By REID TUCKER
Former grant writing university professor Robert McKnight once again went before the DeFuniak Springs City Council to ask about getting a salary for his work, but the board members came up against some obstacles in that regard.
Namely, the amount of money McKnight requested isn’t available in the recently finalized Fiscal Year 2016 budget, and there may even be legal considerations preventing the Council from acting at all. These matters were discussed at length at the City Council’s Sept. 14 regularly scheduled meeting, but despite the long minutes of talking the board had to table the issue until a review of the legal particulars could be accomplished. McKnight, for his part, said he would be content to take the $7,900 that is available in the budget for ad hoc grant writing services and work with that for the time being.
About a year ago McKnight submitted a salary request of $40,000 per year to work as the city’s part-time grant writer, but the funds weren’t available then either, and he agreed to work on a pro bono basis until a pool of money could be found to compensate him. Therein could lie the legal issue. As City Attorney Clayton Adkinson told the Council, McKnight had agreed to work for free, and there may be a legal conflict with agreeing to new payment terms without first going through the request for proposal process.
In the meantime, McKnight has worked on and secured two historical survey grants valued at $40,000. McKnight is asking for $65 per hour for his services, a figure the Council members agreed was reasonable given that looming grant projects will require a good deal more work. McKnight said his quoted amount was a “pretty good bargain basement hometown price” given his 30 years of experience writing quality grants.
Councilman Ron Kelley was in favor of paying the $40,000 McKnight requested, but simply stated the money wasn’t available right now and still might not be when the $7,900 that is available runs out. Kelley said that if economic growth continues and if new revenue is at hand this time next year, the city can “up the ante” and award McKnight his requested salary. He also made the suggestion that McKnight could be paid 10 percent of the amount being pursued in a grant whether or not the city gets the award, with the 10 percent being covered by reserve funds. McKnight could also be paid based on the administrative fee amount that is often included in a secured grant.
The Council voted 4-0 to hold off on the issue of grant writer salary until the completion of necessary legal research.
In other City Council news, the board voted unanimously to go ahead with several infrastructure-related projects put forward by engineering firm URS and the Florida Department of Transportation. The agreements and promissory notes written to FDOT involve amendments to the original contract to relocate city utilities in the wake of the ongoing U.S. 331 four-lane expansion project. The Council voted 4-0 to accept the new terms contingent upon review and approval from the city attorney.
The biggest of these agreements, two supplemental task authorizations with URS, were called the “last hurdle” of the effort to extend the city airport’s main runway by City Manager Sara Bowers. The total cost to prepare the environmental assessment report for the runway extension project comes to $221,859, and the city is responsible for a 10-percent match which is already in the FY2016 budget. The city also had to pay a 10 percent match on the URS-headed development of a three-year disadvantaged business enterprise plan as required by federal grant funding regulations, with the total amount for the service coming to $9,947.50.
Former grant writing university professor Robert McKnight once again went before the DeFuniak Springs City Council to ask about getting a salary for his work, but the board members came up against some obstacles in that regard.
Namely, the amount of money McKnight requested isn’t available in the recently finalized Fiscal Year 2016 budget, and there may even be legal considerations preventing the Council from acting at all. These matters were discussed at length at the City Council’s Sept. 14 regularly scheduled meeting, but despite the long minutes of talking the board had to table the issue until a review of the legal particulars could be accomplished. McKnight, for his part, said he would be content to take the $7,900 that is available in the budget for ad hoc grant writing services and work with that for the time being.
About a year ago McKnight submitted a salary request of $40,000 per year to work as the city’s part-time grant writer, but the funds weren’t available then either, and he agreed to work on a pro bono basis until a pool of money could be found to compensate him. Therein could lie the legal issue. As City Attorney Clayton Adkinson told the Council, McKnight had agreed to work for free, and there may be a legal conflict with agreeing to new payment terms without first going through the request for proposal process.
In the meantime, McKnight has worked on and secured two historical survey grants valued at $40,000. McKnight is asking for $65 per hour for his services, a figure the Council members agreed was reasonable given that looming grant projects will require a good deal more work. McKnight said his quoted amount was a “pretty good bargain basement hometown price” given his 30 years of experience writing quality grants.
Councilman Ron Kelley was in favor of paying the $40,000 McKnight requested, but simply stated the money wasn’t available right now and still might not be when the $7,900 that is available runs out. Kelley said that if economic growth continues and if new revenue is at hand this time next year, the city can “up the ante” and award McKnight his requested salary. He also made the suggestion that McKnight could be paid 10 percent of the amount being pursued in a grant whether or not the city gets the award, with the 10 percent being covered by reserve funds. McKnight could also be paid based on the administrative fee amount that is often included in a secured grant.
The Council voted 4-0 to hold off on the issue of grant writer salary until the completion of necessary legal research.
In other City Council news, the board voted unanimously to go ahead with several infrastructure-related projects put forward by engineering firm URS and the Florida Department of Transportation. The agreements and promissory notes written to FDOT involve amendments to the original contract to relocate city utilities in the wake of the ongoing U.S. 331 four-lane expansion project. The Council voted 4-0 to accept the new terms contingent upon review and approval from the city attorney.
The biggest of these agreements, two supplemental task authorizations with URS, were called the “last hurdle” of the effort to extend the city airport’s main runway by City Manager Sara Bowers. The total cost to prepare the environmental assessment report for the runway extension project comes to $221,859, and the city is responsible for a 10-percent match which is already in the FY2016 budget. The city also had to pay a 10 percent match on the URS-headed development of a three-year disadvantaged business enterprise plan as required by federal grant funding regulations, with the total amount for the service coming to $9,947.50.