Scottsdale Housing Agency Governing Board and Human Services Advisory Commission - May 8, 2025

Good afternoon. I'd like to call to
order the Scottsdale Housing Agency
Governing Board for May 8th. And could
we start with a roll call, please? Chair
Lurie here. Vice Chair Jung, here.
Commissioner Jameson here. Commissioner
Shear here. Commissioner Dods here.
Commissioner Turgil here. Commissioner
Kulie here. Chair Lur, you have a
quorum. Thank you. Uh, so this is a time
allotted for public comment. Citizens
may address members of the housing
agency governing board. Um, this time is
reserved for comments regarding
non-aggendaized
items. Um, and testimony is limited to
three minutes per speaker. Do we have
any written comment cards?
We do not. Chair Lur. Okay. So, moving
forward, uh, could I get a motion to
approve the regular meeting minutes from
April 10th?
So, moved. Second. All right. And a roll
call vote. Chair Lurri, yes. Vice Chair
Jung, yes. Commissioner Jameson, yes.
Commissioner Sheer, yes. Commissioner
Dods, yes. Commissioner Turgil, yes.
Commissioner Kulie, yes.
All right. And I would like to turn it
over to Mary to uh tell us about the
housing agency program
analysis. Good evening, Chair Luri,
members of the commission. I come before
you tonight. This was an agenda item
requested by Chair Lurri to provide some
additional information and data
regarding our Scottsdale Housing Agency.
It doesn't move. There we
go. I could just wing it, but then the
my speaking would make absolutely no
sense without the pretty graphs. So
before you, you see the demographics of
our current housing choice voucher
participants. On the left hand side is
the race and ethnicity and as you can
note um 64% of our current HCV
participants are Caucasian. Regarding
the tenant age on the right side of the
slide you can see that the strongest
majority of our tenants are between the
ages of 50 and 64.
As we talked previously um during the
last commission meeting um I talked
about through our consolidated action
plan some of the housing choice voucher
participants when they first entered the
program. I'm not sure if you remember
that graph. Um, it had three in three
information slides up there, but at at
admissions with all of our current
participants, 51% of those who were
admitted to our program were
disabled. 36% were elderly and 16% were
homeless at admission. Now they could be
one, they could be two, or they could be
all three, but those are the strong
majority of our participants are
elderly, disabled, and or
homeless. With our next slide, I'm going
to talk a little bit about this is
something that all of you are welcome to
look at. It's called the housing choice
voucher dashboard. So, if ever in your
free time you want to take a look at
what is going on with any housing agency
across the entire United States, just
Google Housing Choice Voucher dashboard
and you can do a drop-own box. And on
this one is specifically geared toward
the Scottsdale housing agency. Please
note that some of this data um does
reflect more specifically our HUDHeld
reserves in the bottom right hand corner
is reflective of December 31st of 2023.
So, this is not an accurate number, but
as of December of 2023, we had $1.1
million in our HUD held reserves. We are
taking proactive measures with housing
and urban development on on a monthly
basis to ensure that we are remaining
keeping those who are currently
participants sufficiently housed here in
the city of Scottsdale. Currently, we
have 535 families leased. Um that number
has slightly increased since um this
slide was created. We are at 549
families to date. Our we are spending
approximately 111% of our budgetary
authority. What does that mean? That
means that we are dipping into those
hudheld reserves that I've talked to you
a little bit about before where the more
you
spend, the lower you go, the more you'll
get funded. Yes, we're in we're in a
precarious time with the government, but
we still have to dance the housing dance
to ensure we get more funding. Um, our
average per unit cost as we sit today is
$1,281. Um, however, we are projecting
by the end of 2025 our average per unit
cost to be
$1,350 with the average rent rental
increases. If you go in and compare this
to like the city of San Diego or a city
out in California, we're actually just
slightly
under those larger cities out there. So,
we are have a high rental rate or a high
rental market here in the city of
Scottsdale. The graph in the far leftand
corner, if you look at the blue, those
are our vouchers that are
issued. If you look at the black, that
is our current bud budget utilization.
So you can see our voucher utilization
is trending downward and staying steady,
but the budget utilization is going up
with the black lines. And that's because
of the rising costs of rents.
There we go. So, our next slide, I'm
going to talk a little bit um about our
per unit cost and just kind of show you
how it's changed over the last 10 years.
So, if you look in the bottom right hand
corner, you'll see where it says average
per unit cost year-over-year. Um, and
our average per unit cost in 2015 was
$566. And as I discussed tonight, our
current average per unit cost is 1289.
That's 1206
6% increase per unit cost that the city
of Scottsdale is paying per person
housed over the last 10
years. What voucher sizes are we
currently issuing here in the city of
Scottsdale? This slide represents that
the majority of our housing choice
voucher participants are either
one-bedroom or two-bedroom voucher
holders. That is the strong majority. As
you can see, we have one person who does
have a five- bedroomedroom and very few
that have efficiencies, three bedrooms
or four
bedrooms. Let's talk a little bit about
the tenant portion rent. So, when I talk
about the perunit cost earlier in the
slide, that perunit cost is what the
city of Scottsdale's housing agency is
paying to the landlords. So, on average,
we are paying directly from our h our
HAP or our housing assistance payments.
I said like $1289 a month. So what is
the tenant contributing? So on the left
hand side you see the family
contributions in the blue line that's
the city of Scottsdale. The red line is
Arizona overall and the green line is
the average in the nation. So as you can
see the city of Scottsdale is quite
higher what tenants are required to pay
their fair share um more so than the
average in the state of Arizona. And now
you can see the United States is is
overall is on the upswing but definitely
um around 2022 it peaked and I think
that was right after COVID when the
trends started upward
going on the left hand side is our
utility allowance. Um, and you can see
for the dark turquoise line and the
burgundy line, those are per unit
bedroom size and per household member in
the city of Scottsdale. So, you'll see
the number reflected
A032. That is the Scottsdale housing
agency's number. So, whenever you go to
the housing choice voucher dashboard and
you click on Scottsdale, you're going to
find that number. That is how we're
referenced through HUD housing and urban
development. As you can see from these
graphs, you can see the per unit bedroom
size and the per per cost per household
member for utilities is on the rise as
well across the board and across the
state. Rent burden. We often talk about
rent burden and
perhaps any tenant that is paying more
than 30% of their adjusted monthly
income is considered costburdened. they
are considered severely costburdened if
they're paying more than 50%. We are
allowed to let residents um at lease up
go up to
40%. Um but as you can see from this
slide on the left hand side the housing
agency the families that are paying over
30% or greater than 34% or 30% is 34% of
our current housing choice voucher
participants. Approximately
7.3% of them are paying over 40% of
their adjusted income and we do have
four 4.3% of our voucher holders that
are severely costburdened paying greater
than 50%.
Please understand that when they're
leased up, we cannot lease beyond that
40%. And sometimes they get into this
costbur state due to their income
decreasing or their family size
composition decreasing and the family
chooses to remain in place. So if their
income or their family composition
decreases, we would issue a new voucher
like a one-bedroom voucher, but they
continue to stay in a two-bedroom unit.
So it is their they because of they
chose to stay they then become
costburdened. So how is people's
statuses or demographics impacting their
cost burdened or specifically how does
it cost burdened actually the Scottsdale
housing agency. So, I talked a little
bit um about um the majority of our
participants, 63% of our current rep
people who are enrolled are disabled.
What does that mean for the Scottsdale
Housing Agency? It means that the the
majority of our population is 60 and
older, which means that they are
justified in requesting reasonable
accommodations. reasonable
accommodations for a second bedroom for
a live-in aid or reasonable
accommodations for medical equipment,
which then increases the voucher side
and increases the the the per unit cost
that we have to pay per person. So
that's how it does impact, but this is
the true demographic of the city of
Scottsdale.
On the bottom half of the slide, you can
see the average adjusted monthly income
or what our tenants are currently
earning here in the city of Scottsdale.
53% or more than half of our
participants are earning between 1,000
and $5,000 a month. And that's their
adjusted income. That is after
dec children. But that's their adjusted
monthly income. After that, 30% and this
is where you're primarily going to see
your seniors and disabled are between
500 and $1,000 a
month. This next slide,
um I think we missed the payment
standards one, which is the slide
before. There we go. Now, again, this is
in 2023. So when we come before you in
October each month, each year we talk
about setting our payment standards.
Don't don't forget Housing and Urban
Development gives us their fair market
rents. They usually release them around
October, September. Um and their fair
market rents are set and any housing
agency is allowed to set payment
standards between 90% and 110% of that
fair market rent. So on average in 2023,
again this is older data, but this is
what is on the housing choice voucher.
um the housing dashboard um our average
payment standard is about 107% above
that fair market rent is where it's
sat. Housing choice voucher offsets.
What does that mean? That means that if
we're not spending as much as our
budgetary authority as we have and we're
sitting and increasing our HUDHeld
reserves, HUD can sweep in and take that
money. And sure enough, in 2023, they
took close to a half a million dollars
from
us. So that decreased our HUD held
reserves. But since then, we have been
increasing our utilization and making
good strides. And that's why we're now
meeting with them on a more frequent
basis to ensure that we can keep people
currently
housed. And our last slide is talking a
little bit about our administrative
fees. Our administrative fees are
different from than our are different
from our housing assistance payments.
Housing assistance payments, also
referred to as our restricted position.
We can only use that funds to pay rent.
We have something called an unrestricted
net position where we're allowed to pay
for any administrative costs which
include training, office supplies,
salaries, and in in in can't talk today.
um and any kind of additional
administrative fees associated with it.
Um HUD sets administrative fees each
year. The 2025 administrative fees have
come out and there are two columns and I
know it's a little bit confusing but
there's two columns and our current our
current administrative rate is 90 9662.
What that means is we receive 96.662
each month for each unit leased. So if
we have 549 units leased times 9662,
that's the amount of administrative fees
that HUD will grant us. There's two
different columns. Like I said, the
second column is a type B and that's
slightly lower at
$90.17. Any amount that goes over
7,200
7,200 units month leased, what that
equates to is 600 families, which we're
not currently at. If we exceed that
amount, then we would start receiving
the full allocation at 600 units month
or six for 600 families, 72,000.
Anything beyond that, then they would
fund us at that smaller rate. So if we
had
7,300 units months leased, they'd give
us 7,200 units month leased for $96 and
that additional thousand would be at
that smaller rate. So as you can see in
the bottom leftand corner, our
unrestricted net position in 2023, we we
earned or we received $68,000.
That actually concludes my presentation
for this evening and I'll be happy to
open up and answer any questions. Mary,
thank you very much for walking us
through that. When you shared the report
with me, I found it so enlightening and
so informative and I I really wanted
everybody here on the DAS to be uh
exposed to this. The dashboard is uh
accessible without a password. It's just
we can open to the general public. You
just go into Google and type housing
choice voucher dashboard or just type
HUD HCV dashboard. You can look at it
across the state across the nation.
There's just a drop-own box. As you can
see on the top of the screen where it
says select a network, select a region,
select a field office, select a state. I
would strongly encourage you to hit
select a state first so that it narrows
it down to those in state of Arizona.
But don't be afraid to look at like San
Diego and New York and really see big
budgets.
Oh, well looking around. Um,
Commissioner Kulie, thanks Mary.
