Lobbyists Hired to Help City Win Grants

With an eye on securing more state and federal dollars, city officials hired a Washington-based lobbying firm to seek government grants and other appropriations for the city.

“The city is doing everything it can to save money but also to make it,” City Administrator Ray Silver said last week upon presenting a one-year contract with the Ferguson Group to the council.

Council members voted unanimously to hire the group for $77,000.

Over the last 2 1/2 years, the lobbying firm helped the city win nearly $7 million in grants, Deputy City Administrator Richard Barnard said. The amount paid to the consultants over that time was $70,000.

These funds included grants of $200,000 from the Army Corps of Engineers for seismic-retrofit studies and a grant of more than $900,000 from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to line the Slater Avenue Channel.

“And that was in a time of economic downturn,” Barnard said. “With the economic turnaround, we believe there are funds at the state and federal level we could take advantage of.”