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Grant writer sought in 2024 budget

Ahead of tonight's second reading and scheduled adoption of a Williamsport budget, Mayor Derek Slaughter says he is hoping for enough money to add a grant writer/administrator.

The proposed budget is about $30 million and includes a 1 mill tax increase to cover a $800,000 deficit, he said. Council has proposed several cuts that will bring the millage rate down closer to half-mill, he said.

Slaughter said in a video interview that he believes the grant writer would be necessary to take off pressure from the city staff, some of whom are doing grant-related work – when they could be doing other things.

Moreover, he said it would be best to have a grant administrator to oversee the day-to-day activities, a more steadier continuum of monitoring grants as they relate to compliance and ever-changing regulations in the state and federal governments.

It is time-consuming and involves city employees, including an officer in the Williamsport Bureau of Police, and in other public safety departments such as fire.

There are several "big ticket" items ahead for the city, including use of an $8 million earmark for the Greater Williamsport Levee Recertification and Grafius Run flood mitigation.

Council has asked the mayor whether the existing consultants should expand their scope of services to include grant writing/administration.

"Our third-party consultant, Delta, has done a great job," Slaughter said. "It is, obviously, nothing against Delta and we will probably need to use them a little bit longer because they are tied into some of the existing grants and applications but it is the day-to-day things that we need in house," he said.

"There are certain things that the third-party can't even enter," he said.

Another example cited by Slaughter was UHY, a consulting firm specializing in the American Rescue Fund Act compliance.

"When it comes down to the input I actually enter that myself," Slaughter said. "We work with UHY, but there are a lot of in-house, oversight, compliance and different things that we do on a day-to-day basis that our employees are currently doing and taking away from time they could be spending on other things," he said.

Citing another example of why a grant administrator position should be added into the budget, he said, the city has a police officer doing a bulk of the grant-related work. Because the city was fortunate enough to get a Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency grant, for the police department there is a lot of oversight, a lot of time spent on various reporting, he said.

"So, he is taking time out of his day, and, where -- if we had an in-house grant administrator to handle all of that work, with all of the grants that we are getting, -- it is a great thing," Slaughter said.

"You know it is a double-edged sword," he said of getting grants, having many grants in process and under consideration and having to utilize city staff on the regulation, compliance and application ends.

The city has received a number of grants related to its improvement of parks and recreation and looks for furthering these next year, and it has received notice of that huge financial earmark for the continuing recertification and accreditation process of the Greater Williamsport Levee Project, one Tracey Rash, a consultant with Government Finance Solutions, urged council to consider with that much money the city does not want to mess up receiving.

Along with this concern, there are future grant applications that need to be completed as part of the levee – which is an unfunded federal mandate.

Other grants in play include those involving improvements to recreation and parks and key entrance points of economic development in the city, including Old City and Maynard Street.

"We are getting a lot of grants, which is fantastic, but that also means that we have a lot of compliance, a lot of oversight, a lot we have to enter related to those grants," Slaughter said.

"Yes, it is huge that we hopefully can get a person in-house to do that."