The Bainbridge Island City Council unanimously approved a controversial partnership with the Bainbridge Community Foundation at the council’s meeting last week that city officials say will help improve accountability and oversight of the roughly $320,000 in funding given out yearly to nonprofits on the island.

Some in the island’s nonprofit community, however, raised fears that money that could go to serving residents will be wasted on a consultant that’s really not needed.

City officials gave a thumb’s up to a proposal from the Bainbridge Community Foundation that would help the city set up a review and evaluation process for nonprofits that seek city funding for health, housing and human services.

The city will now pay the foundation more than $21,000 to help the city set up funding goals, with the foundation taking over as administrators of the allocation process.

Concerns raised early

The notion to tap the Bainbridge Community Foundation as a human services consultant first arose earlier this year.

But at the council’s May 5 meeting, representatives of nonprofits from across the island raised alarm at the idea, which some feared would reduce the amount of city funding available to local nonprofits such as Helpline House, the Bainbridge Island Special Needs Foundation, Boys & Girls Club and others.

At that meeting, city officials could not say how much the foundation would be paid for its assistance.

In a letter to the city council, the board of Helpline House said even just using 1 to 10 percent (or $3,000 to $30,000) of the funding currently devoted to human services would have a negative impact.

“Helpline’s Board of Directors unanimously opposes this proposal,” the board wrote in the letter. “None of the limited funds available for human services should be spent on administration by a private foundation.”

“The city previously tried this approach, and it was a failure,” the letter continued. “It was an approach that wasted hundreds of thousands of dollars on layers of unnecessary administration. It created a process that proved to be highly political, and one that was unduly burdensome on the human-services agencies.”

That failed approach led to city residents getting fewer services due to the money, time and resources gobbled up by the administration of the old system, the board said.

That old system was the Health, Housing and Human Services Council (HHHC), an organization that was set up by the city in 1993 and worked as a volunteer board until 1999, when it got a large, three-year grant to provide youth services and then hired an executive director. After funding from the three-year grant ran out, the city stepped forward with funding and contracted with HHHC, which identified and recommended local organizations to receive human services funding from the city.

Since the departure of HHHC, the city has been awarding human services grants to the same 11 nonprofits that received funding in HHHC’s last recommendation to the city.

Discussions on taking a closer look at the city’s funding for health, housing and human services started to ramp up in March, when city officials asked the council to consider priorities and funding that could be sustainable long-term.

Officials also said the city had not reviewed the significance of the programs receiving money, or the results from city grant funding, during the past three years.

City touts accountability

City spokeswoman Kellie Stickney said creating a new allocation process will help the city make sure it is being fiscally responsible, and would increase accountability and transparency.

The size of the funding allocated to housing, health and human services is a large amount, she added, and totals approximately 3 percent of the city’s general fund. The general fund is the budget that pays for basic government services, such as planning, police and administrative services.

“It’s a significant amount of money to be awarding without a really good process,” Stickney said.

City officials said the Bainbridge Community Foundation would be used to help allocate human services funding for a “one-year trial” period, for any funding awards made in 2016. A new citizen advisory committee will be formed to make recommendations on goals and funding awards.

It’s the size of the funding for the foundation, and the prospect that it may come from the same pot used to pay for grants to nonprofits, that raised concerns the last time the proposal was before the council.

Bob Scales, a board member for Helpline House, urged the council at their May meeting not to repeat the same mistakes that had been made with HHHC while he was on the city council.

“There are agencies that are struggling and their clients are struggling,” Scales said in the letter. “If you are going to spend one extra dollar, spend it on the services, not on a consultant to tell you how to spend the money.”

Worries remain

The criticism continued, though much more muted, before last week’s vote.

Geoff Grindeland, the president of the board of directors for Helpline House, recalled complaints from the nonprofit in early May that it had been excluded from the dialogue about the city’s change in direction.

That changed, and talks turned fruitful, he said.

Until June 1, Grindeland added, when city officials said they would move forward with its plan.

No mention was made of a contract with the foundation two weeks ago, he added, which the nonprofit found out about a day before the council meeting.

“We don’t feel that such short notice gives us a reasonable opportunity to provide input,” he said.

The nonprofit submitted a letter to the council just before its June 16 meeting, which again set out Helpline House’s “deep concerns” about the proposal to contract with BCF.

In the letter, the Helpline House board asked the city to postpone its decision, and the board accused the foundation of having closed-door meetings with the city to develop the proposal. The board also said the foundation’s special access created a conflict of interest, and it also said the foundation had a lack of experience in advising municipal governments on how to spend taxpayer dollars on human services.

The process, the letter said, had not been “open, honest or fair.”

Council defends process

But Councilman Val Tollefson said he had been threatened by Grindeland, whom Tollefson said had vowed to contact the newspaper about Helpline House’s opposition to the city’s move to get assistance from the foundation.

Tollefson said the council was being accused of running the whole process behind closed doors.

“Nothing could be further from the truth,” he said. “And I’m surprised that you think that.”

Tollefson said one of his first meetings was with the executive director of Helpline House, and he recalled other meetings about the proposal.

“We’ve met with executive directors as groups, we’ve met with executive directors as individuals, and this process has been as transparent as a process can be,” Tollefson said.

“I take personal affront,” he added, to the tone of the letter. “I think this process has been very well-run. I understand you don’t like the result, and that’s what it is, but I’m proud of the work we’ve done.”

Mayor Anne Blair said nonprofit organizations had been in the loop about the city’s plans.

She said the city had a profound responsibility to taxpayers to be accountable and open on how public funds are spent.

The proposal passed on a 5-0 vote. Councilman Roger Townsend and Councilwoman Sarah Blossom were absent.