Appreciate this very much. Uh, while
we're on the subject of the dashboard,
does it allow you to do comparisons
between markets? You can compare us to
any other city. Yes, there's a way for
you to compare us to any other city in
the United States. Interesting. And on
the what voucher sizes are driving per
unit cost, I was surprised to see that
onebedrooms exceeded two bedrooms. Um,
is that historically been the case? Uh,
and does this reflect the new
SAP small area fair market rents? It
does currently reflect this is the
current that is the most current data
that we have. Yes. Of our currently
leased individuals. Historically, does
it ring true that it's been one bedrooms
in the majority? For some reason, I
thought it was two. I don't know why.
It's majority is one and two bedrooms.
Okay. Sometimes it splits. Sometimes
one's a little bit greater than the
other, but that is the strong majority
is one and two. Great. Thank you so much
for this information, Commissioner Sher.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mary, great um
presentation. and I'm very impressed
with and continue to be your grasp of
the information and there's so much um
under the tip of the iceberg at dealing
with HUD that we don't get exposed to
and I think you and Christina and the
staff do a great job. Um, I had a
question
about the the funding formula if there
is a formula. Like for example, we know
we have a
formulized CDBG grant. We know we get
home dollars through the local
consortium. Um, how do we receive
housing choice voucher funding? Is there
a label under a a type of grant or can
you elaborate on that? Chair uh Chair
Luri, members of the commission, it's a
little bit um complicated um but not as
easy as CDBG. CDBG has a very or
community development block grant has a
very strict formula on which it's
utilized. Um Congress will set an
appropriation for the entire nation.
Once Congress sets the the
appropriation, they make a decision on
whether to fund that at 100% or using
something called a proration factor. And
a proration factor means that you're
going to get either less you get less
than the amount. I mean, we've seen it
have a 98% rotate prration factor, which
means that we're only losing 2% of
funding. Um, but it could go as low as
80%. So, it was a reduction in 20%, but
it's based on congressional
appropriation number one. And the second
thing that they look at is the prior
calendar year. Housing choice vouchers
are funding is allocated on a calendar
year as opposed to a federal fiscal
year. So it's allocated from January to
December. So when they were come going
to fund us and we still have not
received our renewal letter for 2025.
They are looking at what we spent as of
December of 2024. Thus why we say we
need to get our utilization up and
expend our funds at 100% or above and
reduce those hudheld reserves because
the more you spend and they see you
spending it they say oh they need some
more money because they still have
capacity we have we have 770 vouchers
but we c we only can lease up 549 of
them because we don't have sufficient
budgetary
authority. So it's based on a proration
factor is all I can say. Um, there is a
whole tutorial on it. I'd be happy to
share it with you. It will put you to
sleep in five minutes or less.
Thank you. I think you covered that for
me very very well. But I I did want to
also mention um you know regarding the
HUD budget, I think um the
administration's proposal um seriously
cuts money for these types of programs.
probably all of the programs that we
participate in. And so I thought it was
um it was smart thinking that the budget
review commission did
recommend that staff um pursue threat
assessments. And so, um, because I mean,
we our our whole mission here is largely
based
on our the the generosity of the federal
government, um, to allow us to to do
good work here. And so if you could keep
us posted when when you get any more
concrete information or um any
information that you think would be
helpful for us as we anticipate sort of
our our role next year uh with regard to
potential limited funds. Chair Luri,
members of the commission, have you
received the fiscal year
2526 skinny budget presented to Congress
last Friday? I can forward that
information from President Trump.
He presented his budget.
Yeah. And I that's what I was referring
to is I I got the thumbnail version of
that which is fine. I was just looking
for kind of the percentage of reductions
in both staffing and overall dollars for
HUD. And it was I have the detailed
version, Chair Luri, members of the
commission that I can forward to you so
you can look through and see where their
specific cuts lie. Awesome. Thank you so
much. Yeah. Thank you, Mary. I think
that would be great to share that with
the commission. Really appreciate the
comment. Um, Commissioner Jameson,
we're on slide three. Thank you, Lee.
um with the overall uh escalation in
what we're spending in terms of our
overall allocation to take us to
111%. A pretty quick rise. Does that
reflect the overall inflation of local
rent as well? I mean, have we seen that
spike in the last 18 or so months in
rental costs, not just what we're paying
and vouchers? Chair Luri, members of the
commission. Yes.
Okay.
Please also remember that we implemented
small area fair market rents and so
different zip codes allow have different
payment standards. So we're allowed to
pay higher rates in different zip
codes. But that is not currently
reflected on here because this is 2024
data.
Any other comments or questions? If not,
I had one final question and that is uh
when somebody new gets a housing choice
voucher, is there some provision or
mechanism in there to also help that
person pay their deposit to be able to
move into a new property? Chair Lori,
members of the commission, we do refer
them um to Vista Del Camino. Um and if
it is an e situation, we can coordinate
with them. Unfortunately, if funds are
not immediately available, we do have
other alternatives than we can can
search to. But we at Vista Del Camino is
definitely working directly with us to
ensure those participants as quickly as
they possibly can um receive that
voucher or receive that security
deposit. We also have leeway in working
with the landlord so that they can
remain in the queue and be treated like
everybody else. Thank you.
Uh seeing no other comments or
questions, we'll move
forward.
Um looking at the wrong agenda, uh this
is a time allotted to identify future
agenda items. Uh our next housing agency
governing board meeting will not be
until August. Um actually I do have a
question
about future meetings and have we made
any progress in identifying a resident
um uh person to to join this board?
Chair Luri, members of the commission,
we still continue to advocate and I've
offer that to our participants but
unfortunately no.
Okay. Um, any other agenda items for
future meetings? If not, uh, could I get
a motion to adjurnn? So, move.
Second. And a roll call. Chair Lurie,
yes. Vice Chair Jung, yes.
Commissioner Jameson, yes. Commissioner
Sheer, yes. Commissioner Dods, yes.
Commissioner Turgil, yes. Commissioner
Kulie, yes.
We're adjourned for three minutes.
Good afternoon. I'd like to call to
order the Human Services Advisory
Commission. And Cara, could we start
with a roll call? You bet. Chair Lori.
Chair Lori here. Vice Chair Jung here.
Commissioner Commissioner Jameson here.
Commissioner Kulie here. Commissioner
Turgil here. Commissioner Dods here. And
Commissioner Shear. Thank you. Here.
Right. Commissioner Lori, you have a
quorum. Thank you. All right. This is a
time reserved for public comment.
Citizens may address members of the
Human Services Advisory Commission. It's
reserved for citizen comments regarding
non-aggendaized items. Arizona state law
prohibits the commission from discussing
or taking action on these items and
testimony is limited to three minutes
per speaker. Do we have any written
comment cards? Chair Lori, members of
the commission, we do not. Okay. So,
moving forward, uh could I get a motion
to
approve the uh regular meeting minutes
from April 10th? So, moved. Second.
Okay. Okay. And a roll call vote. Chair
Lorie, yes. Vice Chair Jung, yes.
Commissioner Turgil, yes. Commissioner
Dods, yes. Commissioner Shear, yes.
Commissioner Kulie, yes. Commissioner
Jameson, yes. Thank you. Thank you. All
right. Um, moving forward, we're going
to have Sue
Oong with Jenny Mendoza and Liz
Heavenrich, I believe. Uh, did I miss
anybody else that's presenting
uh as part of the Vista Del Camino
update?
No.
Thank you, Chair Lori, members of the
commission. My name is Sue O. It's my
pleasure to introduce our presentation
on the incredible work happening at
Vista Del Camino Community Center. As
you know, Vista is more than just a
community space. It's a vital resource
for families and individuals in need. At
Vista, we provide a a range of essential
services, including our CAP office,
which assists residents with financial
support, our food bank, ensuring that no
one in our community goes hungry, and
our family recreation nights, which
brings families together for engagement
and support.
Jenny Mendoza will provide a
comprehensive overview including key
statistics, funding updates, and
community programs at Visadel Camino.
Following Jenny's presentation, Liz will
provide an update on the CAP office
where we'll discuss its operations,
current challenges, and how we continue
to serve the community through essential
assistance programs.
First, I am pleased to introduce Jenny
Mendoza, the human service supervisor at
Vista Del Camino. Jenny plays a vital
role in ensuring that Vista operates
smoothly. She oversees the front desk
staff who handles incoming calls for
food box appointments, financial
assistance inquiries, and community
referrals. She also supervises our wck
leaders and manages our family wreck
programs, bringing meaningful engagement
and support to families through
community. Her leadership and dedication
are instrumental in making sure we
provide the best possible services to
those who need assistance.
Jenny, good evening, Chair Larry and
members of the commission. It is my
privilege to come before you today to
just uh go over a lot of the wonderful
things that Vista Damino is doing. And
I'd like to start by um just going over
just a quick overview. Um I will be
going over first um our front desk staff
and what they do. They do a wonderful
job. Um they actually have to take in
tons of calls and um they do this on a
daily basis and I wanted to just share
some of those stats with you. Uh so
social service contacts were just the
admin staff which are which is comprised
of three staff. um they actually service
clients over the phone and in person and
they actually took calls from
13,984 people um just within July
through March last July of last year
through March of of this year. So uh we
have an influx of calls, a lot of people
calling with uh situations that involve
like crisis, financial crisis, um mental
health issues, all kinds and array of
different things. And um the front
office staff is trained to take those
calls um field them for you know
different v variety of needs and decide
what resources they need to be referred
to or do they need to be referred to our
case workers or uh whatever the
situation is and whether it be other
centers whatever it is. Um, another
thing that they do, and they started
doing this last year, is uh that they
actually assist with the intakes. And
what I mean by that is that they go
ahead and see the clients for utility,
um, assistance, and help them with the
application process. The application
process can tend to be a little
cumbersome. So, um, the front desk staff
takes, uh, time to make appointments
with them, go over the application,
input it for them if they need
assistance. A lot of our elderly folks
need assistance with that process. So
that's what they are there to do as well
in addition to the caseworker staff. So
they provide support in that way. Um so
they were able to provide 138 client
intakes from July of 2024 to March of
this year. And overall the total uh
social service contacts that were um
administered through the front desk uh
were 4
14,466 during that same time
frame. Okay. And then for the next the
next slide uh this is overall staff at
Vista Del Camino um and the different
social service contacts that they had
with clients. So, uh, the first one I
want to talk about is, um, basically
talking about what case workers and, um,
the case workers and the and the front
desk work together to see clients, um,
in do intakes for rent, um, I'm sorry,
for utility assistance. And so for the
utility assistance um our our front desk
and the case workers took intakes of a
1,195 clients um to process them for
their applications in um in addition to
um the rent the rent the rent assistance
or mortgage assistance applications.
Um, additionally, um, they the whole
staff as as a whole, meaning career
staff, mean career center staff, meaning
case workers, front desk, and even
management staff, uh, fielded
19,671 information and referral
contacts. And then as a whole, a total
of
28,888 social service contacts, meaning
even people that needed notary, people
that needed career services. This is
just as a whole, every everything that
from day relief, uh, assistance, hate
relief. um we almost reached 30,000 uh
contacts just within that time
frame. Okay. And the next one is for
funding updates. So from uh for from
July 2024 through now we have gotten two
new grants. Um the first one is called
uh the urban sustainability directors
network grant. This grant was awarded in
the amount of 21,600.
