cover
TO: Mayor Richard Irvin
FROM: Adrienne Holloway, Ph.D., Chief Innovation Officer
DATE: March 5, 2020
SUBJECT:
Consideration of a revised grant agreement between the Cities for Financial Empowerment and the City of Aurora to create a Financial Empowerment Center (FEC) in the city of Aurora.
PURPOSE:
The City of Lights Financial Empowerment Center, the only FEC in the State of Illinois, will be part of a growing network of FEC's embedded in local governments across the country that have committed to providing free, one-one-one financial counseling, delivered by professionally trained counselors, to low and moderate income residents. By offering this service to our residents, we will assist them in becoming more financially stable, thereby, improving upon the economic profile of our city (see Attachment A “Aurora Implementation Proposal”).
BACKGROUND:
Based upon successful planning activities, staff submitted and successfully received an implementation grant to establish the City of Lights Financial Empowerment Center in Aurora. In December 2019, a grant agreement between the Cities for Financial Empowerment (CFE) and the City of Aurora was reviewed by the Law Department. The Law Department identified routine areas of concern with the agreement and provided the Innovation Department with specific redlines and rationale for its proposed changes. Those proposed changes were not subsequently forwarded to the CFE for its review and, in fact, the CFE did not review nor consent to the changes prior to City Council action.
Following the Council's approval of the agreement which contained the changes that the CFE had not seen, the CFE raised the issue with City staff. The Law Department worked directly with the CFE to address the outstanding issues as possible in order to produce the revised agreement attached to this Resolution.
DISCUSSION:
The revisions to the grant agreement are as follows:
Modification of indemnification language, so that our obligation to indemnify the Grantor for our own negligent acts, and the negligent acts of our vendors/tenants, has been re-inserted (Par. 9(b));
Modification of FOIA language to include that we will provide the Grantor with notice if we receive a FOIA request for records related to this agreement (Par. 10);
Modification of governing law and venue to New York for each (Pars. 17 and 18); and
Re-Insertion of Waiver of Jury Trial language (Par. 19).
Please note that the revised grant agreement does not alter the scope of the program, its timing/schedule and the positive impact it will have on our residents.
IMPACT STATEMENT:
Upon approval of the revised grant agreement, the city of Aurora will receive $150,000 from the CFE to supplement the over $200,000 raised to establish the City of Lights Financial Empowerment Center.
RECOMMENDATIONS:
Approval is requested to accept grant funds via executing the revised two-year grant agreement between the City of Aurora and the Cities for Financial Empowerment.
cc: Public Health, Safety and Transportation Committee
CITY OF AURORA, ILLINOIS
RESOLUTION NO. _________
DATE OF PASSAGE ________________
title
A Resolution approving a revised grant agreement between the Cities for Financial Empowerment and the City of Aurora to establish a Financial Empowerment Center (FEC) in the City.
body
WHEREAS, the City of Aurora has a population of more than 25,000 persons and is, therefore, a home rule unit under subsection (a) of Section 6 of Article VII of the Illinois Constitution of 1970; and
WHEREAS, subject to said Section, a home rule unit may exercise any power and perform any function pertaining to its government and affairs for the protection of the public health, safety, morals, and welfare; and
WHEREAS, a grant agreement was approved by City Council in December 2019 by and between the Cites for Financial Empowerment and the City; and
WHEREAS, said agreement approved did not accurately reflect the mutual understanding of the parties with respect to their relationships and duties to the other
WHEREAS, the parties in good faith have collaborated to resolve any areas of disagreement and have prepared a revised grant agreement that fully reflects their intentions with respect to the grant program.
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED by the City Council of the City of Aurora, Illinois, as follows: that the attached revised grant agreement shall be and hereby is approved.