Commission - Regular Meeting

All right, welcome everyone. It is Tuesday, April 14th, 2026 and we are here for one of two work sessions that the commission and myself will be doing this week. Uh we split up the agenda a little bit so that um we wouldn't have to get a night cap immediately upon leaving this room. Um and so folks will be back here Thursday as well. Uh same back time. Um three items today. Uh we have an update uh regarding our affordable housing fund. We have some discussion about the FY27 compensation and benefit strategy, the human resources. It's going to be do have our annual update neighborhood leaders. Uh so we'll talk about each of these items in that order. Uh and um of course we've been doing an enormous number of things around housing generally and affordable housing specifically and one of those things is setting up a housing fund. Um, we've had some prior discussion about this, but uh, I think my sense is we're here. We're ready to launch and um, and so Tamia and Anna are are joining us and they of course have support from Mel Ward at HCD and uh, do do folks want to say more from HC kick it off to our experts here?

Sure. Thank you, mayor. Um, hi everybody. So, we are here to talk about where we are with the affordable housing fund process. We are at a point where we are seeking direction from you all. So at the end of the presentation I will jump back in after Sammy and Anna Anna Tammy and Anna from LEH consulting group have a chance to explain to our entire So I will let them take it away the experts in the room. Thanks Alejandra. All right Tammy Anna you know you do your besty boys routine.

That's right. You one thing you don't want me to do is sing. So I have a few dance moves but um well thank you mayor. Thank you commissioners. We're excited to be here today. My colleague Anna and I have been working with the HCD team um since August of last year. So excited. Some of you we may have met when we were here in October. Um we had um some initial engagement and community meetings. So certainly excited to be here today and uh certainly looking forward to sharing with you a little bit about where we are and the work that we've done today. So really the purpose today is going to be recapping some of the work to date but also really focusing in on our recommendations on the administrative structure of the fund and how we lay out the path forward uh and the operations of the affordable housing fund in which you all have asked us to to share today. Um so again today's agenda um we want to look let's take a little bit of a moment to look back at the affordable housing investment uh strategy goals that was adopted. One of those recommendations was to launch a housing trust fund. Um the other is to kind of recap our engagement and some of the deliverables and like I said we've been engaged since August and our sort of like what we've been uncovering. So a little bit of a review of that process and then again towards the end here share with you our registers on an administrative structure uh moving forward. We go back here real quick. So, and I know you have this in your packet, so it's probably not so easy to read on this screen. Our engagement process uh was really focused on three areas. Sort of phase one was identifying sort of the key stakeholders and really investigating the community, doing a lot of outreach uh to establish thinking about how we would establish the fund um and making a lot of those engagement not only with you all but the geek committee and several others as well. Um so wanted to make sure that we kind of did a lot of that background research. Um phase

two which we just wrapped up was really identifying and working with development partners um and understanding uh the types of products and programs that would meet the needs of Akisclar County. Um and then understanding what was the capacity in the community uh to not only accept funding sources from a housing fund but what type of organization would make sense to administer that and sort of how that structure would work. And for now, here we are in phase three. And so that's the that's the phase that we're in right now and what we're going to be seeking some consideration for uh today as well. So just again as a as a quick refresher um wanted to just share with you, you know, obviously one of the main recommendations in the affordable housing investment strategy was to launch a local housing trust fund. Um there are hundreds of housing trust funds uh across the country. Several here um good afternoon. um several here in Georgia as well. But you had already identified a few things. One was focusing uh on this local housing fund to help to facilitate more housing affordability in really three areas. Um gap financing for low-inccome housing tax credit deals in addition to funding for single family housing, which was a priority, and then also support for an acquisition strike fund. So those before we even came on the scene, those were items in which you had identified priority. So, you'll see that theme throughout the um the presentation today as well. So, just just to kind of um an update and and really working with the housing community development department, you know, things that you guys have already been doing with some of the funding has been established. Um there's already been several projects that have been identified that were key projects uh through the housing authority through the athens housing authority that funding has been committed to to the NOA project to the classic city heights um and then some other um you know some other projects upcoming. So just wanted

to reflect that there's already some activity um but that has created some limitation the types of projects you can do based on um you know recognizing the Georgia gratuitities clause and some of the you know how you can deploy funding uh as a local government entity that's kind of what we wanted to address so that we can look at other types of diverse projects moving forward. Um so in addition there are some upcoming opportunities as well um for for the community around around housing. So that just gives you a little bit of a snapshot of some of the activities that have been underway to date. So just a kind of a quick refresher um you know wanted just to kind of again just emphasize you know when we say local housing trust fund what do we mean? Um many communities drop the word trust because it can be quite confusing. So you'll notice in a lot of the documentation that we've shared with you we're calling this the Athens car county affordable housing fund. Um because sometimes people think of a trust that you know an endowment things like that right it can be confusing um and so again um you know per Georgia and per sort of our strategy you'll you'll notice that that that wording may may drop but you know really the goal of the housing fund it really is meant to be the most powerful flexible tool in your affordable housing toolbox. Um it does not have some of the federal strengths attached to it. We've got a lot of wonderful resources through home, the block grant funding through uh the feds. Obviously, there's state programs through DCA and Georgia. Um but a lot of those have a lot of um you know certain restrictions. And so it doesn't allow you to be as creative and as flexible locally, hence why you probably wanted the housing fund in the first place. How do we leverage those federal dollars? How do we augment those federal dollars? How do we do things that are creative that are that are really honing in on what the local market needs are? and we'll talk a little bit about what we heard from developers, the types of needs that they had. So, so key components, they're typically defined,

which you've already defined um associated with the local ordinance. There's typically a dedicated public funding source, and I know those are sources that you've already been tapping into like the inclusionary zoning funds and some of the other resources as well. Um, housing trust funds are also meant to leverage other resources like philanthropic dollars, like community reinvestment dollars from banks and other types of lenders and and financial institutions. Um, and then of course providing those fund funds flexible uh to the developers and the the product. So again, a very very valuable resource. Typically they leverage around $8 to every public dollar invested. Um, so again, really seeing the public dollars being stretched and leveraged to create more affordable housing options in the community. So I know some of you may have heard this feel and of course this is in your packet, but just wanted to kind of give us a sense uh and refresh us on on kind of the structure and the purpose for why this is a great tool for you at the local community. So again, just um a little snapshot of the work that we did in phase one and two. We um identif there there's several Georgia housing funds already in place. Um actually, we worked with um the community in making bib, which is how we were identified as a as a candidate to work with you. So we worked with the mayor um and their team. They had already um started a nonprofit. So they established a nonprofit before we came on on the team. Um, and then we helped them define their structure. Um, we helped them define their loan policies, procedures, and how the fund would work. Um, so we worked very closely with the team there. Several may be familiar with the Savannah affordable housing fund. It's been around for, you know, probably almost 20 years now. They also are part of a nonprofit. So, just we did a lot of investigating in Georgia specifically. Um, knowing uh the relevancy. Um, but we also did a lot of like market research. And again, I know this is in your packet a little bit. It's hard to read. Um, a lot of looking at 35 different housing

trust funds, trying to compare, you know, southeastern, local, county, um, Georgia based, South Carolina, you know, looked at a lot of different types of models of of how your model could look. And so really investigating um, how those organizations are structured. We looked at administration, we looked at the governance structure, we looked at the funding structure, we looked at the staffing as well as the type of loans and products that they made available. So again, um doing all that to really understand like what is the best model for Athens, Clark County. And so certainly wanted to uplift um some of that background research that we did to kind of get to where we where we are today. Um so just to kind of recap again some of our engagement process as I mentioned to you we were here in October um met a few of you um when we did our our first uh educational workshop um and I know that was also live streamed so if you weren't able to attend you might have seen that. Um we met with several community stakeholders. We hosted a workshop with the git committee and also spent a day meeting with different development partners and uh different stakeholders. Um, and then we did a lot of some one-on-one. So, who are partners you're already working with? Um, you know, like banking partners, some of the nonprofit partners, and really, uh, learning from them on the roles that they are currently playing in your community and the roles in which maybe they can play in the future. Um, so again, a lot of that happened in in sort of our October timeline. Uh, we did a survey. So, we've sent it out to um community development center, so to over 35 um different individuals to do an online anonymous survey to kind of give us an idea of pipeline as well as what they'd like to see the affordable housing fund focused on um and the type of structure. Um and then we also did some some one-on-one interviews. So, again, you can see u we also got to uh had a wonderful tour of some of the developments that are already underway and with some of the

partners that include there. Um and then we met with some key stakeholders um to to kind of help us understand um their capacity to possibly uh lead this fund. Um as from those uh development uh fe the feedback we received and I'm just going to highlight this um again just a snapshot of of what we heard. from demand. Um there's already a significant amount of demand and you all know this because you live in this community and I'm sure you hear it from your constituents of the need uh for more affordable housing options for for families. Um but from the developers, we already know there's over 600 units in the pipeline and that doesn't include everybody that was on our list to interview. So some projects that are already even in the pipeline with the housing authority and others, right? Um and then when we asked them about design, you know, one of the key aspects was, you know, they wanted to be flexible. They wanted um you know, be able especially, and you'll see in that third bullet, they wanted to look at developments that were like three to five units. So, how are we looking at neighborhood strategies? How are we looking at focusing affordable housing? Yes, we need multifamily. Yes, we need some of those types of projects, but also thinking about that the goal that you all had, single family opportunities. and those projects tend to be harder to fund through federal funding or other tit resources. Um so we really heard about that and we wanted um to really respond to the developers needs and what they shared with us. Um they also wanted it to be in a way that could be flexible that were easy for them to apply um you know good community partner engagement and so we really wanted to uplift not only the demand but also what they shared with us in terms of the design.

So these are um the 670 number again. That was based on our we did a survey of developers of projects that they have in the pipeline over the next um two to three years either planned or in sort of some sort of phase. We also did one-on-one interviews with some of the affordable housing developers in the community. So these were only the ones who responded, right? Only the ones that responded. have any analysis, you know, based on what's gone through our planning department of what the actual number might be.

We we have not added in that those particular the pipeline of those particular projects, although we have received some of that from HCD like some of the projects that I know um the housing authority is looking at doing and some of the other partners. Yeah. Um, and if it'd be helpful for folks to have a master list, we could assemble the kind of set of lite-ch projects which is part of this projects that are home and CDG funded that funded too. We can get you a master list because I don't want to spend a ton of time on that.

I mean, I'd like to see um the projects that also um are generating either investment or units through our inclusionary housing. Yeah, we certainly can do that analysis and and actually as part of this next phase, we'll be getting more in the week on kind of those particular projects, but absolutely we can compare that to what we heard from folks. And then to your point, what's maybe in the the communities um with in the local government's pipeline?

