Transmittal - 10/10/2023ERIN MENDENHALL
MAYOR
DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
LORENA RIFFO JENSON
DIRECTOR
CITY COUNCIL TRANSMITTAL
Date Received:
Rachel Otto, Chief of Staff Date sent to Council:
TO: Salt Lake City Council DATE: 10/10/2023
Darin Mano, Chair
FROM: Lorena Riffo Jenson, Director, Department of Economic Development
SUBJECT: American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) Community Grant Program Funds-
Phase Two Distribution - Community Recovery Committee (CRC)
Recommendation for Distribution
STAFF CONTACTS: Todd Andersen, ARPA Project Coordinator, Todd.Andersen@slcgov.com
DOCUMENT TYPE: Ordinance
RECOMMENDATION: Review and Approve the $481,400 disbursement of ARPA
Community Grant Program Funds for Phase 2.
BUDGET IMPACT: Distribution of $481,400 allocated in FY22, BA5.
COORDINATION: Community and Neighborhoods (CAN), Mayor’s Office, SLC Finance
Department, and other outside organizations.
BACKGROUND/DISCUSSION:
On March 11, 2021, the U.S. government signed into law a COVID-19 recovery bill, the American
Rescue Plan Act (ARPA). ARPA was intended to support State and Local recovery from the
COVID-19 public health emergency (COVID-19 Pandemic) and the negative economic impacts
experienced because of the pandemic.
The U.S. Department of the Treasury released materials associated with the release of funds to
cities and states, known as the Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds (SLFRF) Salt
Lake City received approximately $85.4 million of these funds, which must be committed by
December 31, 2024 and spent by December 31, 2026.
After extensive community engagement, the Mayor and City Council approved the creation of
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the Community Grant Program to help small businesses and nonprofits recover from the
negative economic impacts of the pandemic.
In April of 2022, Salt Lake City Council adopted city code Chapter 2.20, which established the
Community Grant Program. The Community Grant Program is administered by both the
Department of Economic Development (DED) and Community and Neighborhoods (CAN). Both
departments were tasked with deploying $2M each of the $85.4 million federal funds granted to
the City.
Below is an overview of the program, guidelines, scoring and recommendation by the Community Recovery
Committee (CRC).
CRC Recommendation & Demographics
In Phase 2 a total of 116 small business or artist applications were received, and of those 94 were
eligible for further review. The Community Recovery Committee has recommended funding be
distributed to 15 small businesses and artists, which utilizes the remaining $481,400 of the
Community Grant Program funds.
The table below shows demographic data of the 15 applications recommended for Phase 2
awards by the committee:
Demographic Group # of recommended applicants
(out of 15 total recommended)
Located on the westside
(Districts 1 and 2)
7
100% BIPOC-owned
(Black, Indigenous, and persons of color)
5
100% Female-owned
7
Have not received any other COVID-19
assistance (PPP, EIDL, etc.)
5
Re-applicants from Phase 1
11
New applicants to Phase 2 4
Program Overview
● No single application for a community grant will exceed $100,000.00
● Any application for a community grant to a nonprofit organization will focus on
supporting communities disproportionately affected by the COVID-19 pandemic,
including, but not limited to, offering services to retrain displaced workers: providing
legal or other assistance for evictions or rent relief: expanding educational
opportunities; deploying resources to mitigate the digital divide; supporting parents
or children affected by COVID-19 including childcare or after school program; and
providing access to healthcare services, including mental health support.
● Any application for a community grant for a local business will focus on supporting
the business’s operation or employees who have been economically affected by the
COVID-19 pandemic.
CRC Members
City Council created the Community Recovery Committee (CRC) to oversee the process,
review the applications and make recommendations for the deployment of funds.
The CRC is currently comprised of eight (8) members that serve on the following other
boards:
Economic Development Loan CommitteeRacial Equity in Policing (2 members from this board)
Human Rights Commission (3 members from this board)
Salt Lake Arts Council
Business Advisory Board
Scoring
The CRC used the following scoring methodology in Phase 2:
Applicants were eligible for 100 base points with the following breakdown-
●60% of the points are based on narratives the businesses provided sharing how
COVID-19 impacted their business (past, present, and future)
●40% of points are based on how a business was able to navigate through the
pandemic.
In addition to the base points, staff awarded up to 70 bonus points to impacted and
disproportionately impacted communities including:
●100% BIPOC-owned business (15 points)
●100% Female-owned business (15 points)
●Artist-artisan business (15 points)
●Business located in qualified census tracts - QCT (15 points)
●Business in the travel, tourism, & hospitality sector (5 points)
●Business in the City Center (5 points)
The Committee’s recommended awardee list for Phase 2 is based on: 1) the Committee’s
adopted methodology of a “sliding scale” (eligible funding amount multiplied by average
Committee score) to calculate top scorers, and 2) making sure that all City Council Districts
have at least one applicant on recommended list to ensure geographic equity.
Qualifying Use of Funds
To meet the qualifying criteria established by the U.S. Department of the Treasury and to
align our grants with SLFRF expenditure categories, applications were categorized into one of
the four categories below:
●Small business economic assistance
●Aid to tourism, travel or hospitality
●Aid to arts and artisan businesses
●Aid to nonprofit organizations with programming specific to small businesses or
arts and artisan businesses. All four of these expenditure categories are small
business-related, eligible for funding through the Community Grant Program and
aid Salt Lake City’s Department of Finance (Finance) to administer the
distribution of funds.
