Town moves toward more defined process on outside agency assistance

So, who are we going to give money to and why? The mayor and council ponder tighter criteria on outside agency funding requests.

At a June 18 work session Front Royal Town Manager Joe Waltz presented a requested draft policy on guidelines for the town council to respond to requests for funding assistance by outside agencies.  The issue came forward in the wake of a recent request from the Virginia 4-H Education Center in Harmony Hollow for a $2,500 contribution to help fund an annual July 4^th fireworks display.

According to information presented to council at a previous work session, the Warren County Board of Supervisors had agreed to a $2,500 donation and an inquiry had been made as to whether the town government would be willing to match that amount.

However, with the budget in place and no general fund revenue earmarked for miscellaneous outside funding requests in place, a council consensus was to deny the request.  The 4^th of July 4-H Center event has since been cancelled.

During the June 4 work session discussion it was noted that the Town has no application process in place to determine exactly what criteria should be applied to financial assistance requests from community organizations.

General criteria in the draft included an availability of the organization’s services to all eligible town citizens with no restrictions related to race, sex, age, religion or disability; that the organization must have 501-3c non-profit status legally incorporated in Virginia for at least a year prior to the application; and that an outline of the organization’s work and finances be made available to the Town as part of the application process.

Other specifics are that applications be received by December 31, so that consideration of the request can be made as part of the budget process for the coming fiscal year; and that not more than one application can be made per organization per year.

Waltz’s draft was well received and drew a few suggested additions from council.

“I like that benefits go to our citizens as a whole,” Gary Gillespie said.

Jacob Meza suggested further narrowing of the scope of eligible applications – observing, “I know that is easier said than done” – also suggesting council set aside a set amount that would be available in the coming budget cycle.  That latter suggestion was particularly popular with his colleagues.

William Sealock suggested that organizations receiving funding in one budget year not be eligible to apply in the following year.

Vice-Mayor Eugene Tewalt worried at opening a door that might be hard to close – “I’m not sold on putting it out there.  You open the door and you have 10, 15, 20 coming through.  I’m almost at the point of not putting it out there and just consider each request on its own merits,” Tewalt concluded.

John Connolly concurred with the vice mayor’s concern – “I think you can open the door to a lot of problems,” he said.

Sealock also wondered at categorizing different types of requests, as in utility waivers requested and granted in the past to organizations like the Warren Heritage Society; or services or materials offered to events like the privately-organized Memorial Day event here and the Waggin’ for Dragons Humane Society river race fundraiser.

The concluding consensus was to let staff further refine a process, criteria and eventually what is finally presented to council as eligible applications.

“When done it’s up to the town manager what comes to us,” Sealock observed.

“I like that – keep us out of the fray as much as possible,” Meza said of council being presented with a short list of applicants.