Smoke from the Almeda Fire fills the sky over the Rogue Valley on Sept. 8, 2020. 

A local selection committee charged with making award recommendations on $13.85 million in federal Almeda Fire recovery money for businesses and infrastructure has suffered a setback.

Jackson County’s Planning, Infrastructure, and Economic Revitalization (PIER) Selection Committee had already recommended $7.2 million in awards, but has been told it will need to reconsider the previous submissions or start a new application round. It must also restructure the committee and change its processes.

Oregon Housing and Community Services, which is handling the federal Housing and Urban Development (HUD) fire relief money, sent a letter to the committee on April 30 with five requirements to meet.

The letter was also sent to the Jackson County Community Long-Term Recovery Group. The group has a member on the selection committee and is coordinating the PIER process locally. While the Long-Term Recovery Group is helping oversee the committee’s activities, OHCS has ownership and authority over the process.

In addition to calling for a new look at projects, the letter said one committee member needed to resign due to a conflict of interest and that more members need to be added, including one from an organization that supports historically underserved communities.

Adding two to four additional committee members to the current five is also required.

OHCS representatives discussed the requirements with the committee during a sometimes-contentious session held in Talent on May 2.

“We have put a lot of time into this. It is somewhat emotional,” said committee member Colleen Padilla, Southern Oregon Regional Economic Development, Inc. executive director.

Jackson County Commissioner Dave Dotterrer, the county’s representative on the committee, reported that he had resigned his position on the SOREDI board of directors the day before.

Dotterrer’s presence on the committee along with Padilla’s was a perceived or actual conflict of interest, OHCS representatives stated during the meeting and in the letter. It was contrary to rules that do not allow two representatives from the same organization on the committee.

Other committee members are Eric Swanson, Phoenix city manager; Eleanor Ponomareff, a Talent city councilor; and Matthew Havniear, committee chair and staff member of the Long-Term Recovery Group.

“We have a fully functioning, by-the-rules committee. We have done a lot of work over the past few years reviewing, scoring and submitting recommendations,” Swanson said. “I really don’t see any point in trying to go back and reconsider all of that work. It has been almost four years since the fire.”

In November, the committee recommended that Phoenix be awarded $3.5 million for infrastructure work, including storm drains, parking and sidewalks that would support business development in the downtown district.

A grant of $2.37 million to the city of Talent for infrastructure work had been recommended by the committee during a March session.

In addition, the OHCS letter also called for the county, Phoenix and Talent to issue public notices when a final selection was going to be made at a committee meeting. Also, once a larger committee is selected, all committee members will be required to undergo equity training that emphasizes federal requirements to be met during the process.

“Projects won’t be funded unless we meet the federal requirements,” Julie Lovrien, PIER grant manager for OHCS, said at the meeting.

All five items need to be addressed to ensure compliance with federal HUD guidelines, said Lovrien, who had sent the letter at the direction of Ryan Flynn, OHCS disaster recovery and resilience director.

HUD requirements state that if there is a public perception of conflict of interest, a member with the conflict must be removed, said Nate Trombley, a consultant with ICF, which is advising OHCS.

“We are talking about the compliance review done by OHCS. We are responding to public comment and issues raised about the perceptions,” Flynn said. “We want to see action on the projects progress, but we are going to have to have these requirements met.”

Dotterrer asked who determined there was a conflict, and Flynn replied he did.

The Rogue Valley Times asked OHCS via email whether the agency would allow Dotterrerto remain on the committee since he has resigned hisboard position with SOREDI, or whether it will require a new Jackson County representative as stated in the letter.

The agency responded May 14: “OHCS has delivered five requirements that need to be met and Commissioner Dotterrer is currently a member of the PIER selection committee. The agency wants to see improved community engagement and to eliminate the conflict of interest per federal requirements for the use of these funds.”

Dotterrer said the issue is up in the air and that he was not ready to comment further when contacted last week.

“Let me just let the dust settle for about a week or a week and a half. I’m still kind of thinking out what the next steps should be,” Dotterrer said.

He said he may raise the issue with fellow commissioners at an upcoming work session.

In a March meeting, the committee recommended to OHCS that a total of $1.32 million be awarded to two organizations with experience in assisting businesses. Requests from three other groups were not recommended.

OHCS earlier had asked that 30% of the $13.85 million total be reserved as a contingency and for future projects, leaving $9.7 million for grants. The committee decided to recommend 60% ($5.8 million) of the funding for infrastructure and planning, and 40% ($3.8 million) for economic efforts.

The OHCS letter says that current applications for funds could be considered or that a new round of solicitations “with robust public outreach” could be conducted once the expanded committee is in place.

The committee’s expansion had already begun with a solicitation for new members that had garnered three applications prior to the meeting, Havniear reported. The committee had a May 12 deadline for applications and will hold a May 16 meeting, the draft agenda for which lists the appointment of additional voting members.

During the March meeting, Ponomareff noted that there was no person of color on the committee. She said that much of the funding should be going to aid the Latinx community, which was heavily impacted by the fire.

Ponomareff said she had raised questions about public notices when she joined the committee as a replacement for Talent. She said she was told no notice was required.

The city of Phoenix had used staff time and spent money in creating preliminary plans and the grant application, Swanson said. Discussions with OHCS in late winter indicated that some grant funding might be coming soon to help fund preliminary design work for the infrastructure projects.

Southern Oregon University’s Small Business Development Center had been in the process of negotiating a contract with OHCS after it was recommended for an award of $750,000 in the March round to assist businesses with recovery and development.

More information can be found at jccltrg.org/pier-grant-application/.

This story has been corrected to state that the Planning, Infrastructure, and Economic Revitalization Selection Committee falls under the authority of Oregon Housing and Community Services, not the Jackson County Community Long-Term Recovery Group as originally stated. Additional details have been clarified and updated.