Um this grant was awarded to us for
commercial equipment for the food
pantry, for the recreation program, for
the day relief center, and for heat
relief. With this uh these funds, we
will be purchasing new refrigerators, um
freezers uh for the food pantry, and for
the recreation program, for the day
relief center, and to provide uh and to
buy equipment and supplies to to help
people out during the time that we have
the heat relief program, which is
generally from May through September.
And then our recreation program is also
going to be able to obtain some new uh
recreation equipment. We are trying to
move our our kids and our families to a
healthier lifestyle. So we're thinking
of bringing in more um fitness type of
equipment and and different things that
will u motivate them to get healthy. And
the next thing um is a park equipment.
if we need anything in the park, whether
it be replacing um diff golf um course
equipment or any of the other things
that we have like the sand volleyball
nets and different things, we were able
to get a grant to help us with that. Um
the next thing is Maropa County
amendment and this is for ADO um the
housing stability flex program grant and
um although uh Liz will be talking a
little bit more about this, I just
wanted to let you know that this is
available and it's u financial
assistance for Scottsdale residents. um
for preventing homelessness for 12
months. So if someone is eligible for
this program um we are trying to we're
the the qualifications or to get them
into this program we are trying to
prevent them to from um being homeless
for at least a period of 12 months.
Um, next thing, um, our community
program, something I'm very proud of,
um, just based on the community need and
the community, um, speaking out really,
and wanting to have, um, the recreation
program back at Vista, which we once
had. Um, we were happy to pilot it in in
the summer, last summer, and it went um,
very it went very well. It was very
successful. The community loved it. Um
so uh we decided to um thanks to Kira's
support and everybody who supported it
um we are able to have that now ongoing
and um just in the summer we had uh June
and July but just in July we had 69
participants for the summer and that's
um children from young age all the way
to seniors which is awesome and to see
them all engaging. Um we also have um
our fall participants were 293. The
winter were 179, the spring 141. And we
are also prepping for our summer which
is super exciting because we will be um
opening up our um officially the rec
center which was our uh for a while the
the food bank warehouse before they
transitioned over to the other side. we
were going to have that large um space
to have our our participants um engage
in all kinds of recreation educational
um activities. So very excited about
that. And also just wanted to make
mention of uh from February to April we
had Masters of Coin uh VA tax services
which prepared 156 returns and they
invested 290 almost 298 hours um helping
our community. So, that's another uh
service that we offer there at Vist El
Camino. I wanted to show some pictures
of our um of our recreation program. And
I think they're going kind of fast, but
um okay. So, so um the first one is the
April showers. Um this one we had the uh
privilege of partnering with the with
the library, Scottsdale libraries, and
their seed library. and they were able
to give us over uh 50 packets of seeds
that we were able to share with the
children and the families. Um and they
loved it. They took stuff to they took
little packages to plant and then we
also worked with Sheila. Um Sheila is
our career service specialist who
volunteered that day along with Zach,
one of our great recreation leaders. And
they were able to take a posto plant,
divvy it up and be able to have the kids
plant their own transplant their own
little plant. They were super excited.
Um they also uh did um an educational
activity which taught them about
photosynthesis and it was it was pretty
awesome. So it was really exciting to
see them just engage and and again
partner up with the library. So that's
one of just the pictures that some of
the pictures that I wanted to show you
is just kind of get an idea of what's
going on there at Vista Damino during
our programs. The next thing um is we
had a tie-dye night and here we
partnered up with the Pasuayaki tribe
and um they were able to donate a bunch
of shirts, white shirts for the kids and
so um they were super excited and we
were glad to have that collaboration
with them and we're seeing that there's
um just a wonderful uh unity and
community happening and we're excited
about that. Um the other thing we did on
that day is we used u some uh coffee
filters. Our wonderful uh wreck leaders
have wonderful ideas and they tied
something and so they tie-dyed coffee
filters and made beautiful bouquets of
flowers out of them. So this is a
picture that you're seeing
here. Now I want to transition over to
our volunteers. These are just the
volunteers for Vista, not necessarily
the food bank who has transitioned, but
I just wanted to let you know that we we
rely a lot on volunteers and um chair
chair Larry can attest to that that the
career center is like, you know, very
very very dependent on volunteers and
and the wonderful work that they do and
and the career coaches are wonderful.
So, we have six career coaches that have
spent 622 hours dedicated to people that
are needing services and um help filling
out applications, help um doing things
like um career testing or or even um
career clothing and um filling out res
uh applications, getting re uh resumes
done for them. So, we really appreciate
all that work. And the administrative
volunteers, we have two this year and
they have so far put in 180 hours. And
then our day relief center has two new
volunteers who have put four four hours
towards that
program. And just uh wanted to sum it up
and just show you a beautiful some
beautiful pictures from our human
service of volunteer appreciation event
which just happened April 29th where we
were able to honor our volunteers. Um
some of you uh were there and and got to
witness this in person, but um this is a
wonderful event where we actually honor
all human services volunteers from all
of the different departments in human
services where we get together and as
one and just celebrate everything and
all the accomplishments we had with the
volunteers and we had a wonderful
Hawaiian lunch and gifts and a wonderful
presentation of some dancers. And so I
just wanted to share that with
you. And that's it. Thank you. Do you
have any questions?
Yes. Thank you very much for the
information, Jenn. It was wonderful. Um,
couple of questions. What is the source
of the USDN funding, the 26, thou
21,600?
Where does that money come from? It is
the urban sustainability director's
network. And um, do you know I don't
know what that is. What is that? Can you
test that? Chair Lori, members of the
commission, this isn't a grant that was
actually received by the city of
Scottsdale sustainability department and
we were actually fortunate enough when
um they no longer needed that. They came
to Vistadel Camino. Quite honestly, I
don't know the whole history behind this
exact organization except for the fact
that it was for sustainability,
community support, and we were able to
take that grant originally for
sustainability and take it into human
services. So, that wasn't a grant that
this department or any of the staff went
out and solicited. We were a part of it.
Uh we were a part of the sustainability
department and it was actually specific
to the senior center and um initially it
was going to be focused on doing an
assessment and evaluation on solar
panels at Granite Reef Senior Center but
again um the grant uh in the amount that
it is here would really have just done a
preliminary assessment on solar panels.
So transition of sustainability director
this amount of money again we were able
to take it in human services. So, that's
a little bit of the history of the
grant. Thank you. Does the human
services department um seek uh other
opportunities for funding sources,
grants uh similar to this? Is that is
that something that goes on on a regular
basis? And Chair Lori and Commissioner
uh Steu Churchill all the time. Yeah.
Okay. Thank you. And uh just one last
point, I I I was looking at the number
of volunteers, which we know getting
volunteers is difficult for any
organization. I'm I u I would imagine I
I I wonder if um the fact that there are
just two is that right in the U day
relief area, two volunteers. Go ahead. I
would think that that might be an
opportunity to attract more. I don't
know how that's promoted or how you go
about uh letting the the broader
community know that there are
opportunities for for volunteers. Chair
Lori, um members of the commission, uh
Commissioner Turgil, actually we do get
a lot of inquiries to uh volunteer at
the Day Relief Center. We have several
volunteers that um donate their time at
the Day Relief Center with the community
house location. Um we only have the two
because the shower trailer is under
maintenance and so once that comes back
into operation, we will have them back
and and um serving more hours. Great.
Thank you, Sue. Thank you. Yeah, just to
follow up on that, at this point you
haven't done active recruitment of
volunteers for day relief at VISTA. Is
that correct, Chair Lori? Yes. Um
Brandon with the city of Scottsdale
volunteer coordinator. He does help us
and he we have that information out on
the website. Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Jenny, a nice
presentation and I am going to tag on to
Commissioner Turgil's question about a
grant except I'm asking about a
different grant. The um housing
stability flex program grant is to
prevent homelessness.
Is that in the form of of rental
assistance to avoid
um uh people from being
um let out of their homes because they
can't afford it? I mean, what form does
that take? Chair Lori, members of the
commission, Commissioner Shear, um I
will be actually um presenting about
that grant specifically in our next
presentation with Liz in our CAP office.
Um that does um that was an amendment
with our cap agreement with Maropa
County and um we don't get the funds in
um dollars per se. We get access to the
funds so that we can connect um clients
to those funds um and we do do an
assessment. They'll have case management
and it's a lot more flexible than our
cap funds because it can cover a lot uh
broader things such as car repairs,
child care, and things like that.
Thank you.
All right. Thank you. Um now I'd like to
shift to the community action program.
Um I will be presenting this with Liz
Heaven. The commission had the
opportunity to meet Liz last month when
she presented a day in the life of a
caseworker. Liz o Liz oversees the
caseworker staff at Visadel Camino's CAP
office. Liz's team helps individuals and
families facing financial crisis by
providing rent and utility assistance
through our contract with Maricopa
County and other local funds. Her
dedication and support for both her
staff and clients is truly commendable.
So I'll be starting off
um all right so for this presentation
we'll start with staffing updates and
we'll also provide updates on funding
for our CAP office specifically and then
we'll talk about some challenges and
possible solutions for the application
backlog in our CAP
office. So, the CAP office um has CA cap
case workers which you heard about um
previously in the day in the life of a
caseworker. Um the case
workers main goal is to determine
eligibility process of rent and utility
assistance. So, that application process
is pretty um intense. It starts online
in a dynamics portal with Maricopa
County. Um, our staff do have access to
that portal. They look at the
application. Our front desk also helps
with that application process. Any
seniors or people who may have
difficulty accessing the application
through the online portal. We do assist
them with paper applications in uh our
offices at Visit El Camino as well. Um,
with the ADO, um, Arizona Department of
Housing, housing s sustainability flex
program, we were able to get a
caseworker, additional caseworker. It's
going to be a temporary upgrade. Um, and
that person is going to be able to
determine eligibility for this specific
program. Um, that person will also
provide case management for 12 months
for anybody in that program and of
course have access to those funds with
Maricopa County. And of course, we have
the human service operations supervisor
um who supervises the CAP team. She does
the QAS for all of the applications,
case reviews, um the MA, and she also
manages the local funding and budget
allocations. Um, in November of 2024,
um, the longtime CAP supervisor, Angela
Bravo Gallagher, um, retired and Liz was
promoted to the CAP supervisor role
after a recruitment process, um, which
created a vacancy on our team and we'll
talk about, um, that in a little bit
and, um, we're actively in the process
of hiring to fill this position.
So, the Maropa County um agreement, the
IGA intergovernmental agreement was
recently amended uh because Maropa
County uh reached out to us and let us
know that they received a grant from
Arizona Department of Housing. So, we
were actually one of the three cities
that they reached out to um to do this
program with them. This program will
provide additional funding for to
prevent homelessness. So, we are
allocated
$267,674 and we do have to use that
through December of 2025, but anybody
that gets funding from this program will
get case management for 12 months and
followup case management. Um, any
additional rental assistance that's out
there, referrals, things like that. So,
um, this program does provide a little
bit more case management than our nor
normal CAP funding process. Um, like I
said before, this funding can pay for
rent, utility assistance, and also car
repairs, um, eviction judgments,
clothing for work, um, child care. So,
anything that really is, um, that
may lead them to homelessness, we can
assist with so that we can prevent
homelessness.
