Travis County Commissioners Court
January 31, 2006
Item 28
Number 28 is to consider and take appropriate actions on requirements to receive community development block grant funding through the u.s. Department of housing and urban affairs, including the following, a, formal acceptance of allocation by Travis County. B, designation of departments and/or persons to receive and expend grant funts. C, strategy for preparation or of consolidation plan and citizens' participation plan. D and other related issues. If we need ta take a week on all of these subparts, except a, we can do so, but we ought to formally accept today so the h.u.d. Officials won't think we're accepting our meendz about receiving it.
>> [one moment, please, for change in captioners]
>> mr. John mall did a in addition do, community and development director. The first row here we have larry wilkinson, a community development specialist and the project manager. Assigned to Travis County. He's also assigned to the city of Austin. Just for a little -- for a little history on this deal will be as brief as we possibly can. Back in the summer, we received a letter from h.u.d. Indicating that we might be eligible to receive -- an urban designation which would entitle us to receive funding from h.u.d. Directly. Over the summer, those regulations and qualifications changed. We were notified that we might be eligible, that we could sef an allocation for fiscal year '06. Your backup, the letter indicating, that information, we also, the court approved participating back in September. Most recently received a notification from h.u.d. Indicating that we would be eligible for an allocated amount. I will let ms. Day say what that is at some point. And -- and during the -- the closure of the federal budget, we had begun to research technical information, looking at other consolidated plans on how other entitlement communities have gone through this process. The community planning and development program provides funning for housing and community -- funding for house and community development economic projects for special populations across the country. The grant program that we are eligible for this year is the cdbg program, a community development block grant program, the -- the funds are meant for low to moderate income residents. And they also must be used for activities that are eligible and meet the program's national objectives. They also can be used for -- projects that -- that pose immediate and serious threats to the community and where there's no other sorts of funding to complete these types of activities. And in addition to that, up to 20% of these program funds can be used for administrative costs, reimbursible back to the county out of your yearly allocation. Also attached to the backup is a memo from harvey Davis that indicates some of the eligible activities that these funds can be used for. So with no -- without any further delay, I would like to introduce ms. Day. Who will make the announcement on the amount of our allocation.
>> good morning, judge. And Commissioners. It is a pleasure indeed to be here this morning, to bring you -- very good news because originally when we notified you in June of last year, that the county could be eligible to participate if you so wished, we had an estimate of what you might be eligible for. And the good news is that -- that, number one, the county Commissioners, the judge, acted very promptly. We wasted no time. You said yes we want to participate. You did the -- you did -- took the required actions. And on January the 16th, assistant secretary pamela [indiscernible], the assistant secretary for community planning and development notified you and us at h.u.d. In san antonio that -- that Travis County is eligible for two million -- $2,449,337. And this is in the first allocation for fiscal year 2006. And we are very, very proud to be here to make that formal announcement and to congratulate you on the actions that you have taken. With me today, of course, is mr. John maldanodo who is the h.u.d. Director for community planning and development and larry wilkinson, sitting over there in the audience and -- and this is part of our terrific team that has already met with -- with mr. Smith, ms. Flemming and mr. Davis to -- to begin some of the technical assistance. But we are very proud to be here and we are looking forward to very successful year in what your plans will be. Mr. Maldanado will explain the deadlines and the requirements and will of course be brief and this is just a summary, but again congratulations and thank you for having us here today.
>> thank you.
>> the good news is the 2.4 million that you will be receiving. There's a bad news side of that. You are dealing with the federal government. And the federal government has rules. So -- so but all other of our 18 grantees have gone through this process, still surviving, so you will, too. The immediate interest to the county must be the application process that you have to submit to us. And you have to submit that application to us 45 days before the beginning of your fiscal year. Your fiscal year starts October 1. That means that an application has to be on my desk no later than August the 15th. So that's a critical time and not -- not far from now. Because before you submit that consolidated plan to me, let me explain the consolidated plan. It is basically a five-year consolidated plan which tells me what your vision is for the next five years, how you are going to use federal money as well as other resources to meet the needs of low income. That's basically your five-year vision. Within that consolidated plan and annually thereafter, you have to submit to me an action plan. That action plan tells me how you are going to spend the money over the next 12 hoes. So the first -- 12 months. The first submission is really the submission of the consolidated plan and action plan, along with the necessary paperwork that basically you have signed that will apply as your application. Now, in order to get to that 45 day period and having that consolidated plan on top of my desk, number one, you have to have citizens participation. And that citizens participation must be -- they must have at least a 30 day period to comment on the drafted consolidated plan. So you back up from there again and -- and that time table starts to shorten a little bit. And for that reason, we -- we encourage you to have a full-time staff that administers the program. Now, you won't be drawing down any money until after the consolidated plan is approved. But their expenses, whatever expenses that might be are all reimbursible. If you have to travel --
>> how long does it take that plan to be approved? I think that's a very key component for --
>> we actually have 670 days in -- 60 days in which to approve the plan.
