02 NCAC 57 .0207             REVIEW OF PROPOSALS

(a)  The Commission staff or designee shall review applications to see if the application is complete. Commission staff shall notify applicants if the grant application is incomplete.

(b)  Applications that are complete will be forwarded to a Grant Review Committee of the Commission. Grant Review Committee members shall be Commissioners.

(c)  During the review and evaluation of proposals, the Commission staff and Grant Review Committee may solicit information from persons who have expertise in technical or specialized areas or request that the Commission staff or designee make reports on any site visits that may be required for consideration of the grant proposal. The Grant Review Committee shall make recommendations to the Commission based on its review and evaluation. Scoring and rating of proposals may be determined by using any consistent rating methodology, including adjectival, numerical, or ordinal rankings.

(d)  The Commission shall evaluate grant proposals and recommendations made to the Commission by the Grant Review Committee as follows:

(1)           for Compensatory Programs set forth in G.S. 143-720; or

(2)           for Qualified Agricultural Programs set forth in G.S. 143-721.

(e)  In making this evaluation the Commission may consider:

(1)           who will benefit from the grant;

(2)           how many will benefit from the grant;

(3)           the cost of administering it;

(4)           how the grant project will alleviate or avoid unemployment, stabilize local tax bases;

(5)           encourage the economic stability of participants in the State's agricultural economy;

(6)           encourage the optimal use of natural resources in the tobacco dependent economies or related segment of the State's agricultural economy in a measurable manner; or

(7)           past performance of grants and publicly funded projects.

(f)  Proposals shall be given a preference for statewide impact, for containing a delivery mechanism to intended beneficiaries, for providing alternate markets for tobacco, or for providing for diversification of the tobacco crop or the tobacco grower.

(g)  No grant shall be awarded for a project that is unlawful under NC General Statutes.

History Note:        Authority G.S. 143-718; 143-720;

Temporary Adoption Eff. May 15, 2002;

Eff. April 15, 2003;

Amended Eff. December 1, 2008;

Pursuant to G.S. 150B-21.3A, rule is necessary without substantive public interest Eff. October 24, 2015;

Amended Eff. September 1, 2017.