Lingering issues over Cobb non-profit funding have been put on hold by county commissioners, who want more time to go over proposals to spend $850,000 for grants to 15 local community service providers.
At last week’s commissioners meeting, they agreed to delay action, possibly to Sept. 25 when they meet again to conduct regular business.
The funding has been set aside in the fiscal year 2019 budget commissioners adopted in July, and would be distributed over the next two years.
Most of the organizations are part of the Cobb Collaborative, an umbrella organization that coordinates non-profit county grant funding.
Last year, commissioners changed the criteria for awarding grants to non-profits. The agencies must provide services related to homelessness, family stability and poverty, ex-offender re-entry and workforce development, and health and wellness.
According to Cobb deputy county manager Jackie McMorris, the Cobb Collaborative received 27 applications for grant funding, totaling $1.8 million, before making the recommendations contained in the chart below.
Several leaders of those non-profits on the recommended list spoke at Tuesday’s meeting about how they spend that money, and how it’s still needed.
Jeri Barr of the Center for Family Resources, which focuses on homelessness issues, said losing that funding “could be a death-knell for a number of non-profits.”
CFR would receive $141,339 under the current grant recommendation, the largest for any of the non-profit agencies on the list. Of that amount, $127,205 would be used directly for homeless-related programs, especially housing assistance.
“We help hundreds of families stay in their homes” with financial assistance that includes rent payments, she said, adding that that kind of stability keeps kids in schools.
Because of its Cobb grant funding, CFR also gets a federal match from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Barr said.
MUST Ministries, which is best known for operating a homeless shelter in Cobb, also provides housing and employment services for its clients.
The non-profit reported 2017 revenues of $10.6 million, and would receive $53,002 in Cobb grant funding under the proposal.
Rev. Ike Reighard, senior pastor at the Piedmont Church in East Cobb and the MUST president and CEO, told commissioners that of that $52,002, two-thirds of it, or around $35,000, goes for shelter services.
The remainder would be used for providing employment services for clients in the South Cobb area.
“You’ve been great partners to us over the years,” Reighard said.
Commissioners expressed some differences not only on how to spend the money, but whether to do it at all.
South Cobb commissioner Lisa Cupid was upset that other agencies weren’t included on the list that serve her community.
Commissioner JoAnn Birrell of Northeast Cobb said she’s concerned about spending taxpayer money involuntarily for such services and favors a voluntary process to fund non-profits.
Ott also has expressed similar sentiments, but his motion to table non-profit action was because he wasn’t at a work session on Monday in which the recommendations were outlined.
“It’s the first time I’m seeing this list,” he said.
Commission chairman Mike Boyce said without the services these agencies provide, the county would likely have to spend more money on incarceration and public health.
“What is the value of this county? Is this for the greater good of the county? My answer is, yes.”
The commissioners voted to table the matter right before approving a fee dispute settlement with the Atlanta Braves.
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