Before I get into the recap, I just wanted to remind everyone that the City of Appleton is still collecting feedback on how to use the remainder of its ARPA funds. You can use the tool they have up on their website, or I would think you could also just email the mayor’s office with your suggestions and feedback.
The Common Council met 09/07/2022. During that meeting, they approved a $150,000 contract with Booth Management Consulting, LLC for American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) grant administration services.
As you may recall, back in November of 2021, the Council approved $6.9 million worth of ARPA fund allocations. One of those allocations was $150,000 to be spent hiring a contractor to provide administrative support for the city’s second phase of ARPA initiatives, so that’s where the money came from to pay for this contractor.
Alderperson Chad Doran (District 15) requested that this item be separated out for an individual vote. He told the Council, “I know that I have spoken against this plan in the past and will do so here again tonight. As I’ve said before, I don’t believe that the best use of these funds is handing them out outside of our organization given the needs that we have on behalf of our taxpayers as is. And that $150,000 could be better utilized by staff without needing to hire outside help to spend it. So, I’ll be voting no against this proposal and encourage my colleagues to do the same.”
Alderperson Denise Fenton (District 6) asked if Finance Director Jeri Ohman could give a very broad estimate of the amount of staff time it would take to manage all the grant applications that would be coming through if city staff handled all of that instead of the contractor.
Director Ohman answered that it was hard to estimate how many staff hours would be needed to do that. They had found that the Community Partner grant applications they received ended up requiring a lot of staff time to review and determine how the funds would be allocated out.
She noted that the consultant would not only assist the city with handling grants but would also help with reporting issues for those grants as well as make sure that all requirements were met.
Alderperson Fenton asked if Booth was a firm that had expertise in both grant-writing and administrative functions.
Director Ohman confirmed that they did. Booth had worked on these types of services regarding other federal grants, prior to the passage of ARPA, so they had a lot of experience. Additionally, since ARPA funding had been made available, they had assisted other communities in administering those funds.
Mayor Woodford asked Community and Economic Development Director Karen Harkness if she could give a sense of the time her staff had spent on grant administration.
Director Harkness responded that grant administration did take a fair amount of time, particularly when they were allocating resources to the community. In the case of grants that went to the community, the staff spent time not simply reviewing and awarding the grants but also helping the community members understand which projects might be eligible for those grants and educating them as to the grant process. Once the grants were awarded, they helped the recipients implement those grants as well as track and follow-up on their progress.
There was no further discussion and the Council voted 11-3 to approve the contract with Alderpersons Joss Thyssen (District 8), Sheri Hartzheim (District 13), and Doran voting against it.
[It maybe would have been nice if the city had focused on using the money in a way that didn’t require them to award individual grants to specific organizations and businesses, but instead just broadly benefitted the taxpayers as a whole. That way they wouldn’t have needed to spend $150,000 to hire an outside firm to provide administrative support.]
View full meeting details and video here: https://cityofappleton.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=980230&GUID=A68655DD-0AE0-4A8B-BE13-E07B25B9CB6C
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