The City of Brentwood announced they will hold a special meeting of the City Council on Tuesday to discuss distributing $50k in funding to agencies and community organizations for programs and services that support homebound seniors and/other individuals during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The meeting comes after the April 14 meeting, the council directed staff to spend time on looking into the implementation of a program to support homebound seniors during the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to the agenda:
At the meeting of April 14, 2020, some council members expressed interest in expanding funding programs that assist homebound individuals that are not exclusively seniors. However, as the agenda item was limited to programs that assisted homebound seniors, a detailed discussion could not occur. Given the immediacy of these issues and the need to move quickly should the Council desire to assist other individuals, staff is requesting consideration for the ability to expand funding to programs that assist not just homebound seniors, but other homebound individuals in need. The attached resolution is currently limited to programs that assist homebound seniors, but can be revised prior to final signature should the Council desire to expand the program.
The allocated funds may be eligible for Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) reimbursement. In preliminary correspondence with FEMA representatives, it was recommended to staff that any City funding program be kept as simple as possible. Specifically, distributing funds to multiple entities greatly increases the difficulty in obtaining all of the required reimbursement paperwork, tracking what the programs are doing, and how funds are being spent –rather than funding fewer providers if they are serving different population groups.
April 14 meeting recap (in short form of the discussion)
During the April 14 meeting, Councilwoman Karen Rarey said she did not request a homebound seniors fund, but rather requested funding for Meals on Wheels and Brentwood Strong which was different than what was on the agenda.
According to Rarey, she spoke to Jackie Livings, the County’s Program Director of the Senior Nutrition Program, where she shared they told her in Brentwood since the shelter-in-place, 181 seniors are in need of food services and its growing by the day. She noted how she reached out to Brentwood Strong to assist with a surge in deliveries—they have 400 volunteers who was vetted from the police department.
Mayor Bob Taylor highlighted his concern was with FEMA where reimbursement could come 10-years down the road who is still working on Hurricane Katrina. Taylor also highlighted his concern with how do they pay the restaurants because he did not want the city on the hook.
“It’s a great cause, that is not the issue. The issue is reimbursement for all persons involved and all agencies due to red tape,” said Taylor.
Councilmember Johnny Rodriguez said one of his concerns was the people who never went to the senior center for meals and how do they reach out to the Hispanic and African American communities to ensure they have an opportunity.
“If you are not on the database, you may not be getting the information and we all know what is going on today has no barriers, it effects everybody and anybody,” said Rodriguez.
Rarey responded saying she is only looking to fund a portion, which was seniors.
“While its great we get it out to all these people, the more people we get out without providing some type of funding to supplement it is going to overburden these agencies and they will be turning away people because they do not have the resources in order to provide all of this to them where I was coming from in bringing this to you all is that while FEMA may be funding it partially, there is a portion, which I am asking the city to fund, not with expectations with expectations that FEMA will reimburse it, but we will fund this to help our seniors,” explained Rarey.
City Manager Tim Ogden sought direction from the council to work on this item and bring it back in two-weeks noting he needed to know whether they were going to create their own program or fund existing programs to supplement their needs.
Vice Mayor Joel Bryant explained that Brentwood always invests in things that matter to the community which include partnering with service organizations or local groups already providing the structure and the manpower to do it noting he could support up to $100k in funding.
Rarey questioned putting this item off for two weeks because she had requested this be placed on the agenda so they could fund it.
Rodriguez questioned what they were supporting and what would it look like.
Rarey replied saying they would work in partnership with Meals on Wheels and Brentwood Strong to provide meals for homebound seniors. They would bring in Brentwood Strong to work with the local restaurants to bring in meals and they have their volunteers deliver them.
Mayor Taylor said they were preparing to spend the people’s money and he would like to see $50k spent, but there has to be accountability and it has to be accounted for—such as a 501C3 non-profit.
Ogden said the way the council agenda was crafted, was to save two-weeks of government bureaucracy instead of having the request come tonight for direction for research in two-weeks then come back with a program in May. They will bring back a funding resolution and criteria in place to ensure maximum accountability and efficiency.
Rarey responded to the Mayor saying Brentwood Strong has filed its 501c3 paperwork and they are awaiting their Tax ID but shared her hesitation about waiting two-weeks.
Taylor then asked Rarey about her proposal to feed only seniors within the city and not families in the Hispanic and African American communities as suggested by Councilmember Rodriquez (editors note, this was in reference to a low-income senior program who serves families in these communities in the sycamore area—the Village Community Resource Center)
Rarey confirmed her program proposal was for seniors who were going to be homebound by COVID-19 for the foreseeable future.
Rodriquez explained that if they were going to support something, they needed to be a little more broad because families are also in need saying they are doing a good job with seniors and need to continue that, but there are also other parts of the city who have needs.
Rarey noted that Meals on Wheels is only for homebound seniors.
The City Attorney then chimed in saying the council was getting off topic and if they wanted to discuss funding other programs, it would need to do so at a future meeting. This item was limited to seniors and looking into the program and implementation of a program.
After a recommendation by the City Manager to bring back the item as a Special City Council Meeting with the four programs and options to fund them (C.C Café, Brown Bag Program, Meals on Wheels of Diablo, Brentwood Strong) with an allocation.
Rodriquez questioned what Homebound Seniors even meant because there are many services being done for homebound seniors from hot meals to groceries and said it was not specific.
Rarey said she did not request the implementation of a program to support homebound seniors, but specifically to fund a meal program with Meals on Wheels and Brentwood Strong—that was her specific request admitting she was “frustrated”.
The council then unanimously voted to allow staff to bring forward options up to $50k to support homebound seniors.
Process for Funding
Due to the unpredictability of demand and cost fluctuations, the Council would allocate funding, not to exceed $50,000, to be available at the discretion of the Director of Emergency Services for dissemination to agencies and community organizations as needed to support food programs and services for homebound seniors or individuals during the COVID-19 pandemic emergency declaration. To obtain funding, agencies and community organizations in need of funding would provide the following succinct information to the Director of Emergency Services (Tim Ogden) via email:
- Brentwood population served by the funding request
- Funding need for the next 30 days
- Approximate cost per meal
- Approximate number of those served
- Employee Identification Number or Tax ID Number for audit purposes
- Agreement to submit a report within sixty (60) days of the fund disbursement that provides accountability of how the funds were spent, the number who were served, along with any other documentation needed for FEMA and/or audit purposes.
If You Go/Watch:
April 21 at 5:00 pm
Brentwood City Council Meeting
Public Comments
can also be submitted via e-mail to [email protected] . Any public comments received up until one hour prior to the meeting will be:
- distributed to the Council at the dais or emailed to them at their teleconference location,
- included in the public access binder in the entrance to the City Council Chambers prior to the start of the meeting,
- posted online for public inspection within 1 day of the meeting with the agenda packet, and
- later summarized in the minutes.
Agenda: Click here
