NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that on October 12, 2010, the Department of Community Affairs has issued an order.
The petition for waiver was received from the Wakulla County Board of County Commissioners on August 6, 2010, and was assigned the number DCA10-WAI-160. The rule from which the waiver was sought was paragraph 9B-43.0051(7)(c), Florida Administrative Code. Notice of receipt of this petition was published in the August 20, 2010 (Vol. 36, No. 33) edition of the Florida Administrative Weekly.
This matter involves the CDBG Economic Development subgrant awarded to Wakulla County, Florida, Board of County Commissioners (Petitioner) during the 2005 Federal Fiscal Year (FFY) by the Department of Community Affairs (the Department) under the Small Cities Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program. Pursuant to paragraph 9B-43.0051(7)(c), F.A.C. (in effect at the time of the award of the subgrant), certain penalties are assessed on future subgrant applications as follows: [a] penalty of five points per job, up to a maximum of 50 points, for failure to create or retain the total number of jobs in the original contract in the Economic Development category. The Petitioner did not deliver the full number of jobs promised, blaming the unforeseen downturn in the national economy. Petitioner did create a significant number of jobs and demonstrated the expenditure-per-job- created ratio was better than that required by the program. The waiver was granted to avoid unjust penalization of the Petitioner for events beyond its expectation and control. The fact that Petitioner did create jobs economically should be acknowledged.
A copy of the Order may be obtained by contacting: Paula P. Ford, Agency Clerk, Department of Community Affairs, 2555 Shumard Oak Boulevard, Tallahassee, Florida 32399-2100, (850)922-1682.