TO: Board of Supervisors
FROM: Jennifer Yasumoto, Director of Health and Human Services
REPORT BY: Summer Isham, Contracts Supervisor
SUBJECT: Approval of Recommendations for Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement (MSA) Grant Awards
RECOMMENDATION
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Approve recommendations for Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement (MSA) grant awards to support community health. (Fiscal Impact, $5,000,000 Expense; General Fund; Tobacco Master Settlement Division; Budgeted; Discretionary)
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BACKGROUND
For over two decades, the Board of Supervisors has committed to making MSA funds the County receives available for grant awards to support community health. The responsibility of the MSA grant process is assigned to Health and Human Services Agency (HHSA), although the funds reside in the Napa County general government services operating budget. Each MSA grant cycle, staff recommends and carries out a process that enables the County to target MSA funds on specific areas of safety-net services to help mitigate the impacts felt by those most vulnerable in our community.
Concurrent with the opening of this year’s MSA process, Napa County HHSA recently completed its Community Health Assessment (CHA) and sponsored the Napa Older Adults Assessment (NOAA), which staff determined provided a unique opportunity to align MSA funding to address priorities that emerged through those assessments. As was shared with the Board on April 23, 2024, the projects and services funded by MSA will become the strategies for our 3-year Community Health Improvement Plan (CHIP) addressing four priorities identified in the CHA and NOAA including Access to Health Services (including Fall Prevention), Housing, Economic Stability (including Food Security and Transportation), and Race Equity & LGBTQ Inclusion. To maximize and leverage funding strategically, HHSA intends to develop strategies for the fifth area in the CHA and NOAA, Behavioral Health, instead using Mental Health Services Act (MHSA) and Opioid Settlement Funds (OSF), thereby making more funding available across multiple sources.
Turning to the MSA grant process, the Board made $5M in MSA funds available over a 3-year period (FY 24/25 to FY 26/27). The County received 27 grant applications totaling approximately $12.6M in requested funding which is $7.6M more in requested funding than is available, making this the most competitive award process to date. The MSA grant review panel thoughtfully reviewed and scored this unprecedented number of applications with the goal of recommending proposals that most effectively operationalized the priority areas identified in our CHA and NOAA.
To stay within the available $5M and fund as many efforts and organizations as possible, recommended funding is 50%, 70% or 95% of the amounts requested depending upon scores. Accordingly, the list of the 17 organizations, proposals, and recommended award amounts are set forth in Exhibit A. Since we received $7.6M more in requested funding than we have available, please see Exhibit B for a list of the 10 applications that could not be recommended for funding by the review panel. In addition to these newly recommended 17 awards totaling $5M, last year the BOS approved multi-year MSA contracts that continue into FY 24/25 and 25/26 funding a host of organizations and programs amounting to another $1.8M in existing commitments. For context, staff will also provide the Board with information about the MHSA and OSF Requests for Proposals for a complete picture of how other funding is collectively being applied to operationalize our CHIP.
Staff recommends the Board of Supervisors consider approving the 17 MSA grant awards set forth in Exhibit A. If the Board approves of the recommendations, staff will return to the Board in July with written agreements that formalize these proposals and deliverables charting the course for our CHIP.
Procedural Requirements:
1. Staff reports.
2. Public comments.
3. Motion, second, discussion and vote on the item
FISCAL & STRATEGIC PLAN IMPACT
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Is there a Fiscal Impact? |
Yes |
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Is it currently budgeted? |
Yes |
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Where is it budgeted? |
Revenue and expenses are budgeted within the General Fund for MSA Funds. |
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Is it Mandatory or Discretionary? |
Discretionary |
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Discretionary Justification: |
Approval of the requested action is discretionary because there is no mandate to distribute MSA for specific purposes or to specific entities. The award of these funds to community providers is in accordance with the Board's direction to staff. |
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Is the general fund affected? |
Yes |
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Future fiscal impact: |
MSA will be allocated for Fiscal Year 2024-2025 and the following two fiscal years. |
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Consequences if not approved: |
Master Settlement Agreement grant awards will not be distributed to non-profit grant applicants. |
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT
ENVIRONMENTAL DETERMINATION: The proposed action is not a project as defined by 14 California Code of Regulations 15378 (State CEQA Guidelines) and therefore CEQA is not applicable.