Thank you, Sue, Chair Larry, members of
the commission. So, I just want to talk
a little bit about our funding that we
have for direct service dollars. So, you
as you probably know, we have two
categories of funding. So, we have
allocations through Maricopa County for
written utility assistance and that's
CSBG, TANNIF, and our largest funding
source, HSRUA2. And then now that will
include ADO funding as well. Um we also
have what we call local funding for
rent, utility and mortgage and that
includes allocations from the SRPMEC
Gaming grants and then on also through
our partnership with Scottsdale
Community
Partners. So you might ask why do we
need both? Um
so the first obviously is that there's a
very high demand for
assistance. Um additionally we often
need to combine different funding
sources to cover the total amount that
the client is owing for their rent or
utilities. Most of the payments that we
are processing are for amounts that are
passed due except for maybe deposits.
So, the average rent payment amount for
the last two fiscal years was $1,927
uh for that's just for Maricopa County
funding. The average utility payment was
$3919. Um clients when they come to us,
they often are owing more than one
month.
So the funding sources through Maropa
County CSBG and TANIF if they're
available and the client's eligible they
can actually pay up to
4,200. Um but that HSRUA is just it
doesn't have a limit but it's only a one
month payment.
I do want to provide an update about
dees lie. Um I know we've been hearing
about that. So there were changes in the
process
uh for how lie is a process and
approved. So before we received a lie
funding allocation through our um cap
contract through Maricopa County. So in
October of
2022, there was a switch made where dees
um held the funding and decided to
process
it. Um so we as case workers were
trained as navigators. So where you're
no longer determining
eligibility, we are assisting clients to
navigate their application to
dees.
Um in August of
2024, there was an issue with dees
staffing and then that's where the dees
backlog started for those LA
applications.
Right now the wait time
for dees to review and process lie
applications is about 7
months. However, if clients have a
disconnect notice, they are reviewing
and processing those within about two
days. So, um right now
we so far we have navigated 350
applications to DS for this fiscal year.
Many of those applications are still
pending. They have not been reviewed
yet. We are experiencing an increased
call volume. And so we're basically
needing to use more of our other crisis
resources, other funding while the
clients are waiting for hopefully to get
approved for the LEAP
assistance. Um, in terms of kind of
getting an update from Arizona Dees, the
messaging is really that it's kind of
business as usual until there's more
updates. Um, so if there were drastic
changes made to the LEI program, we
would probably need to utilize a lot
more local funding. Um, and we would
probably go back to Maricopa County and
work with them to see if there were any
other solutions.
I want to talk a little bit about our
current challenges when we talk about
our application backlog. So, um, as Sue
kind of mentioned, we had some recent
staffing changes. We did have a gap. So,
we are short staffed. We're down to case
workers. We do, as I mentioned, we have
a very high demand for the assistance.
Right now in our Q we have 351
applications that's 195 utility
applications, 153 rent applications, two
mortgage
applications, and within that there's 42
applications that are renewals, meaning
they recently got assistance and they're
needing to reapply again.
So for policy updates, when we talk
about policy updates with CAP funding,
as I mentioned, there's different
funding sources, each has a different
policy, and we often receive policy
updates or clarification, and that's
multiple times over the course of the
year. So for example with our largest
funding source which is
HSRUA2 the income qualifier decreased
from 80% AMI to 200% FBL. So that means
uh clients that had a little bit higher
income then kind of no longer qualified
potentially for that fund source. Um and
then the months that we could pay for
that fund source decreased from a few
months to just one month.
And then when we talk about addressing
those crisis situations,
um we have limited flexibility with what
we can do due to our contract and the
policy. So we are required to review
applications in the in the order
received which as you can imagine
creates some challenges with those
crisis cases.
Um, a lot of our clients are receiving
disconnect notices and eviction
notices. And yeah, most of the uh
applications in our queue, they are late
on their rent payments
already. So we are looking at solutions.
So some of the things that we are
working on in terms of our staffing gap.
So, we have filled one vacancy for those
two caseworker positions. We are very
close to filling the six caseworker
position. Um, for this next bullet
point, I'm just going to have Sue jump
in. Thank you. Um, so I have been going
to these meetings um coordinated by
Maroba County. They noticed that a lot
of the CAP offices under Maroba County
have been experiencing backlogs and so
they um are bringing us all together to
work on a solution.
Um we meet we've met twice now and um we
decided to meet monthly. Um we have
discussed um our best practices
previously what was done um before we
had this amount of backlogs. We've also
explored some system improvements that
could happen. Um, and we plan to come up
with a solution very soon. I think in
the next two months they'll um have us
do a pilot program to um really help
with the backlog, especially maybe
stopping the applications that come in.
So I will provide an update once we have
more information.
Thank you, Sue.
So for our next solution, we are we have
provided our front desk admin staff
under Jenny. They do now have access to
the Maricopa County portal where all the
applications are right where all the
clients are applying. Um they've already
learned a lot. They are able to now
provide updates to clients. They can do
some minor administrative tasks. they
can assist clients at to add documents
to their applications and more. This has
also assisted a lot with reducing the
call volume for the case
workers. Um we are always looking at
ways to be more
efficient. So um these might be small
changes that we can make that kind of
add up to have a bigger impact. So, for
example, you know, we created
electronically fillable forms for
clients. Um, we started using the city's
electronic signature software to clients
to sign maybe on their phone so it's
easier. We do send an email to all
clients in the waiting in the queue and
it's updated and sent to clients based
on policy changes as much as possible.
We also created shared spreadsheets with
other centers to better share
information. And then we kind of talked
about this at a prior meeting, but we
did kind of look at a way to uh help
with those crisis
cases. Um so we created a process to
refer clients to the Jupyu or the senior
centers. We did focus on the more most
vulnerable populations, seniors, adults
with disabilities and households with
minor children so that we can kind of
help them hopefully a little bit quicker
if
needed. And that's all I have for you.
Any question? Oh, I'm looking around and
I know there's going to be some
comments. Um, and and I should let
Commissioner Kulie go first because I
think he had a question when Jenny
Mendoza was up and I didn't see his hand
go up. So, uh, yeah, just a I don't
know, I guess there's no such thing as a
dumb question, so I'm going to ask one.
Um, is there could any of the VISTA
career coaches, I'm just spitballing
here, cross trainin as navigators and or
help with the backlog or in using the
county portal or does it have to be
staff?
Chair Lurie, members of the commission,
Commissioner Kulie, we actually did u
reach out to our careers um coach um
Sheila Williams and she's a staff member
and she has been helping us with some
internal um utility assistance
applications. Um the dynamics portal
with Maricopa County is a pretty intense
portal. It takes a very very long time
to learn and um we do have to notify the
county if any other um people are
allowed to be in the portal. um since
they provide us with funding for our CAP
case workers um of course we have to
notify them on who it is and it is a lot
of information especially personal
identifiable information in those
portals and so it takes an intensive
process to even get the um ID and
password set up. So, um, I do like that
idea and it it is a possibility in the
future if we have an interest in someone
maybe with the credentials to help us in
the CAP office. Very good. Thank you.
I'm I'm going to look around. I Yeah, I
I think I'm going to go ahead and ask a
question. Uh I am gravely concerned
about lie and what potentially can
happen particularly during our uh
intense summer months. Um I have written
to Congress. I've written to our
senators. Um I I think twofold question.
one is do we have any contingency
fallback opportunity funds? Um and
secondly, what more can this commission
do to to be advocates?
So, Chair Lurie, members of the
commission, we do have several different
utility assistance funds that we utilize
currently. Um, we have KEF and SRPMIC
and also SCP Scots Community Partners.
They all provide funding specifically
for utility assistance. We do have the
opportunity to request additional
funding um through all of those
programs. Um, but it probably won't be
nearly enough to cover lie. Um, in terms
of what you can do um, as a commission,
I'm gonna defer to Kira.
Chair Lori, members of the commission, I
think doing exactly what you're doing,
writing letters and being supportive of
um a lot of this unknown, especially
with the federal cuts. I was just trying
to quickly look up my email because um
on behalf of the city, the city did sign
a letter relative to lie heap expressing
that exact same concern that you did um
to the uh legislature on this type of
thing. So, um you know, our eyes are are
on it and that is the best thing that
this commission can do is um you know,
support the efforts that we're doing and
and writing those letters in support um
of the programs. Thank you.
Thank you. So, I have a question just on
that um process and the available funds.
So, if I understand correctly,
um the client works with the CAP office
to complete the application for
um those pocket of funds that there is a
backlog for. And then during the
interim, do I understand that there is
this Maricopa County IGA additional
funds
available that can be used until
December plus the local funding? Chair
Lori, members of the commission, Vice
Chair Jung. So when someone is applying
for rent assistance, they're not
applying for a specific fund with
Maricopa County, it's a portal that
Maricopa County has and they're because
they're in Scottsdale, they they'll
notate that in their application, we
will get that as the Scottsdale CAP
office and determine based on what they
applied for and what they're eligible
for which funding source that that um
would be able to help them. So with the
IG, we have all of those funding
sources. Like Liz mentioned, all of
those funding sources have different
policies and eligibility requirements.
And an additional one that we recently
got was the ADO sustainability grant.
Got it. Thank you, Commissioner Sher.
Thank you um for the presentation, Liz,
and for your
presentation a few weeks ago was was
very enlightening regarding case
management. I'm just going to be a
broken record because I sense um we have
a tsunami of distress headed our way. Um
and to me
um our the need for
mobilization is very immediate that we
need to start anticipating before we you
know Congress finalizes the budget and
then we all react. I think we we need to
sort of do
um some worst case analysis
um planning and mobilize with
our colleagues at the state level and
the county level and our nonprofit
community.
Um this is going to be a severe jolt.
So, um I I don't want us to wait until a
budget is approved because I think we
can read the tea
leaves that the way they're lining up in
Washington.
And I I tried to advise our city council
last year that we are going to um see
funding cuts. I tried to advise them
this year again at the CDBG
um home funding um process and approval.
Um and I'm just not getting a sense that
there is an aggressive capacity to
mobilize around the fallout. I'm just
going to say that and that's not putting
blame on any one entity. It's just I
sense it coming and I think we're going
to be in a deep hole. Um trying to find
ways to coordinate uh around the most
basic service deliveries in not only
Scottsdale but the valley. So uh you
know and I really appreciate Sue that
you're involved with this working group
and you know it's great to see a slide
on solutions. We often don't hear about
solutions and and I know I'm preaching
to the choir here, but um it's it's
going to be a severe challenge for all
of our clients uh who receive uh support
through human services.
I have a question for you. What is the
magnitude or in dollars of um say annual
support through the um utility program?
Chair Lori, members of the commission, u
vice chair Jung, are you talking
specifically like heat?
Yes. I'm I'm sorry I don't have that
information, but I can um request it
from dees and get it to you. That would
um help us galvanize
um
some energy around filling that gap if
it does um come to
be. Thank you.
Yeah, I think I think uh we'd like to
take this back to the partners for Pyute
board and have some discussion
um with that group as to how we can help
fill the
void. I had uh one question, Mr.
