Grants & Awards: LGRMIF: Grant Application & Reference Material: General Information:

Eligibility Requirements

To be eligible to apply for an LGRMIF grant, most local governments in New York State are required to have the following in place by the application deadline:
 

• Records Management Officer (RMO) appointed

• Appropriate State Archives records retention and disposition schedule adopted 

The only exceptions to this are the City of New York and its five county clerks and five district attorneys, community school districts in New York City, housing authorities, and the Utica Transit Authority, all of which are not required to have RMOs or to adopt State Archives records retention and disposition schedules.

The State Education Department’s (SED) Grants Finance Unit will not release grant funds to a local government that has failed to file the required final fiscal or narrative reports for any SED grant (which includes LGRMIF grants).

Public Benefit Corporations
Public benefit corporations with local or regional jurisdiction are independent units of local government and are therefore eligible to apply for LGRMIF grants.

Community Colleges
A community college sponsored by a single county may apply for grant funding only through its county’s RMO and with the approval of the county’s chief authorizing official.

Fire Districts, Volunteer Fire Companies, Emergency Rescue Services, and Ambulance Services
Fire districts are eligible to apply for LGRMIF grants because they are local governments.  However, not-for-profit volunteer fire companies, ambulance services, and emergency rescue services are not local governments under the Local Government Records Law, and are therefore not eligible to apply for LGRMIF grants.
For questions on eligibility, contact the Grants Administration Unit at (518) 474-6926. 

NYSED Consortium Policy for State and Federal Discretionary Grant Programs
The following policy describes the process for preparing a discretionary grant program RFP that allows a partnership or consortium of applicants to apply for a grant:
NYSED oversees many discretionary grant programs.  These programs require NYSED to issue discretionary funds through a competitive grant RFP (unlike allocational grant programs where grant funds are allocated by formula, e.g. Title I Part A, Title II Part A, Title IV Part A).   The statute pertaining to a grant program may require or permit a cooperative arrangement of grant applicants/participants, for the mutual benefit of the grant participants.  In such cases, the participants can form a partnership or consortium to apply for the grant.  In order to do so, the partnership or consortium must meet the following requirements:

1. The partnership or consortium must designate one of the participants to serve as the applicant and fiscal agent for the grant.  The applicant agency must be an eligible grant recipient.  All other consortium members must be eligible grant participants, as defined by the program statute or regulation.
2. In the event a grant is awarded to a partnership/consortium, the grant or grant contract will be prepared in the name of the applicant agency/fiscal agent, not the partnership/consortium, since the group is not a legal entity.

3. The applicant agency/fiscal agent must meet the following requirements:

• Must be an eligible grant recipient as defined by statute; 
• Must receive and administer the grant funds and submit the required reports to account for the use of grant funds;
• Must require consortium partners to sign an agreement with the fiscal agent that specifically outlines all services each partner agrees to provide.
• Must be an active member of the partnership/consortium, except where SUNY or CUNY Research Foundations are the fiscal agent.
• Cannot act as a flow-through for grant funds to pass to other recipients.  NYSED may establish a minimum level of direct service to be provided by the fiscal agent.
• Is PROHIBITED from subgranting funds to other recipients.  The fiscal agent is permitted to contract for services with other consortium partners or consultants to provide services that the fiscal agent cannot provide itself.
• Must be responsible for the performance of any services provided by the partners, consultants, or other organizations and must coordinate how each plan to participate.