14 - Return of Funds to the Cecil Foundation

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Item No. 14 Memorandum TO: Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem, and City Council Grayson Path, City Manager FROM: Stephanie H. Harris, City Attorney SUBJECT: Return of Funds to the Cecil Foundation DATE: January 22, 2024 BACKGROUND: As you may recall, in December of 2021, concurrent with the RAM Foundation's (RAM) donation of $300,000.00 to the city for the use in the city's HOME program to further RAM'S program of making affordable housing available to the city's residents, the Philip and Sally Cecil Foundation, Inc. (Cecil) made a donation of $200,000.00 for the same purpose. In conjunction with that donation, the parties entered into a memorandum of understanding (MOU) which provided that the city would continue its annual funding for the program and would exhaust those budgeted funds prior to accessing the donated funds. The MOU also provided that after the expiration of three years, Cecil would be able to review the use of the donated funds, and, if less than half of the funds had been used, recoup all of the unused funds. STATUS OF ISSUE: Since the city's acceptance of the donation and the execution of the MOU, the city has not had occasion to tap into the donated funds for the stated purpose. Cecil has allowed funds to go towards the city's current housing study, in the amount of $33,210.00. Given that none of those funds have been used for the original purpose in the last 2+ years, Cecil has requested that the balance of the donation be returned for use in other projects. On January 22"d, the Council agreed to a similar request for a return of a portion of the RAM donation. At that time, Council approved a revision to the MOU with RAM provided for partial return of funds and set up the mechanism by which such requests will be handled. In this instance, since the MOU is not a binding legal document and as Cecil has requested a return of the balance of the funds in excess of the $33,210.00 committed to the housing study, there is no need to amend the agreement. I have prepared the attached resolution for your consideration to serve as documentation of the return of funds for accounting and any other necessary purpose. The amount to be refunded will be $166,790.00 BUDGET: No impact.