Fort Walton Beach Council agenda — 11-23-2010 Regular — reading text

development delivery system. The City developed a Resource Guide that identifies all of the various agencies and services within Okaloosa County. United Way now maintains the guide and it can be found on their web site at h ttp: //w ww. uni ted -way. orrg /FCFH. htm . Anti -Poverty Strategy. The City plans to work closely with the above mentioned organizations through the CDBG program to reduce poverty. The City provides funding to these agencies through the CDBG grant program applications targeting homeless, very low, and low income households. 14  5. Leveraging Resources Lead Agency Profile The City of Fort Walton Beach' s Engineering Services Division prepares the Annual Action Plan as part of a collaborative process to establish a unified vision of community development actions. This process creates the opportunity for strategic planning and citizen participation to take place in a comprehensive context at the local level. It also provides a method to measure progress of the various program goals, specific objectives, and annual goals set by the Engineering Services Division. 6. Citizen Participations /Comments The City of Fort Walton Beach has many processes for involving citizens in its decision making including neighborhood meetings, numerous board and committee meetings, and City Council meetings; all designed to solicit public comments both informally or by utilizing formal public hearings. Citizens' comments on the use of CDBG funds are specifically solicited by a way of a citizen advisory group. The Citizen' s Advisory Committee ( CAC) advises staff on the use of the City of Fort Walton Beach' s annual CDBG fund allocation. Each year, the Citizen' s Advisory Committee ( CAC) comes together to plan for the CDBG budget for the coming fiscal year. The CAC reviews all applications submitted for the City' s annual allocation of grant funds. At least three advertised public hearings or meetings are held each year to address housing and community development needs, development of proposed activities, and review of performance for the Community Development Block Grant ( CDBG). This year, the Citizen Advisory Committee met on June 15th and 29th, 2009 to review and consider applications for the CDBG funds, to allocate program funding for the fiscal year. The minutes are attached to the back of this document. The FY2009 -2010 Annual Action Plan was made available for a 30 -day public review and comment period from June 30, 2009 to July 29, 2009. The CAC' s final meeting was on August 3rd, 2009 and gave final approval for the 2009 -2010 Annual Action Plan. The City Council of Fort Walton Beach considered and approved the Plan at a publicly advertised meeting on August 11, 2009. The CAPER was available for a 15 -days public review and comment period beginning October 25 through November 9th. The CAPER for the Community Development Block Grant program for 2009 -2010 for the City of Fort Walton Beach was available for comments at the following locations: Fort Walton Beach City Hall Annex, Development Services Division, 105 Miracle Strip Parkway S. W., Fort Walton Beach City Clerk' s Office,107 Miracle Strip Parkway, Fort Walton Beach Library, 185 Miracle Strip Parkway SE and Fort Walton Beach Housing Authority, 27 Robinwood Drive SW, Fort Walton Beach, Florida and on the Fort Walton Beach City website at www.fwb.org. 15  Two public meetings were held for public participation on the CAPER on November 10th and 17th at Chester Pruitt Recreation Center. Both meetings were advertised in the Northwest Florida Daily News. To ensure broad -based participation, extensive communication efforts are used during the implementation of the City' s Consolidated Plan citizen participation plan. Public notices for public hearings are published in the local newspaper and announced in local churches. The various printed notices notify where copies of the Consolidated Plan are available and invite persons to either speak at the public hearings and/ or submit written comments. Public hearings are handicap accessible and sign language interpretation is available at public hearings. The Citizen' s Advisory Committee continues to be at the core of the public participation process. The City' s Community Development Block Grant staff promotes public awareness and opportunities for participation by making available documents such as the annual action plan, five -year consolidated plan, consolidated annual performance evaluation report, analysis of impediments to fair housing, etc., and by advertising their availability in the local news media and on the City website. The City continually strives to organize and present data in a manner that is easily understood and evaluated by our citizens and welcomes comments on the Annual Action Plan and how future reports might be improved. Documents Available to the Public In addition to this Consolidated Annual Performance and Evaluation Report, CAPER, the following reports from the Integrated Disbursement and Information System IDIS, are available to the public: CAPER' S Narrative CDBG Financial Summary Report Activity Summary Reports 7. Self-Evaluation As evidenced in this report, the City continues to be successful in addressing the needs of its citizens and in meeting its stated objectives. Through meetings with the general public and other social services agencies, the City' s CDBG Program has had continual