Chairman. It's it's Could you talk
generally about timing issues if there
there are so many different programs
that you guys are working with with
different thresholds for
qualifications and I keep hearing that
you know in an instance where you have a
utility bill due in overdue I keep
hearing that there are not specifically
in Scottsdale but across the country
there are problems with processing these
things quickly enough so that we get the
rental and utility assistance to people
in time. Can can you just talk about,
you know, generally what you're seeing?
Is that a problem here? Is it a problem
in Maricopa County and the state in
general?
Question.
Chair Larry, members of the commission,
Commissioner Dad. So yes, the other CAP
offices also have backlogs and that's
why they kind of created this workg
group. Um, yeah, it is something that we
are definitely working on every day. Um,
but it is a challenge as you know
because we have a lot of people applying
all at once.
looking around. Seeing no other
questions, I believe. Going once, going
twice. Um, uh, Sue, Liz, Jenny. Um,
thank you for all you do at Vesta Del
Camino. Uh, I, you know, I was kind of
curious with the food bank expansion and
the food bank moving, how some of that
space was going to be used. And I think
you've come up with some creative ideas
for recreational programs and
um the innovative grants that you've
been able to take leverage as well as
homeless day relief. So u I really thank
you for all that you do there. And chair
Lori, can I also make a comment too at
the ending of this? Um, first I wanted
to say as Jenny was up there that really
this team has worked so hard at Vista
Del Camino, especially postcoid to
really try to open this center up to the
community. So I loved that Jenny showed
all those pictures and she makes it look
easy, but there's a lot of work that
goes into that and quite honestly it has
been amazing to see the community come
together and they know that Vista is a
social service hub and they are fine
with that. We had some initial concerns
about day relief and offering recreation
programming. People have been very
supportive of that. So, it's really nice
to see that um center being opened up
and I really commend Sue's leadership
for that because it hasn't been easy.
So, wanted to just really recognize the
hard work of the staff as you did. And
then um Commissioner Shear to your point
about being worried about this. You
know, we are worried too and you
referenced budget review commission and
the threat assessment. So I meet every
other week with the city manager and
that's going to be a project that we
work on so that we can really formalize
you know write down the things that are
really happening um so that we can so
that we can make a plan and I know
working with Mary and the federal funds
and the housing authority a concern as
well. So really writing down what that
impact could be. So I just want to make
sure you know that that is very much on
our radar and I think even beyond us
it's you know on the radar of others
too. Kira, if I could just I'm sorry,
Mr. Chair. I I really really appreciate
that and and and and I have confidence
that we are going to go through that
process and be very um focused on it. My
primary emphasis is the coordination of
the broader uh entities that are engaged
beyond the city of Scottsdale that
support us and support other cities. you
know that that mobilization is going to
have to happen very quickly to
prioritize and figure out how to deal
with shortfalls. And so that's that's
the more regional component of it. But
thank you very much and I have every
confidence that we're going to be um
focused on it locally and I appreciate
all that work.
All right, I think Sue, you are up
again, but with Jonathan.
Thank you,
Chair Lori. Members of the commission. I
will be presenting the food bank um
expansion and information with Jonathan
Mononttoya, our human service rep,
senior. I have to say a couple of words
for about Jonathan, too. Um, he's truly
the backbone of the food bank
operations. He's not just dedicated
professional. He's someone who shows up
early, very, very early every day,
putting the hard work alongside our
staff to ensure everything runs
smoothly. He takes on the heavy lifting,
both literally and figuratively, making
sure that the food is sorted, stocked,
and ready for distribution. What sets
Jonathan apart is his genuine connection
with the community. He has built strong
relationships with our clients and with
our volunteers. They love working with
him. And the way that Jonathan
organizes, I've never seen before. So,
um, he's going to help me help answer
some questions with me, but I will
provide the presentation.
So in August I provided a presentation
to the commission on the food bank
expansion and I am delighted to share
that the food bank has successfully
transitioned into the new location. If
you see here um I have some pictures of
the old um warehouse at Vissadel Camino
has a lot of pallets. It was being used
for storage. So, as you know, that's not
a very good use of our Visit El Camino
facility and we have grand plans to use
that space. Um, so, but it did take a
lot of work to move all of that out into
the warehouse. So, we had several trucks
um several days um moving all of those
pallets um into the trucks and of course
to the warehouse. So now it is
completely empty. Um and it just has a
couple of things like um pallet jack and
things like that, but it it is ready to
be used and um Jenny is actually getting
getting the floor waxed and cleaned and
it will be ready to for programming
soon. Here are some more pictures. This
is actually of the new location at 7601
East Mckelps Road. Um this was the
warehouse. Um, as many of you know, we
did the brick by brick program there and
um, after that program, it was not being
utilized except for some office space
and so it was pretty empty as you see in
the picture um, with Jonathan and his
staff member. And the bottom picture is
the after picture and now it's filled
with food items um, again organized very
strategic strategically um, by Jonathan
and his staff. Um, next to that is the
pantry area that we call um, fit all of
the freezers, refrigerators, um the
table that the volunteers use to sort
food boxes and um items that are
donated. And um of course we have
several um food bank appointment um
location signage and it it is very easy
to see from the street. It's right next
to the forensic office, so we feel very
safe and secure as
well. All
right. So, in March, we were lucky
enough to host a ribbon cutting and open
house. Um, thank you for uh some of the
commi commission members that were able
to attend. If you weren't able to, we
are happy to host you again. If you want
to um come visit us at any time,
Jonathan will be happy to give you a
tour. Um we had some council members
that also attended and we were able to
really thank our um the community and
partners and a lot of our facilities um
in the city of Scottsdale who really
supported and helped us move to that
location. It did take a lot of sweat and
um some tears from Jonathan and I, but
um we were very very happy to be able to
thank everyone that helped us move.
I do want to talk about a little bit
about our food box. Food bank programs.
Um when we say food boxes and um you got
a food box from the food bank, a lot of
people just think it's a food box with
non-p perishable items. It actually
looks like the picture that you see
there. Um, each food box appointment
really comes with fresh produce,
protein, some type of dairy product,
hygiene products if you need and ask for
it, um, pet food if you're if you're
needing that, and even diapers. So,
really depending on what the household
needs are, we actually talk to them um,
at the appointment time. So when they
call the front desk at Visadel Camino,
the the front desk asks, "How many
household members are there? Do you have
any dietary restrictions?" Um, some
people say they are diabetic and can't
eat a lot of sugary things or bread. So
we make sure that that's not included in
their food box. Some people have high
blood pressure. So we try to see if
there's um food items that can help u
make sure that um it's not affected by
the food that we provide. So, um, as you
can see there, the the food box itself
is only about 10% of what we provide in
our food box appointments. Um, walking
bags are really provided for people that
um don't have transportation, but
they're coming by foot. So, it's a
little bit easier for them to take
walking bags. And of course, we will
provide fresh produce if and as much as
they can take um by foot. So, we also
provide ready to eat bags. Those are um
consisted of pop tops, um utensils,
plates, napkins, things that people who
don't have a kitchen to cook in can um
really use to um help them with their
food insecurity. And we have a bread
program at Vissadel Camino. It um is a
bread rack that is actually one of our
lowest barrier u food programs that we
have. So, um, some people have a hard
time using our food bank and maybe other
services because they don't want to call
the front desk to make an appointment.
They don't know when they can come or
get off of work. And the bread program
is you come into Vistadel Camino,
there's a rack full of bread, um, other
items. Um, Jonathan's team fills it with
non-p perishable items. Sometimes
there's chips, sometimes there's
um canned foods. So really anything that
really needs to go out fast and it does
in the bread racks. So all they have to
do is come in, take what they need, and
then we do ask them to just give us the
poundage. So there's a scale, they put
in the pounds, and then they're out the
door. Um so a lot of people do utilize
that and it it goes really really fast.
Um another program we have is healthy
packs. So that program provides
nutrition for Scottsdale Unified School
District students who um rely on reduced
or um uh free lunch at school. And so
during the weekend they don't have any
food that um they can get. And so it it
is an application process. Scottsdale
Community Partners is really the um the
agency that has this program. We help
with packing the things with our
volunteers and delivering it to the
schools. What I love about this program
is um when we deliver it to the schools
um we give it to the community
specialist who gives it to the teachers
and they very very discreetly puts it
into the kids backpacks um so that the
other kids don't see it. So um nobody
knows that they're in a program. Nobody
knows what they're getting. Um, and if
they if kids do see it, it's just a bag
full of goodies. So, it really you can't
tell what it is. So, it's a great
program. Um, we do try to provide
healthy nutritionist nutritional foods.
So, everything that's that goes in the
healthy packs is purchased by Scottsdale
Community Partners. It's not donated
items because we want to make sure that
it is fresh and it's the items that we
can give to the students. Um, we also
support brown bags. um that um the
senior centers provide and um we support
the satellite food banks at Pike
Neighborhood Center and the senior
centers. So, who do we help? This is
actually a picture of a group who um
came and helped pack pack our healthy
packs. Um but I want to let you know who
we help in our food bank. So, um,
eligibility for a food box that we
provide are Scottsdale residents. Um,
and they do have to have an ID. So, of
course, if they call our front desk or
come into Vistadel Camino saying, "I
have no food and I don't live in
Scottsdale," we will provide them with
food um and resources on where else they
can get a food box closer to their home.
Um but for future we do um ask them to
bring their ID and um something that
says that they are Scottsdale residents.
Um of course Scottsdale seniors with all
the different programs um for the
seniors SUSD students and then of course
people experiencing
homelessness. All right. So, first um
some stats for the food bank, we
provided uh this is fiscal year 2024
through March of 2025. Um so, starting
in July of 2024, we provided 3,94 food
boxes,
3,168 ready to eat bags, and then um
236,000 pounds of fresh items.
So we help serve um
15,17 households and unduplicated
households that's 533. So we do have
several households that come every month
for food box to fill in the gap for um
with their income or their SNAP benefits
and that's okay. We we do want to
provide um food for for the gap that
they're experiencing. So, a total value,
we do put a value in the food um that we
provide and that comes up to
$596,000 and that includes the food
boxes, the ready to eat bags and the
fresh um food in pounds. So, healthy
packs at the bottom, we do pro we have
provided 7,620 bags for 349
students. Right. So, donations received
um we have rescued
435,887 pounds of food and that includes
um donations that come in through the
food bank or Visa del Camino from
individuals, grocery rescue where um
Jonathan and his team go out to
different grocery stores and pick up
fresh items. Um community food drives uh
and of course products that are
delivered by St. Mary's Food Bank
through a partnership. And I'll talk a
little bit more about that in my next
slide. So the total value of donations
we received is
$972,000 and uh volunteer hours um
2,937 volunteer hours which is amazing
and I I have a slide for that at the end
as
well. Right. Um so this p this is a
picture of our record um poundage of
food that we've provided in the food
bank. I do want to tell you a story
about this. So this is um this was a
family who came to the food bank. They
made an appointment and came to the food
bank. It's a mother, father, and five
children. So they live in North
Scottsdale, excuse me. Um but they both
lost their jobs unexpectedly. And um
they have five children. What they
decided to do is move into their garage
and rent out their house so that they
can make enough to pay their mortgage.