And and and mayor um one of the things um to uh Commissioner Link and Commissioner Meyers um concerns, we did request uh a list of the pipeline from the planning department. So, and we never got that. So it would be good to see not just who responded but what is also in your pipeline. Thank you. And I know I got some months ago I believe from Andrew Saunders. But I'm just saying this is not a new question. I just would like an answer. Sure. All right. Thanks.

Yes. Absolutely. Thank you for that. Add that. Um and so again from um not only what you all prioritize through the affordable housing investment strategy but also um with some of the feedback um these are some of the products that we would be recommending and again we're not here to talk in depth about those today but these are the types of affordable housing um resources that are typically needed in a community. Um I will say that we we recognize that down payment assistance comes up a lot. Um, I will remind folks that an affordable housing fund is a lending instrument. So, the goal is that you are leveraging and deploying funding in loans so that they recycle back. Um, that's how also how you get the leverage. Um, but an affordable housing fund in many cases, especially when it's in a nonfor-profit partner, um, can manage down payment assistance programs for local employers, for the school district, for other um, sorts of and and a lot of housing funds do that, which is a really great way to leverage their capacity. Um, but again, this fund um, may do that in the future, but that's why there's a little asterisk there. um it it could be an eligible opportunity in the future

and and it should it shouldn't be an accident because one of my concerns is is you mention school teachers and all that they're over the threshold of they can't qualify those type of loss we got to figure out you know the biggest thing that I I ask two questions who are we trying to find housing for and then we got this missing middle that can't get housing and you know we always concentrate on the lower end who's working and may meet that criteria. But then we start looking at police officers, young professionals, it can't be anything that's affordable. So how do we again look this may not be the time. How do we bridge that gap though to get those individual in and maybe you know it may not be single family house where they probably could afford the rent but how do we get this single family home start building generational wealth. So

I'm happy to respond, Commissioner Fisher, um uh briefly is I I think that's the beauty of this affordable housing fund is because home and community development block grant funding and some of the federal and state funding sources are very targeted to your point. um the housing authority very targeted towards you know AMIs of 80% below Habitat Serves 30% below like right there's there's a lot of players out there that are meeting some of those needs but like you said mixed income housing middle um you know middle inome housing um a lot of those there is a gap it's like you make just

over and so you can't tap into these other programs like that's why this housing fund and I think to your point once we define how we're going to administer this structure we will be getting really in the weeds on eligibility, the population we want to serve, prioritization of whether it be neighborhood or income ranges. So, I think you make a good question and in line with where we're headed

and I I will say then that u at our previous workshop that uh the gig committee the subcommittee did present a uh a tier process that would um address some of your issues. It did not go through the gate committee because we presented it here because they were on the agenda. But uh Wia Lawson and Jeff Bishop worked on that. So it would be a tool and it was designed for the housing trust fun from those folk that make a little over. They're right at the

Yeah. So those and maybe we'll have a uh uh I see Melinda in the back. Uh maybe we can revisit this at the next G committee. the um proposal because it didn't go through kick it just came here but it make sure you get a cop Melinda can make sure you get a copy that it'll be a star

okay thank you commissioner Thornton that would be wonderful and I think again I think it's the right time to be sharing some of that feedback because we will be looking at okay here's some products that we want to offer how are those products going to be flexible enough to meet those priorities so I think it's a great a great opportunity to bring that up thank you um just to kind of to wrap up again the work that we've done today because I said I think this is a great place that we're headed into phase three which will answer some of the questions that both the commissioners mentioned um you know phase one and I'm not going to belabor you know all all these deliverables but again we talked about that engagement we talked about again initially meeting with the git committee and talking to some development partners um and kind of thinking about some of those initial recommendations and the types of products um and then we also recognized when we were thinking about the administrative structure that some of the limit itations associated with um um Athens Clark County government, you know, and so looking at the legal entity um issues, the Georgia law, looking at different administrative models like we shared with you before and doing some analysis around those models to see what what makes the most sense. Um and then again getting some of that initial feedback as you know, Commissioner Link, you mentioned, we need to maybe augment that with some other things that you all have. Um and certainly we'll do that to kind of get to where we are today and start to think about those products and then as Commissioner Thornton mentioned thinking about then now the eligibility. So as we're leading in but I ideally that administrative entity would be defined by then we'd want that entity to be a part of those conversations as well at some point. Um, so for today's consideration, um, there's a lot we could consider today and some of which was brought up as as as excellent ideas and additional, uh, pipeline information, which we certainly will follow up on. We really want to share with you um, what we think is a really great opportunity for administration and what we think is a really great opportunity to get things

moving now. Okay, we know every single day affordable housing is not getting cheaper, right? We know housing is getting more expensive and there's a huge challenge in this community around that. Um, so as part of our administrative structure, getting more in the weeds on that part of our phase, you know, we we looked we took into consideration several things. The Georgia state law thing, which I've mentioned several times around the gratuitities, constraints around the local government being able to lend projects. Um, desire to activate the fund in a timely manner. Right? we you already are doing some work, limited work with um the housing authority in the ways in which you can get more projects underway, but as Commissioner Fischer just mentioned, some of we're missing some of those markets and how do we get this thing up and running so we can serve everyone in the community um with diverse options. And so the other thing that we wanted to look at is that flexibility and be able to do um to be respond the needs of the community. question. How does um I look at Atlanta?

Yes, ma'am. Do they have a housing trust fund?

They have several housing funds and we did um look at Invest Atlanta. Um they've got the Atlanta Beltline fund. So, a lot of times they've had the Sentry um um fund. Okay. A lot of times they have established funds even for specific areas and most of the time uh invest Atlanta will help to manage those because they're um kind of that quasi government separate entity that can do and be a lot more flexible. Um and similar Georgia did the same thing. Um so I'm George I'm sorry Savannah, excuse me, I'm in Georgia. Uh Savannah also um launched their housing fund about 15 years ago and they use an existing um community housing services agency which is a 501c3 and they've been administering there. So they they launched it through the city but then that nonprofit that's existing administers it. So we've got several models that have done that.

So when we hear about Atlanta and all that they're doing with affordable housing, they're really not doing it directly from the government. they're using these other um trust fund entities to launch this. So that's how they circumvent uh the quasi I mean the bro. Yeah. If I might as a reminder um Atlanta has an exclusion of the gratuitities clause from 1996 before the Olympics

as do communities over a population counties over a population of 400,000 from that same time period. So their work with Invest Atlanta is a model that we can mimic, but um don't get too attached to one for one mirroring of the things they do because they're treated different. Just glad we're having this conversation. Okay. Yes.

Yeah. I mean that was kind of my concern is um our limitations due to the gratuitities clause and I I want to specifically address rehabilitation funds. Are we allowed to use these funds for rehabilitation of single family owner occupied or do we need we have multiple programs that address that? I'm not clear on whether these funds can be applied to this.

Yeah. question like so do you mean like I own a home I'm a senior like I'm a senior in the community and I need to have rehab. So um currently that's not an an eligible option here. Again I do know you have CDBG and home and some other resources that um uh address those issues. Um, and again, I think the flexibility of the fund is it can meet the moment of the community. And so, as you identify other needs along the way and maybe those funds are no longer serving um all the population that you'd like to serve. Um, I'm not going to say you're going to do that tomorrow, but it could be something in the future. So, but it is not something that we currently have because most of these are loans to development partners. So, for example, maybe Habitat for Humanity has a program in which they're trying to get a line of credit to help seniors do reair work. That's an example of maybe that where another agency is serving the community in that need, but not this agent. This housing fund is not going to be doing loans directly to like consumers.

Yeah, that's but but we could use this funds for Habitat Land Trust who do those projects.

Absolutely. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yeah. And again, that will be sort of in this next phase as we really hone in on the on the products and the eligibility of the of the program. Um, and again, I think, you know, so back to sort of the what we sort of looked at, we looked at, okay, is there an existing nonprofit in the community that could be ready to go that is mission aligned? Uh, they've been trusted in the community. um you know in terms of is or did we think about a new nonprofit which you know um some communities have started a whole new organization like making bib when we got to the scene they had created that but they you know that was a year later so there's some time constraints with that um you know sometimes financial institutions participate but they rarely ever lead a housing fund because they have so many regulatory constraints but they're an important partner they're a very important partner we know

what was that one um like a bankled housing fund We don't ever really see that um Commissioner Thornton um because of they're regulated and so the types of flexible products that you both mentioned that are really important to the community, they have a lot of limitations, but they they serve a great purpose and I'm going to share this in just a few minutes as like back office support, underwriting, phone service, a lot of those sort of back room stuff and where the nonprofit is really the front-facing organizations that's doing a lot of the engagement with the community partners and such. So, and you and we can create and we can create a by a entity too also.

Yeah. You I mean the the assessment was based on looking at an existing organization that may be able to fulfill this mission. The second was a new which then would require a whole incorporation and then the other was this um idea around a partnership. So yes sir. this to you may be here. Would the land bank qualify? No. No. Because it's a public authority.

Gotcha. Okay. Sorry. Um so when we started to look at the administration, um we really started to try to identify one, you know, we asked uh HCD, um do you have any existing nonprofit that's maybe dormant? Um is there any or agency that's already um could be teed up to to to do this? um because we really wanted we we tried to hear what we heard which is affordable housing is such a crisis and we want to try to find a way to get this affordable housing fund up and running um efficiently and effectively. Um so we we ended up doing a high organizational uh assessment. Um and what we did with that was we looked at several organizations in the community. Um we met with a lot of those in within our workshops um as Commissioner Thornton said as well as when we did our one-on-one. So what organization had housing a part of their but was not a conflict of interest. So one of the challenges is we want mission alignment we want expertise but we don't want a conflict of interest. For example

you know if I am applying to the loan fund I probably shouldn't run the loan fund just saying just saying

so supposed to be. So again just thinking about so that was sort of the core eligibility and then ability to leverage outside capital as I mentioned earlier housing funds for every public dollar leverage on average $8. So philanthropic money you know getting donations applying for grants getting social investors to invest in the fund getting banks to invest in the fund. So those were we wanted to make sure there was an organization that could help to leverage some outside capital. Um and then so from there we looked more uh specifically at you know organizational's governance, their staffing capacity, financial capacity delivery and of course just readiness to to jump in and to make this happen. So we really looked at four main organizations after we did that kind of initial assessment. Um and we looked at the housing authority, great partner doing great things in the community. Um but they have a conflict of interest and they um to to turn around and then just lend it themselves, right? Um so would a Habitat, so would our EADC, so would some of our other great housing partners potentially. Uh we looked at um FAB&T, a local bank that's already working with um Athens Clark County uh local government, you know, doing some of the ARPA funds, right? They're they're doing um some of those programs. Again, great partner. Um, but that's not their mission every day, right? They do that on behalf of you all now with some limitations, but and then leveraging constraint. They're not going to be able to leverage philanthropic dollars and things like that. Um, and then we also talked to the community foundation um and uh again they've got um again capacity and readiness constraints. So they've got a lot of things that they're doing within their agency. Um although they are a great partner, they should be a funer and an investor in this fund. um they should really be at the table and we talked uh with Sarah there as well. Um and then we had met with Envision Athens who again um um was a part of the

