With little surprise, the Turlock City Council unanimously approved the Consolidated Annual Performance and Evaluation Report (CAPER) for the 2013-14 Fiscal Year to be submitted to the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Submitting the CAPER is required for all communities that receive funds from the Community Development Block Grant Program (CDBG) or HOME Investment Partnership Program (HOME).
The City of Turlock was awarded $540,434 in CDBG funds from HUD, following the approved submission of the Annual Action Plan for the Fiscal Year 2013-14, to carry out activities that benefit low income persons. The City and the County of Stanislaus Consortium was also awarded $879,498.
The CAPER describes the activities undertaken in the Annual Action Plan and the accomplishments during the reporting.
Staff reports that the City has made significant progress in this CAPER, the fourth year of the 2010-15 Consolidated Planning period, with the following highlights:
- First-time homebuyer loans
- Residential rehabilitation loans
- Rehabilitation of homes
- Public service grants
- Fair housing efforts
- Efforts to address the concerns related to homelessness
- Community development sidewalk project and new bathroom facilities at Columbia Park
Had the City Council not approved the CAPER, it could have jeopardized future funding.
The Turlock City Council also unanimously approved the consent calendar, although one item was removed for future consideration with the belief that some money could be saved.
Council was scheduled to vote on the purchase of six marked black and white vehicles for the Turlock Police Department in the total amount of $276,000.
The six vehicles were planned to be purchased from Downtown Ford Sales of Sacramento at the cost of $46,000 per vehicle. However, City Manager Roy Wasden said the item would be postponed as the City may be able to get a better deal from Patchetts Ford in Turlock.
“It looks like Patchetts will give us a better price than state contract,” said Wasden. “So we can’t simply award that, we have to go through the bid process…. Hopefully we’ll have a local vendor beat out state contract pricing and keep the money right here in our community.”
