Councillors here recently took another look at the town’s grants policy.
Councillors reviewed the document sent by director of finance Sharon Marshall which noted that on a number of occasions, Mayor Lou Maieron requested a review of the town’s financial assistance or grants policy.
In January, Marshall circulated a memo to councillors regarding 2013 requests and the policy.
Since then, Marshall has reviewed policies in other municipalities.
Her report to council was to look at possible revisions to the current policy and seek council input whether to implement any of them.
She noted as part of the 2013 budget process, council awarded $50,325 to local groups and organizations.
Recommendations including a revision of the grant application process including the establishment of a committee of council and staff to review the applications and make recommendations to council.
The committee would make its recommendations based upon pre-approved criteria and a budget set out by council.
Marshall noted that some municipalities set limits as to the maximum amount which can be awarded annually to an individual group.
She noted an option for limiting individual grants could be simply placing a cap on the total amount of grant money to be allocated.
As to the criteria, she said applicants must be a non-profit, charitable or youth organization with a formal structure, and providing benefit for town residents.
She added council could also think about separating funding into different categories and/or identify which ones might be given preference.
Although it was council’s decision to implement, or not implement, changes, Marshall asked if council would consider not changing the criteria for the 2014 budget as she had already received applications based on the current criteria.
She noted the process to allocate grants for 2014 is at council’s discretion.
Councillor Deb Callaghan asked whether or not the town currently requests events be held within Town of Erin borders.
Currently the town does not require that, Marshall explained.
She noted that item came up with the redeployment of the Erin Arts Foundation grant.
Marshall added that in some other communities, there was a requirement that support would be for local events.
“The question of how you want to define local is up to council.”
Councillor John Brennan said that definition could be written in as part of the policy or applied.
He said it is only fair that people be advised ahead of time whether events outside the area would qualify.
Marshall added council could even indicate that priority would be given to local events.
She added that setting an overall budget for grant allocations might be one of the most important items for councillors to consider for 2014 – whether it be for a total budget or per category.
Councillor Barb Tocher liked the idea of not altering the process too much for 2014 budget discussions.
Setting limits
She also liked the idea of setting a limit on total grant allocations prior to discussion of approval of individual grants.
“I would prefer for this budgeting season to have all of council look at it.”
She added that if there are more applications than money available, council may have to decide whether to offer part of a grant or none at all for a specific group.
“That really rests here (at the council table) for the coming year.”
Then, she said, council could start early in the year to work on some of the recommendations in (Marshall’s) report.
She noted the town’s grants policy worked fairly well for the 2013 budget.
“It took less time than in previous years so it is likely a move in the right direction.”
Councillor Josie Wintersinger thought the idea of grant categories was an excellent idea.
“I think having categories will make a big difference in how we allocate funds.”
Brennan said if he heard council correctly, members favoured the establishment of a committee to look at grant policies and budget limits.
Tocher said she’d prefer to implement the policy changes for the 2014 budget.
And, she suggested at the first budget meeting in January, a grant budget be set prior to looking at the applications for 2014 – but use current policies to determine the allocations.