is a part of the community already engaging a lot of partners um has been doing um some housing adjacent work um and I know also um you know founded and formed and meet the moment in the community you know in terms of like what is the biggest crisis or the concerns in the community and so we started talking with Envision Athens about about their role as a possible administrator and this just gives you a snapshot. I know this is in your packet, but this this was sort of our worksheet that we did when we did this sort of analysis and looked at, you know, governance and we looked at we did some internal analysis. We looked at 990s, we looked at their financials, we looked at their board packets, uh we looked at their staffing, um the public available information like are they in good standing with the secretary of state and you know, so we did some of that level of assessment for those organizations. Um and so um where we came to um so our recommendation um is is what I call hybrid model um that the primary minister administrator um would be envision Athens um with um FABT um helping to support some of that back office um loan servicing again having that financial expertise um and so the the reason this approach is some of what I shared with you earlier about the analysis is but also it it balances the speed to impact. You know, it addresses some of the the regulatory concerns that we have about, you know, you all being able to administer it. Um there is mission alignment uh adjacentness. Um and then a a willingness and a readiness um to administer this fund. Um and I'll talk a little bit more about that in terms of keeping things moving. Um and then of course creating a new nonprofit and the time and cost associated with that. Um, you know, we did hear some when we did some of our interviews, we did hear um, you know, does Athen need

another new nonprofit? I don't know. Some of some of the funding partners. So, um, we heard we did get some feedback on that. So, I just wanted to make note of that. Um, we love our nonprofits, but again, I know that that that is something that we did here. So this allows um you know ACC gov to advance the affordable housing goes in a timely manner. Um looks at maintaining the goal of the fund based on your original objectives and then reducing some of those legal exposures that we we talked about. Um and then you know preserving innovation and flexibility with both Commissioner Fischer and and Thornton mentioned earlier. Um so that was um how we kind of came to this recommendation. Is this where we speak?

Well in just a minute. Okay. Getting there. I know. I'm not talking fast enough probably. I'm just kidding. Few more slides. You're good. You're fine.

Thank you. Um and so again, just to kind of share with you kind of the three pieces of this administration. So there's a lead agency which is the the 501c3. Um mission aligned. Um again avoids conflict of interest, ability to leverage capital. Again we are recommending uh Envision Envision Action as being that lead agency. Oversight is is is based on a board of directors. So again, as a housing fund and a lending institution, there's a board of directors. Um many of the board members that they have now are great, but they would also look to add, I'm sure, board members. Um and also, um a loan committee is established. So decisions are made by the loan committee. So we were talking about next phase. We will be defining loan policies, procedures. Um that's our next phase of work and that will dictate how funding is decided. Staff does not decide that. that's decided by policies and procedures that would be adopted sure by this commission um and then would go through that process of a loan committee and those loan committee members represent expertise in the um as well and of course there would be no matter what entity is established there would be an agreement between HCD and local government and and so there would be several agreements and reporting requirements whether it was a new agency or envision Athens or whomever and then the delivery of financing Um that is where also our partnership with FAB&T comes in to help support some of that um financial um expertise. So what does this mean? What does this mean if Envision Athens were to be um uh the administrator? This would mean um one clearly defined role with metrics that are defined by uh the agreement in which Athens clar county commissioners would determine within that agreement and HCD would lead that. Um it would mean a full-time staff person dedicated

to the affordable housing fund. So the Envision Athens that everyone in this room and everyone in this community is used to seeing will look different. it would be taking on the role and the responsibility um of uh leading the affordable housing fund. Um the board would would commit um to supporting this implementation. We did have a meeting with the board of directors and asked them about their readiness and willingness and they uh voted you you know uh I think everyone on the call that was there oops excuse me somehow I got got backwards here um was on that call um voted to uh if commission were to decide they are open and willing and and committed to making this a priority. Um and again that would mean we'd establish a loan committee that would be um again uh a part of the board. Um there would be an agreement that would be entered in to with Envision Athens def with defined goals, objectives just like any other contract or agreement that you have with other nonprofit organizations in the community. Um and again we recognize that um the community and ACC gov has already invested in this organization and to help to build it to where it's become um in addressing some community um needs and supports. And so again, thinking about some of the work that that's already been been done as well. Um, and then we'd be looking at this working with that entity in this next phase of work. Some of the questions that you all brought up earlier about defining sort of the next the next phase of this work and uh and then a new communication network. So that's just kind of I know it's in front of you, but just wanted to give you a sense of um of what would happen next if this particular um were to proceed. So what's next for us? So um once the direction is affirmed um by commission by mayor and commission um then we would then be focusing our work on phase three. So once we recognize where you all want to head we'd be finalizing the fund structure and the governance and

the all the agreements that will be necessary um to um stand up this entity and get it solely focused on the affordable housing fund. Um, we'd be finalizing those loan policies and procedures and criteria like we talked about who who's eligible and what types of programs. There'd be staff and stakeholder training. Um, and then of course we'd be looking at, you know, getting that fund up and running. And so, um, for your consideration today, um, is to really look at these three options. One is um the Envision Athens um to move forward with Envision Athens as the administrator um as the Athens Clark County affordable housing fund. We estimate uh if we're talking about this type of relationship um then we're looking at probably no later than January 2027. I think you guys have a couple in November. Um uh if we're if if the idea is that maybe we want to look at a RFP um maybe um just to determine if there's anyone else out there that we haven't already vetted, although we've did vet a lot of folks um that there would be directed by staff some action and probably would um be a little bit longer lead time. Creating a new nonprofit, which had one that discussion earlier. I'm feeling the room here. I'm feeling the vibe. Um, we know that between IRS timeline, state secretary of state timelines, all that that we're talking about literally probably want 2028. Um, so that is what I'm posting here in terms of those three options for for commission. I'm here to and my colleague are here to answer questions, but I know Alejandra wanted to more of in the weeds of what that process would look like. So,

right. Thanks. Um, so yeah, in your printed packet, because it's so text heavy here, we printed them out for you. It just goes a little bit more into detail as which option, what it all entails, um, I'll go a little bit deeper into this first option, which is our recommendation to move forward with Envision Athens as that administrator. Again, we would come forward to you in the May June cycle, um, asking you to approve an initial contract with Envision Athens. That would include some initial operating funding so that they can continue the training and setting everything up. uh we would really be spending the summer uh into early fall working with LEH uh and Envision Athens on everything they just talked about right like finalizing those policies who's going to sit on the loan committee etc so that we can come back again to you in October November for final approval of those policies uh final approval on our proposed guidelines of how ACC gov funds would be deployed which type of activities etc etc um so hopefully that will set us up on track to launch this start taking applications or emission Athens rather taking applications making the loans um as early as January of 2027. Um again we would have like you see here one more opportunity to come in front of you October November to finalize all those tweaks um that we talked about. Um the next couple slides again I won't go too much into this because we've already taken a lot of your time. Option two is just again that competitive IR fee. If you want us to see who else is out there, although that's going to be jumped out everything

fall 2027, we would delay this a full 10 months. If you want to go up to the three, we're talking about two years. So again, this is all taken into consideration. I know you all are ready to just launch this. I know our developers are ready, staff is ready. So um with that, yeah, we're all open for questions. So, so you can raise your hand if you would like a option one 10 month or two delay. voting meeting. This is not a voting meeting. And I I I need to be real clear when you said that uh option one would uh impact speed uh um speed impact was important for uh

Yes, ma'am. Number one, I just want to go

this is a threeyear proposal and um I have real concerns if we hadn't did anything in those because one thing the study said the study made it very clear that if we you know uh the housing trust fund was the most important entity of the whole study. Uh, I want to thank uh, Attorney Drake and his staff for getting getting behind this. We should not have t So now you want to impact speed, which I do too. But I have a real problem when it's always the same players around the table making the decisions. We have people in this community that looks at us as the elected officials. So, I want to make sure we give everybody an opportunity to have input. Whether we go with option one, I'm not going to fight that. But I am going to say there needs to be some more public input um uh on how on who's going to man manage this project. Um that that's where I am. So if it ends up being option one, I'm a team player. I'll go along with it, but I'm not going to pretend that, oh, this was the first thing on our mind when it wasn't. So please hear me. I I would I would love to move this faster, but I want to make sure voices are heard that have been shut out all along. and with some other um budget um things that are going to come come up with cuts.

Yes, ma'am. Maybe there is no You said that Envision Athens would look different. Yes, ma'am.

Maybe there's some other organizations that may look different given this opportunity. And I'm thinking about one particularly, but if they can look different and we're facing budget cuts with other groups, maybe we can change the look on some other groups. So that's my stay on this. I'm not fighting option one, but I want to make sure that we do not do business the way we've been doing business where it's only the same few folk. I would love I love you back there, um, bank man. you my bank man, but I would love to see other banks involved in this conversation at some capacity. Now, maybe that's the loan committee. Maybe that's the equity committee.

Great recommendation. Yeah. So, um I don't think that we just need to start we we throw that word around transparency. I don't know what that word means no more because it's transparent for some folk but not for everybody. So that's my position. Not fighting option number one. Don't y'all beat me up out in that hallway. Um but I am saying let's give some time. This is a this is a relief for me. This is a blessing for me. I feel so good right now. I want to make sure though the ends is what we're looking for.

Um mayor, excuse me, mayor, may I respond? Okay. Um, thank you so and thank you for that recommendation and I think you're absolutely right and I think you know we wanted to share obviously it's sort of a catch 22 to present to you all and we did some some of that engagement that we shared with you our our recommendations sort of first and somewhat but we'd love the opportunity to um post the meeting right in in preparation for as you head into June of what other folks that we need to have a conversation with and present the recommendation to and certainly working with HC CD to to do that. So I just would say that uh as well um that and then I think to your point about financial institutions there's many ways in which financial institutions will play a role a loan committee role which you mentioned uh investment role as well in many cases also the financial institutions you're co-lending together so those those banks that are in the projects in the financing with you so I I'll just mention that as a few little nuggets to respond to your your comments. um totally appreciate that and would look forward to talking with more folks about about that recommendation.

I'll give you two nuggets. You have ADM here represented and you also have the neighborhood leaders. Both of those groups work boots on the ground on housing. They they they need to have some attention or some um um some opportunity to have input because they're not going to come down to your office when they upset. They're going to come to the commission meeting. Absolutely. Yes. Those voices. Harold and Melissa.

