FLORENCE — Florence City Council during a special meeting Friday approved expediting the hiring of a grant writer for stimulus monies and the appointment of an oversight committee to review the courts.
The action happened in open session after a 1¾-hour executive session.
“The council passed an ordinance to allow the city staff to expedite the procurement process so that we could get an additional grant writer on line as soon as possible,” said Mayor Stephen J. Wukela. “We have grant writers on staff, but it tends to be agency specific. What we hope we can find is someone who can nose around in the thicket and find some grants and some money out there that we wouldn’t know of otherwise.”
“There’s a lot of money out there available through the stimulus package and we feel we need to get our fair share of it,” City Manager David Williams said. “We felt like we needed to hire somebody quickly that knows where to look in and can help us identify those grant sources that we qualify for before the money is taken by somebody else.”
Williams added, “we’ve got several names that have been referred to us. We’re going to bring interview them in the next few days and see what their credentials are. Whoever can bring the most to the table and get to work quickly, we’re probably going to go with somebody like that.”
“The main thing today is if we went through the normal procurement process, we would probably be two to three months down the road at the quickest,” City Attorney James W. Peterson said. “If we wait that long, it’s going to be too late.”
Meanwhile, council members appointed to the oversight committee are Octavia Williams-Blake, Buddy Brand and Ed Robinson. They will continue oversight and review of the courts.
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