2019/02/27 Council Agenda Packet

19.Assist with grants advocacy,including reviewing grant applications,organizing federal letters of support and gathering intelligence on grants important to the City. One of the more significant evolutions in state/local funding from the federal government has been the transition from earmarks to grant solicitations. However,Holland&Knight has been on the forefront of these changes. From 2010 to the present, Holland&Knight has secured hundreds of millions in grants and programmatic funding for our clients covering the spectrum of local government issues. Because of our close agency relationships with both the career and political staff at the agencies,we can often gain key intelligence and insight into key criteria and priorities for the grant program that an agency may be considering which can change from year to year,thus enabling the City to have a better chance at success. When Everett decides to pursue a particular grant opportunity,Holland&Knight will assist in mapping a strategic plan to pursue the grant. We will address selection criteria,and stress certain project aspects that the agency maybe more focused on during a particular round of funding. We will then work to set up meetings with federal agencies to discuss the City's proposed initiatives; work with the congressional delegation to solicit support for grants through letters and direct contact with the agency leadership; and will use our close relationships with the Trump Administration to lobby on your behalf. For example,during the recent U.S.Transportation Department BUILD (formerly known as TIGER) grant round,Holland&Knight learned DOT's intent to rename the program to BUILD,expand its criteria to include innovation and the timeline for announcing the grant prior to the public announcement. We were able to alert and counsel our client,the Jacksonville Transportation Authority(JTA) of Jacksonville,FL,so its staff could start preparing its grant application for the Bay Street Innovation Project. Additionally,before the grant release,we arranged for a meeting for the JTA with the DOT to discuss its project. During the meeting,DOT agency staff were able to identify aspects of the project that the agency should highlight for the upcoming grant that matched the Administration's new priorities,like adding"innovation"criteria in recent funding rounds. Holland&Knight worked closely with the JTA to refine the grant proposal and to help strengthen its narrative to ensure that it was compelling. We created an aggressive lobbying strategy for the application due to competing applications from the region. We met with every senior political appointee at DOT,enlisted the Chairman of Transportation-HUD Appropriations Subcommittee to weigh-in with DOT on behalf of the project and crafted specific talking points for JTA's delegation to use to carve a path forward to award funding of both Jacksonville's projects. In the end,the Jacksonville Transportation Authority was able to secure a$12.5 million BUILD grant in the most recent round of funding. The other regional competing project was also awarded $12.4 million and their grant funding will be run through our client's grant agreement. Or take our work with the Department of Justice. We have been successful navigating our municipal clients through the various grants available at the Office of Justice Programs (OJP), Bureau of Justice Assistance(BJA) and the Community Oriented Policing Service (COPS). For example,through our close relationships with the COPS office,we have been able to know in advance each year what issue areas the COPS Hiring grant would focus on. From emphasizing Holland&Knight Confidential Presentation for the City of Everett I 29