Yeah. Um, I got a bunch of questions that I uh put together based on looking at this yesterday and uh really just informational really at this point u that I didn't quite understand um if if it was vision you know one division a how will this affect the vision Athens staff is there anticipated to be more staff um what kind What kind of responsibility will they have for fundraising? Because that was part of what you put in there. Is that going to be written out? I mean, we've talked about fundraising and getting grants for other entities in the past that have never come to fruition. Um, and you kind of alluded to it that this will be a different Envision Athens, but what about the other goals of Envision Athens? And so are you just saying Envision Athens is going to have the same name and this nonprofit status, but it's really going to be a affordable housing fund director and that's really going to be their main mission. Like that's not clear to me. Um,

you want to hear from Do you want to hear directly from Sally Kimmel Shepard? I think it's here. Well, I I don't know. I had I'm just going to throw out these other questions. Well, let's let's do one at a time. One at a time. So So first Yeah. Okay. I'm right here. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I guess Sally, Sally, speak a little bit just the kind of the breadth of mission and how the work would integrate into that.

I I feel like the affordable housing fund folds into the current mission of Envision Athens because it was created to lift up or follow through or create action or community around what is the most pressing issues going on in Athens. And so we've been concentrating on housing, affordable housing, I guess, in a way, but mostly here lately, mental health, substance use disorder, and food security. A lot of the things that Envision was working on when I came on in 2022, there are other entities that have been created to take care of those issues such as workforce development and homelessness. Um, so as I was talking with Tammy and Anna about this, that was one of my concerns as well. Like, do I continue to do what I'm doing and do this in addition to and it's not it I would not continue to focus on mental health, substance use disorder, and food insecurity. I would focus solely on affordable housing. So, but so, uh, so so Envision Athens would really be the name, let's just use this, and I'm not like I don't have an opinion on this yet. It would be the name of the affordable housing fund and that would be your main day-to-day responsibility versus other stuff. Okay. Yeah.

And so is the and then how is I mean what we haven't talked about here just put it what's the word u visibility was clear. What's the word you said there? How how is how is this comp how is envision Athens compensated for this? Is this part of the does this come out of the affordable housing fund? How much is that in the agreement? I mean that that would be withever whoever nonprofit that's specific to that. How does that work?

So um so yeah a couple things Mr. Myers is yes I mean there would be a budget there will be a budget and defined and yes the affordable housing fund would help to fund like you said whomever leads this organization and there would be a full-time staff. There would also be a communications and marketing work that would be done around really lifting any organization that you know that this is the fund that they're going to administer. So a lot of that would be this next phase of work. But yes, the um the funds to support operations would be initially funded 100%. I think we made some comment in our FAQs about that. Um, and then over time, as like you said, so when when the Envision Athens board voted on this, they voted knowing that there would be fundraising requirements. And when we say fundraising for a fund like this, it's very different. It is leveraging capital from other sources. But remember also these are loans. So there are administrative fees that are earned. So it's origination fees that help with operations. There's interest spread that helps to support operations. So it's a more sustainable model than just um constantly um just grants and just philanthropy and just uh that type of fundraising. So there's a different financial model that helps to support staff over time. And is it the person who would be let's just call the director right of this there in one is there anticipated to be another staff person besides that? I mean, I have no idea how these things work. And then two, do we have a like is there a basically a job description for this? because it sounds like it's very different from what Envision Athletes like I would like to see what that person would be doing who'd be thinking this organization because um like you know to me I've done a lot of work but like if I was going to sh and I've I've been concerned about housing but if I was going to shift over and run a housing fund I'm like do I really have

the skills do I know that like I don't even know what the skills are involved so we're making a decision about something that I don't quite truly understand whether or not it's envision Athens or anything else in the community.

Um happy to respond to that. So for example um yes there would be initially one director position over time making prime example they hired a director um and she says a sole person but um there's a loan committee that has the expertise that you're talking about. They're the ones that are part of this. They're banks. They're experts in the field. Um there's a board of directors, there's um typically, like I was saying, a back office support partner. Um we're we're suggesting FAB&T because they're already doing a lot of this work and um are open to doing that. Usually that costs um for example, there's an organization called Neighborhood Lending Partners. They do this in Georgia. They do like that back office type work. So there's a lot of different ways that this could unfold until we know what the administrative structure that we're leaning toward, you know, would help us define that a little bit more. There is a job description. Um there also um in in terms of um like the f the forward facing um I mean just to be candid, my degree is in political science, right? I ran a loan fund, right? because I, you know, I I was the outward- facing individual that helped to, you know, hurt all the cats and make sure community's at the table and make sure that we have the right partners at the table. You know, I led the organization um and then had the right expertise on the board, on the loan committee, um different contract supports and things like that. So, the leadership of that can look very different depending on the skill set that's that's necessary. But yes, you're absolutely right. And we also looked at that of like what roles in which folks are already doing some of this work. Um you know we know that Envision Athens was doing some work around the vision committee right and helping to do some of that rubric analysis which is kind of what we're doing when we talk about learn policy. So we did look at some of those things that they're already doing to determine like some of those skill sets as well. I think that answered a couple of your

questions. Maybe not maybe not all of them to some degree. I mean that helps. I mean that clearly I mean clearly you're saying that Envision Athens what we're saying is Envision Athens is it's its day-to-day work is going to be different than what it is now. So that's that's clear to me. Yeah. And and any entity is any any entity any Well, I mean or if it was added on as a sub department of some bigger entity. Let's just make

that's a great comment, Commissioner Myers, actually. So, for example, if you went with with option two, which is to put an RF request for proposals out there, and we we talked a little bit about that, you may get folks from North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, wherever that may submit a proposal that will administer your contract. The limitations in that, we've seen this in Asheville, and in some of the research that we've done, Self-Help Credit Union, great credit union, CDFI, done great work, they they will only administer your fund under their terms. Like so there's you know there so there's there's all there is somebody that could come do that but then there's a little bit limitation. That's why we were really honing in the local partners versus you know thinking about a broader entity out there that could do that. But you make a great point that it could be a subset of someone. They already do this. It would be helpful for me to have I mean this might be too basic but I'm going to say it anyway but I mean of having a job description of what a director would be doing on a dayto-day whether or not it's envision Athens or someone else

have that we can definitely hear that. Y sorry Commissioner Lee.

Yeah I mean I have some of the same concerns that Commissioner Myers and Commissioner um point out. I am all for getting this off the ground as quickly as possible. That is the biggest frustration we have in this community is that we we've been approving funding for affordable housing and it takes years for people to go online. I think not took 10 years. The handful of cottages that the land trust did took six or seven years. Um, but I I foresee, you know, if we go with Envision Athens, we're going to need a real restructuring of the board to asssure that there is that community representation and ensure that the local elected body has some input on that board. Um, you know, because these are public funds that are that will be distributed. Um so you know any any kind of um contract that we see moving forward I feel would have to have that detailed restructuring on it to have that public accountability for us and and that community representation. Um yeah and if I may respond I absolutely right. So, so just as an example, if it was Envision Athens or if it was an existing organization, I was I will say that some of the board members that are on the board are board members we would recommend because if they if they represent big institutions like university or the hospital or the school district or things like that. So, there's expertise in housing. We've got some folks on the board at Envision Athens already, but there would be new seats open. Um there would be um you know there would there could and would be possibly a seat that is recommended by the commissioners. For example, um the mayor uh Mon is on the board. There are staff folks that work um for the land bank in Mon on the board. I would not recommend that um this can't be fully locally government control because then you get back into the problem that

we're of why not, right? Um and then also it limits your ability to maybe become certified with I'm not sure maybe it's a longer term goal but to be a CDFI and to do more types of work. Um so certainly um the bylaws would be possibly slightly changed and the governance structure would be slightly changed. That would be not that difficult to do. Um but then we would add those seats and to your point community representation. Um like in Savannah they have a community two seats that are community representatives um that either are from the resident side or from like nonprofits or community. So that would be something that we would address um as part of that. Thank you.

May um and I agree with my colleagues a couple questions. So um where would the funds come from initially? Would that where would those funds be drawn from? Would it come from our general fund? Would it come from our housing fund? Would be our accumulated housing fund. Okay. Um secondly, and um and maybe it was um asked and I didn't remember hearing the answer. Why is the ACD not doing this particular? That's what they're there for. So why not why would they not be the entity to do this particular background.

Yeah, I can speak to that. And we actually shared a memo which I think you have at your seat. Okay.

About using this kind of entity is what helps you uh this this nonprofit is often service community service. And so therefore, you're able to choose not get to the issue that Commissioner B was alluding to around the gratuitous clause. And so you use that entity. And actually our consultant put together asking Courtney to write a memo to y'all about all this. But they actually got ahead of us and did a great memo that we forward to you this morning. The reason these in these in Savannah and Mon and Atlanta use these fing is to make sure the most in the appropriate manner possible. Yes.

Yeah. And maybe this maybe I didn't hear this right. Um, and I can understand you uh the different entities that you talked to that could possibly, you know, manage this program, but I I think I have a Did I hear you say that the Envision board has already approved that they voted? They just um we asked if they would be willing if they if this was an opportunity, would they be willing to change direction to the point that was mentioned earlier of the other things that are going on that they would be willing and they they said that they would be willing, but it was all it was not like a like we're going to administer this. It was just the willingness because we wanted to make sure that we didn't come to you and present an option that then the board said well we don't want to do that or we can't do that or we are not committing to that. Um even though we know that the board u may shift slightly, we wanted to make sure that that was a viable option. I

think it's fair to say the board recognized this is really important mission space in the same way that some of that earlier work in mental health have been important mission space. Well, again only thing I I think my colleagues uh commissioner and link have asked the questions that I want to know too about um the jobs I mean the job description. Um, also I uh I would like to see more detail on how other uh financial institutions I guess that's their part that I said already are going to um be involved. Yes.

And um I still would like for your committee to talk to other groups that are interested in housing. Um, and I will go on record again saying, uh, I'm going go on record saying that I do have a problem that folk are engaged in conversations and decisions are made. Um, that and I guess that's what you got to do. Maybe that's the politics of it all. But I'm really tired the same folk bringing us the same information because they can't. That's it. Alison, do you have a question?

