Staff warns of slow spending by Lutheran Social Services; committee sets March 1 deadline for invoices
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Summary
City staff told the North Las Vegas Citizens Advisory Committee that several CDBG subrecipients are below expected spend rates. Lutheran Social Services has spent about 2% and faces a March 1 deadline to submit invoices or have its award closed and funds redistributed.
City staff told the North Las Vegas Citizens Advisory Committee on Feb. 4, 2025, that several subrecipients of CDBG funding are behind on spending and that staff has begun follow-up; Lutheran Social Services (LSS) is the most at-risk and was given a March 1 deadline to submit outstanding invoices.
Janie Christenson, who presented the spending update, said staff provided a spreadsheet showing subrecipient expenditures through December and had sent letters to any recipient below 50% spent. "This is the second year that Lutheran Social Services has been in a slow spend situation. Currently, from July to December, they've submitted 1 invoice for $300, which only puts them at 2% spent," Christenson said. She told the committee the city gave LSS a March 1 date to submit outstanding invoices; "after that, we will close out their portion of the grant and redistribute those funds to some of the other agencies who were already spent down their funds."
Christenson also reported that Volunteers in Medicine was at about 45% at one point but subsequently submitted multiple invoices: "On December 23, they submitted invoices for July and August. And on January 15, they submitted invoices for September, October, November, December." Staff said ESG program recipients were tracking above the 50% threshold and presented no similar concerns.
Committee members asked how staff would redistribute any recovered funds; Christenson said staff would "sit down and have a discussion" and reach out to agencies that were trending well to determine where to redistribute a relatively small amount of money. The transcript indicates one redistribution example discussed earlier in the meeting: small adjustments among CDBG awardees to fully fund certain smaller programs.
Shade Tree was noted as having stopped submitting invoices after losing its chief financial officer; staff said that organization is also being monitored. Committee members repeatedly urged prompt invoice submission and emphasized the importance of spend-down to meet federal deadlines.
No formal vote was taken on the spending update; staff requested and received committee acknowledgement of the monitoring steps and deadlines.
Quotes from the meeting are verbatim from the committee transcript.