A special Coronado City Council meeting was held on June 23 to review, finalize and allocate the fiscal year 2022-2023 Community Grant Program Awards. The council chamber was full, no empty seats, with people standing in the back.
Kelly Purvis, Senior Management Analyst, reported the FY 22-23 Community Grant Award Recommendations. She opened it up with wonderful community photos and successes, including Safe Harbor Coronado programs and services and Sharp Coronado Hospital’s new emergency program.
Click here for the full Community Grant Program Allocation Recommendations presentation
FY 22-23 Community Grant Program Requests
• 30 organizations/ 10 new organizations
• 45 program applications
• $1,575,100 in requested funds
• $1,000,000 available to allocate
Recommendations
• Apply a minimum average reader score of 70% for eligibility
• Establish maximum allocation of 75% of a program budget
• Apply the average reader score as a percentage of requested funding
• Cap single applications awards at $75,000
• Select a method for staying within established budget
One question came up in regards to city contracted organizations such as PAWS of Coronado applying for grants. The grant application from PAWS was for a Coronado Community Service Project. Kelly mentioned there is not a current policy for organizations contracted with the city applying for grants, it is not asked on the application. Kelly also mentioned PAWS was there and could answer any questions.
In addition, Kelly mentioned there is not an established policy to divide evenly. Every year is going to be different. She suggested looking at guidelines, and share requests versus sharing recommendations.
Community groups and organizations were then called up one by one. Each eloquently presented their organization’s mission, grant request amount, and answered council questions. Each organization also gave a special thank you to the city for their continued support of community services and needs. City Manager Tina Friend and staff worked hard and diligently (using the developed grant review and approval process). The total scope of recommendations for the grant requests were outlined in the agenda packet (see link below) with final approved recommended amounts with reader score (see pg. 35).
The grant application process was commended by the council. Deliberations began with remote members, Councilmember Casey Tanaka and Mayor Richard Bailey were both attending remotely. Councilmember Tanaka started and recommended approving requests and staff recommendations to Step 6 (pg. 27) including the $92K. Mayor Bailey recommended approving 7D (pg. 28), the adjustment for Option D for a balanced budget. And he reiterated supporting the Coronado Fourth of July, but not Mainstreet Coronado LTD (Coronado Nights Out and Downtown Monitoring Program). Councilmember Bill Sandke agreed with Mayor Bailey on approving 7D but with a mid-year adjustment, except 100% funding for Safe Harbor Coronado and Coronado Hospital Foundation. Councilmember Marvin Heinze made sure to state in recommendation, he does not support spending Coronado tax payer dollars on organizations and causes outside of benefitting Coronado residents. He also agreed with approving 7D, and in six months revisit mid-year adjustments.
The council members again also throughout the meeting thanked the organizations for their amazing work and all they do for the community.
Mayor Pro Tem Michael Donovan’s proposals were to move forward with 7D, and adding back in the 4th of July $4K, to fully fund, removing Coronado Nights Out $18K, but keeping the Downtown Monitoring Program, to help supplement enforcement officers, and add additional $7K each for Safe Harbor Coronado and Coronado Hospital Foundation.
A motion and a second was made, all approved, and motion carried.
Councilmember Heinze closed out by reiterating staff does want some changes and to look at some modifications and a council sub committee to the grant approval policy and procedures. Councilmember Tanaka suggested council policy 2. This was Tina Friend’s first year working with the grant process in Coronado, and ‘intention versus impact’ was mentioned. Friend would like to talk with staff and meet one on one with council members to get feedback on the process, and work on options with resources in December or January.