Um, yeah. I just um what I'm feeling like here is if we're all in agreement, the sooner the better, which is option one. And then this block of time in the middle of this handout. I think, correct me if I'm wrong, Millie, is the June to September is where the details come together. They're not going to put all the details together for option one, two, and three. They're looking for a direction and and and the details that we want. It seems to me like we would be able to share in the process moving forward how uh the you know, how Envision is going to change. And if we don't feel like it's inclusive and has the right people that we want to make sure that the people who keep who like you say we need some focus here and I've I've often felt that Envision had so many things that they were involved with which they have been for a long time and that's why they have such a diverse board but if they change to this focus or we asked for this change in focus then they're the board should represent that focus as well and I think that that's in my what I'm hearing is if we all would get on board with this then we can get that focus

and I expect that the conversation here today and what's likely to be subsequent conversation in our May June cycle you know is some of that feeder material for what you'll see in the October November cycle kind of should we move forward with option one because what you're what you're expressing is exactly what you need to write some of these bylaw components and decide upon what some of these loan terms are and what that public engagement and board structure will be right. And and if and if getting when we get to the part um what are you calling the back the back the support back office the back office back the support uh back office support

the back office support and if if that needs to to spin out and have uh an RFP process and allowing other banks so that it's you know we talk about people who we already work with but we also try to make sure we're not losing people because they didn't become working with us already. So if that door can be open for that part of it and then as the structure changes within vision, we make sure because this is the first time we've launched this out here that all the entities uh in our community that want us to move fast on this

know that we're doing it to get involved so we can all get involved behind this the same thing. So the same process. So, my sense is again, and I know we've jotted down many of the comments and requests and recommendations today and some of the uh follow-up requests, um, Mr. Thorton, that you brought up and and Commissioner Link and and Carol, I'm sorry, Commissioner Myers as well. Um, and so we would have from now until, you know, June to collect some of those responses, engage, I think, with SE um, ADM and NL, you gave me their

neighborhood leaders. I'm sorry I wrote that down. um and a couple of the other um organizations that were suggested in addition to some of those other partners. Um so I think it would be my understanding is that would give us the time we need to respond to some of these questions and um suggestions.

I know that uh Sally Shepard uh does um very valuable work in the community. Uh I would like to see all the projects that she has worked on. It doesn't have to be a um report, but I want to see those different hats because I do think that is my reluctance um a little bit.

And I failed to mention I think we got Rick Parker Lucier who's on the admission board too. Ray got it right there. Rick Rick and I good. Well, uh, just a couple of things, just a reminder to this group about Envision Athens, who they are and how they got how they got created and started. They got created and started out of an initiative out of local government. They didn't start themselves. Envision Athens was vision Athens was started out of local government with the past manager and with the commission etc. and Envision Athens board original board when it was doing bringing the whole community together was maybe the best most diverse board I've ever been on in my life. We literally made sure we had representation from every single elected uh commission seat area. We made sure that we had demographics that looked like the community both in terms of race and gender. uh we had we had 51% I think female uh board members that uh Michelle Pearson and several others came together and put together a strategy for creating a diverse representative board better than I've ever seen in our community uh before or not. And then after of course all the work was done and there were uh I want to say 10 or 11 pillars or areas that were identified not by us but by the community. One of started out as six and I think it grew to like 10. One of the first six was housing. Housing has always been a part of it didn't even happen in a uh charge and and process. And even today the board's very diverse. It is incorporated already. And of course one of the nice things about it at least from my point of view is that we did not fully populate the board. the bylaws are written in such a way that there's the

ability to add you know there's extra that can be added in order to get that get that diversity and it already includes those organizations that we're funding particularly local government having a certain number of seats on the envision Athens board. So, we've got a lot of the things that everybody's already that I've heard here in the room today already already structured and um uh you know, and you've got a board that didn't go seeking this, but rather it was examined by we found out about it from your consultants who came and said, "Hey, you know, what do you think about this?" and they asked us to say, "Well, we're not going to go propose your name if you're not willing to do it." So, they came to us and said, "Can we please can you guys have hold the meeting and let's determine by vote of the board as to whether or not this is even something that the board seems willing to do." So, it wasn't that we have not dialed ourselves into that process anywhere along the way. It has we have responded to those requests that have come to us trying to look at what is the most burning question in our community which is what Envision Athens was always set up to do was to deal with the big important issues that uh the community itself identified in that original Envision Athens. I guess 1,500 to 4,000 people came together over that uh one-year period that Envision Athlet was a huge community effort to try to get input and thought, etc. And having been in the housing business and done loan funds and done firsttime home buyer lending myself, uh I have a pretty good sense of what that what that entails and what it uh is required to manage that.

And if you have the back office structure in place, I think the current staff of Envision Athens because I've dealt with that individual. Sorry Sally, I'm say nice things about you. So I will Sally is more in my opinion more equipped and and capable of handling that particularly since there's going to be a ramp up period before any of this starts and you're going to have consultants there that will be that will be helping. It really is more about pulling everybody together and keeping big projects organized as well as the capacity then to learn the technical aspect. But the technical aspect spec will come. I think Sally has a demonstrated history of being able to bring lots of different people to the table and to and to move projects forward. Uh just take a look at the homeless coalition which is you know one of the latest things that we've done. So, that's just some comments and I'll be glad to stick around afterwards if anybody wants to pick my brain or know what I think. And I'm always of the opinion uh worrying about, you know, uh whether or not we've got the right people there or not. You know, I'd be happy to continue to serve on the Envision Athens board or I'd be happy to step aside and let somebody else take my place. I'm more interested in what's best for the community and how to move affordable housing forward. I first posed this just by the way to local government and Sweeney and I probably proposed an affordable housing fund to local government about 32 years ago. I think

the point. So I'm So I'm whatever we can do to move this forward, however it works, just please, dear Lord, let it work. Okay, hear from Commissioner Fischer and then we need to move on. We got We got two other items. Here we go.

So I do want to wrestle with the bank piece and I I appreciate Roman being here and I think one of the reason that we're using um West America Bank is they have more of a local flavor. I think if someone's looking at our um national banks, it may be more of an issue we're trying to do with this program. We're trying to I appreciate the fund, the fact that we have a local entity involved and we make it easier. Not sure whether or not we want to put that RFP out for other banking entries, but I don't know whether or not um they they may or may not want to do this, but they do then you um your decision won't be made locally. may be made somewhere else. I think we do need to keep in mind decision locally to get those funds out to the people need it to get housing built. So, I appreciate

and as much as we might like it to be true, we we've got one CDFI in this town and so we recognize that reality. Y'all, we do this. If you got additional questions, submit those to us. Uh we want to go ahead and and collect that because again, that's some of going to be some of the fuel that we use for the next iteration. But we have two other items. We're going to move on. Uh we've got our FY27 compensation and benefit strategy. So we're going to hear from human resources. Dave Cassella, our HR director is here. That of course is big part of our upcoming budget.

So I just want to say and thank you mayor and thank you commissioners for for the time today. And um again we are available to answer any questions. We'll look forward those list of questions. We've jotted down some from everyone. And uh appreciate the opportunity to work with you on this. Thank you so much. Thank you very much brother deep dive into

and Jeff was on the same PDF All right. If uh if people ever want to know what do you do in local government? Well, we provide services. And how do you provide services and do things? Well, you hire people. Lo and behold, people uh And people need you shut that door.

People of course need benefits. People need compensation. So every year we go through the exercise of doing some planning about benefits and compensation. So big thank you for being with us today.

Happy to be here. Nice to see you, mayor, commissioners. I have with me our expert in benefits, our consultant, uh, Stephen McKenzie from Epic. So with that, we'll get started. just some some topics that we're going to cover um briefly here, some briefly, some more in detail. We want to maintain our employer of choice. Uh competitive pay and benefits are likely the most important factors in attracting and retaining employees. um it it will set an employer apart as so you know hiring and retention is still sometimes a challenge for us. We kind of go up and down and you'll see that in the graph in a couple slides here. Um but keeping in mind that our employees are we're still looking at high inflation right March's inflation not inflation numbers 3.3 jump from 2.4 or in February. Um, we have gas price issues with our employees that may or may not get better for some period of time. We'll see. It remains to be seen. So, there's still there's pressure on employees compensation. Sure. Talk about turnover, vacancy, and some other trends. Um, this is our full-time vacancy report ending in March. And uh there's a a a number at the top of these bars that indicate the number of vacant positions in the the various departments. There's a bar graph key which indicates the percent of position or percent of vacant positions by department. Um and then we have 11 departments that are full fully staffed.

So from this year we have uh 1613 positions or 88.5% of our positions are filled. Uh we have 209 vacant positions currently and our rolling turnover statistics last from last March uh we hired 200 people but we separated 178. So our rolling turnover average is 15.4% 4% and for city and county governments the average is about 15 to 18%. So we're still within that average but we would like to get that down to around 12%.

Does that does that mean retirement too or just Oh retirements as well. So last year we had 55 retirements uh 44 active employees and then rest deferred. So yeah, may not be a bad idea sort of back the income see turnover sometime when you have turnover people quitting but it may not be hey we ask people yeah they're they're separated for various reasons retirements involuntary separations voluntaries can we get an email of the 11 departments at 100% they're they're here they're listed in their middle on the right right side there they're airport

dropins up. Okay, thank you. There they are. Might have some turnover here. Still 100%. Yeah, 100%.

There they are. Okay, thank you. These are all separations. Um, at the top there are some milestones where we've indicated there's a a pay increase or something traumatic happened like CO shutdowns, that sort of thing. But the red um red line indicates that those are sworn personnel who have separated and the black are the civilian employees who have separated. And then the gray line indicates all the employees who have separated. So it's ticking back up a little bit. Um I can tell you that we are doing exit interviews with employees trying to determine reasons that they're leaving and it's helpful but it doesn't paint a good enough picture for us to understand fully maybe what's going on in particular department um or certainly governmentwide. But we are losing mostly entrylevel people in the first three years of employment afterwards current. So this year we are requesting uh compensation at last year's numbers. Um 3% table increase helps with recruitment. 4% market increase for retention. And for public safety departments, we're requesting a 3% table increase with a, you know, step increases will help with retention with a total cost of general fund of $4.5 million. And just to give you an update, unified pay study will be completed by the end of June. And then we will have to do

some some pre-work before we can do presentations about, you know, what our findings are and maybe target certain positions if we're not going to to do a full implementation and that sort of thing. But we'll be back here to to discuss that.

Yeah. If I can just add in kind of influence is the budget that I presented to you all a month or so ago reflected kind of those numbers up to 4% table increases. Um right now in what was in that budget that I handed off to the mayor does not include any funding to actually implement anything out of pay study. So just kind of keep that in mind. It's you know and part of that is because it is still not finished. It's kind of working its way through, but it is anticipated to be finished at some point in FY27. And currently, there are no dollars set aside. So, another thing to kind of think of as you go into planning in FY28 for sure, for certain.

So, that's the compensation portion. Can I answer any questions? How often do we do the um the study uh um compensation. The last study was done in 2018. Is that correct? And then there was about a 20-year lag running back. And you also mentioned that you do exit interviews. Do you do interviews um randomly anonymously um during the you know the life of an employee?

