Agenda Item Name:
Title
Request use of General Fund Reserves for Census 2020
End
Presenter:
Sean McLendon, Strategic Initiatives Manager
Description:
Request for $25,000 from General Fund Reserves for Census 2020 materials and professional services.
Recommended Action:
Recommended Action
Approve budget adjustment for the use of General Fund Reserves.
End
Prior Board Motions:
N/A
Fiscal Consideration:
Fiscal Consideration
The Budget Adjustment to use $25,000 from General Fund the Reserves to cover material and professional service in support of the US Census 2020 efforts.
End
Background:
Alachua County has taken the organizational lead in the community for the Census 2020 efforts. To date, the County used in-kind resources: staff time; communications expertise; and office space in support of creating a strategic outreach plan and spreading partnership awareness. January through April 2020 will be a critical time to execute the outreach plan and to deploy additional resources that complement the Federal Government’s, City of Gainesville and University of Florida’s efforts.
These County resources will assist in a complete count of our citizens and ensure the Federal resources available to Alachua County actually come home. Lack of participation hurts the community financially. It is estimated that an undercount in the 2010 census cost approximately $390M in lost Federal resources over the past decade.
This requests fulfills the Board’s commitment to a successful complete census count in 2020. Local response is critical. The State of Florida as of January 2020, created a State-wide Complete Count Committee. It is unclear as to what resources will allocated between now and June 2020 to support local Census efforts. The Federal government, while providing staffing, has yet to produce supporting materials in any significant quantities to help spread the word on the ground in communities. Local government expenditures are critical.
Census preparations and budgeting have been part of the Board’s conversation from May 6 Joint Meeting, June 3 Joint Meeting, Oct 8 Regular Meeting, and Oct 29 MTPO meeting.
County Staff have estimated the need for approximately $25,000 in material and professional service resources. That breaks out to $15,000 in professional services with various non-profit community groups, advertisement buys, and $10,000 in public purpose supplies.
Expenditures will be made between now and June 2020.
County funds will be used for supporting materials and professional services that will educate, inform, and maximize involvement of citizens. Material items to purchase include banners, yard signs, t-shirts, stickers, fans, and buttons. Professional services will be sought from non-profit and community groups associated with poor performing census tracts to act as message ambassadors and get-out-the-count in the community.
The City of Gainesville budgeted $150,000 in FY20 to census efforts. The majority of the 2010 census undercount occurs within the City of Gainesville, principally university/student related census tracts and East Gainesville census tracts.