By SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff Writer
The Assembly decided at a special meeting Thursday to postpone the city’s annual awards to Sitka nonprofits from the Sitka general fund.
The Assembly set aside $50,000 in this year’s budget for the nonprofit funding, which is separate from this year’s special CARES grants related to the coronavirus pandemic.
Awards to for-profit and nonprofit organizations from the CARES Act program are set for distribution starting this week.
Some of the applicants for grants from the city’s $50,000 in nonprofit funding spoke at the meeting, stressing the need for the money sooner rather than later, but the Assembly voted 4-3 to delay the awards until the November 10 regular meeting.
Voting in favor of postponement were Thor Christianson, Kevin Mosher, Richard Wein and Valorie Nelson. Voting against were Kevin Knox, Steven Eisenbeisz and Mayor Gary Paxton.
Those voting for postponing were generally in favor of waiting until the nonprofit grants through the CARES Act had been distributed.
“In order to make a better informed decision we need a bigger picture,” Nelson said.
Wein, who put zeros next to all of the grant requests, said the city budget started its year with 10 percent in cuts across the board; and that the Assembly needed to send a message about protecting the general fund. He said the nonprofits affected by COVID had other avenues to pursue, but the general fund did not.
“There’s a lot of mitigating going on; I think we need to mitigate as well,” he said.
Christianson said, “The picture will be clearer in two months. We’re postponing it, we’re not canceling it.”
Those voting against said nonprofits need the city-funded grants immediately, and that the $50,000 for the grants is included in the city’s 2021 budget.
Knox, in voting against postponement, said CARES Act funds for nonprofits is a separate issue related to the effects of the pandemic. The grant requests up for consideration Thursday related to other items, such as scholarships.
“We’re hampering their ability to get funding,” Knox said. “I’m not convinced we should be using CARES money to supplement this funding.”
Eisenbeisz said he was ready to go forward with awarding the grants.
The vote to postpone came after the nonprofits made their pitch for distributing the funds now. They talked about the cancellation of fundraisers, or reduced fundraising, due to COVID; and the need to use the funds to leverage other grants.
The grants are awarded in categories, and following are this year’s requests:
Human Services – Brave Heart Volunteers ($15,000 requested); Sitka Counseling and Prevention Services ($10,000); Sitka Ham Amateur Radio Klub ($8,321); Sitka Pregnancy Center ($1,000); Southeast Alaska Indpendent Living ($16,000).
Cultural and Educational Services – Alaska Arts Southeast (Sitka Fine Arts Camp) ($7,500); and Civil Air Patrol ($800).
Community Development –Sitka Trail Works ($10,000).
As usual, the total of grants sought is higher than the budget figure. In the past, each applicant needed a minimum of four votes to receive any amount of funding.
The item will be up for consideration at the regular Assembly meeting November 10, with a newly sworn in Assembly.
CARES Act
In other business at Thursday’s special meeting the Assembly approved plans for a new round of grants and subsidies from leftover CARES Act funds.
Approved were:
-$1 million for another round of utility subsidies.
- $3 million for “Phase II” grants to for-profit and nonprofit businesses.
The $1 million approved for additional utility help came from the $800,000 left over from utility assistance; and $200,000 from the amount dedicated for a homeless assistance. The Assembly reallocated the funds after the city received no responses to the Request for Information for homeless services. (Wein strongly objected to taking the funds out of the dedicated amount for Sitka’s “unsheltered population.”)
The city will post the applications for utility help and for business and nonprofit grants, once they are finalized.
City Finance Director Melissa Haley said today that the intent is to run the business and nonprofit grant application period from Oct. 1 through October 30. City staff also has a draft list of frequently asked questions (FAQ) for each application.
The applications for Phase II for businesses and nonprofits are more lengthy and require more detailed information, such as data on employees, costs and impacts of the pandemic.
The application for utility help is pending, Haley added.
A story on the Assembly and School Board work session will appear in Tuesday’s Sentinel.
