Florida Inter-Agency Grants Consortium August 28, :00 pm to 4:00 pm Hartman Building, 2012 Capital Circle SE Room 102

Transcription

1 Florida Inter-Agency Grants Consortium August 28, :00 pm to 4:00 pm Hartman Building, 2012 Capital Circle SE Room 102 AGENDA I. Welcome Housekeeping Items Round Robin Introductions II. The State Budget Process and Amendment Requests Renee Tondee III. Input on Impact of Single Audit Act Threshold Changes All In follow-up to Christina Smith s June Discussion with the Consortium IV. Input to the Chief Operating Officer on Needed Legislative Changes All to Increase Accountability in the Management of Pass Through Funds V. Grant Management Training for Fall 2012 Cyndi Godbey a. Request for Input on Topics to Cover VI. Grant Activity Updates All VII. Next Meeting: September 25, 2012 (??) VIII. Adjourn a. Topic (??)

2 Florida Interagency Grants Consortium August 28, 2012 Meeting Minutes DRAFT Attendees: Bob Fierro DCF Cyndi Godbey - DFS Terese Herring - DOE Deidre Jones DFS Bob Longfellow - DOH Ron McLane - DOC Jenna Oster DOH Kenol Saint-Fort - DOH Jerry Sego - DOACS Christina Smith DFS Patti Spain - DHSMV Joy Styrcula AHCA (by phone) Jai Subramanya DEP Renee Tondee - OPB Diane Vacca DEO Dana Watson AHCA (by phone) June Watts DOH Cyndi Godbey convened the meeting and everyone introduced themselves. She then introduced Renee Tondee, the Policy Coordinator in the Budget Management Unit of the Office of Policy and Budget, within the Executive Office of the Governor. Ms. Tondee shared a handout that provided an overview of the Budget Process (please see attached handouts, with my comments injected). She pointed out that, at this point in time, they are actually working in three different budgets; closing out last fiscal year, starting up the new fiscal year and planning the budget to go to the 2013 Legislature. In addition to the notes that she provided, Ms. Tondee pointed out that if any additional General Revenue comes in, it CANNOT be allocated outside of the regular budget cycle, unless there is an emergency. One side of one of the handouts that Ms. Tondee provided list out the provisions for getting a budget amended. For those requiring action by the LBC, the Constitution requires that the LBC meet quarterly. In response to a question, Ms. Tondee indicated that if your agency has already received more than $1 million dollars for deposit in trust fund accounts, you have no choice but to go to the LBC for an amendment. They can meet telephonically. OPB had previously proposed changes to Chapter 216 to allow more flexibility but the proposal was unsuccessful. Ms. Tondee pointed out that the Governor has been supportive of more flexibility in the General Appropriations Act, so we may want to propose some statutory changes this next session. There was some discussion about other options that may be available to help accommodate unanticipated grant awards. Ms. Tondee suggested that, if you think there is any chance of getting grant funds, you should go ahead and include it in your proposed budget and try to get it

