REPORT TO THE CITY COUNCIL
FROM: GEORGEANNE A. WHITE, City Manager
Office of Mayor and City Manager
BY: KELLY TREVINO, Assistant Director
Economic Development Department
SUBJECT
Title
***RESOLUTION - Adopting the 35th Amendment to the Annual Appropriation Resolution No. 2024-122 appropriating $141,900 for the Local Immigrant Integration and Inclusion Grant Program from the State of California Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development (Requires Five Affirmative Votes) (Subject to Mayor’s Veto)
Body
RECOMMENDATION
Staff recommends Council adopt the 35th Amendment to the Annual Appropriation Resolution 2024-122 to appropriate an additional $141,900 for the Local Immigrant Integration and Inclusion Grant (LIIIG) in Fiscal Year 2025.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
On July 28, 2023, the City of Fresno Economic Development Department, in partnership with CVIIC, applied for an LIIIG from the State of California Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development International Affairs and Trade Unit (IATU). On October 12, 2023, the City received the official grant agreement from IATU. The amount awarded was $380,650 over two years and serves to accentuate the entrepreneur pipeline and strengthen digital literacy within the immigrant population.
On November 16, 2023, Council authorized the acceptance of this funding and all related actions for the grant. The initial program budget called for $194,850 to be spent in year one and an AAR was approved by Council authorizing those funds in FY 2024. Due to unforeseen delays, $141,857.01 remained unspent in FY 2024 and needs to now be authorized for FY 2025.
BACKGROUND
The Budget Act of 2022 (Senate Bill 178, Skinner) and Government Code section 12100.140 et. seq. established the Local Government Immigrant Integration Initiative Program within the Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development. $8.2 million in one-time funding was approved for the LIIIG program, with awards being made to several jurisdictions including the City of Fresno. Activities under this program include, but are not limited to, the following: economic development; social services navigation; intergovernmental technical assistance; and civic engagement.
Under these guidelines the Economic Development Department and Central Valley Immigrant Integration Collaborative (CVIIC) partnered to submit a responsive narrative and budget for consideration by the State. Funding is designed to provide workshops on entrepreneurship designed to facilitate connections with industry professionals, assist with access to capital and financing resources, enable coordination with local entrepreneurship networks and resources, provide assistance with local permitting and provide digital literacy training. It also supports two full-time native Spanish-speaking staff at CVIIC with significant connections to the local business support community. These staff members are the ones leading the effort in providing the above outlined services and programs. To date, four cohorts of entrepreneurs have gone through the program with over 70 entrepreneurs successfully completing the training. This has resulted in six new business start-ups and 11 business expansions. In August 2024, the First Annual Immigrant Entrepreneurship Expo was held at the Exhibit Hall helping to connect over 325 attendees with various entrepreneurship and other services. The second expo is currently being planned for 2025.
Established in 2014, CVIIC has developed considerable experience working with mixed status immigrants in the eight San Joaquin Valley counties and established a vast network of nonprofit, public sector and private sector partner organizations in the region. In 2020, CVIIC established the Immigrant Entrepreneurs Program that has already provided self-employment and entrepreneurship training opportunities to a total of nearly 300 low-income Latinos at no-cost. Through this work, CVIIC has established an excellent reputation of goodwill with immigrant populations in the local community. The improved communication with the business community provided by the LIIIG will ultimately help spur additional economic prosperity to further assist in making Fresno a place where every resident and business can thrive.
ENVIRONMENTAL FINDINGS
This item is not a project as defined by the California Environmental Quality Act Guidelines Section 15378.
LOCAL PREFERENCE
Local preference was not implemented because this item does not include an award of a service or construction contract.
FISCAL IMPACT
There is no net City cost associated with the recommended action.
Attachments:
35th Annual Appropriation Resolution No. 2024-122
Grant Agreement #LIIIG 2023-2