Feb. 12: Budget & Grants Committee, Cleveland Community Police Commission
Covered by Documenters Carolyn Cooper (notes) and Prerna Agarwal (live-tweets)
Contract hold-ups
Last October, the Community Police Commission announced the 26 participants in its inaugural community grants program. As of last week, only three have signed their contracts.
The commission’s community grants program awards up to $50,000 each to Cleveland-based programs focusing on violence prevention, restorative justice and mediation. Nonprofits and residents with a fiscal sponsor are eligible.
Jason Goodrick, the commission’s interim executive director, said only three groups have signed their grant contracts: the Cleveland Clergy Coalition, the Cleveland Rape Crisis Center and the Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless.
Grantees must sign their contract to receive funding.
Between a rock and a hardship
The contracts require that grantees pay their costs up front and be reimbursed later. If that isn’t workable, grantees can “request a hardship” and have funding dispersed throughout the year, according to Goodrick. The majority of the grantees have requested a hardship designation, he said.
Goodrick said the contracts need to meet City of Cleveland requirements, and commissioners are limited in their ability to help grantees’ navigate this process.
“What I’ve told grantees is, just like with any other contract, if you have a problem with a certain provision in this, you need to seek legal counsel,” he said. “And then negotiate on your behalf.”
Leave it to the experts
Commissioners are exploring paths to make the grant process easier on applicants and grantees.
The commission is requesting the city allocate $110,000 for a grants manager and $40,000 for related software in 2024. The grants manager would seek out grants for the commission itself and coordinate the community grants program, according to Goodrick. City budget hearings for 2024 start this week at Cleveland City Council.
Committee members also discussed “outsourcing” grants to speed up the process and extend the grants’ reach. Commissioner Piet van Lier said the commission was already doing this with Neighborhood Connections, a community organization that received a $50,000 grant to disperse to its own grantees.
Read the notes from Documenter Carolyn Cooper:
Read the live-tweet thread from Documenter Prerna Agarwal:
