To: Board of County Commissioners
Through: Michelle Halstead, Director, Commissioners’ Office
Prepared By:
prepared
Catherine Kosse, Management Analyst I, Commissioners’ Office
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presenter
Presenter: Catherine Kosse, Management Analyst I, Commissioners’ Office; Jill Flygare & Desari Read, LSI Consultants
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Subject:
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1:45 PM *Update on County Grants Consultant
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Purpose and Request:
recommended action
The purpose of this study session is to introduce LSI, the county's grants consultant, provide an update on their progress thus far, and solicit commissioner feedback to inform the needs assessment and strategic planning workshop.
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Background and Discussion: As county funding has become more constrained, there has been an increased emphasis on grant funding but without specific grant research and writing expertise. The county’s current grant application process is decentralized with individual departments and elected offices researching and submitting applications individually following approval from the Board of County Commissioners. These applications are reviewed by the County Attorney and the Finance Department only to ensure the legal, reporting, and compliance requirements of the grant can be met and to determine if additional staffing, resources, or funding will be needed as a matching requirement or to perform the services of the grant. The County’s strategic plan, adopted in 2023, identified increasing revenue as one of six strategic focus areas, with the objective of increasing the County’s ability to secure grant funding and other innovative ideas for existing assets and programs as one way to achieve this goal.
The Board agreed to prioritize the search and procurement of additional funding streams by partnering with a grants consultant to develop a coordinated grant pilot program that could help define how to manage the overall grant process, maximize the benefits of grant funding, and help determine how the County should manage grant procurement into the future. Following a competitive RFP process in 2023, the County entered into a contract with LSI to help complete this project. LSI was selected because of their diverse and extensive experience working with governmental entities at the federal, state and local level and associated success in building sustainable programs and securing funding.
LSI’s project scope includes three phases: 1) a grant funding needs assessment, strategy & implementation plan, 2) grant funding research & support activities, and 3) grant application development. Since project kickoff, LSI has held interviews with nine county offices and departments; these meetings will continue as part of the needs assessment. LSI is also planning to host a grants strategy workshop late next month, which will inform their development of a strategy and implementation plan to identify funding opportunities while optimizing existing staff and financial resources.
Following the workshop and plan deployment, LSI will begin to conduct ongoing research to identify and recommend potential grant resources as part of their second task, grant funding research & support activities. During this task, LSI will also work with the County to support registration to grant application websites and will host customized trainings to ensure that the County is well-equipped to prepare successful grant applications.
After the County’s needs are assessed and grants have been identified, LSI will initiate their third task, grant application development, which will involve the management of the entire grant proposal application process for approximately four to six applications.
LSI is committed to providing proactive communication throughout the lifecycle of this project; future updates will be scheduled with elected officials and the county’s executive team.
During the study session, LSI will seek feedback from the Board to better understand their goals and outcomes for the pilot program, funding priorities and considerations, and benchmarks for measuring success. This will inform workshop planning and project deliverables.
Fiscal Impact: The partnership with LSI could provide a positive fiscal impact in the near future by securing additional funding through grant submittals, consistent with the identified goals and objective identified in the strategic plan.
Alternatives: N/A
Alignment with Strategic Plan:
☒Be fiscally sustainable
☐Provide essential and mandated service
☐Be community focused
Staff Recommendation: N/A
Concurrence: N/A