Council Finance Committee Wants To Review Grants

The 2009-11 Common Council is working their way through the first months of committee meetings and already there are changes afoot. The Finance Committee chair wants all grant applications to run through that council committee before they are voted on by the Common Council.

On the surface, the issue is about identifying what the financial impact of grant applications are to the City. Most grants require matching funds, and in some budget areas, it should be clear that the matching funds exists in existing budget allocations and are reserved for those expenditures associated with the grants. In most cases, that is easily determined at the department level, since grant applications originate at that level in the first place. With some grants though, the projects that they are allocated to extend past fiscal years, and so determining whether matching funds exist or not becomes more complicated. Having a look at long term financial impact is a good thing. But is it the purview of the finance committee of the Common Council?

There’s the practicality of having the finance committee review grant applications or awards too. Typically council committees meet once a month, so depending on the cycle, a grant could take months to make it’s way through council committees before moving onto the full council for a vote. That would fall under the unitended consequences of trying to understand the financial impact, and in turn create a financial impact of decreased revenues.

With State grants, and Connecticut in a precarious budget state, this could mean that grant funds dissapear during the process. Not a good outcome for Norwalk in the end. It would be interesting to see if the finance committee discusses the ramifications of making this  process change and addresses the potential negative impact.

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  • NorwalkSpectator

    Sometimes, grant opportunities turn up unexpectedly and have a short deadlines. Other times, the State may keep changing the requirements. There has to be a level of trust somewhere in the City. Also, unless matching funding are involved, the City doesn’t have a say in how the funds are spent. The funds are monitored by the granting agency, but if the council members have nothing better to do with their time than argue about grant funding, well, have it at.

  • Secondhand Rose

    It has often concerned me whenever I hear or read about someone complaining that they have no say or control of how grant monies are administered. As a successful grantwriter myself, I can testify to the amount of research and the time-consuming process that people must undertake in order to apply for the grants in the first place.

    First of all, in many cases it takes days to wade through all the so-called “available” grants that can be found online and then it takes weeks to write the actual grant application – it’s not as simple as filling out a form and mailing it in, as some people seem to think.

    Grant applications involve budgets, explanations, lists, and can run on for tens of pages. (My most recent grant application amounted to 43 pages and cost me over $50 to process and mail the required 4 copies to the agency I applied to).

    So if a person takes the time to do the research, find the grant, and then apply for it – and be lucky enough to be awarded the grant to begin with (at one grantwriting seminar I attended I was informed that the average is 1 award for every 5 grant applications submitted), then why on earth do other people assume they have the right to dictate where or how that grant money is used?

    Most grant applications are very specific as to what the money can be used for. 99% of the time it cannot in any way go to paying salaries, for instance. And after the grant has been awarded, there is a period of time in which a report must be written and submitted with documented proof as to how the grant money was used. And this report usually determines whether or not a grant will be awarded to the same organization the next time it is applied for.

    It’s not an easy process by any means. Which is why I find it so distasteful that someone with a complete lack of knowledge of the time involved, the paperwork involved, and the research involved, should feel that they must have the right to determine where or how that money is used.

    (Exception, of course, for the above-mentioned matching funds situations which are completely different than the average organization’s grantwriting experience).