The proposed action will not have a direct impact on the County’s General Fund. Mitigation Fee revenue is used to cover the costs incurred by the County and City for any activities (Strategies) authorized to be funded under the applicable North Richmond Waste and Recovery Mitigation Fee Expenditure Plan approved by the County and City of Richmond. Each annual Expenditure Plan includes a Contingency line item in the budget to serve as a cushion for potential revenue shortfalls, and staff anticipates that there will be sufficient funding in the Contingency fund for this purpose.

New Expenditure Plans and/or modifications to existing Expenditure Plans (Amended Expenditure Plans) must be approved by both the County Board of Supervisors and Richmond City Council to officially authorize use of North Richmond Waste and Recovery Mitigation Fee funding. The purpose of this North Richmond Mitigation Fee (NRMF) is to mitigate designated impacts resulting from the County and City approved land use permits for the expanded Bulk Material Processing Center (BMPC) located in North Richmond.  
  
Summary of Changes to the 2016/2017 NRMF Expenditure Plan  
The 2016/2017 North Richmond Mitigation Fee Expenditure Plan was approved by the County Board of Supervisors in June 2016 and Richmond City Council in July 2016. After the close of the 2016/2017 Expenditure Plan (EP) cycle, once all relevant expenditures were known and accounted for, DCD staff identified the need to request supplemental funding to cover Committee Administration/Staffing costs in excess of the amount allocated in the EP budget for FY 2016/2017. On March 23, 2018, the North Richmond Mitigation Fee Committee (NRMFC) voted to recommend that the County Board of Supervisors and Richmond City Council approve an Amended 2016/2017 NRMF Expenditure Plan to move $23,178.02 from the “Contingency” line item to increase the funding for “Committee Administration/Staffing” and reduce the “Contingency” line item accordingly. These funds will reimburse the County for staff costs previously incurred. The Contingency line item also includes an additional $4,641.50 which previously had unintentionally been included in the total budget but not allocated to any specific strategy due to a calculation error. Additional changes include elimination of all obligated funding (funding carried over from prior expenditure plan cycles), from the Expenditure Plan since that funding was expended in the prior 2014/2015 Expenditure Plan. The proposed changes are shown in the Amended Expenditure Plan Budget Table (page 3).   
  
Summary of Recommended 2018/2019 Expenditure Plan  
At the NRMFC meeting on June 8, 2018, the Committee voted to recommend that the County Board of Supervisors and Richmond City Council approve a 2018/2019 Expenditure Plan that allocates funding from July 1, 2018, through June 30, 2019.   
  
The recommended 2018/2019 Expenditure Plan attached (Exhibit B) eliminates a one-time project (Strategy 13 -- Urban Farm Park Dedication Project) of $105,000 and increases the salary positions for both the Prevention Services Coordinator (Strategy 3) and Community Services Coordinator (Strategy 8). All other strategies remained unchanged except for additional funding to Community Based Projects (Strategy 9) and a reduction in funding to Neighborhood Community Garden Projects (Strategy 12). Specific nonprofits were allocated funding under Strategies 9 and 12 based on a Request for Funding Proposal solicitation process conducted in early 2018. The nonprofits selected for funding are shown in Attachments 2 and 3 of the Expenditure Plan.   
  
The next NRMFC meeting is planned to be scheduled in mid-October 2018, where they will discuss the projected revenue and planned use of funds for the 2019/2020 fiscal year.

Each new Expenditure Plan must receive final approval from the County Board of Supervisors and Richmond City Council. Expenditure Plans and any associated amendments recommended or approved by the NRMFC only take effect if/when approved by the Board of Supervisors and the Richmond City Council. Therefore, if the 2018/2019 Expenditure Plan is not approved by the Board prior to July 1, 2018 it is likely to impact or possibly preclude continued implementation of various on-going, previously approved strategies (activities) funded with NRMF monies. Furthermore, if the Amended 2016/2017 Expenditure Plan is not approved by the Board the County would not receive reimbursement for staff costs incurred for administering NRMF funding for the annual period that ended on June 30, 2017.