TO: Board of Supervisors
FROM: Jennifer Yasumoto, Director of Health and Human Services
REPORT BY: Summer Isham, Contracts Supervisor
SUBJECT: Approval of Review Panel’s Recommendations for the Enhanced Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement Grant Awards
RECOMMENDATION
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SET MATTER 11:00 AM - MSA Presentation
County Executive Officer and Director of Health and Human Services request approval of the review panel’s recommendations for Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement (MSA) and General Fund (hereinafter, “Enhanced MSA”) grant awards.
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The need for safety-net services in Napa County continues as we slowly emerge from COVID-19 and its impacts to those most vulnerable in our community. The County’s prior commitment to help address this need was evidenced through the past two fiscal years of Enhanced MSA funding amounting to an additional $1.0M, bringing the total fiscal year funding for grant awards to $2.1M in 2020-2021 and 2021-2022.
In March 2022, the Board directed that the County commit to dedicating $3.0M of General Fund operational revenues to the MSA grant process to continue enhanced funding for another three fiscal years through 2024-2025. The ability to commit $3.0M of General Fund is made possible solely due to the Board’s dedication of applying American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds to otherwise offset General Fund expenses. Distributing the funding in this manner helps to minimize administrative burdens and maximize flexibility of funding for our community-based organizations.
As in recent years, the County prioritized for funding the areas of food insecurity, housing instability, and healthcare (behavioral and physical); a multi-year grant award process; and an ad hoc committee of the Board of Supervisors to serve as the review panel following a process consistent with the prior two years. In response, 24 grant applications were received, and the review panel received panel presentations over two and a half days. Staff are now presenting the review panel’s funding recommendations to the full Board for consideration and possible approval.
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? |
Funding is from the National Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement. The revenue and expenses are budgeted within the General Fund. |
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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 the Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement funds or General Funds 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 and General Funds will be allocated for the upcoming Fiscal Year 2022-2023 and the following two fiscal years. |
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Consequences if not approved: |
If the Board does not approve of the recommended Master Settlement Agreement grant awards, funds will not be distributed to non-profit grant applicants. |
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County Strategic Plan pillar addressed: |
Healthy, Safe, and Welcoming Place to Live, Work, and Visit |
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.
BACKGROUND AND DISCUSSION
The Enhanced MSA Grant Award process was open during a four-week period from March 9 through April 6, 2022, resulting in the submission of 24 applications from 22 organizations; some organizations submitted multiple applications and/or were part of a collaborative application. In total, organizations requested approximately $10.5M in funding over three years, and for Fiscal Year 2022-2023 alone more than $4.0M was requested, resulting in almost double the amount of funds requested against the annual amount of $2.1M available.
Following a review of the submissions, the organizations were invited to present their 24 requests to the four-member review panel consisting of Supervisor Ramos, Supervisor Wagenknecht, Minh Tran, County Executive Officer, and Jennifer Yasumoto, Health and Human Services Agency Director. The process resulted in the review panel’s recommendations that 19 proposals be approved for funding, as set forth in Attachment A. Staying within the maximum of $2.1M each year, the total funding recommended for award over the three years is approximately $4M and breaks down as follows: FY 2022-2023 - $2,098,789, FY 2023-2024 - $1,221,870, and FY 2024-2025 - $675,729. The funding distribution stays within the Board’s direction to keep at least 30% of the funding available for Fiscal Year 2023-2024; resulting in a maximum of $1,470,000 that could be recommended. Accordingly, this leaves approximately $2.3M in uncommitted funds over the remaining three-year funding cycle. Given the magnitude of the funding requests, the review panel was not able to recommend five proposals for funding; those are set forth in Attachment B.
In conclusion, the review panel recommends that the Board of Supervisors consider approving the Enhanced MSA grant awards set forth in Attachment A.
As explained above, if the Board approves of the recommendations, as indicated in the previously published MSA grant award schedule, staff will return to the Board on July 12 with written agreements that formalize these proposals and deliverables.