No, we just implemented the exit interview portion. We're trying to do those in person so that maybe we can, you know, really kind of probe into some issues with departments. But that you're right, stay interviews are very common and uh we can certainly look into doing those. I wish we would because a lot of people leave and they can say the truth, right? They're leaving,

right? Um but if you're doing intermittent um interviews um I would like to see that um not to give you any extra work but I think that will help with the exit interviews also. As Vicki mentioned, I'm Stephen McKenzie. I work with Epic. I'm the benefits consultant. Um, good to be with you all again. Thanks again for your time. Uh, we'll go through a few things today. Uh, the first one is just a quick update on market trends. um things that are impacting the cost for everybody in this country, but obviously you as an employer and how that affects your renewal going forward. Um an update or actually continuation of some of the guiding principles we've talked about in previous meetings and um why we're going to continue those going forward. We have some information on some benchmarking which really ties back into the guiding principles that we've talked about the last few years. And then finally down into the numbers here, we have calendar year and fiscal year projections as well as an update on uh the renewals and the marketing initiative that's currently underway for a number of the benefits that you will offer your uh your employees and their families. And just a quick update on the timeline. So this slide here uh looks at healthcare inflation going back to 2020. Um there's been a common theme really since 2020 except for one year where health plan cost trend has outpaced inflation. Um generally two to three times inflation. Um one thing to keep in mind when you look at the blue line of healthcare inflation for instance of 8.5% that's after employers make plan changes. So, generally speaking, you know, you get your renewal, it comes out as 12 to 15% or whatever, and you know, you make plan changes, change deductibles, co-pays, out of pocket

maxes to try to get that down. So, that 8.5% is really after some additional cost shifting has happened to employees. Um, we expect that to stay the same for 2026 in that 7 and a half n% range. And, um, in terms of the the big drivers of that, uh, right now we're looking at pharmacy trend, which is the biggest impact. um specially plan spend, which are drugs that do great things. Cures for folks, um for instance, they they are successful, but they're very expensive. We're talking tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of dollars. So, you get a few of those in your plan. Obviously, that can increase cost. Um everybody's seen it on DP, but GLPs, of course, increase plan cost as well. There's mitigating factors you can do as a plan, which you all do to make to manage that cost the best as possible. But they still impact um impact trend. Uh regulatory is another one of those. If you think of uh healthcare like a balloon, if you squeeze one side of it, the other side just gets bigger. There's some theory around that applying to the ACA subsidy. So if those were lessened, the health that cost could end up on the employer side of things in the long run. Remain to be seen. It's really too early to tell, but um we we'll keep an eye on that. the health care system in general. Uh we have seen a lot of acquisition in this space and what I mean by that is uh larger hospitals buying up smaller hospitals. Um what typically ends up happening there is those now those hospitals now have larger negotiating power. They go to the insurance carriers who you all use to negotiate their discounts. um you use those insurance carriers to administer your claims and if their discounts are not as favorable as they once were because that hospital has better bargaining power now that would be shifted to you all as well too. Not a lot you can do about that obviously but it does impact your cost in the long run. And then um aging workforce. We're all getting older. Uh that just leads to things costing more, right? You have generally things like

back cancers on your plan which are going to increase cost year after year. So this slide here, you've seen this slide for a couple years running now. Um and we're going to stick with it because it's been pretty successful and I'll explain why in another slide. Um but this was the guiding principles that we created a handful of years ago. If you go, the whole idea of the guiding principles is to have a set of foundational rules, guard rails so to speak, that really steer us for our benefits decisions. Um, and when we tried to come up with those guiding principles, we came across four really uh many ones. One was addressing the whole person. So that's just not their health, that may be their family situation, their mental situation, uh their financial situation. So making sure that we have tools and resources available um for that financial stability. uh you all run a very large self-insured healthcare plan and you want to make sure you're good um stewards of of the money and so what doing whatever we can to make sure we have the best carriers, the best contracts, the best pricing um at our disposal. Uh guided by employee survey results. This is a big one. I'll mention why in just a minute here, but um it's been successful successfully uh implemented in terms of maintaining costs for employees. And then ultimately the thought is having a benefits package helps with recruiting and retention which Vicky just spoke about some of those um topics as well. So those are the guiding principles the annual strategies to execute on those. Um trying to maintain a near median benchmark plan design and achieve 75% employer cost share. When we looked at the employee survey a handful years ago um one of the interesting aspects of it was yes there were some comments on plan design. um you know out of pockets's too high, deductible's too high, but the majority of comments around the health care plans were the actual cost of them, what's coming out of someone's paycheck to participate in those. So the goal in

in these two regards was to maintain plan design as much as possible and try to hold um employee cost share to get to that 75%. Um I'll show you a slide here in a second where it's been pretty successful that yes again what is um what is the median benchmark would that be cities our size big budget what

yeah governments municipalities and those um the data cut we have here is about 50 or so in the southeast so they're going to be all sorts of sizes bigger and smaller than you um the other uh annual strategy was releasing total reward statements we do this to make sure we can remind employees of all the great things you all offer. You offer tons of different types of insurance. You offer voluntary programs, employee employer paid programs, um as well as a fantastic wellness program. So, we want to make sure that everybody is aware of that. It reminds them um of more than this is more than just a job. Um educating and engaging employees, just ensuring that you're meeting the employee where they're at. however they, you know, get best information, whether it's email, text, uh, newsletters, things like that. We want to make sure that we're doing doing all of those to keep them up to speed on what's, um, what sort of benefits you all offer. And then evaluating cost management strategies. We'll talk in a few slides here about some of the marketing that's going underway, but we meet with the vendors and carriers uh, every single year to discuss ways that we can mit mitigate costs without transferring that to the employee or their families. So if we're successful in these guiding principles and annual strategies, um ultimately what you know the mission of this is to end up as an employer of choice where uh you know you have people in the area that come to you, they see the value that you all offer, especially in the benefits space. So I mentioned benchmarking here. The information you're going to see in a couple slides here is a government data cut out out of a tool called benchmark. um represents uh employers located in the south with and there's all size of employers. It's about 49 of them. Um we've got a handful that are smaller and a handful that are bigger. So you guys are probably slightly on the larger side, but um still still within the the mean the two ends. So on this slide here, I apologize

there's a lot of numbers, but I'll draw your attention to the the green box. And we've been keeping track of this over the last few years. So you'll see that in just a a minute here. But what's in this green box, if I go to that second column in the green box, it's the employee cost share percentage um that an that an employee pays out of pocket compared to the total premium rate. So for instance, an employee only in your conventional POSOS plan pays 31% of the cost share. Down the line, that goes to 34% for families. Um, if I compare that to benchmarks, so the benchmark plan design or the benchmark uh cost is 11% for an employee only all the way down to a 30% for a family. If we look at your high deductible health plans that come with HSAs, that's your select and value plan. Your select plan has an employee only cost share of 23% all the way down to 26 for family. And your value plan is at 10% for an employee only and 14% to family. If we compare that to the high deductible health plan benchmarks which you see on the far right over there, the last column, that cost share range generally goes from 15% to 26%. So what I'm looking at here, you guys are right in the ballpark for a conventional POS plan. You you are higher on the employee only level um level, but there's some historical reasons for that. Um, when it comes to the high deductible health plans that you offer, uh, you offer one that's more rich than the other, the select plan, and it costs a little bit more, but it's still pretty close to benchmarks, and then you offer a pretty affordable one in the value plan that has higher deductibles and out of pockets, for instance. So, we've had this strategy of maintaining cost share um, and uh, maintaining plan design, frankly, too, for the last few years. It's our recommendation to continue that because we're getting very close to that. um annual strategy uh goal. So if I go back to 2023, the conventional POSOS um employee cost share was 39 to 43%. Your

CHS select ranged from 29 to 33 and the value was at 16%. Fast forward to 2026, now employees pay 31 to 34%. Um for the POSOS plan, the select plan is 23 to 26 and the value is 10 to 14. So we've seen increases in health care costs over that time. Employees have maintained the same contribution which means their cost share goes down and Athens um has absorbed basically that that additional cost. So if we compare that to again those benchmarks on the far right over there, you offer a very competitive um three plan offering different you know different types of plans for different types of risks and buyers. Um in your conventional POSOS is is right around benchmark the exception of the employee only tier. Um, your select and value plans, I would argue, are very competitive, especially because you also give HSA funding to folks in those as well, too. So, to get into the numbers, um, this slide here looks at just your activives. You have, uh, we do a projection two different ways on your activives and your pre65 retirees. Um, there's three columns represented on here. The, uh, calendar year 25 and fiscal year 25. The top chart is calendar year. The bottom chart is fiscal year. Um that's done. So those are our actual numbers right there. The second or the middle column um is the recast. So that would be if we knew all the information um that we know as of February 2026 and had the opportunity to repro calendar year and fiscal year projections. What would we change that to? Um and what this says here is for the calendar year projection, we would actually increase it by 12%. in the fiscal year we'd increase it by 11.9%. So what does that mean? That means that after we set the budget for calendar year and fiscal year um plane experience got worse after that. Uh and so that's what you're seeing here is is a higher

increase than trend for instance. We fast forward to the projection for calendar year 27 and fiscal year 27. We're looking at a 10.1% increase um for calendar year and a fiscal year is a 10.3% increase. And these numbers that you see on here as well too, they are gross costs as they don't include what employees contribute. Um, this is through February. We will generally make a another uh swipe at this in a couple months with some more recent data um to make sure nothing changes too much on either side of this. Sometimes experience can get a little bit better um so it could bring down those numbers a little bit. And then this is the same sort of setup but for the 365 retirees. So if I go to that middle column, you'll see the calendar year 26 was showing a 7.8% increase and the fiscal year 26 uh was showing a 25% increase. It's just a function of a smaller group and when the unfavorable experience hit why those two numbers are so different. They kind of normalize when you get to the 27 projections um which the calendar year is looking at a 10% increase and the fiscal year is an 8.6% 6% increase. Um 365 retirees historically have trended a good bit higher than the act activives until the last couple years. They for some reason just had a good um couple couple of years experience-wise. I believe that's starting to turn a little bit and normalize to where we would expect it to. Um so I wouldn't expect the increases on the pre65 to outpace uh or to be more favorable than the activives for much longer. Just a function of the population. So just a quick question. So are retirees or non-retirees that are Medicare qualifying don't necessarily move on to Medicare?

Correct. Yeah. You would be they would if they don't move on to Medicare, they're still an active employee, but they could. But you're saying this this is better for them. This this would be the primary payer. Yeah. So they they may pick Medicare up, but you're still going to be the primary payer, right? For the supplement. Yep. But their cost would go down if we because Medicare's paying for some stuff in the supplement. Yes. So appreciating a little bit there. A little bit. Yeah. But in general um in general if they're still on your plan, you know, they're going to you being the primary payer is going to have a significant portion of the cost. That's probably a pretty slim slice of our Yeah. Yes.

