The city will take another run at handing out community grants after ending up with leftover money the first time around.
During Monday night's meeting, city council approved a second intake of social development grant applications to use up the remaining $27,950 not handed out.
This second round is intended to be a one-off and is targeted towards projects that focus on enhancement during the 2015 Canada Winter Games.
Earlier this year, council approved the combining of three pots (cultural, social and community enhancement grants) that groups applied for as well as an adjudication process where nine community members review the applications.
A total of $357,350 is available from those three funds, and $197,000 is dedicated to three-year agreements with Theatre Northwest, Prince George Symphony Orchestra and Prince George Community Arts Council.
The adjudication group recommended granting $132,000 of the remaining $160,350 to 24 applicants.
Six applications were not deemed to have adequately met the funding criteria, said a recreation and cultural services staff report.
But those 30 applications amounted to less than half of the 67 applications the grant program received in 2013.
"There could be a number of contributing factors including a short lead time in educating the community in regards to the new program," said the report.
The grant framework will be tweaked following a public input process slated for later this year.
Also going on a trial run is the means by which the city hands out permissive tax exemptions.
Every year, non-profit organizations, places of worship, private schools and municipal tenants can apply to have their property taxes waived if they meet criteria set out in the Community Charter.
The city used to have a cap on the value set at 1.5 per cent of the annual tax levy. But that restriction was lifted in the latest version of the municipal sustainable finance policy
and council directed staff to come up with a policy to guide how the exemptions were handed out.
On Monday afternoon, the finance and audit committee approved those guidelines, which - when OK'd by council - will put the work into the hands of an adjudication committee that features a member of the group that also decides on the social development grants.
Under the draft guidelines, there are new elements to be considered such as the annual value of the exemption not exceeding the annual operating budget for the program or service delivered and that organizations meet a community need and have "substantial enrollment."
City policy initiatives manager Wendy Nordin said the guidelines are flexible and there's room for the adjudication group to use common sense. The final decision on any exemptions granted ultimately rests with council.
The guidelines also say that the exemptions will be considered in "concert with applications for funding through the myPG Social Development Grant Program, and are subject to City of Prince George budget constraints."
Previously, there hasn't been a consideration of the complete package of benefits an organization receives from the city, said Nordin.
Corporate services director Kathleen Soltis said groups that typically apply and are accepted for permissive tax exemptions wouldn't likely see any change next year even with the new guidelines in place.
"I would see it rolling out ... that we use this year as a parallel process to do a pilot as we use the adjudication and new guidelines," she told the committee. "In the interim, in terms of actually approving things, we'll continue to approve on the basis of what we would have done last year so that there are no surprises."
The committee is also recommending that after the first year, work also be done to establish three-year agreements with the groups receiving exemptions.