Of course, everything that they had was
going to their mortgage. So, they had no
no money for food. They didn't have SNAP
benefits yet. So, they came to our food
bank for
food. Again, when you when we give a
food box to families in crisis, we don't
just give perishable food. items. Look
at the milk, the fresh produce. I don't
remember how many pounds this was, but
again, it was a record number of pounds
that we provided um for food. And I do I
do tell you that story because food
insecurity can happen all across
Scottsdale, all across the nation to
anybody. And um food is a vital resource
that everybody needs. and we want to
make sure that there are really really
low barriers to getting food um in our
community. So um they were able to get
back on their feet and get um a job and
so they don't utilize our services
anymore and that's great and that's what
we are our goal is to make sure that
they can um provide food for themselves
without our help. But um we are very
very lucky to have been there to help
them throughout a tough
process. All right. So sources of
support. Where where do we get our food?
So we have a partnership with St. Mary's
and Scottsdale Community Partners. This
partnership helps us get emergency food
boxes um at no cost to the city. And
those are the boxes that I showed you
with all the non-p perishable items. Um
they connect us with all of our g
grocery rescue stores. So they have a
part our grocery stores that are local
here in Scottsdale. They have a
partnership actually with St. Mary's and
they connect them to us. So Jonathan's
team goes out every morning to pick up
those items from those grocery stores.
And then um St. Mary's also does weekly
deliveries and in those deliveries there
could be a ver vast array of items such
as dog food, frozen meals, fresh
vegetables. One day we got a whole
pallet full of potatoes. Um, so it could
be very very random and it has a lot of
snacks and drinks as well. We also do a
pickup with St. Vincent Depal. Um, they
have a warehouse in Phoenix and they
allow us to come and pretty much shop
their warehouse and we um, get a lot of
the food for our day relief center and
people experiencing homelessness from
St. Vincent Depal because it is ready to
eat items that can be eaten um without a
kitchen. Um we do utilize some funds
from the SRPMIC grant. We get community
donations. We have food drives.
Scottsdale Community Partners also
provides us with the separate funding
for the food bank if we need items to
purchase um other types of grants and
then monetary donations like the picture
on the bottom right. That is Elks Lodge.
um they provided us with $5,000
um to buy a new freezer for our new food
bank. So um we do get some monetary
donations uh throughout the year and
those are really how we um operate the
food
bank. All right, our volunteers. So we
have 30 more than 30 volunteers that are
our regular weekly volunteers um that
come every week very very dedicated and
we really could not operate the food
bank without them. Um the picture of
Mildred um with the pink hat we call her
Princess and she has been at the food
bank longer than any of the staff. So
she really understands knows the food
bank. um she knows the clients so she's
a vital part of the food bank and um and
us operating it really we rely on the
volunteers. They sort the donations,
organize them, make ready to eat bags
and also assist with the food box
appointments. So they build a rapport
like our staff do with our clients. We
also have group volunteers. So if a
company calls and they want to do a a
team building activity when we invite
them, usually that um is something like
a healthy packs packing event where they
can come and do a huge packing event for
us. Um and but they also can do um
sorting and labeling donations. Usually
that's about one month uh once a one
time or monthly event. So the picture on
the bottom um she is a volunteer and she
did a drive for us and donated a bunch
of pet food for us and then Blue Zones
has has um been able to come every month
with the volunteer group to help pack
healthy packs as
well. All right, and that is the end of
my presentation. I will take any
questions. Thank you Sue and Jonathan.
And
uh wow,
435,000 lbs. I'm not even going to ask
and you don't have to answer how you
measure the weight of all the donations,
but um and and I can personally attest
to Jonathan's organization
uh having done healthy packs over there
a couple times recently and you he got
he gets it all set up and it becomes a
very efficient process and so thank you
for all you that you do. It's it's a
great operation.
Commissioner Quill. Well, thank you. It
is uh Jonathan. Great. You and your team
do wonders. It's not It's not just the
distribution, but it's the whole
community that you've built there. Um uh
Mary and I were at that ribbon cutting
and on my way out, I passed somebody
with a St. Mary's shirt on. Said, "Hey,
I just wanted to thank you for all your
help." She's like, "Don't thank me.
Thank them. We're the hub. They're doing
the distribution. They're doing the the
heavy lifting." I'm like, "Wow, that's
great." I was just floored. Um, as to
the healthy packs, has there been talk
of any collaboration with the um,
Scottsdale Blue Zones at all? Has that
come up or is it too abstract to try to
shoehorn that in?
So, we I don't know how familiar you may
or may not be with that. Yeah. episode
on commission um commissioner Kulie
we've been working with blue zones with
different ideas for funding sources to
see what type of projects they're
interested in funding um so they've
helped us quite a bit with manpower um
and we're working on different
initiatives to increase the number of
healthy packs so with Scott community
partners um they provide the healthy
packs for 352 students um and that's per
week um that the staff go and deliver
those bags to so we're trying to
increase the number of students because
there's about 50 on the wait list. Um it
takes roughly $5 to $10,000 to purchase
that amount of food for the year for
those students during the school year.
Um so we're getting different ideas
together so we can put more children
enrolled in the healthy pack program.
Thank you. Thank you very much.
Great.
Great presentation. Uh, Sue, thank you.
Very uplifting and I know a lot of work
to get to the new facility. Jonathan,
it's always great to see you and thank
you. I'm glad that Sue had a chance to
introduce you a little bit because
you've been around this place a long
time and have done some really great
work for us. Thank you. Just a question
on the volunteers for the food bank. I
mean, do you need more volunteers? Do
you need more weekly volunteers? I mean,
where where is that need? um if I could
ask. Thank you, Commission. Uh
Commissioner, um I would like to say
that we have grown the volunteer base.
Um when I started in my role about a
year and a half ago, we had 12
volunteers throughout the week. Uh we've
grown that to 34 volunteers. Um, so it's
taken lots of tears like Sue said, um,
to um, meet with those volunteers and
see what their passions are, um, to make
sure that they're a good fit for the
food bank. Um, for the need in the
community as far as growing the food
bank. Um, we probably need to grow to
about 40 or 50 volunteers total
throughout the week. Um, and we're a six
to five operation, so it's all day early
mornings. Um, but um, volunteers can
volunteer about three hour shifts or
more. um and we'll never decline your
help. So, we try to get everybody
involved and we turn on music and have a
great time. So, I do have quite a bit of
volunteer activity that comes from
Brandon Chapman. Um he's very helpful in
forwarding those applications. So, we
review them as quick as possible and I
have people come work with us. So, we
have a great time.
Commissioner Churchill, Jonathan, thank
you very much. And Sue also for for the
great work that you do. Jonathan, are
are you familiar with Borderlands
Produce Rescue?
What was the name again? Borderlands
Produce Rescue. I haven't heard of that
yet.
Um, it it has been around for since the
'9s and um u anyone can go to their
multiple sites and and purchase for a
nominal amount um a car full of
wonderful produce. you never know what
you're going to get. Um, and I did that
weekly on behalf of an u an an immigrant
support organization. So, I would
purchase the the food, the the produce,
and then they would tell me what church
to bring it to for distribution to
people who were not comfortable going to
food banks because of some obvious
reasons. The reason I raise it is there
may be an opportunity to uh find an o
maybe there may be an opportunity to um
uh take advantage of what may be left
over from them. And so I would encourage
you to to check them out. They have a
website and and they as I say they've
been around since the 90s. Uh it's
called Borderlands Produce Rescue and
they're superb organization. They have
popup uh locations which they announce
in advance uh at various mega churches
because there are hundreds and hundreds
of cars that come in. But but that's the
way their their business plan works. Uh
but what what happens to the food when
they're finished selling on that one day
uh may be something that that's an
opportunity. I don't know what what what
becomes of it, but but it comes in
truckloads.
Chair Lori, members of the commissioner,
Commissioner Turgil. Um, thank you. We
will look into that with the with our
partnership with St. Mary's, they do um
have strict rules and guidelines we have
to follow and mainly because if they
already partner with a certain
organization, we can't have a separate
partnership with them. So, we will make
sure that um St. Mary's is okay with
that and we can look into um partnering
with That's curious. Okay. Thank you.
Any other questions or comments? If not,
thank you. Thank you so much for what
you do for our community and um very
much appreciated. Thank you. So, the
next agenda item is mine. Uh
um and it's uh an opportunity for us to
share our thoughts about the funding
process. Uh this was my fourth iteration
through this. Um let's face it, it's
really the most major activity that this
commission does in the year. Um as we
talk about this, I also would encourage
uh input from from staff um Mary, Cara,
Sue, and others on the staff. Um just a
few notes before I turn it over to you
all though. Um, as I was thinking about
this earlier today, this funding
process, even though we don't see all of
it, it's really almost an annual
process. It, you know, the funding year
starts July 1, proposals are submitted
by
midocctober. Responses to questions
submitted by staff are due by the end of
November. We get the proposals in
January. make our re recommendations in
March and then they're approved by the
city council in late April and May. And
I'm pleased to say that all of our
proposals were approved this
year.
Um, one thing that has radically
transformed in my mind from the first
year I did this is setting those five
priority areas. Um, emer and just to
remind you what those are, emergency
housing, crisis case
management, homeless
support, vulnerable populations, meaning
seniors and disabled, and development of
youth. Um, I was also really pleased to
see that we had input from the mayor's
youth council this year. I thought that
was quite valuable.
Um, I think also what has really
improved over the years, uh, I think I
think the first year that I was on the
commission, they had morphed
from giving you, um, a a couple reams of
paper literally to take home to read to
creating the SharePoint site and then
most recently moving to Neighborly.
Um, I really thank the city staff for
all they do to make this seamless and
efficient for us. Um, and thank you to
all of you as
commissioners for like this year reading
37
proposals about 700 pages of
documentation
um, and thoughtfully uh, responding to
those with your rankings. And so with
that, I want to open it up and hear from
you all what you think was
good, where you think we have
opportunities to improve the process in
future years. Um, and I recognize
um maybe a couple of you won't be on the
commission in future years, but your
input is still
valuable. And I see a hand go up. So,
Commissioner Turgil, thank you. Uh I I
just want to echo uh what the what the
chair said about the extraordinary
amount of work that the staff puts in as
well as uh those who are sitting on the
deis. Um it is
a a long and uh uh thoughtful process.
Uh and obviously the proof of the
pudding as uh as Roger pointed out is
over the last two council meetings uh
all of the recommendations of this
commission were approved and and that
really tells the tale.
Um this is this probably is my last
meeting because my term expires on the
17th. Um, so when I share some comments
about the the funding
process, I'm going to be doing it um
really looking back over the last three
years that I've served on this
commission and the experience of going
through three funding cycles. Um, and
uh, so let me let me just get into it.
Um my my main concern is that our
evaluation of grants in my view um is is
quantitative and I believe it should be
a mix of both quantitative and
qualitative measures.
um the open field space for comments
that's uh uh afforded to us allows for
some personal observations, but our
comments don't seem to be a factor in
the grading or outcome scores or the
ranking or the ultimate approval. So, so
we have an opportunity to make some
comments, but I'm not sure that that
those comments find their way uh into
into the the grading or the ultimate
decisions. So my my biggest criticism of
the process is um that it is possible
and even likely
um that an applicant could achieve high
scores according to the scoring
methodology and yet in my view um still
not necessarily be worthy of funding. Um
there there should be at least a binary
question for evaluators which would give
the evaluator a chance to say whether
she or he approves or disapproves of
funding of the grant. That would be an
interesting that would be an interesting
addition to the process. So you go
through all of the the the logarithm and
uh but but
somewhere you know wouldn't I wonder
what would be the effect of uh of high
scores and yet a number of um
commissioners saying no I don't
necessarily agree that this should be
funded. So that's number one.
