The Guilford County commissioners are getting ready to do something they thought they’d already done – decide how to give away nearly $1.8 million in taxpayer money to local nonprofit organizations.
Now they have to do it all over again.
Each year the ritual is the same: The board sets aside nearly $2 million of taxpayer money to hand out to non-profits and the recipients have been on a highly eclectic list that never seems to have much rhyme or reason – other than the fact that many organization on the winners list had tight connections to one or more commissioners.
Over the years, those groups got the name of “pet projects” of a commissioner.
Earlier this year, 218 organizations applied for money through Guilford County’s Community Based Organization program. Together, they asked the county for $10.8 million.
Unfortunately for them, the commissioners only budgeted $1.78 million.
County staff spent months reviewing and scoring those applications before changes in state law forced the county to scrap the process and start over.
The original application process ran from January through June. A county staff committee reviewed all 218 applications and rated them according to how well they aligned with county priorities. The committee included representatives from the County Manager’s Office, Budget Department, Health and Human Services, Homeless Services, Cooperative Extension and Parks.
For some perspective on the demand for the money, the average organization requested about $49,500.
Last year, Guilford County awarded $1.74 million to 82 organizations, with the average award being about $21,000.
So even without the legal complication, the commissioners were going to have considerably more requests than money.
Then the state legislature complicated matters even more.
The North Carolina General Assembly approved Senate Bill 257, the state budget bill, which became effective July 1.
Among its many provisions were significant changes to state laws governing government purchasing, public contracts and the spending of public money.
The legislation eliminated the state Office for Historically Underutilized Businesses and abolished requirements in certain public construction contracts involving goals or good-faith efforts to include minority- and women-owned businesses.
It also repealed local acts allowing local governments to establish minority- and women-owned business participation plans and removed state policies promoting minority- and women-owned businesses in contracts for goods, services, economic development and information technology.
Those changes caused county officials to take another look at Guilford County’s Community Based Organization program.
County staff concluded the CBO regulations, application and funding agreement all needed to be revised to comply with the new law.
That meant the county couldn’t simply finish reviewing the 218 applications it already had.
The applicants were notified that the process was changing through an update on the county’s website, an email sent July 31 and letters mailed Aug. 4.
The county manager’s office, county attorney’s office and Budget Department then went through the regulations, application and funding agreement and came back to the commissioners with a rewritten process at the board’s Thursday, Sept. 3 work session.
One of the biggest changes is in Section 6 of the county’s CBO regulations.
The old language required applicants to provide information about the “general socioeconomic characteristics” of the residents they intended to serve.
That language is being replaced by a requirement dealing specifically with the “income characteristics” of the residents.
County staff told the commissioners that income limitations provide one of the broadest legally permissible public purposes for county government to use taxpayer money while still allowing exceptions for certain activities involving arts, museums, historic preservation, recreation and economic development.
The county is also adding an entirely new nondiscrimination section. The new regulation states that no person can be excluded from a county-administered or county-funded program because of race, color, national origin, familial status, sex, age or disability.
It also says that Guilford County won’t contract with an organization that excludes people from participating in or benefiting from its activities based on those characteristics – except where allowed by law for a lawful public purpose involving the health, welfare and safety of county residents.
Organizations seeking county money will also have to sign a nondiscrimination attestation when they apply.
At the work session, Commissioner Carly Cooke asked county attorneys how the new regulations would protect the county from legal problems and ensure strict compliance.
The county attorney boiled the question down more simply – essentially asking whether Cooke wanted the attorneys to make sure everybody “stayed out of jail.”
That may not be the technical legal standard, but it got the point across.
Commissioner Pat Tillman used the discussion to raise another issue he’s brought up repeatedly – the large number of nonprofit organizations doing similar work.
Tillman said many of the organizations fill important gaps in county services, but he often sees two or three organizations providing essentially the same service.
He said he would like to see more consolidation and cooperation among nonprofits rather than having numerous organizations seeking taxpayer money to perform overlapping functions.
Tillman, who’s a veteran, used veterans groups as an example, saying even worthwhile organizations sometimes would be better off joining forces with an established organization already doing similar work.
As Tillman put it, sometimes it comes down to “logos and egos.”
Vice Chair Carlvena Foster raised a different concern about the increased emphasis on income.
Foster questioned how organizations offering services that are open to everyone would determine the income of the people using those services.
She also questioned how the requirement might affect organizations serving homeless residents who may have difficulty documenting their income.
County staff said income had already been one component of the broader socioeconomic standard and that the county would work with organizations on applying the new rules.
The commissioners approved moving ahead with the revised regulations.
And the clock has now restarted.
The new application portal opened Friday, Sept. 4 and it will remain open until Oct. 5.
From Oct. 5 through Nov. 3, county staff will review the applications for eligibility and evaluate them.
The original applications were rated on four measures – sustainability, accountability, impact and efficiency – and grouped according to how well they fit the county’s strategic goals.
Staff recommendations are scheduled to go to the County Manager’s Office in November.
The commissioners are scheduled to discuss those recommendations at a Nov. 5 work session and approve the CBO allocations at their Nov. 19 meeting.
Contracts are expected to be executed and payments issued in December and January.
There’s one other twist in the do over.
The new application process isn’t limited to the 218 organizations that applied the first time.
It is open to eligible organizations that didn’t apply earlier as well.
So the organizations that spent months going through the original process haven’t necessarily lost their chance at the $1.78 million.
They’ve just lost their place in line.
And now everybody gets to line up again.
