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11 (3) Susana Barrios From: Ken Lee <ken@kenleeconsulting.com> Sent: Monday, December 11, 2023 4:44 PM To: Theresa Bass <TBass@anaheim.net>; Public Comment <publiccomment@anaheim.net> Cc: Ashleigh Aitken <AAitken@anaheim.net>; Natalie Rubalcava <NRubalcava@anaheim.net>; Jose Diaz <JoDiaz@anaheim.net>; Carlos A. Leon <CLeon@anaheim.net>; Norma C. Kurtz <NKurtz@anaheim.net>; Stephen Faessel <SFaessel@anaheim.net>; Natalie Meeks <NMeeks@anaheim.net> Subject: \[EXTERNAL\] 12/12/2023 City Council Meeting Agenda Item No. 11 - CCRT Agreement with City Net You don't often get email from ken@kenleeconsulting.com. Learn why this is important Warning: This email originated from outside the City of Anaheim. Do not click links or open attachments unless you recognize the sender and are expecting the message. Good afternoon- Please find attached a comment letter for Agenda Item No. 11 for tomorrow evening's City Council agenda urging support and approval of the proposed Community Care Response Team (CCRT) Homeless Housing, Assistance and Prevention Program Subrecipient Agreement with Kingdom Causes, Inc., dba City Net. