Employees of the Month – DGS Capital Grants and Loans Team

Tawana Saunders, Cathy Ensor and Kimberly Langkam administer the DGS Capital Grants and Loans Program.

The first thing you’ll notice when you walk into Cathy Ensor’s office is a lot of paper, a lot of files – all meticulously organized.  As Program Manager for Capital Grants and Loans, she has to be highly organized. On any given day, she might have to review a non-profit’s grant history, where the first grant might have been approved 10 years ago, or more.

Cathy has extensive experience with grants, having performed a similar function at the Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE) for 17 years before joining DGS eight years ago. She is one of a team of three, which also includes Kimberly Langkam and Tawana Saunders, and they maintain an extensive database of hundreds of grants totaling millions of dollars.

The three-member Board of Public Works (BPW) delegated the oversight function for legislative initiatives that authorize capital funding to non-profit organizations, local governments, private colleges, hospitals and detention centers. Last year, for example, the Legislature approved 172 grant requests amounting to $74.4 million.

The grants Cathy and her small team oversee are for projects as varied as the communities they serve, ranging from the Baltimore Museum of Art to the Junior League of Baltimore Thrift Store and the Chester River Hospital Center. Other examples include the Maryland Artificial Reef Initiative, Bowie Boys and Girls Club Pole Barn Structure and Habitat for Humanity of the Chesapeake. All of them add to the quality of life of the communities they serve.

It takes a tremendous amount of work and attention to detail to administer and monitor these grants. At the end of each legislative session, the capital grants team gets a consolidated bill from the General Assembly that lists all of the approved projects.  Grantees must then go through an application process and review of project contracts to determine if they can receive their grants.  A database is created and used to create legal documents, correspondence, application packages, mailings, reports, and to monitor match certification and term deadlines, BPW actions, encumbrances and fund balances.

Cathy and her team work diligently to determine that grantees are qualified, provide documentation that they meet the match requirement, if applicable, and sign the grant agreement.  In many cases, grantees need guidance and direction to resolve any issues related to their grant, like insufficient documentation of matching funds or changes to the boiler plate grant agreement. After issues have been addressed, all of the required paperwork goes to BPW staff, who represent the Governor, Comptroller and Treasurer, for final review and confirmation that every ‘i’ has been dotted and ‘t’ has been crossed.

“The BPW has the final say on whether a grant will be approved or denied,” Cathy explained. “Everything is in order when we put a grant on the agenda,” Cathy explained. “However, the BPW sometimes has questions for a grantee; others have requirements placed on them; still others are turned down.”

The grant team’s work is not finished upon BPW approval.  Grantees have two years from the effective date of the authorization to present evidence of their matching funds for BPW certification. They also have a seven-year term to spend their grants. The team constantly monitors accounts. If they see that a grantee is getting close to either the two or seven-year deadline, warning letters are sent out. Every effort is made to keep grant monies in grantees’ hands.

Cathy and her team also must monitor the grantees to ensure that the funds are being applied to capital costs. Grantees are required to submit all contracts that they want to apply to their matching funds and grant. The team reviews the contracts to ensure that the scope of work is within the stated purpose of the bond bill and capital cost guidelines. Everything they do must be supported with documentation, so extensive records are kept.

This office of three is dedicated to getting the grantees the full amount of their grants. They don’t want them to slip through the cracks or miss a deadline. They help them spend their funds correctly. There are times, however, when they have to be the ‘bad guy,’ a serious function of the office. They are required to ensure that funds are being used for their intended purpose, and that they’re not misused or abused.

“It’s rewarding to be able to advance projects that contribute to the quality of life in our communities,” Cathy said. “We take pleasure and pride in seeing a project finished, like upgrades to a soup kitchen, or improvements to a senior citizen facility, or construction of an animal shelter.”

For their dedication and fine work that contributes to the quality of life in our communities, Cathy Ensor, Kimberly Langham and Tawana Saunders are our employees of the month.