Federal government's going to make sure that body.

So, this is a renewal overview overview. There's a lot of words on here. I won't go through all of them, but it leads into the market initiatives that we're currently um underway. So, to highlight a couple of items, uh you have Anthem for both medical and pharmacy. It says Carol on there. That's just Anthem's version of their pharmacy benefit administrator. So everything is quote unquote bundled with Anthem today. Um that is up for renewal as of 112027. You also up for renewal for the dental which is with Sigma. Um there is a rate cap for uh 1127 but you still have to go through a renewal process. Um the other one I'll highlight on here under income protection. These are things like disability products, life insurance. Some of those are employer paid and some of them are employee paid. And then voluntary benefits. Um those are all with UNIM. Uh and those are up for renewal on January 1st of 27. So with that said, um we have been uh hard at work on a marketing or a bid process for the majority of the lines of coverage um that that you all have. The first one I'll mention on here because it's the hottest topic is pharmacy. So the RFP is created. You can strike with purching. It's actually out to bid now as of last week. Um, and when we look at the pharmacy bid, we're looking at it considering it's carved in just like the same arrangement you have today where Anthony ministers both the medical and pharmacy as well as a carveout arrangement where you bring in a specialized vendor where all they do is pharmacy benefit um management to to manage that part of the uh of the pie. And on the medical TPA side of things, that is out as well too. Um we are looking at a self-funded arrangement just like you are today and also requesting bids for a fully insured arrangement just so we have a comparison um between the two.

Thank you. Sure.

Um and then the dental RFP that is been released as well. Um you may see some of the medical carriers also bid on dental and just like uh medical bidding on dental some of the life disability and voluntary benefits um those carriers also do play in the dental space as well too. So, some of those will bid on both life disability, voluntary benefits, and dental as well. Um, we I've got a timeline here to talk about when we'll probably get some of those results back, but it's officially out out on the market. We've already gotten questions back um from some vendors, so exciting to to get ready to see those results. And in terms of a project timeline, um so this process actually really started back in December of 2025. We met with human resources to talk about what we wanted to do for 27. Um after developing some of that uh some of those ideas, we met with the managers in March. Um the marketings actually began in March, too. We anticipate those will probably end sometime around May. Maybe some negotiation phases and whatnot after that, but for the most part, uh bids will be in the door and analyzed by May. I'm meeting with you all today. In an ideal world, we're finalizing the carriers and plan designs sometime in June and July, which allows us to set firm budgets, contributions. If we need to begin implementations to move from one carrier to the other, those can begin in July. So, we're ready for open enrollment uh in October. And that's all that I

All right. Any benefits questions? Patrick? Yes. go back to um 365 retirees um and FY so I'm still kind of young man explain that to me so explain preire at age 60 you're not let eligible for Medicare we cover you correct so that so we have 271 employees currently retirees. Is that normal? That that seemed like a high number. No, it's normal to me.

So, think think you know we're fully staffed. We got about 1,800 employees, but this includes a bunch of folks who've left over a variety of times in their career. Some of whom and remember you get vested years, right? So, you know, you you may have been your dad in Shar County 20 years ago and uh you know, left in 2006, but you know, you're former employee with some benefits. I just feel that probably a low number. Maybe because I'm older because people are working longer because they have to. Well,

but but then when they retire, do they ever come back as part-time? Yes, they do. And keep in mind, they can retire as early as 55. So, this is going to cover the population that's retired from 55 to 65. Okay. And then when they turn 65, they come off of our health insurance and then go on to the other plans. Okay.

Any other question? But if I may just again the so obviously the cost of benefits continues to increase as I indicated in the budget presentation once again largely because of some funds that we had reserved if you will were able to absorb or at least the proposal is that we would absorb those costs so that the employees share of those increased costs are not borne by them. So their rates would not deviate even though the costs are increasing for the program. And um all of this is I know without saying but all of this whether it's compensation or benefits is super important. As I shared with you all we're the fourth or fifth largest employer in this county. We employ more people than St. Mary's. We employ more people than Caterpillar. Um and we are a people business. We provide services and those services are provided through through people. Um and so these are we do this every year and it's kind of a matter of routine. These are two of the most important things that you all um help us do because it affects those folks that actually do all of the work if we go about our business. So but all of these everything that you're seeing today is effectively into what was presented has to be in the budget discussion last.

All right. All right. Final act of the evening annual update for neighborly. Thank you guys. I appreciate it. Thanks Steve. Thank you Vicky. Don't tell me. actually.

Hey,

okay. All right, everybody. Good to have you with us. Um uh given our long-standing partnership with family connection schools uh they come to us annually to update us on the neighborhood leaders work that they do. So we have Terrace Thomas who owns that program neighborhood leaders and Thompson Podvan who's executive director of family connection communities and schools of Athens. I've had the pleasure of being on their board. a second stint. I think I stood in for the mayor between 2007 and 2010. Uh so I was there for a prior iteration and uh very fortunate to be there now. And so I'm g to turn it over to you guys.

Okay. Thank you. Well, um Kelly did uh introduce us, so I think we can we can skip that part. We know most of the folks in the room, but uh we do appreciate the ongoing support of mayor and commission and we're excited for the opportunity to share with you all today about the work that the neighborhood leaders have been doing and the impact they're making. So on the slide is a preview of what we'll share today uh to include some FY26 highlights and accomplishments where we are here to date on key metrics and some organizational changes and sustainability efforts that have been put in place since we last spoke to this body before concluding with a time for questions. So we'll go ahead and begin. I'd like to set the stage today with these three numbers. Now, they may appear random, but after we share what our team has been up to, they will make sense and are in fact extremely important. And I'll now pass it over to my colleague, Deris.

Good day. I'm here to share our program overview. Um, and the program as as it states here, this particular uh verbiage is actually taken from the original contract um with um family connection communities and schools. And I would like to highlight the fact that we are here um through the prosperity package and we were brought on to address poverty, social disparity and wealth inequality. Also, um, as this slide is stating, the neighborhood leaders do aim to remove barriers to economic self-sufficiency by providing support and resources in five key areas. And those areas are food and security, employment opportunities, housing access, physical and behavioral health, and civic engagement. As it relates to our highlights, I like to highlight um a whole lot here. These numbers as you see the 163 trainings that our neighborhood leaders have participated in to build their individual capacity, 326 events hosted and collaborated um connecting residents with resources and we partner with over 141 agencies and community organizations to identify and respond to the needs of our residents and address those gaps in services. Um and I would like to share that these these numbers represent um activity through the end of Q3 March 31st. Um, and as neighborhood leaders, we do operate on the uh community triage system. And in the in doing the work, passionately doing the work, the neighborhood leaders effectively stop the bleed at the resident community level, presenting predictable crisises from escalating into highcost taxpayer funded intervention.

in their words. This particular slide, I want to just share um some of what's being said of us from our partners about how um our agency and the neighborhood leader program expands their reach. This particular quote is from Sally Start. Uh she's the executive director of Brightpass. She states that their families rely on the neighborhood leaders as a vital lifeline and that the partnership she have with us helps their families thrive. also within their words. This uh this would be commentary from a resident satisfaction survey that we participated in and this provides us with commentary from the actual resident and the resident states. We truly believe in fact we do believe that our neighborhood leaders are resource brokers. We know that and if you if as you see here on the slide our residents has great things to say about us. It was it was not as easy as it is now. Well, I didn't know what resources were available. Um, and one said, because of the neighborhood leaders, I now feel that people care because they provide us with resources. This these comments speak to the trust that the neighborhood leaders have built and the value of lived experiences. As as family connection community, neighborhood leaders, we are indeed of the community, in the community, and with the community. Thank you, Terrace. So, over the last few slides, Terrace has shared the words of some of our community partners, some of our own residents that we serve. I'd now like to share the words of founding father Benjamin Franklin, and he coined a well-known proverb. I'm sure most of you have heard it. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Now, interestingly, this line came from a letter he wrote back in 1735, and it was advising Philadelphia residents on

fire safety and encouraging proactive prevention rather than dealing with the massive costs of fighting a fully developed fire. The statistics on this slide represent our social infrastructure. They show us the quantifiable difference between prevention and cure. When one in four parents are missing work and 20% of surveyed residents rely on the ER as their primary care, our economic engine is idling and our emergency systems are being misused. Too often we look at statistics like these and we think of them as sad facts. But in reality, I think we need to think about them as actionable leverage points. And this is what our neighborhood leaders work to do in myriad ways every day. They are connecting our residents to vital resources and services on the front end before situations escalate. Because when we fail to address the basics, the taxpayer and the community pick up the tab at the highest possible price input. I'm now going to pass it back to Terrace. As we mentioned, she is the director of neighborhood engagement. Terrace supports and provides direction for the entire neighborhood leader team, and she'll now share a closer look at the impact our team has been making this year. So, where are we as neighborhood leaders on meeting our metrics? Um, these numbers represent our progress toward our annual goals as stated earlier through Q3 um of the fiscal fiscal year uh 26 as of March 31st last month. As you can see in the area of food insecurity, the team is indeed tracking well towards achieving their goals in all four areas, even significantly exceeding it where food related events are concerned. Where housing access is concerned, after three quarters, we are lagging in the area of referrals to shelters and other homeless services. Sadly, as much as

we'd like to be able to refer more, the truth is that our community does not have many options and most of those most of those we have are operating at capacity and carrying a weight list. I think it's fair to say that affordable housing is an issue that we are all very familiar. In our six years of neighborhood leader service, we have seen significant increase in the number of residents threatened with eviction and/or actively experiencing homelessness. Where the other three areas are concerned, the team is tracking very well towards against that goal. In the area of physical and mental health, we are tracking slightly behind the goal in the first category, but we do feel confident that we'll make that ground up by the end of Q4. Uh we're behind the goal in this area as it relates to finding health care. This is a metric that continues to be a struggle for our teams with the rising cost of insurance. Try as we might and we do try to find plans that our residents can't afford. The truth is many are being priced out of even the most basic plan. Um or they're struggling to buy to find providers that will take the insurance that they do have. Um this is a statistic that was confirmed uh by the most recent Athens well-being project findings which found that 20% 25% of households that have insurance reporting reported having trouble finding um a provider that would take it. Um but as also as you see the team is tracking well uh towards the goal in the other two areas that are being measured where employment support is concerned. Neighborhood leaders have already surpassed their annual targets in all three areas. Um I would like to call your attention to our partnership with Athens Achieves. Uh the neighborhood

