City of Pittsburgh - File #: 2010-0193

• File #: 2010-0193
• Version: 1
• Type: Ordinance
• Status: Defeated
• File created: 3/2/2010
• In control: Committee on Finance and Law
• Final action: 7/5/2011
• Title: Ordinance supplementing the Pittsburgh Code, Title One, Administrative, Article VII, Procedures, by adding language in Section 161.27 Reports on City Council Grants.
• Sponsors: Reverend Ricky V. Burgess
• Indexes: PGH. CODE ORDINANCES TITLE 01 - ADMINISTRATIVE

Date	Ver.	Action By	Action	Result
7/5/2011	1	City Council	Passed Finally	Fail
6/29/2011	1	Standing Committee	Affirmatively Recommended	Fail
6/22/2011	1	Standing Committee	Held in Committee	Pass
6/15/2011	1	Standing Committee	Held in Committee	Pass
6/8/2011	1	Standing Committee	Held in Committee	Pass
3/30/2011	1	Standing Committee	Held in Committee	Pass
3/24/2011	1	Committee on Hearings	Public Hearing Held
3/16/2011	1	Post Agenda	Post Agenda Held
3/9/2011	1	Standing Committee	Held for Cablecast Post Agenda	Pass
3/9/2011	1	Standing Committee	Held for Cablecast Public Hearing	Pass
4/8/2010	1	Committee on Hearings	Public Hearing Held
3/10/2010	1	Standing Committee	Held for Cablecast Post Agenda	Pass
3/10/2010	1	Standing Committee	Held for Cablecast Public Hearing	Pass
3/2/2010	1	City Council	Read and referred

Title

Ordinance supplementing the Pittsburgh Code, Title One, Administrative, Article VII, Procedures, by adding language in Section 161.27 Reports on City Council Grants.

Body

Whereas, the City of Pittsburgh is a current recipient of CDBG funding, which is administered by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development ("HUD"); and

Whereas, the CDBG program provides communities with resources to, inter alia, provide benefits to low and moderate income communities, to eliminate slum and blight, and to resolve urgent needs threatening the health and welfare of a community; and

Whereas the administrative coast of awarding CDBG grants are fixed regardless of the award amount; and

Whereas, in the case of small grant awards, the administrative cost of awarding and supervising the grant may be more expensive than the actual grant award; and

Whereas, small grant awards are more likely to be used for partisan political purposes; and

Whereas, the City of Pittsburgh, currently, has CDBG funds that were awarded to recipients prior to Fiscal Year 1995 and have not yet been distributed; and

Whereas, until these funds are distributed to the awarded organization, or the funding is reprogrammed, these funds are required to carry forward from year to year and be tracked in the City's financial systems and reported on financial statements; and

Whereas, the impact of both small grant awards and unspent grants to City operations includes an increased workload on the City Controller's Office, Council Budget Office and the City Planning Office; and

The Council of the City of Pittsburgh hereby enacts as follows:

Section 1.  The Pittsburgh Code of Ordinances, Title One, Administrative, Article VII, Procedures is hereby supplemented as follows:

§ 161.27 REPORTS ON CITY COUNCIL GRANTS

(d)      The minimum City Council grant award will be five thousand dollars ($5,000.00).

(e)      CDBG funds must be used within 3 years or will be automatically reprogrammed back to the Council District Office it originated from.

(f)      Distribution of Community Development Block Grant ("CDBG") funds by Council members.

i.      Upon the delivery of the Decennial Census data to the City of Pittsburgh by the Census Bureau, the Director of City Planning shall do the following:

ii.      Determine, in accordance with federal laws and regulations, those Census Tracts which are eligible for the use of Community Development Block Grant funds;

iii.      Determine, based on Census Tract boundaries, which census blocks reside within the Tract boundaries;

iv.      Certify a list of CDBG-eligible census blocks in the City of Pittsburgh;

ii.      Transmit this information to City Council and to the City Clerk.

(g)      The City Clerk and the Director of the City Council Budget Office shall do the following:

i.      Determine the total amount of CDBG funds that are to be divided among the members of City Council;

ii.      Divide the amount established in (b)(1) by the total number of census blocks certified by the Director of City Planning in (a)(3).  This shall be the "per-census block allocation";

iii.      Multiply the per-census block allocation by the total number of eligible census blocks for each Council District;

ii.      Provide a report to Council detailing this information.

(h)      The Clerk's report shall be used, annually, as Council's allocation formula.