by Liz Daube
Staff Writer
More than 60 people from Jacksonville’s nonprofit community gathered in City Council chambers Wednesday afternoon to listen and give their thoughts to a finance subcommittee on public service grants.
The audience included a broad range of nonprofit representatives: A glance at the room revealed I.M. Sulzbacher Center for the Homeless executive director Sherrie Burns, a nun in full habit and a man in Salvation Army uniform.
“It’s obvious from the attendance in the audience there is an interest in this,” said Council Finance Committee chair Kevin Hyde. “It had been some period of time since we’ve done this kind of review ... We wanted to get your input.”
Council members Gwen Yates, Warren Alvarez and Elaine Brown and Council Vice President Daniel Davis attended. Hyde said the purpose of the subcommittee’s meetings will be “to step back and ask ourselves a couple of questions” about the public service grants. They plan to evaluate what the City hopes to accomplish by giving more than $12 million in public service grants each year, Hyde said.
A representative from the mayor’s office gave an overview of City spending and eligibility requirements for the grants. The main issues the mayor’s office wants addressed include:
• What length of time should a program be funded by the grants?
• What percentage of a program’s overall budget should come from the grants?
• Should the grants be targeted toward meeting specific policy goals (such as crime reduction and public health)?
• Should faith-based organizations be funded?
“Right now we are very reactive in our public service grants,” said Roslyn Phillips, the City’s deputy chief operating officer. She said of the 113 programs funded by the local grants, nine use about half of the total funds as annual appropriations. The Jacksonville Regional Chamber of Commerce was among the organizations receiving the most grant money, and Hyde asked Jerry Mallot, the executive vice president of economic development for the Chamber’s Cornerstone initiative, to explain why economic development efforts should be funded by public service grants.
“We want you to think of us as the entity that expands our tax base,” said Mallot. “If we weren’t doing our share, the City would probably have to do it.”
Mallot did not discuss other economic organizations, such as the Jacksonville Economic Development Commission. He said business licenses might be another way to fund economic development.
Other nonprofit representatives stepped forward to tell Council members how stretched their “shoestring” budgets are and how critical the grants are for funding. The Justice Coalition’s Joe Wilson said the nonprofit employees’ level of experience should be kept in mind when grant applications are considered.
“We do have a lot of nonprofits that are doing great things, but they don’t have the staff there that are trained to do these reports,” said Yates. “People say, ‘We have people who have the heart ... but these are not the people who have the skills.’”
One speaker suggested the grant application be eliminated entirely and monitors decide “whether we’re meeting our goals.” Others noted the uniform application lumps a broad variety of organizations into the same review process, which may make measurement of a program’s success difficult.
The meeting was the first of three, and no decisions or resolutions were made. Hyde said the next subcommittee meetings are tentatively scheduled for 2 p.m. on Nov. 15 and 29.