>> 60 days.
>> 60 days after we receive it.
>> if we get it to you before August the 15th, you still try to deal with any 60 day --
>> we will try to get it before then. But we have 15 other action plans that come in on October 1 or -- or August the 15th anyway. So we are going to be pretty busy reviewing a number of different plans, but we will indeed try to get it approved as quickly as possible. Can you always tell me, cdbg, that's been around for quite a number of years. Travis County becoming a part of receiving some of this federal grant money through h.u.d. But there have been a lot of problems also in that -- so is there any way possible for -- for us to know what to -- what the do's and don't's are. In other words I do not want Travis County to get burned as other entities have gotten burned because of whatever problem they had using cdbg funded money. And I just am really -- it's a great day, but also I would like to be as proactive as possible to know those things that other folks have gotten in trouble about. Other entities receiving this money and not appropriating or doing whatever you are supposed to do to stay in compliance. I really need to know more about that.
>> for one thing, Commissioner, we assign a person full-time to Travis County. That would be larry, working daily with your staff, he will provide you with training that the staff needs, so forth, we will be in constant contact with you to make sure that you don't make those mistakes. The biggest mistake made by our grantees in the cdbg program is that they fund projects, let's say, road construction of some type, people facilities. And they allocate the money to pay for that public facilities up front. But the engineering work won't be completed for another year or two years. Since you've set that money aside, you run the risk of not spending your money. If you don't spend it, we are going to take it away in two years. That's the biggest risk that you take is not spending your money on time. What we do allow is for you to be able to keep in the bank, in your line of credit, one and a half times your allocation of the cdbg funds so that you will always have that pocket there. But had we see you at 2.0% in the line of credit, then that triggers our movement to tell you to either spend the money or we are going to have to take it away from you. This is the biggest mistake that our grantees make.
>> we certainly want to emulate success.
>> absolutely.
>> absolutely.
>> right.
>> also, what I do on a quarterly basis, is I invite all of our grantees to a quarterly meeting. All 19 of our grantees in south Texas. What's good about that is those grantees that have experience are great at working with you as well, saying we had that trouble, this is how we solved it. We had this problem, this is how we solved it. And call me up any time that you have something that comes up, we are more than happy to work with you. So they are very, very good at that. That's a major benefit for getting all of the 19 grantees together.
>> so do the elected officials attend the quarterly meetings or the people that do the actual work.
>> the people that do the actual work, judge, but you can attend if you wish [laughter]
>> our doors are always open. We welcome the elected officials. We conduct briefings at least once a year for elected officials and the -- the program directors address the -- the different program issues. We highlight the best practices, the success stories, so on.
>> Commissioner Davis to answer another part of your question in terms of -- of not doing the right thing, each project that you fund under cdbg, at least 51% of the recipients of that service must be low income. Okay? Low and moderate income. And at the end of the year, 70 percent of the money that you spent, 70% of the cdbg money must have been used for low income. Those are the areas that you get trapped in, but we keep a pretty close eye on that.
>> okay.
>> low income according to federal poverty guidelines?
>> yes.
>> okay. And to add to the allocation, Travis County's allocation is to be used in the unincorporated areas of Travis County. City of Austin has their own designation and allocation. And as long as they meet the activities set out in the regs, those funds, the funds can be used internal to Travis County projects. In other words we would not have to receive requests from outside organizations or municipalities.
>> so do we have exclusive authority over whether we use the funds internally or whether we contract with, say, some of the other cities in Travis County outside the city of Austin?
>> judge, you develop your own policies. Whatever that policy says is what you act on. And it will be in your citizens participation plan as well. If you need to make amendments to your action plan, that has to be in the consolidated plan as well. So that really is -- your discretion. You will be surprised how much freedom you really have. So long as it needs the 51% [indiscernible] requirement, so long as it meets the slum and blight or urgent need national objectives you are pretty safe.
>> we are blessed that through the community action network we have already got a lot of public discussion happening in terms of five core areas that -- that they are county-wide issues. I think our challenge is going to be not sitting around and admiring the money but trying to whittle down and figure out how to best leverage our dollars. I?m so appreciative. I want to say a positive thing and wonderful kudos to dan smith. I don't think most people realize how much time and energy he is personally put into this in terms of pushing this along and working with ms. Flemming and all of the folks at health and human services. But they did a darned good job, darned good job.
>> he's a good employee.
>> good employee.
>> well, good work, dan.
>> dan responds whenever we call him. [laughter]
>> and mr. Davis and ms. Flemming and others.
>> of course.
>> I think that the staff that we met with last Monday with mr. Mall did a in maldanado, everybody understands how important that is, he dropped off these regulations right here in front of you on Monday. Those regulations have to turn into a consolidated plan, it looks like this. There's a lot of work yet to be done.
>> the other thing that's important is in the action plan, you are going to have to be specific about what projects you are going to be funding over the next 12 months.
>> yeah.
>> okay. So the costs incurred to put together our plan, the two plans, would be reimbursible after October 1?
>> yes, sir.
>> okay. 20% of your allocation for administration and support of this. If you have -- you have to remember if you contracted somebody else to do it, you are still going to have to run the program so you need to make sure there's enough administrative money in there to last you 12 months. Do we give our guests an opportunity to have -- to give their comments? I know ms. Flemming is suggesting that the health and human services department be the designated county department. Point department.
>> yes.
>> that's correct, judge. I think that our memo speaks to -- to the mission of -- of health and human services and that mission aligning with the objectives of this project.
>> does that need to be a motion.
>> that's why I move approval of the recommendation.
>> second.
>> health and human services will of course work with the other appropriate county departments to help us get this done.
>> absolutely. We will depend on their assistance.
>> okay.
>> any more discussion?
>> uh-huh.
>> that's b, of course.
>> yeah.
>> health and human services. The auditor had two or three representatives in that last meeting, I think, so we appreciate that. All in favor? That passes by unanimous vote. We need to give our strategy and -- a little bit more thought, don't we?
>> we had gotten together, under number 3 in my memo, we had thought that it might be a good idea to set up a cdbg program coordinating committee. With representatives from various departments that have participated thus far and where some of those eligible activities are currently being managed. We recommended a representative from the Commissioners court possibly the county judge's office, health and human services, t.n.r., p.b.o., county corporations, and the auditor's office, along with the county attorney and basically we would rely on their expertise in the departments to assist us in -- in coming up with ideas and suggestions on how we come up with the consolidated plan and implementation as well.
>> have those departments been put on notice about this service opportunity?
>> yes, sir.
>> then I move approval of that list. Of course the court is free to add or subtract from that list as appropriate.
>> yes, sir.
>> and, judge, what that -- I second that. But how -- how will we get out to ensure that we get adequate citizen participation in the overall strategy of the whole plan. How do we go about that? That process?
>> Commissioner, health and human services has full intent to -- to schedule the work session with the court to give you a plan on how we will proceed on meeting these objectives. Generally, what we would plan on would be -- would be I would guess a meeting in each of your precincts in addition to -- to a public hearing type of forum during your Commissioners court so that -- that is kind of off the top of my head in our preliminary planning on how we might get some of this accomplished. But at a minimum we would -- we would expect to be out in each of the precincts as well as to have some opportunities during your regular Commissioners court meetings on Tuesdays.
>> okay.
>> we will try to model it after the way we have done the citizens bond committee meetings and redistricting meetings and we have been through it.
>> all right.
>> any time we need advice or assistance, we have san antonio right down the road.
>> yes indeed.
>> well, we certainly look forward to working with you. The -- the pause after the -- after I pick up the phone during the initial conversation was not that my reluctance to participate. It was disbelief. I was reflecting back on my prayers. One of them was answered. General and real specific prayer, but we look forward to the opportunity to work with you and put these dollars to good use for the residents of Travis County.
>> thank you.
>> thank you.
>> I know we will put it to good use.
>> thank you.
>> thanks again for coming out. Yes, sir.
>> judge, one more item.
>> wait. Any more discussion on that motion? That's the one on for the county committee to work with hhs. All in favor? That passes by unanimous vote.
>> do we need to formally accept, judge, under a?
>> we did that while you were gone. Show you in favor?
>> please do.
>> okay.
>> I think ms. Flemming would like to discuss the staffing configuration and resources that she may need.
>> health and human services anticipates needing a few staff to help with these deadlines. I think that you also have a meeting or a memo, excuse me, in concurrence from p.b.o. That they support our request for two f.t.e.'s that will be reimbursible after October for preparation of our consolidated plan.
>> move approval of the.
>> ppo says that you have ample salary savings to fund this request. They didn't say it, but I?m sure they meant to stay if you run short by the end of the fiscal year, come let us know. But that would be the source of funding that you have in mind?
>> yes, sir, anticipating senior planners who might be able to work on this.
>> okay.
>> motion?
>> yes, sir.
>> seconded by Commissioner Davis, any or discussion? All in favor? That passes by unanimous vote. See how efficient we are? On everything except housing and developments.
>> very impressive.
>> thank you.
>> thanks for being here.
>> thank you.
>> anything further? Thank you very much.
>> thank you.
>> thank you all.
>> move that we recess until 1:30. All in favor? Passes unanimously.
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Last Modified:
Tuesday, January 31, 2006 3:38 PM