City leaders to re-examine nonprofit funding method

Maricopa leaders have decided to take a closer look at a city program that awards funds to nonprofit groups that benefit the community.

In a 6-1 vote Tuesday, the city council tabled a decision to recommend funding for groups that applied through the program. Councilman Marvin Brown opposed the action.

Councilwoman Peggy Chapados, who began the discussion that led to tabling the agenda item, said she wanted to re-examine the process and consider permanently funding groups that are awarded money year after year.

“I’d like to find a way to more equitably distribute dollars to everyone that applies,” Chapados said.

The Non-Profit Funding Program awards funds to groups based on a scoring matrix. Council members anonymously rank applications; giving the lowest rank to applicants they most wish to receive city dollars. Scores given to the applicants represent a summation of the rankings.

For example, this year 13 applications were submitted. Council members ranked the applications from 1 to 13; those rankings were added together. If each council member ranked an organization as 1, the score would be 7.

Last year, the council distributed $301,000 to groups that applied. Upon a recommendation from the Budget, Finance and Operations Committee, the funding amount for next fiscal year was set at $200,000.

Of the 13 current applications, the top five with the best scores fell within the $200,000 limit. Two of the applications were from the same group, Environmental Concerns Organization Inc. Three of the four groups in the top five have previously received city funding.

When taking another look at the program, Chapados said members of the council will have several questions to answer. First, does the council want to keep the $200,000 ceiling? Second, can city leaders improve the process for giving funds to the organization?

The council is scheduled to approve a tentative fiscal year 2013-2014 budget on May 7. This budget would set limits on various funding amounts, including the $200,000 for the nonprofit program.

City Manager Brenda Fischer told the council they have the option of setting the $200,000 limit and then pulling money from the city’s contingency fund – currently budgeted at $2 million – if they desire to put additional money into the program.

After the council meeting, Mayor Christian Price said in his opinion, he doesn’t think there’s a lot of support to dip into the contingency fund.
“Contingency is for emergencies,” Price said. “And that’s what you have to see it as. It’s not intended to be an additional funding source.”

The general fund deficit for fiscal year 2013-2014 – planned expenditures exceeding anticipated revenue – currently stands at about $466,000.

“At the end of the day, those dollars count against the deficit,” Price said. “So we have to see and ask ourselves, ‘is it worth making the deficit larger, or are we trying to control that?’”

Fischer said during the meeting the council doesn’t immediately have to award the nonprofit group’s funds when the final budget is adopted in June, but she cautioned that taking a lot of time on making a decision could possibly put a strain on groups relying on city funding.

“Ultimately, it’s council’s decision on how we move forward,” she said.

Responding to Chapados’ idea of establishing funding pools for specific groups, Fischer recommended holding off such actions until the next budget process. The city manager said staff would want to make sure they go through the “proper procurement process” in establishing a line item for a specific service.

Each group applying through the nonprofit program requests a specific amount of funds. This year, the requested total from the 13 applications came to almost $750,000. There is no maximum or minimum amount a group can request. The requests this year ranged from $6,000 to $150,000.