CRESTVIEW — The Community Redevelopment Agency Board of Commissioners will be holding a workshop meeting on Monday, Aug. 27 where they are expected to discuss criteria for nominations of a new grant review committee.
City Clerk Elizabeth Roy said at last week's monthly CRA meeting that the CRA offers several grants and instead of having a board for each grant, they are proposing a CRA grant review committee.
The committee would have nine members including CRA Director Alisa Burleson who would administrate meetings without power to vote and present grant recommendations to the CRA Board of Commissioners. Committee members would be expected to fulfill a commitment of up to three years.
The purpose of the committee is to make recommendations to the CRA board after reviewing grant applications in their public meetings.
“Once we get the criteria set up for the four or five different grants that are available through the master plan, this committee will be the first line of defense for anybody that wants to apply for the grants,” Roy said at the Aug. 13 meeting.
Roy also said members of the grant review board can apply for grants but will not be allowed to vote for their own grants.
Council President J.B. Whitten said in the Aug. 13 meeting that members of the committee including the CRA director would not be permitted to speak with any of the CRA commissioners about the grant meetings.
Some CRA board members had mixed opinions on the committee.
Councilman Doug Faircloth said he thought the committee seemed redundant and unnecessary.
“To me, it’s like somebody scraping their fingers on a black board. It’s irritating enough to put so many layers of government in a place that you never get anything done,” Faircloth said.
Council vice president Bill Cox said he liked the idea of a grant review committee.
“Someone on that appointed board could be the champion for a particular grant … Division of labor, you can get more work done to present to Alisa and come back to the board,” Cox said.
The CRA board approved the grant review committee on Aug. 13.
The criteria for the grants and applications are expected to be completed by the September monthly meeting along with the current board members’ committee nominations, Roy said.
The workshop meeting is scheduled for Monday, Aug. 27 at 4 p.m in City Hall.
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Crestview moves forward with grant review committee