Fort Walton Beach Council agenda — 06-02-09 special — reading text

benefits; E) Minimizing or avoiding reductions in essential services; or F) Fostering energy independence. iv. For each activity, the number of full- and part -time jobs estimated to be created and retained by the activity, which will include permanent, construction and temporary jobs. v. A description of activities that will be carried out with CDBG -R funds to promote energy conservation, smart growth, green building techniques or reduced pollution emissions. vi. Information on how to contact grantee or unit of general local government program administrators so that citizens and other interested parties will know who  17 to contact for additional information. vii. A signed standard federal form SF -424, and signed certifications as specified in section II.H. of this notice. 3. Citizen Participation Alternative Requirement. HUD is providing an alternative requirement to 42 U. S. C. 5304( a)( 2) and ( 3), to expedite distribution of grant funds and to provide for expedited citizen participation for the CDBG -R substantial amendment. Provisions of 24 CFR 570. 302, 24 CFR 570. 486( a), 24 CFR 91. 105( k) and 91, 115( 1), with respect to following the citizen participation plan, are waived to the extent necessary to allow implementation of the requirements below. In addition, for States, 24 CFR 91. 110 is waived to the extent necessary to eliminate the requirement that a state must consult with units of local government in determining the state' s method of distribution in its substantial amendment. a. 24 CFR 91. 105( k) and 24 CFR 91. 115( i) are being waived to specify that the grantee will provide no fewer than 7 calendar days for citizen comment (rather than 30 days) for its CDBG -R substantial amendment. At the time of submission to HUD, each grantee will post its action plan amendment and any subsequent CDBG -R amendments on its official website along with a summary of citizen comments received within the 7 -day comment period. HUD encourages the grantee to make copies of the substantial amendment available in public places such as libraries and government buildings. In addition, the grantee must ensure that non -English speaking persons and persons with disabilities have access to copies of substantial amendments. b. The regulation at 24 CFR 91. 505( c)( 1) states that a grantee may submit a copy of an amendment to its action plan to HUD as it occurs or at the end of the program year. 24 CFR  V 91. 505 is waived to require each grantee to submit the substantial amendment to its action plan for CDBG -R funds no later than the deadlines specified in paragraph 4. below. 4. Submission Deadlines. Except as otherwise provided in this paragraph, entitlement grantees, Insular areas and non -entitlement counties in Hawaii are to submit their substantial amendments to their 2008 action plans to their HUD field office by June 5, 2009. States are to submit the substantial amendments to their PY2008 action plans to their HUD field office by June 29, 2009. The deadline for the substantial amendment for HPRP is May 18, 2009; therefore, grantees that wish to submit a single substantial amendment for both programs must do so by May 18, 2009. Any grantee that will be submitting its program year 2009 action plan between the date of this notice and June 5, 2009, may wish to consider ways in which it can combine the citizen .participation and submission steps for its CDBG -R substantial amendment with those for its 2009 action plan. Any entitlement grantee or non -entitlement county in Hawaii with a program year start date of July 1 or earlier, and which has not yet submitted its program year 2009 action plan to its field office as of the date of this notice, may submit its CDBG -R substantial amendment to its 2008 action plan simultaneously with the submission of its program year 2009 action plan. However, in no case can such an entitlement grantee or non - entitlement county in Hawaii submit its CDBG -R action plan amendment later than June 5, 2009. States that submit their substantial amendment to 2008 action plans by June 29, 2009, will need to submit the 2009 action plan by its original deadline. However, the abbreviated citizen participation process provided in this notice applies only to CDBG -R substantial amendments, not to the submission of program year 2009 action plans. Existing regulatory citizen participation requirements continue to apply to action plans submitted for regular  19 CDBG funding, even if a grantee wishes to submit its CDBG -R substantial amendment simultaneously with its program year 2009 action plan. A grantee' s failure to meet the submission deadlines for CDBG -R, as applicable, may constitute grounds for the Department to cancel the grantee' s CDBG --R funding allocation pursuant to the provisions of section I.B. of this notice. 