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
To ensure the Community Grant Program is available to all potentially interested applicants,
DED instituted the following measures to ensure the program is equitable, transparent, and
inclusive:
● Application materials, training videos, and presentations were provided in
multiple languages.
● Online and paper applications were accepted.
● Training and Technical Assistance appointments were offered on both the East
and West sides of Salt Lake City.
● Individual application assistance was provided by DED, the International
Rescue Committee, and Utah Small Business Development Center (SBDC) as
needed.
Attachments:
● Exhibit A: List of Recommended Businesses for Grant Approval – Phase 2
● Ordinance
● Letter from the CRC
EXHIBIT A
SALT LAKE CITY ORDINANCE
No. of 2023
(Ordinance approving the disbursement of American Rescue Plan Act Community Grant
Program Funds for Phase 2)
WHEREAS, the global COVID-19 pandemic impacted the world and local economy at an
unprecedented level, and Salt Lake City’s nonprofit organizations, local businesses, and
residents have been negatively impacted by the economic uncertainty caused by the pandemic.
WHEREAS, on March 11, 2021, the U.S. government signed into law a COVID-19
recovery bill, the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) and allocated federal funding to Salt Lake
City Corporation (City) to use for certain COVID-related uses, including to support
disproportionately impacted communities and to mitigate negative economic impacts within the
community.
WHEREAS, on April 19, 2022, the City Council passed Salt Lake City Ordinance 17 of
2022, enacting Salt Lake City Code Chapter 2.20 and establishing a new community grant
program to govern the distribution of certain ARPA funds, including the creation of the
Community Recovery Committee tasked with reviewing grant applications and making
recommendations on the disbursement of community recovery grant funds.
WHEREAS, on March 7, 2023, the City Council passed Salt Lake City Ordinance 12 of 2023,
approving the disbursement of a portion of the community recovery grant funds to small businesses
and nonprofit organizations approved by the Community Recovery Committee for direct economic
assistance, which disbursement was considered Phase 1, Group 1 of grant fund allocation.
WHEREAS, on October 3, 2023, the City Council passed Salt Lake City Ordinance 52 of
2023, approving the disbursement of a portion of the community recovery as pass-through grant
funds to nonprofit subrecipients approved by the Community Recovery Committee to provide
services and support to communities disproportionately affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, which
disbursement was considered Phase 1, Group 2 of grant fund allocation.
WHEREAS, beginning in June 2023 and continuing through August 2023, the
Community Recovery Committee, for the purpose of disbursing additional direct economic
assistance grants, held ten meetings to review and consider 94 applications from small
businesses seeking grant funding for direct economic assistance, in accordance with Salt Lake
City Code Chapter 2.20.
WHEREAS, the Community Recovery Committee evaluated the applications in
accordance with Salt Lake City Code Chapter 2.20, and considered the applicant’s proposed use
of funds, geographic equity, the policies and objectives of the community grant program, and the
federal requirements of ARPA.
WHEREAS, the Community Recovery Committee completed the review of the
applications and has recommended funding allocations to be reviewed by the Mayor.
WHEREAS, pursuant to Salt Lake City Code Chapter 2.20, the Mayor has reviewed the
Community Recovery Committee’s recommendations and recommends that the City Council
approve the funding allocations as described in Exhibit A.
NOW, THEREFORE, be it ordained by the City Council of Salt Lake City, Utah, that:
SECTION 1. Funding Approval. The City Council approves the funding allocations as
further described in Exhibit A. The City Council authorizes the Mayor to negotiate and execute
the grant agreements and any other relevant documents required, consistent with Exhibit A and
Salt Lake City Code Chapter 2.20, and incorporating such other terms and agreements as
recommended by the City Attorney’s office.
SECTION 2. Effective Date. This ordinance shall become effective on the date of its first
publication.
Passed by the City Council of Salt Lake City, Utah, this day of
, 2023.
Darin Mano, Council Chair
ATTEST AND COUNTERSIGN:
CITY RECORDER
Transmitted to Mayor on .
Mayor's Action: Approved. Vetoed.
MAYOR
CITY RECORDER
(SEAL)
Bill No. of 2023.
Published: .
APPROVED AS TO FORM
Salt Lake City Attorney’s Office
Sara Montoya, City Attorney
Date: October 10, 2023
Letter from the Community Recovery Committee
Dear Mayor and City Council,
The Community Recovery Committee (CRC) knows that the COVID-19 pandemic and related shutdowns
were devastating to many small businesses in Salt Lake City, and many have struggled to financially
recover from the effects of the pandemic. During Phase 1 of the SLC Community Grant Program, the
CRC was thrilled that the City Council awarded 42 small businesses and artists with COVID-19
recovery funding.
The Committee also understands the difficulties that small businesses and artists still face because of the
COVID-19 pandemic. During Phase 2, we continued to dedicate a great deal of care and effort into
conducting a fair and equitable process that would award as much money to as many businesses as
possible. With that said, this is a competitive grant program and the Committee focused for many hours
over difficult decisions to award limited funding. After reviewing various funding options, we are again
recommending a ‘sliding scale’ be applied to the eligible award amount based on the average score the
applicant received to fund more grantees. We recommend that the applicants scoring the highest be
awarded funds until the Phase 2 funding amount is exhausted.
The Committee feels we put forth the best, and most equitable recommendation we could and appreciate
your consideration of our decision.
Sincerely,
Jake Maxwell
Chair – Community Recovery Committee