Um, secondly, and and I'm I I took uh
some time during this funding process to
focus on on this particular issue. I I I
believe that that all the applicants
that submit requests, submit grant
applications, should be required to
provide a link to their most recent IRS
form 990, which we've discussed in the
past. It does contain very helpful
information for evaluators and I wanted
to share these six key factors that that
I think are most uh helpful uh that the
990 affords. One under revenue sources
it gives insight into whether the
organization is overly dependent on one
funer or a single revenue stream.
Two, with respect to spending ratios, it
provides information on what percentage
goes to programs versus administration
and
fundraising. Three, board independence.
It helps to determine whether there are
checks and balances at the
top. Next, executive compensation. It it
is appropriately and reasonably aligned
with the question is is it appropriately
and reasonably aligned with the mission
scale and sector
norms liquidity. Are there enough
reserves to weather financial and
economic
uncertainty? And the last point with
respect to the 990 that I think is
helpful uh has to do with fundraising
efficiency. Is the return on fundraising
expenditures justifiable?
The 990 doesn't tell the whole story,
but I believe it often tells hard
truths, and I believe that it should be
uh a key element in in evaluating grant
requests. And my last comment is that I
I really think that there should be a a
process established for applicants in
some yetto determined designated top
tier group when it comes to scores in
each funding category to come for a
personal interview. I we've we've
experimented with different ways of
having uh uh those who submit grant
requests appear in person and sometimes
it was all sometimes it was a few it was
done selectively. I think there needs to
be some attention given to uh uh
winnowing down by category uh the the
the likely candidates or those with the
highest scores or however we determine
it to to actually come before the
commission for Q&A. So those are my
comments. Thank you,
Commissioner DS. Thanks, Mr. Chairman.
Uh yeah, I don't know if this is my last
meeting or not. Apparently, we may be
serving for another one and it sort of
depends. Yeah. So, so let me let me
address that because uh even though your
term
uh Commissioner Turgil, Commissioner
Dods, and Vice Chair Jung is technically
up May 17th. Uh it's not going to be
until June when the um council does the
appointments. So, um I think the ask is
that you continue through the May 22nd
meeting if if you're willing to.
Absolutely. That's going to depend on
Stu's calendar, I
suppose, but and Mary's. So,
um, what, uh, I'd like to say is that
the I'm I also appreciate the staff's
work on a process that is,
uh, pretty amazing. I mean, having to
coordinate all of the different
u input um the the applications and the
applicants
um and then turning it over to us in a
form that we can digest is it's a lot of
work and I really appreciate what
they've
done.
Um, also during the last three years,
I've seen, you know, I've seen some
tweaks, some that worked well and some
that I thought did not work. one of my
one of my own when I I asked last year
that uh if we had money left
over that that applicants would indicate
whether there was a minimum size of
grant that they would accept from that
leftover source and I think the
applicants really didn't understand what
we were asking some of them said they
they would not accept any less than what
was requested in the grant. And I
believe when we went back and asked if
they would accept a smaller amount after
we'd gone through the process, they said
yes. So they they didn't quite
understand that we were asking basically
is this amount worth even accepting for
the
administrative cost of of receiving
these monies and and uh reporting on
them.
So that's to say that. So some things
work, some things don't. And I think the
commission needs to continue that
process, make some tweaks and see what
really works and what doesn't. Um, the
main thing that I heard during this
year's process that I thought was
really
helpful, potentially a a big change
would be some sort of an
informal study session after the grants
have been received, but before we rate
them. At least that's how I heard this
particular idea. And that would be that
there's some discussion among the
commissioners
uh before we before the commission does
the
ratings. So uh that would
allow individual commissioners to raise
questions that perhaps other
commissioners had not thought of, you
know, bring to the force some
information that uh they might have
about the the organizations.
So that that might help
um solidify the ratings process a little
better because it is it's so difficult
to try to you know take all of these
different value judgments and
consolidate them as sort of one uh
number. That's what we're kind of being
asked to do now. So, I realize there
there may be some heartburn with the
some of the legal implications of
discussing the grants beforehand, the
awarding of the grants beforehand, but
it seems like that's, you know, the
Supreme Court does the same thing when
they settle cases. So, I I can see Mary
reaching for her microphone.
Chair Lurri, members of the commission,
um I would have to address that informal
conversation with purchasing. Currently,
the procurement rules as they currently
stand um with the city is that you
cannot discuss other applicants and
their applications with those who are
rating them amongst each other. So when
we the city sends out a request for
proposal, the raiders are
assigned and we all meet and go over the
regulations, but then the raiders are
not allowed to talk to each other until
the end and they come back and review
the scores, which is why we do it the
current way that we do it. So it would
be out of the norm necessarily and I
would need to speak with legal and
procurement.
Thanks. I I appreciate that and I
thought that that may be the chief
um
uh problem with with that sort of uh
approach. Let's see. I was trying to
look at my notes and see if there are
any other things that uh well one of the
things that u in the in the notice of
application
uh funding application process
um I'm not sure whether
we distinguish between the different
funding sources enough um my interest
there is that I there are two things one
is that if people are applying with the
if the uh applicants are seeking federal
funding, I I kind of wonder if they
understand the intricacies of receiving
and reporting for federal
grants. And I don't know whether that is
somehow captured in the process or
whether we could capture it, but I think
that's a legitimate concern because it's
much it's a much more detailed process
for folks that are trying to receive
federal funds than our, you know, than
our our utility funding. Um, for the
utility funding, I think it would be a
good idea to at least uh make sure that
applicants are aware that they're
receiving the funds through the utility
billing
program. And it might be in, you know,
if we want to market that program more
that um they should imagine themselves
addressing utility bill customers.
What is it that we could say to
uh a customer who's making these monthly
donations that would explain to them
what the what the value is for
Scottsdale citizens, Scottsdale utility
uh bill
payers. I think that's u all I had.
Thanks. Thank you, Commissioner Dods.
Who wants to uh Commissioner Kulie?
hard to believe I have I have something
to say. I'll make it quick. Um, as
freshman commissioner, I I found it um
difficult. I understand the process is
extremely better than it was years ago.
Uh, I came in I I saw um in my my the
early part of my term Cass Family
Promise Community House speak and I was
thinking, "Oh, well, I guess we'll hear
from the rest of them before we Oh, we
don't. Okay. So, I I so like, okay,
that's fine." So, we obviously don't do
that necessarily. Uh, and had done it
before, and I'm not suggesting we do it
again, but from my perspective, and with
two, uh, newbie commissioners coming on
board in June, I think it would be
helpful to be, uh, and this this may be
the way I'm wired, less
subjective and more objective as far as
how we approach it. I I was trying to
struggling with connecting the dots
between the applications and the
ratings. I was like, "Okay, so does this
answer this question?" And so if that's
that and it does, is that a three or is
that a five or what? And I was just like
struggling with that. So maybe there's
some model we can come up with that'll
that'll help with that. It would help
me. Um, and the other other thing that I
would just throw out, uh, Sue and I were
at the Arizona Housing Coalition
conference, uh, to yesterday and today,
and there was a, uh, four-pillar, one
mission panel this morning that
included, oddly enough, uh, Nate Smith
from Cass and three others, and they
talked about what if we had
collaborative groups, uh, of like
agencies that were given a pool of money
and said, "Okay, now what are you going
to do with this?" Just as a as a
different tact all together, instead of
saying, "You get some and you get some.
We ran out, we didn't get, but maybe if
you've got a shelter group,
collaborative group, uh something along
those lines to where it's busted up and
then put the onus back on them and say,
"Okay, so you guys, you're so smart.
Instead of replicating a lot of the same
uh uh services, why not collaborate and
see what you can do with the same amount
of money?" Well, as if I can just add to
that as the as a retired CEO of a
community foundation, I can tell you
that uh that at least in that sector uh
there's a high value placed on
collaboration on on on bring just
exactly what you said, Lee, on bringing
organizations with a shared shared
concerns, shared vision, shared uh needs
together to to talk about how
collectively they can work together
where you know oneon-one is three and so
you're spot on. Thank you. Yeah. And I'm
I'm so glad you raised that because I
think it was two or three years
ago that had surfaced as a proposal and
I Mary I see you. Did Did you want to
speak to that? Chair Lori, members of
the commission, I just wanted to say
that was a recommendation out of our
office and it was part of the
application process this year and
hopefully with the stakeholder meetings
as we move forward with the human
services strategic plan um as we bring
those stakeholders together, they'll
open the doors for conversations and
working collaboratively to fill out the
applications together.
Oh, Commissioner Sher
Thank you, Mr. Chair. This feedback u
from my colleagues has been excellent. I
um am thinking that um because the
calendar and I think the calendar works
very well. I think staff has done a
great job to fine-tune the calendar. Um,
but I also realize there's a point where
you got to go and you need time in
advance of putting out the notice of
funding to modify
something to be in response to some of
our feedback. So, one of the things we
may want to do is if it's if it works in
the context of an August meeting where
you're going to gather this feedback
from us tonight. We're not going to have
time to distill it and vote on it, but
you're going to get a whole lot of
feedback. If we could come back in
August, early enough in August, maybe
it's the first meeting, maybe it's the
second, I don't know, Mary, you know
what time you need to put it put put the
NOA together, but um and just kind of
review what you heard us say and give us
a chance to gnaw on it one more time
before you finalize the notice of
funding. And maybe some of that can be
in the course of written material you
send out to us like, I've heard this and
here's what we're considering. So, we
come to that meeting with a with a sense
of focus. Um, I also agree with the
positives that you've heard this
evening. Uh, having been through this
four times, it has gotten better. Um,
it's always going to be an imperfect
process. No question about it. But I
think when our council receives this
funding and we don't have applicants
coming before them feeling like they um
didn't get a fair shake, I mean, it's
all positive and we've we're putting
money into very very worthy causes. I
appreciate that um the last couple
cycles staff
has brought set set aides the CDBG set
aides to us so that we had a role in
that and felt like we could influence
the set aides. Um and so I I'm grateful
for that. One of the biggest
improvements I felt that I've seen in in
in the years is staff's input. When I
first came on the
commission, I feel like staff got a memo
from legal that said, "Thou shalt not
influence the commission." Uh that the
commission needs to do their thing and
staff can't taint that, you know, that
process. And we are we are very uh
appreciative of the professional staff,
you know, the day-to-day on the ground
challenges. you understand uh the
various organizations that you interact
with. You also have an understanding of
the funding the potential funding
shortages because the as we're doing our
funding process, the city's budget
process is also getting formulated and
it's coming out of the shoots in about a
January context where it's starting to
get pretty formed. And so the further we
go down the road um without an
understanding of that, we may be at a
disconnect. There may be contracts that
are funded through general city dollars
or through other mechanisms that
suddenly may not be available for
funding through our normal budget
process that we that could influence how
we allocate dollars through the funding
that we get.
