Rockford Sun

City of Rockford Health and Human Service Supplemental Funding Committee met March 10.

Here are the minutes provided by the committee:

I. CALL TO ORDER 

Attendee Name	Organization	Title	Status	Arrived
Kevin Frost	City of Rockford	Alderman	Remote
Chad Tuneberg	City of Rockford	Alderman	Remote
Karen Hoffman	City of Rockford	Alderman	Remote
Gina Meeks	City of Rockford	Alderman	Present

II. ACTION ON MINUTES 

1. Minutes from January 21, 2025

RESULT: LAID OVER

III. DISCUSSION ITEMS 

A. General discussion regarding Community Action's programs, grants, guidelines, needs, and funding. 

1. Anqunette Parham: From the last time this committee met, we had discussion around changes in funding at the federal level. We were taking a look at how it impacts on our department. I can report as of today across the board, all of our sources of funding have been received or we are on par to receive. There were questions at the state level around our ability to receive funds for the weatherization program that specifically come from the bipartisan infrastructure law. As of this morning, DCEO indicated the funding is in process. The only other change to report is funds from HUD have not been released for CoC Fiscal Year 2024. That is not funding we use internally; they pass through us to other members of the CoC such as Hope Haven of Dekalb and the Dekalb Housing Authority. Within our community, Rosecrance was a recipient of some of that funding. Those funds should have been released but they have not yet. That’s the only change we have experienced with dollars.

2. Anqunette Parham: What we have also experienced is changing to staff levels at the federal level and who we communicate with from these offices. We went one week without correspondence but that has since changed. We are now in regular correspondence with our programmatic official as well as our fiscal official. No other changes have come with Executive Orders aside from modifying language on a website explaining where CSBG dollars come from. 3. Owen Carter: Otherwise, we don’t have any updates until March 14th. That is when there is a potential shutdown with the budget resolution.

4. Anqunette Parham: If that is what happens and the continuing resolution is not passed, their expectation is agencies don’t need to do anything short term. The State has already drawn down on the funds and made that available to agencies for the current performance period. This should not impact our day to day operations. What we don’t know is for how long.

5. Owen Carter: We are very unique in that we are tied to a municipality. We have seen this before with the current administration four years ago. During that time, the Federal Government was shut down for a period of time and the City has floated us. As Anqunette said, the money is already there for what we are doing today. Moving forward, what would happen? If we don’t have a continuing resolution soon, there would be a full government shutdown in April.

6. Gina Meeks: I would like a true understanding of what a complete shutdown would look like. If the city were to float it, how much would it cost? Also, if the city were to allow it to crash, what would that look like and what would we lose in this community?

a. Todd Cagnoni: We went through an exercise to predict the effects if the President takes actions through executive orders and eliminate federal dollars. In the short term, the city can operate but not for the long term. In the short term, generally our departments have existing grant agreements. The challenge is if it comes to a point where the federal government ends grant agreements. That would change operations for multiple departments and other agencies. We would not have enough money to operate. Numerous services would be out of the area.

b. Gina Meeks: I would like to be prepared for whatever comes. I want to know what we should prioritize.

c. Karen Hoffman: If funding fails to come through and we have to rely on the City, would the other municipalities have to pick up some slack on behalf of their people or does Rockford do it all?

i. Owen Carter: Rockford cannot do it all. If the Federal dollars stop, not only will the city and surrounding municipalities have to figure something out, the State would have to figure something out.

7. Anqunette Parham: Part of what we are working on is a presentation to council later this month. We are updating an annual report of services delivered to residents across the city. We will have numbers on how that has looked like over the past year. This is a picture of what we are doing and if these resources cease to exist, these households who received assistance would be in danger losing major necessities. If the funding is no longer there, this is what the effects on the community will look like.

8. Todd Cagnoni: There are a lot of unknowns. We don’t know what this continuing resolution will look like. We have heard different things how long the resolution would be or what the changes look like.

9. Chad Tuneberg: I’m glad we planted the seed about possible cuts coming or anything of that equation. There is also the possibility of a government shutdown as a part of that.

10. Anqunette Parham: Our team is looking at our service delivery and funding. We are looking at what is more solid than others. We are trying to look at it through a lens of what changes could possibly happen while we continue to work and service the community. We are open to suggestions and feedback to this committee and the council in regard to that. No matter the changes, there will still be a significant need in the community.

11. Owen Carter: All of our funding requests at the federal level have maintained flat funding. The worst-case scenario is all the funding is eliminated. We are also looking at the possibility of seeing cuts. We won’t know what we are going to see.

B. Infrastructure Upgrades 

1. Karen Hoffman: Are we going to sit still on a new building for staff while this is going on?

2. Anqunette Parham: We have been working with the administration. We are pricing out critical repairs for the current facility we are in. That is where our focus has shifted for now. We have to proceed with caution with all of the unknowns but I don’t have an update on a new building.

3. Karen Hoffman: Who owns that building?

a. Anqunette Parham: The city owns it outright.

b. Todd Cagnoni: The city owns it and there is no rent allocation set for HHS.

B. Determine the necessity of future meetings. 

1. Anqunette Parham: We will send out a doodle poll for the next meeting in May. I had reached out to other heads of various agencies in Illinois that are engaged in revenue generating activities to see what that looks like. Also, agencies that have unrestricted balances. I know some of those requests for information have been delayed as a result of what was happening.

When I have that, I will gladly share that with you all. We are also looking at our programs internally and looking at contingencies.

IV. ADJOURNMENT 

The meeting was closed at 4:00 PM

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