3 allocated in the GAA with proviso language. There was mention that there had been a requirement that you have an award in hand, but Ms. Tondee countered that if you think you may gat additional funds, you need to fight to get them allocated. The request to get them allocated may be highly scrutinized, but it is possible to get. Historically recurring grant funds (like Byrne Memorial grant funds that FDLE gets) can get allocated with expenditure contingent upon not exceeding the actual amount received. In response to another question about how we can be sure that the state will accept funds that an agency may apply for. The Governor s philosophy is that if accepting the funds creates an ongoing state expenditure, he will not support it. The group agreed to try to draft some substantive legislation to increase flexibility in the GAA allocations to better accommodate receipt of unanticipated funds. Some suggestions to be considered included delegating authority to the appropriations Chairs, getting a letter of intent from the appropriations Chairs with directions, proposing a process for advance approval. Ms. Tondee is going to check and see if OPB is still reviewing grant summaries in advance of submission but said she did not think so. The next item on the agenda focused on providing input to Christina Smith, DFS Director of Accounting and Auditing, on the proposed changes to the Single Audit Act. Ms. Smith indicated that she had not read the entirety of the proposed changes but the primary proposal is to raise the threshold amount which would trigger the requirement of a Single Audit on the premise that it would alleviate the audit burden on individual auditors. However, it was noted that, in doing so, it would then actually result in an increased administrative burden on the state to monitor funds not subjected to a Single Audit. At the suggestion that the state just require more, it was pointed out that federal regulation prohibits the state from being more restrictive than the federal regulations. Part of the problem is that there are several kinds of audits, all done by different auditors: financial, single audit and monitoring. So, part of the intent was to reduce the intrusion of auditors into organizations receiving funds. Another proposed change related to indirect cost rates. Currently, there is a lot of variance in indirect cost rates. One proposal was to go to a flat rate for all; another was to provide for negotiating a rate somewhere between the flat rate and the rate historically provided to the recipient; another part of the proposal was to sustain the resulting indirect rate for four years. Calculating indirect cost rates is time-consuming and some programs don t even want to charge them because it drains funds available to provide the program. Another proposed change is to consolidate several of the federal circulars. It was pointed out that these proposed changes were challenged by KPMG and Maximus. To date, there has been no announcement that these proposals have been adopted. Ms. Smith noted that sometimes when a proposal creates a lot of chatter, it eventually disappears. The discussion segued to talking about increasing accountability in the management of federal funds, a lot of which are passed through state agencies, which led to discussion about the currently propose DATA Act and the prior FFADA reporting requirements. These reporting

4 requirements have created concerns for recipient agencies who have been notified that they are receiving funds that must be reported ion under the acts; the reporting systems have not been fully prepared for recipients to report and that has led to state auditors writing up agencies for not complying when, in some circumstances, they simply have not been able to. There was then discussion about the need for some state tracking system. The old ARRA system has been shifted to DOT and contacts there indicate it cannot accommodate the newly proposed reporting requirements. The state (DFS) does track federal funds received but that system does not include the federal identifying number. Ms. Smith reported that there has been funding allocated for a business case to develop a more robust system for tracking grants. There was mention of some other grant tracking systems (DHSMV) and Jerry Sego asked if other agencies were willing to share. DHSMV is willing to provide a template in Sharepoint. A couple of the attendees expressed frustration that there has been no state leadership with regard to representing the interests of state agencies and intervening on these concerns that come up because of federal government regulations and changes. Ms. Smith agreed to will share any information that she receives through the National Association of State Auditors, Comptrollers and Treasurers (NASACT) that relates to grants and will send feedback to the NASACT when applicable. Since so much of the discussion had already addressed improvements that need to be made relative to securing and managing federal funds (and time was running out), Cyndi suggested that rather than delve into a full blown discussion on providing input to the Chief Operating Officer on needed legislative changes to increase accountability in the management of pass through funds, that we just invite Tom Lewis to our next meeting. Ms. Tondee thought that was a good idea. It was agreed that we set the next meeting for September 25 and invite Mr. Lewis. In light of the brief time remaining, little was discussed on the grant management training or the proposed topics for inclusion. Kenol Saint-Fort suggested looking at the Grants Management Association and Thompson Publishing. Ms. Smith indicated that there was an initiative underway to refine contract management training through DMS; this is an effort that the Consortium should investigate as we move forward. Ms. Smith suggested that we consider building the training topics around the grant life cycle. Cyndi said she would define what those are and disseminate them to the groups for people to volunteer to work in various areas to help prepare the training. She alluded to wanting to try to do the training in the fall and, thinking better of it, acknowledged that it would not happen until after the first of the year. The group turned to providing grant updates: DEO reported that the National Emergency Oil Spill grant was extended, as was the On the Job Training program with new funds. DOACS reported their energy funding was extended. DOE is in the process of applying for a personnel development grant for persons with disabilities. DHSMV has entered into a mutual agreement with Tampa to assist with the Republican National Convention. DOH has started to look for grants targeting specific populations.

5 DOC reported that they are seeing cuts in funding for substance abuse programs and anticipate more next year. DEP announced a new round of mini-grants for recreational trails. AHCA reported that the Florida Center is still working on implementing electronic health records, as part of the 201o ARRA funds. DFS reported they did not receive a Fire Prevention and Safety grant they submitted in May. With no further business, the meeting adjourned.