News

The Franklin County Commissioners this morning voted to add a new entry to their list of fundamental principles.  The pursuit of racial equity now joins community safety and security, job creation and economic development, health and human services, environmental sustainability, and fiscally responsible government among the set of guiding principles the commissioners use to set county policy.
 

Franklin County Administrator, Kenneth N. Wilson, this afternoon presented the administration’s proposed 2021 budget to the board of three county commissioners to kick off this year’s annual budget hearings.  Wilson is the county’s highest unelected official, and oversees the budget process.  The commissioners will preside over two days of budget hearings before voting to approve an amended budget at their final meeting of the year in December.  As the administrative branch of county government, the commissioners set the budgets for all county agencies and departments, even those overseen by other elected officials.
 

A total of 250 jobs were created or retained thanks to grants awarded from the newly launched Franklin County Business Growth and Equity Alliance. The grants, which totaled more than $1.6 million, were awarded to 65 different businesses, many of which did not receive help in the federal Payroll Protection Program.

The Franklin County Commissioners are taking steps to integrate county human services systems to better meet the needs of residents. The Board today announced Joy Bivens, currently the director of Job and Family Services (JFS), will begin serving in the new role of deputy county administrator for health and human services.
 

A collaboration of nine Franklin County agencies is the recipient of a $900,000 award from the U.S. D.O.J., Office for Violence Against Women to implement the Blueprint for Safety through September 2023 to combat domestic violence.  The Blueprint for Safety model, originally developed and implemented in Saint Paul, MN, provides a consistent, coordinated criminal justice response to protect victims of domestic violence. It uses a high level of collaboration and information-sharing among service providers to facilitate victims’ safety from an initial emergency call for help through to sentencing and probation. 

The Franklin County Commissioners this afternoon highlighted a new Small Business Response and Recovery grant program that provided a revolving loan fund and more than $1 million to help small businesses weather the COVID-19 pandemic.
 

The Franklin County Commissioners yesterday sent a letter to Ohio’s two Senators, Sherrod Brown and Rob Portman asking that they follow the precedent set by the Senate in 2016 by not considering or approving any nominee to the Supreme Court with less than two weeks before Ohioans begin voting in the presidential election.  Click for the full text of the letter.

The COVID-19 Resilience Initiative Grants provided by the county total more than $5.3 million and will assist nonprofits in helping residents avoid eviction and stay in their homes, put food on their tables, access mental health services, and more.
 

A Franklin County and City of Columbus-led collaborative is working to fill a critical needs gap of for thousands of Franklin County K-12 students who will have online learning this fall, yet lack computers and Internet service.

The Board of Commissioners approved $2 million in CARES Act funding this morning to fund a new and innovative collaboration with One Columbus and the Columbus Urban League aimed at helping minority-owned businesses with grants, access to capital, and more.  Federal data has shown that of the $3.4 billion loaned to Ohio businesses during this pandemic only about three percent went to businesses owned by African Americans.