Dunkirk Community Development Block Grant Administrator Nicole Clift played some defense after reporting Monday the city had failed a “timeliness test,” which will hold up funding.

The city had to meet a ratio of 1.5 or below and it was 1.53, Clift told the Common Council Economic Development Committee Tuesday. In addition, she said, the city only failed for one month, July. The ratio was below 1.5 for prior and subsequent months.

“That’s how much HUD (the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development, which oversees the program) does not let you slip,” Clift lamented. “A matter of a few thousand dollars.”

She told the committee the city will likely fail its next CDBG timeliness test. HUD is requiring the city to spend an amount that likely can’t be hit by the time of the test, she said.

Clift initially reported the timeliness test failure at a Common Council Finance Committee meeting Monday. She pushed back on the OBSERVER’s reporting about it, disagreeing with the headline that the city’s CDBG funding is in “peril.”

“The CDBG program isn’t in peril, HUD isn’t going to take the program away from us, HUD just delays funding usage for a bit,” Clift said.

“One of the reasons the city failed this past… test is because of the catching up that had to be done,” Clift told the OBSERVER. “The next future test (July 2, 2025) may and most likely will fail because we will be starting our 2024 funding year late because of HUD procedures, and HUD still will require (the city) to expend the same amount of funds (1.5 ratio)… by the same date, less time to expend the required amount of funding than normal.”

As to why the city is in such a situation, Clift stated, “The pandemic, internal city departments and previous administrator lingering projects all have contributed to the current state of affairs.”

Clift has been the city’s CDBG Administrator since 2021 – not 2023, as previously reported.