Sound check. 1 2 3. Sound check. 1 2 3. subcommittee meeting of August 26, 2026. As we have quorum present today for today's meeting, I'd like to call the meeting to order. With us in room 264 at city hall is councelor Tatison, Vice Chair Cretch. Joining us online is councelor Francis and councelor M. Wilson. First item on the agenda other than reminding you to please switch your phones to a non-audible function is the approval of our agenda. Cler Kelsey, are there any changes to our agenda today? No, there are not. Excellent. Lub and seconder to approve the agenda for today. Thank you, Councelor Tatter and Vice Chair Crutch. Uh any discussion on the agenda? Seeing none, all in favor? Show a hand vote. Carries. Thank you. Uh next up is declarations of interest. Are there any? Seeing none, then we will move on to approval over minutes of our previous meeting which was held on May 20th. Could I get a mover and seconder for that meeting? Thank you, Councelor Crutch. Thank you, Councelor Tison. Any discussion on our minutes from our previous meeting? Seeing none, uh it is before committee for approval by show a hand vote. That carries items for information. And first up is 2026 city enrichment fund grant hold status. Get a mover and a second to put it on the agenda or on the floor. Thank you councelor Tatis and then crutch. I think it's just going to be you guys switching back and forth unless our friends online want to [clears throat] move something at some point. >> Be very uh gesturous if that is your intention. Uh any discussion on the item or any no presentations, right? No >> some remarks on this item. Please go ahead. >> Good morning, members of council, community organizations, and the viewing public. My name is Heather Anderson, the director of communications and engagement. Today, I'm enjoy I'm joined by the city enrichment fund administrative team led by advisor Andrea Carvalo and grants coordinators Rebecca Farat and Mari Monnique Garwood. These reports reflect staff's commitment to continuous improvement, client support, communications, and transparency. There are two reports before you today. The first is information report GR260004 that provides councils council with the status of the 2026 grantees withholds. In May, this committee approved 12 grants withholds due to outstanding information, final reports, and aars. Since the submission of this report and as of August 5th, three organizations have not met the requirements and have effectively forfeited their grants. Greater the and these are the Greater Hamilton Arts and Events, Community Rising Alliance, and Sports Hamilton. Our staff are continuing to communicate and work with these organizations through the delegated authority provided by this committee. Extenduating circumstances may require reconsideration of the forfeited grants and any and any and all changes will be reported to council. Second, each year staff proposes a number of incremental changes to support the continuous improvement of the CF program. Consideration report GRA26005 recommends a framework and policy updates that are designed to better support applicant success, apply a fair and consistent process, and improve the administrative process and pressures. The framework addresses the high volume of applicant areas requiring additional support and current practice of corrections and adjustments that follow the submission date. It is designed to ensure applicant compliance and to fairly apply adjustments to those applications requiring changes. The framework reinforces long-standing eligibility and supports greater applicant accuracy and preparedness. Policy updates provide greater clarity for applicants and program processes. CF program enhancements are informed by staff and community feedback and are designed to improve administrative administrative procedures, align with funding best practices, and ensure a fair and transparent process for the public. We would be happy to take any questions that you have. Thank you. >> Thank you for that overview, director. Committee members, any questions? Okay, just to confirm, we went down to only three that are remaining forfeited status. >> That's correct. Great. Okay, that's good news indeed. Okay. Uh seeing no questions, we already have a mover and seconder. And all in favor, show a hand vote. >> That carries. Thank you. And then items for consideration is 2027 city enrichment fund program enhancements. Mover and seconder will be vice chair crutch and then seconded by No vigorous movement over there. Councelor Tatterson. Um discussion on the item or overview? No. >> Sorry. Included both. >> Included both. Yeah. Um committee members, any discussion for the 2027 enhancements? Councelor Crutch, >> just love enhancements. I want to just say that I appreciate that we're trying to do something that's growing applicant capacity because that's something that we hear from applicants all the time is that they're struggling to fill out our forms and they find the process a bit ownorous and I think while we've done a lot to improve how grants are administered here. I think there's still the number one thing I hear is a sigh usually about how the reporting requirements are the timing of everything as well is difficult, right? So the reporting requirements for some groups are owners, but also the timing is hard for people. I think we've done a really great job of creating a culture though in the city where everyone knows what November means. So I appreciate that everyone knows in November we have to get those grants in. I think for especially newer applicants or some applicants who are still not quite in that sweet spot where they're transitioning to multi-year or they're kind of in that legacy group but maybe in between they're also kind of like okay how many years am I going to have to be participating in this in this process in this manner right so I just appreciate everything we're doing here to try and make things easy and to catch errors and mistakes because I think that's the sooner we connect with the people about those errors uh the better I think for a lot of folks they're putting a grant in and they're being like I got that done that's an accomplishment for them they did something But then if something comes up, they're not necessarily quickly able to address that error. So, thank you for the work you're doing. I think this program is just getting better and better all the time. >> Okay. Thank you. Um and I concur. It is excellent to see continuous improvement uh on the program and also from the grant's experience perspective or applicant experience perspective. uh strengthening our community and building capacity was one of the goals for this program and appreciating staff's ongoing diligence to help us get there. Um so no further questions or comments. It's before committee for approval and this one's an electronic vote because it includes recommendations. Look [clears throat] at that. And the vote came up so quickly. >> Don't jinx us. >> Oh. Oh. Okay. [laughter] Councelor Wilson, we're just waiting for your vote. There we go. Thank you. And that carries back to zero. >> Carries. Thank you. Uh any notices of motion? Seeing no other business, this meeting is officially adjourned at 9:38. Thank you everyone.