So, I appreciate the opportunity to to
not keep the processes separate and
distinct, but to keep educating us about
what you're seeing on your radar screens
about potential shortfalls and how that
may factor into some of our decision
work regarding the recommended
allocations.
Um I I have historically struggled with
point systems. I understand purchasing
loves point systems because everything
looks like it's just been objectively
resolved through various points. But I
am hearing my colleagues talk
about an absence of
a a qualitative conversation that may
allow us to be more refined in our
personal point systems when we do the
scoring and that includes input from
staff. Again, I I think we have an
incredible staff and we are better when
we hear what you have to say. That does
not mean it's a rubber stamp and that
we're going to run with it, but it gives
us additional input um to consider in
the in the context of our decision-
making.
Um, I think it's also helpful and Roger
mentioned this, the the the priorities
and I and I honestly
thought and staff worked those
priorities. You got together and you
worked them and you brought them to us
and we didn't really modify them. They
were excellent and I thought they were
going to sort of tighten my decision
scope. But then I really looked at them
and it's like most everything sort of
fits those priorities. So then I had a I
had a struggle internally and maybe this
is part of what Lee was talking about is
is um you know do I in my own head rate
those
priorities within the priorities and and
so I don't know if there's a need for us
to allow ourselves to I don't want to
say rank order officially but to talk
about what priorities really are a
little more important certain than the
other ones. As we um move through this
process, I'm just sort of thinking out
loud and sharing some of that
information with
you. You will come back because we
didn't fund the endowment, the two
endowment grant requests, and so we set
those aside. We weren't exactly enamored
with how those dollars are being
allocated. We hope to get more interest
in that, but there's a little work to do
to shape the sort of ho how we approach
the the endowments. And there are two
separate endowments, but we kind of
lumped them together. I don't have a
problem with that, but I do think we'd
love to see more more money to allocate
and and more interest in that particular
funding allocation.
Um, this is um on the u on the on the
verge of like nitpick stuff, but um when
when I go through and read because
there's like 40 pages of stuff and we're
going through and reading the order of
the
applications, I have to go to like
section C or I have to go into it
several pages before I know what are
they propose proposing. what is there I
know there's a there's a subject header
that is sort of a a little summary but
what are they actually wanting to do? So
that's way down and I'm going back and
then I'm coming back. So that's a
nitpick and you can take it for what
it's worth. Um I thought last year when
you
consolidated the scoring categories that
was a great step forward. Um, I also had
a feeling that we sort of backed into
putting the point systems into those
categories to come up with some magic
number of points. And so I do think it
would be helpful to get some feedback
from the commission about the various
point categories 0 to 15, 0 to six, 0 to
nine. I mean, are those really
reflective of the most important things
we're trying to fund? And the more
um refined and comfortable we are with
the scoring
sheet, the potentially
more comfortable we will with the total
point systems and the way it sort of you
know lays out. I I don't know but that's
something else to consider. Um let me
look at my sheet here. I'm all over the
place, but I will um make
one final run at
um the notion that we should obligate
ourselves to grant full funding for the
respective grants. I I will say this
year I thought that worked out fine. We
didn't get into a lot of back and forth
and I think it just sort of came out
okay this year. Um, but I'm I'm not sure
why we want to tie ourselves down at the
front end before we have a chance to go
through the process and and at least
allow some latitude to say we can fund
three more agencies. If we fund at 80%
80% and 80% at some level down on the
ranking system, we're going to make
three more agencies happy. Now, I know
the counter to that is, but these
proposals are coming in expecting full
funding. But let's be honest, what we're
funding is not a total program. We're
not funding a
$500,000 total program.
we're ending up funding a small
percentage of a body that helps the
program. That's a big program. So, I
think we're kidding ourselves if we're
thinking that we're doing them a
disservice if we allow ourselves to fund
them less than full full funding. Um
because we're just funding a percentage
of a person. Um, and so instead of, you
know, half an FTE, we might be funding
point4 of an FTE or something like that.
So I thought I'd make another run at
that. I know I was in the minority
before, but I I don't understand why we
want to tie our hands at the front side
of this when we can tie our hands at the
backside if we want and do full funding.
So, those are my comments and I really
appreciate all the work that staff has
done and I hope you heard me say we
super value staff input. Thank you,
Vice Chair John. Thank you. I appreciate
the comments that have already been um
shared and um echo the compliments um to
staff for all of their hard work in this
process. There's one area um that came
up this year I wanted to talk about and
it relates a little bit to what Stuart
brought up in terms of is there a place
that we can
veto an
application based on circumstances that
are not part of the
evaluation.
Um and I I'll give an example of
something that happened this year. We
had only
one grant application for a
category and
we it ended up getting funded. Um so it
would be nice to have an out
um if there aren't competitive proposals
um or for any other circumstance that
might
arise.
Um, and I I would
also maybe like to have more discussion
on if there are no proposals for certain
funding, how can we
um enable the staff to use those funds
the way they see it best
utilized. um
particularly if we are going to have
funding shortages in the future. So I'm
hoping we can explore that in the next
um cycle. And
lastly, we my understanding is
we had an
entity that was being paid to do the
scope of work from another entity.
um and then was requesting funds from
the city as well. And I think that would
be another um opportunity in the
application process to say is the scope
of work that you're preparing to do for
the city of Scottsdale being paid for by
another another
entity. So those are my um comments. I
thoroughly enjoyed the process. um this
time um it's greatly improved and look
forward to next time.
Okay, James. Thank you, Roger. Uh well,
this is my fourth cycle and um I really
appreciate all the comments from uh my
fellow commissioners here and uh
particularly the fact that we went from
700 live pages to electronic processes
that that's really a huge improvement.
Um so you know kudos to the SCA staff
could never ever ever get this done
without you. And um I just want to
recognize one I think unsung hero in all
this is Chad uh and his magic
spreadsheets. So, uh he's he's shortened
a lot of conversations uh by his
terrific stuff. Um I like the fact that
we did focus on top scores this year. I
think that worked much better than than
trying to slice and dice down to 63%
78%. Um so that worked well. One thing I
would like to focus on is uh keeping the
money here and figure out how
to
emphasize Scottsdalebased
organizations and I don't know if
there's a way to bonus that because they
all say well they don't all actually
offer the services in our town but many
have headquarters outside of the city
who do provide services here but I think
to incentivize is uh either outside
nonprofits to partner directly with our
locals to keep the money in in
Scottsdale. Anyway, I think there could
be a bonus system for that. Um, one of
the things and I'll echo e echo what
Stuart was talking about the qualitative
versus quantitative.
Um, again, if there's a way to build in
a question of whether these agencies
actually do conduct client satisfaction
surveys and if so, um, can they release
those that information? Of course, it's
all going to be anonymous, but I think
that really helps from a qualitative
standpoint and reputational standpoint.
And you know, one of the agencies that
consistently comes back to us for money,
I believe, has a terrible reputation
with their clients. Their scores were
quite high. And it's that weird kind of,
you know, uh, numbers game versus actual
impact and client satisfaction. So, I
think if they do conduct them, kudos.
And if they if they do, I'd like to see
them.
Um, and those are my top things. You
know, I just appreciate how far we've
come in the in the four cycles I've been
here and looking forward to next. Jeff,
if I could just add to something that
you said, the the key word at the end of
your comments was impact. Client
satisfaction is important. That isn't
necessarily the best the the exclusively
the best measure of impact. Impact is
how are lives being changed? And that is
the the key issue that that every grtor
uh whether they're uh uh civic
organizations, municipalities, private
foundations, whatever are should be
looking for. How are how how are these
funds changing people's lives? and
organizations that are seeking support
really um if they if they fail to
demonstrate that they do so at their own
peril. I believe agreed.
Wow. It's really been great discussion.
Um it is 7:20 and I'm sure everybody
would love to go home. Uh if it were
earlier, I'd say that let's continue the
conversation.
But I think I'd like to advocate that uh
to to um uh Neil's point that we we set
aside an agenda item in August in early
August if that's not too late to impact
the
process. Um but we come back in August
and um I I um Kira, I saw you taking
notes. I also took notes and um we come
back and and highlight and identify the
very specific items we want to uh adjust
at that
time. Um any other comments from staff?
Chair Luri, members of the commission,
the only suggestions um that staff is
bringing forward to you is that we do
agree that the 990 form should be added
to the application process as part of
one of their documents that they have to
submit. Um we would ask that you would
consider that anybody who receives a
score of 70 and above would move forward
to the informal recommendations. If they
receive a score below 70, they are then
eliminated from consideration.
So it's like you get a C, you move
forward for consideration. If you score
less than that, you're out. And those
then might be the that that group that I
mentioned that might be invited to come
for face to face. So that that is one of
our major um suggestions. Um, we still
would like to leave the collaborative
application process in um, in hopes that
through these strategic outreach
meetings and stakeholders that we can
get people to start working together and
encourage that.
Mary, I don't think I I would I'm going
to take a leap of faith by saying that
that um it probably wouldn't uh ruffle
anybody's feathers in in the legal
department or or procurement. If if when
the uh notices went out uh there was
there was some language that said uh we
encourage and appre you know in other
words to make the point that we
encourage and and uh uh the fostering of
of collaborative efforts among and
between uh organizations.
Uh I think that's a fairly benign
statement but what we do with it on the
back end is kind of up to us.
All right, moving forward. Um,
identifying future agenda items.
Well, let me tell you, if you thought
this was a long
meeting, our May 22nd meeting, um, we're
going to have a homeless update, an
update on, keep me honest on this, uh, a
homeless update, an update on Bridge
Housing, a director's report, an update
on Scottsdale
Cares, on heat relief, which I think
will be part of the director's report,
And last but not least, we're going to
have Nicole New House here, who is the
executive director of the Arizona
Housing Coalition talking to us about
homeless initiatives and what
communities should be doing. Um,
uh, not naming names, but I know that
one person on the dis has a 6:05 a.m.
flight the next morning to Athens,
Greece.
So, I hope it's not till 9:00 at night
or I might just be going straight to the
airport from
here.
Um, next Monday, May 15th, I think you
all got the or excuse me, not that not
May 15, May 12th, I think you all got
the email. Uh, just curious how many of
you are going on the homeless tour. I
will be. Great. Great. Uh and then
Thursday, May 15th, we've got the
strategic plan
uh event over at the community design
studio. Um and then May 22nd, which will
be our last meeting before August. And I
think the date of our first August
meeting would be August 14th, if I'm not
mistaken. Second Thursday. No, that
wouldn't be right. It would have to be
the
8th
7th. No, maybe it is the 14th.
I'm showing I might be tired eyes, but
um August 21st is the 3rd. Oh, but don't
we do second and fourth? Oh, I'm sorry.
You're right. Yep. That would be
Thursday the 14th. Okay, very good.
And um I I yeah I recognize some of your
terms are up but hope you'll be here for
May 22nd even if I told you how long the
agenda will
be. Um so moving forward any other items
otherwise uh a motion to adjurnn.
So move second and a roll a roll call.
All right. Chair Lori. Yes. Vice Chair
Jung. Yes. Yes. Commissioner Turgil,
yes. Commissioner Dods, yes.
Commissioner Sheer, yes. Commissioner
Kulie, yes. And Commissioner Jameson,
yes.
We are adjourned.
I'm hungry.