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would also increase by 5 The Finance Department has indicated they may not have all General Fund revenues within that specific timeframe, so estimating will need to be done. There will be no automatic decreases and if the General Fund is reduced, the formula grant will not automatically decrease. The second primary focus of the working group was to evaluate the current outreach process and make a determination as to whether or not what they were doing met the need. The finding was that the current outreach effort was meeting the need. The working group was impressed with coordination, the number of agencies on the interest list, advertising, and the recommendation is that it is currently working well, to continue the process, and that staff should monitor it so if there is a sense the City is not reaching appropriate agencies, it would report back to the Council. The third focus was to analyze options for integrating and streamlining the City grant and CDBG process. The finding of the working group was that there could be more consolidation that could take place which could benefit both programs. The recommendation was to rebrand the CDBG and grant program into a Housing and Human Services Grant. Then, they would rebrand that portion of the City grant into the Civic Arts and Youth Grant programs. The Human Services Commission would be the lead agency for the Housing and Human Services Grant. The Housing Commission would continue to provide input through joint meetings with the Human Services Commission, and the Civic Arts Commission and Youth Commission would lead each effort with the goal of having a joint recommendation to the City Council in a single agenda report. The working group was interested in streamlining the process, making it easier on applicants and staff to get out information and provide the Council an opportunity to review it all at one time. He noted there was also recognition that there may be a need to conduct a future assessment of community human service needs and the City would look at this at some time in the future. Mr. Fialho noted that the recommendation from the working group was to add to the Council Work Plan the completion of the Human Services Needs Assessment. Vice Mayor Cook Kallio opened the item for comment. David Nagler, Human Services Commissioner, said the Commission is in full support of the recommendation and said its primary purpose is to provide the Council with a recommendation each year on the best use of limited funds to serve the needs of the population. He believed there are some excellent non profit organizations in the city, but only a handful of them. Over time, requests made of the Housing Commission and the Human Services Commission often addresses the same population of residents. He thought the City might be well -served through these recommendations to try and leverage dollars and bring to the Council recommendations that address a population as opposed to responding to specific grant applications from a community based organization. Councilmember Sullivan said he was on the subcommittee, fully supports recommendations, agreed there was a lot of confusion about the process, in understanding needs, how funds are awarded, and the amount of money the City had been granting. He noted the $190,000 in City grants had not changed since 1990 while the General Fund doubled or more since that time. He believed the City needs to put out more money than it is now, supports the current process and formula for now, and felt a needs assessment would be important as a priority. Vice Mayor Cook Kallio agreed and said she also enjoyed working with representatives of the committee, acknowledged the struggle in identifying those underserved and hoped to find a way to City Council Minutes Page 8 of 13 June 16, 2009