leaders have been consulted since the early stages of and development of that job of the job portal and we continue to collaborate closely with the nav navigators. Um together with Envision Athens, we hosted in February a uh at our inter agency meeting, we hosted a training for service providers to learn how to navigate the the job portal as well as to provide feedback to the navigators on what edits need to be made to the portal that will be beneficient or the resident. These collaborations are essential to us as it relates to moving the needle forward in the work and workforce development as they simultaneously build capacity for local service providers while ensuring the community's employment resource remain responsive to lived experiences. The last area that I'd like to highlight today is civic engagement. While there are no specific numeric goals metric, you will see that there is a great deal of education and awareness about voter registration taking place. This is largely uh taking place as we work with residents in the Georgia Gateway system um as well as through referrals to agencies like the economic justice coalitions for whom it that is their primary focus. We're also very pleased um with the great deal of commissioner engagement that our neighborhood leaders have had and do have and will continue to have. We would certainly love to see that number however increased to 100%. Um we continue to invite um commissioners, the respective commissioners to join us at our events, canvasing opportunities and connected group meetings. In fact, we are always open to for a call or face-toface conversation uh to discuss the trending needs of our zones and the community residents um who are our shared constituents. In their words again, we would be remiss

if we did not take a moment to highlight the voice of those doing the work every day and that is our neighborhood leaders to whom we are so happy to have with us today. Um, this is a quote from Shade, the neighborhood leader in the gang zone. Um, and you could read that there. I don't want to present to you, but if in reading it, if there's anything you'd like to take from that, it from what Shade is sharing, we hope it would be um an understanding of the critical value of trust, the trust she's built not only with her residents, but with the agency team as well. I'd also like to like to highlight that bridges out of out of poverty which is the framework that guides our work. It identifies healthy trusted relationships as a key sustainable resource and the advantage homeless service day center. We see they truly see Shade as a part of their team and that's that agency. But there are people who would say the same about uh the awesome neighborhood leaders who are seated behind me without question. um much like Sally from Brightpass stated um as I shared earlier that she is extending their reach.

Okay, thank you Terrace. So Terara has shared uh a lot of specifics around the neighborhood leaders work and I now want to zoom out and speak for a moment about FCCIS as a whole. Now, we know that the neighborhood leaders is by far our largest and dare I say legacy program, but communities and schools thrive and our role as the family connection collaborative convenor for Clark County are all important parts of the work we do as well. Last year, we committed to strategic growth and we are delivering. We've moved from reactive reactive budgeting to a comprehensive fundraising framework that ensures long-term sustainability and less reliance on singular funding streams. Internally, we've codified our core values with a 100% staff input and are modernizing our policies and processes. We've also expanded our talent, hiring a director of development and key team members for both CIS and Thrive while launching a new website and inter agency hub to make our resources more accessible. Simply put, we've tightened our operations so we can maximize our impact. Now, when we presented last year, much like today, we were able to share data through uh the third quarter of FY25. Now today we want to ensure that we close the loop and share the full impact of our work. Now the number on the left represents the total number of resident interactions in FY25. And I want to be clear there and say that that is interactions. Those aren't individuals. So that could represent multiple interactions with one individual. Now, as demand currently in FY26, I will share that our existing staff is outpacing that volume by approximately 39%. As demand continues to surge, we must consider the risk to those interactions in FY27 if staffing levels are reduced.

A leaner team may be unable to maintain this trajectory and could leave a significant portion of our community without support. Now, the number on the right represents the amount of SNAP benefits that the neighborhood leaders helped to secure for Athens, clar county residents in FY25. And that number is up half a million dollars over uh the amount that they helped folks secure in FY24. While we're currently pacing on par with uh this number from FY25 uh currently in this year, there are two major factors that are threatening the stability of this in the coming fiscal year. The first is staff reductions. Fewer outreach personnel means fewer residents successfully enrolled and federal funding shifts. Starting in FY27, federal reimbursement for SNAP operations will drop significantly. Local agencies will now be required to cover 75% of administrative costs. That is up from the current 50/50 split. What's the bottom line here? We are currently outpacing previous demand by nearly 40%. Yet, we're facing a perfect storm for FY27. A convergence of staffing cuts and increased federal costs that threatens catastrophic service gaps. Without adequate support, we are restraining millions in SNAP benefits from our neighbors and removing a vital pillar of stability from the Athens clar county economy. So, what are we doing in the face of this uncertainty? Well, I would like to call your attention to the slide. Now in addition to the things that are there which we believe are force multipliers we are thinking about how we can be nimble. At present we are planning and budgeting for various scenarios. We are very appreciative of the recommendation of flat funding by HCB and we respectfully hope that that will be considered. But we also see the reality of city manager Cowell's suggested cuts and we know that the mayor's budget and ultimately the vote by the commission are yet to come as well.

If ongoing discussions lead to significant changes in funding for FY27, we will plan to submit a contract amendment to HCD for mayor and commission's review and approval. Now, in addition, while we've historically relied on core funding streams, we are intentionally trying to pivot toward a diversified revenue model. This ensures that our impact in Athens, Clark County can remain consistent regardless of shifts in any single funding source. To support this growth, we've implemented a new CRM that allows us to manage our donor relationships with much higher precision. We've already seen this payoff. Our December annual appeal, which was the first of its kind on record for our organization, didn't just bring in funds. It also garnered new first-time donors who are now invested in our mission. Our grant pipeline is more active than ever. Since January, we've already submitted five proposals and we have a strategic roadmap to pursue at least 10 additional opportunities through the remainder of this fiscal year and into the coming fiscal year. This is a disciplined highol approach to securing regional and federal support. Uh recently we've received some funding from both prevail for restorative circles to support youth violence prevention and from CVS for diabet diabetes prevention training. Now while both of these represent modest funding for very specific types of engagement, they are proof that our model is one that partners see as a high impact investment worthy of support. We're also getting creative with community engagement. Our partnership with the Athens Rock Lobsters is a great example of how we're blending local pride and fundraising. And moving into the next fiscal year, we are developing two flagship events and new corporate sponsorship tiers to provide businesses with meaningful ways to invest back into the community. We see these as proactive solutions. I'll call them sustainability engines, if you will, to help bridge

predicted shortfalls. Now, these are the things we're doing and thinking about now because we know the reality of what is likely ahead. However, we also know that the data shows that there is a cost, a true cost to being nimble. Now, while doing more with less is often praised, it's often seen as virtuous of lean nonprofits. For organizations like ours who are on the front line of poverty, it overlooks that tipping point where force efficiency becomes systemic fragility. that results in diminished returns, reduced quality of service, and higher long-term societal expenses. That said, because we know that funding cuts are a likely reality, our strategy moving into the next fiscal year is to protect those prevention programs with the highest return on investment. Knowing that a reduction in our team will directly correlate to a rising crisis hitting county funded services. So, speaking to return on investment, I want to ask you all to consider something. How do we quantify a crisis that didn't happen? How do we put a price on it? Now, this is a I want to call your attention to this funnel. I'll call it a prevention funnel. If the top green section represents represents 2,000 residents who are receiving light touch, navigation, and prevention, then the middle, the yellow section would represent 500 residents who are receiving more intensive stabilization. That leaves the red section, the bottom tiniest section. Now, that's the small number of residents that still hit that red light crisis stage. And what's the message here? If we shrink the middle of the funnel, the bottom overflows into the county budget. And there's that ounce of prevention coming back. Neighborhood leaders identify the families at the yellow light stage before they hit the red light stage. Now, there's also the multiplier effect of our work. You know, as Terrace has

shared from the words of our um of our uh community partners, our collaborative partners rely on us. Now, I'd like to call your attention to the quotes on your handout. I want to thank Allison for handing those out after I sat down and forgot to share them. Hopefully, everyone received one, but we have more if you did not. Now, these illustrate how longtime partners view us as trusted collaborators and an essential extension of their own teams, allowing them to reach deeper into communities that they may never could have reached alone. These aren't just kind words on this sheet. They are an acknowledgment that when our capacity is cut, our partners' reach is cut as well. Now, I offer up an example from our partners at the Athens Community Council on Aging. Their SNAP THEIR SNAP SPECIALIST WORKS HANDINHAND with our neighborhood leaders. When they get a client, they refer them to their respective neighborhood leader knowing that they will receive thorough guidance through the process. When our numbers are reduced, other agencies case loads don't stay the same. They spike. We are a buffer that keeps the system from being overwhelmed. Now, I want to bring you all back to these numbers because it uh I shared these earlier. Now these numbers represent the average number of calls, emails and texts respectively that our neighborhood leaders team receive every day. These represent individual contacts. These don't take into consideration the subsequent communications once contact is made. Now, one of our neighborhood leaders shared that if you count the back and forth calls, emails, and texts that happen once contact is initiated, for her alone, a typical day probably looks more like 30 calls, 100 emails, and 40 texts every day. Now, zoom out. Let's look at these numbers again. Zoom out. Over a month, that's an average of 4,100

calls, more than 4,100 calls, over 3,700 emails, and over 3,300 texts. And these numbers are to say nothing of the face-to-face interactions that happen every day as our neighborhood leaders are moving through their communities. Now, at the sake of sounding sounding hyperbolic, and that is not the intention, these communications have to go to someone. Who are they going to go to? What organizations or departments have the capacity to absorb these? Imagine all of these calls, emails, and texts coming to your phones and inboxes. I know that I cannot imagine that, but there's a person behind every one of those numbers. So, we'd like to close today with the words of our residents because they are the primary architects of this model and their trust is our most valuable social capital. Now, while we can't put into traditional price, put a tradition traditional price rather on the peace of mind that a mother feels when her wick or her caps is secured. We can absolutely calculate the cost of the alternative by investing in staff capacity to honor and execute on these needs. We aren't just doing social work. We are performing a highlevel system maintenance. As Terrace mentioned, this is a front-end stop-loss for our local safety net. It's a strategic investment that stops the bleed before it ever reaches the taxpayer funded emergency services and it ensures a resilient future for all of Athens, clar county. We want to thank you for your time again today and your attention. We know you have difficult decisions ahead of you. We truly appreciate that. Our hope is that today we've helped move the conversation a bit from helping people, which is so often seen as an expense, to cost avoidance, which is a net savings for all of us. We look forward to our continued partnership with ACC, strengthening local systems to build a

more resilient Athens or every opportunity, every resident rather, has an opportunity to thrive. And we'll be happy to open for questions or comments. Thanks, Aaron. Thank you, Terrace. Any questions for the the senior? Alissa. Yeah. I just want to say thank you because I've gotten the calls and referred them to the neighborhood leaders and so I I understand you know the impact that y'all are having and you know I'm not sure what those folks would do if not for that program. I'm not sure I'm capable of helping them. Um so yeah I I I thanks for your presentation and the way you've framed it. Thanks.

Right. We appreciate the great work that you do. Thanks for the help. All right, folks. We'll be back in this room Thursday 1:00. Got a couple items then. So, look forward to seeing you today. Sarah.