support. In addition, as evidenced in this report, the City has coordinated efforts with other agencies to address the needs of our community. The City believes that the activities and strategies implemented are having an impact on the identified needs in the Action Plan. The indicators that lead us to this conclusion are as follows: VISUAL: Homes rehabilitated through the use of federal funds not only improve the overall livability of the low /moderate income family receiving the assistance by 16  providing decent, safe and sanitary housing, but the neighborhoods are enhanced with the rehabilitated units in their midst. With the City' s Acquisition/Demolition Program, the improvements become clearly evident in the revitalization area. The removal of slum and blight conditions provides a much needed enhancement to the community. The area becomes more visually appealing to potential customers and the neighborhood and City as a whole. Quality: The rehabilitation of homes also contributes to quality of life issues. A family who now has a decent, safe and sanitary living environment cannot help but have an improved quality of life; the family has adequate plumbing facilities, electric hearing, cooling, etc. The City received a positive assessment of its housing program from HUD' s Community Planning and Development Division. The City was commended for its timely use of federal funding in meeting the needs of low and moderate income people within the community. Overall, our grant programs are fulfilling their potential. Detailed performances are described in this report. The Residential Rehab Program continues to assist families using CDBG funds. This program has increased the number of permanent housing units in standard condition. Expenditures are timely to contractors and public services agencies. The monitoring of our public service agencies is on schedule. Requests for draws are handled in a timely manner. With the addition of IDIS, draws from the system are timelier thereby satisfying the City' s own accounting processes. The City' s major goals of providing decent, safe and sanitary housing, providing suitable living environments for low and moderate income persons and the removal of slum and blight conditions are on target and meet the national objectives At this time, we do not see any need for changes or adjustments to our strategies and activities. The community and leadership see the current strategies and activities. The community and leadership see the current strategies as meeting the needs of our citizens. If, at the later time, we see the need for adjustments or changes, we will reassess our strategies and make any necessary changes /adjustments at that time. As stated previously, we feel we have been successful in achieving our goals through the use of federal funds. By using these funds to their fullest potential, our community continues to thrive and be one of the best there is. CONSISTENCY: The City certifies that the use of CDBG funds was consistent with other HUD programs in Okaloosa County. 17  8. Monitoring Program evaluation and monitoring is the means by which the City provides administrative oversight and performance testing of activities undertaken through HUD assistance under this Consolidated Plan. Evaluation and monitoring applies to both activities directly undertaken by the City as well as sub -recipients and other work or services performed on a contractual basis. Monitoring of the CDBG program will be conducted by the City' s Engineering Services Division. Monitoring will be used to ensure that activities carried out are in furtherance of the plan and meet the goals and objectives set forth in the Consolidated Plan. The monitoring was carried out on a monthly basis to ensure that program activities were being accomplished in a timely manner. Ongoing evaluation is the primary mechanism for tracking performance and compliance. In the case of individual activities and sub -recipient agreements, disbursement of funds is tied to maintenance of through disbursement, compliance each including proper documentation of cost through that disbursement. Ongoing compliance is measured the the against specifics of particular agreement. Satisfactory resolution of any compliance or performance difficulties at the time of a planned disbursement is required prior to disbursement. In the case of sub -recipient and other forms or agreements or contracts for individual activities, the measurement of progress varied depending upon the type of activity and the specific schedule, reporting and other benchmarks established for the particular activity. Education, particularly in the case of sub -recipient types of activities, is an important element of the monitoring process. Prior to execution of a sub - recipient or other agreement, requirements are further reviewed with an explanation to the parties, including the compliance and performance measures, and additional materials or information is provided as appropriate. Monitoring activities was conducted in a positive and proactive manner, identifying and resolving problems early during an activity, providing technical assistance when feasible and necessary, maintaining communication and feedback on performance, any required reporting, and ongoing compliance with terms of the assistance and contract. IV. PROGRAM NARRATIVE Assessment of Relationship of CDBG Funds to Goals and Objectives The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban