PROGRESS REPORT
Community Development Department
2nd Quarter of FY 2005
The Community Development Department is a newly established department, the primary focus of which is to handle all aspects of the administration of the City’s Community Development Block Grant entitlement program. This includes, but is not limited to; preparation for and organization of the annual competitive funding round cycle; preparation of the Annual Action Plan (application for funding) and submission to HUD; meeting all necessary environmental review requirements for funded projects; supervision / management of funded projects; review, completion and submission of drawdown requests; completion of all necessary quarterly and annual reports required by HUD; and preparation of the department budget.
Since July 2004, a great deal of time and effort has been devoted to all the tasks associated with the official establishment of Salisbury as a CDBG entitlement jurisdiction. City staff worked closely with the consulting firm on the completion of the CDBG Consolidated Plan and the first Annual Action Plan, including holding all necessary public meetings, and sending out the appropriate notices and mailings. Once the Consolidated Plan and Action Plan had been approved by HUD, we began working with the consultants on the Analysis of Impediments to Fair Housing, the next document that will have to be submitted to HUD. Health issues with one of the consultants, and difficulty acquiring input from the public on this topic have slowed us down, but we hope to be done soon.
In July 2005, following the establishment of the Community Development Department, the City advertised for a Director. Applications were received and reviewed, interviews were conducted, and in mid-September Ms. Deborah Stam was appointed as the Community Development Director. Ms. Stam has been with the City of Salisbury for fourteen years, and at the time of her appointment was serving as the city’s Grants/Special Projects Director. Ms. Stam continued to keep all the various open grant projects running while the city advertised for a new Grants/Special Projects Director, and a CDBG Administrative Assistant. During September Ms. Stam also attended the HUD CDBG Conference in Washington, DC celebrating the 30th anniversary of the CDBG program. Later in the month she attended a training session in Baltimore for the specialized IDIS software which HUD uses for CDBG reporting purposes.
In October the applications for the CDBG Administrative Assistant were received, reviewed and rated, and Ms. Stam conducted the interviews and selected an individual to fill the position. During October and November Ms. Stam researched the options for office space, located a viable space that met the needs of the Department, handled all the details associated with preparing the office space for occupancy, and procured the necessary furniture, equipment and supplies to set up the Department of Community Development. During that same time frame Ms. Stam worked with the new Grants/Special Projects Director to familiarize her with the open projects, and completed and submitted the quarterly reports for all of those open grants for the first quarter of FY 2005.
The Office of Community Development officially opened on December 1, 2004. During the month of December we focused on getting the office organized, and working on completion of the environmental review requirements for the projects that were funded in 2004. Once the environmental reviews have been completed, we will issue a public notice of our Intent to Request Release of Funds (IRROF), and then send the appropriate certifications to HUD so that the funds may be released for expenditure.
During December Ms. Stam also attended the “Balanced Scorecard” training sessions organized by BEACON at Salisbury University, along with the other Department Heads. These sessions were informative, and the City will be researching this program further to see if it would be advantageous for us to adopt some form of this system.