5. Program Design Considerations Although the Recovery Act applies additional or alternative requirements upon CDBG -R funding that do not exist in the regular CDBG program, this additional appropriation is otherwise subject to all regular CDBG program requirements. HUD has minimized the number of additional changes between CDBG -R and regular CDBG program requirements, to maximize grantees' flexibility in administering these funds. The Recovery Act also contains language which, while not stating explicit mandates, makes clear that Congress intends the use of Recovery Act appropriations to be targeted to address current economic conditions. For example, Section 1602 of the Recovery Act states that, Recipients shall also use grant funds in a manner that maximizes job creation and economic benefit." While grantees have the full range of CDBG eligible activities at their disposal for CDBG -R, Congress clearly intends that CDBG -R funds should primarily be invested in economic development, housing, infrastructure and other public facilities activities that will quickly spur further economic investment, increased energy efficiency, and job creation or retention. In selecting activities for CDBG -R funding, grantees should keep in mind that some. eligible activities under the Housing and Community Development Act are unlikely to substantively address the intent of the Recovery Act.  20 At the same time, the broad purpose language of the Recovery Act does not expand the list of eligible activities beyond those specified by the Housing and Community Development Act. Some uses of funds suggested by the Recovery Act' s broad purpose language do not necessarily fit into any CDBG eligible activity category, and may not be eligible for CDBG -R funding. However, HUD has determined that the purpose language and overall intent of the Act, particularly regarding Iocal fiscal stabilization, supersedes the requirement at 42 U. S. C. 5301 (c) that CDBG funding not be used to substantially replace the amount of local financial support previously provided to community development activities. The Recovery Act also makes clear that grantees are to identify projects that can achieve the Recovery Act purposes AND can be quickly implemented. Language at Title XIr of Division A of the Recovery Act, which appropriates the CDBG -R funds, states that, in selecting projects to be funded, recipients shall give priority to projects that can award contracts based on bids within 120 days from the date the funds are made available to the recipients." Section 1602 of the Recovery Act further states, " In using funds made available in this Act for infrastructure investment, recipients shall give preference. to activities that can be started and completed expeditiously, including a goal of using at least 50 percent of the funds for activities that can be initiated not later than 120 days after the date of the enactment of this Act." Grantees should not assume that their nonnal CDBG funding distribution procedures can meet the goals for obligation of funds described above. For example, if a grantee' s existing activity selection process mandates a lengthy Request For Proposals, lengthy procurement actions, or other process that would take months to produce funding recommendations, grantees should explore what local waiver authority or emergency  21 procedures they can implement to expedite the process. This may particularly be necessary with some states, for which deviations from existing procedures could require state rule - making. Some Urban County funding procedures that distribute funds on a proportional basis among all participating jurisdictions could result in funding awards that are too small to be used expeditiously and productively by the participating jurisdictions. Grantees may have already identified activities that were approved to receive funding out of the grantee' s FY2009 funding allocation. Grantees should consider whether any of these activities meet the additional CDBG -R requirements, and if so, whether their implementation schedules could be accelerated so that they could instead be funded with CDBG -R funds. However, moving an activity from a grantee' s 2008 or 2009 program year regular. CDBG program to the CDBG -R program, and replacing that moved activity with a new activity, would trigger a substantial amendment to a grantee' s already- approved 2008 or 2009 action plan. This would trigger additional citizen participation requirements beyond those required for the CDBG -R substantial amendment. States should consider whether their existing method of distribution processes can be employed to fund worthwhile activities that fell below the funding cut -off line from their program year 2008 distribution process, or to fund applications already submitted for their program year 2009 distribution process. HUD encourages grantees to use CDBG -R funds for discrete, stand -alone activities whenever possible. As noted elsewhere in this notice, final guidance on reporting requirements and applicability of the Davis -Bacon Wage Rate Act has not yet been issued. Amending a construction contract to add CDBG -R funding to an existing project particularly one that is not otherwise federally funded) may subject the entire project to  22 Recovery Act reporting and other compliance requirements. Grantees should also avoid using CDBG -R funds to initiate a new project that cannot be completed within the expenditure deadline for the CDBG -R program or that will require the commitment of future years' allocations of regular CDBG funds. However, HUD recognizes that the additional increment of CDBG -R funding may not be enough for some grantees to fully fund a new activity. ( The amount of additional funding allocated to grantees equals about 27 percent of their FY2008 regular CDBG allocation.) Grantees should consider whether it is possible to issue a new contract to use CDBG -R funds to fund an additional increment of work or services beyond that which is already under contract or otherwise underway. For example: A grantee may have