Explanation
Columbus City Council established the Columbus Families Together Fund (CFTF) in 2017 to protect immigrant and refugee families in Central Ohio from the long-term financial and emotional devastation that results from aggressive deportation. The CFTF will provide $285,000 total over three years to organizations that meet specified legal services needs within the immigrant and refugee communities, with $185,000 allocated by the City of Columbus and an additional $100,000 in private philanthropic dollars pledged by the Vera Institute of Justice and directly allocated by them.
Columbus City Council solicited proposals from nonprofit legal service providers in the Central Ohio area to receive grants totaling $27,500 towards legal services that help keep families together in the Central Ohio immigrant and refugee communities.
Five grant applications were received for the Additional Legal Services Grant fund. A review committee of four immigration experts and one member of city staff reviewed the grant applications and recommended that Columbus City Council award $17,500 to the Council on American-Islamic Relations Ohio.
Fiscal Impact: Funding is available within the Public Safety Initiatives subfund.
Emergency action is requested in order to immediately provide resources to the Council on American-Islamic Relations Ohio to avoid any disruption in legal services for immigrant and refugee families.
Title
To authorize Columbus City Council to enter into a grant agreement with the Council on American-Islamic Relations, Ohio for the purpose of providing legal services for immigrant and refugee families in relation to Columbus Families Together Fund; to authorize an appropriation and expenditure within the Public Safety Initiatives subfund; and to declare an emergency. ($17,500.00)
Body
WHEREAS, Columbus prides itself on being a diverse city where more than 10 percent of the city’s residents are foreign-born, the Somali population is the second largest in the nation, and nearly half of all refugees settled in Ohio are settled in Franklin County; and
WHEREAS, low-income immigrants currently lack sufficient access to case management assistance and key legal resources such as know-your-rights sessions; and
WHEREAS, Columbus Families Together Fund expands access to critical legal resources to immigrant and refugees families that will improve their understanding of their rights when interacting with immigration officials and assist them with navigating through the federal immigration system; and
WHEREAS, the Council on American-Islamic Relations Ohio has been serving the immigrant and refugee communities in Central Ohio since 1998 and this grant will allow it to expand its current services to provide additional know-your-rights sessions and materials, community safety trainings, and other legal services to the immigrant community; and
WHEREAS, an emergency exists in the usual daily operation of the city in that it is immediately necessary to authoirze City Council to enter into a grant agreement with the Council on American-Islamic Relations, Ohio to avoid any disruption in legal services for immigrant and refugee families; now, therefore,
BE IT ORDAINED BY THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF COLUMBUS:
SECTION 1. That Columbus City Council is hereby authorized to enter into a grant agreement with the Council on American-Islamic Relations, Ohio for the purpose of providing legal services for immigrant and refugee families in relation to Columbus Families Together Fund.
SECTION 2. That the City Auditor is hereby authorized and directed to appropriate $17,500.00 in the Public Safety Initiatives subfund, fund 1000, subfund 100016, to Columbus City Council, in Object Class 03 - Contractual Services, per the accounting codes in the attachment to this ordinance.
See Attached File: Ord 2890-2017 Legislation Template.xls
SECTION 3. That the expenditure of $17,500.00 or so much thereof as may be needed pursuant to the actions authorized in SECTION 1, is hereby authorized in the Public Safety Initiatives subfund, fund 1000, subfund 100016, in Object Class 03 - Contractual Services, per the accounting codes in the attachment to this ordinance.
See Attached File: Ord 2890-2017 Legislation Template.xls
SECTION 4. That the City Auditor is authorized to make any accounting changes to revise the funding source for all contracts or contract modifications associated with this legislation.
SECTION 5. That for the reasons stated in the preamble hereto, which is hereby made a part hereof, this ordinance is hereby declared to be an emergency measure and shall take effect and be in force from and after its passage and approval by the Mayor, or 10 days after passage if the Mayor neither approves nor vetoes the same.