stated. Members from local chambers should be on the review board, he said.
County Counsel Paul Bruce said state law states clearly it would be an obvious conflict of interest for members of a chamber of commerce to be on a grant review panel deciding on grants for other chambers of commerce.
The board approved, on a 3-1 vote, the new grant application, review guidelines and other material to get the grant program started in October.
Cervantes voted “no” and Third District Supervisor Beverly Brown was absent.
Nonprofit groups seeking information about project funding from the county can call Carunchio at (760) 878-0460.
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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 14 November 2007 )
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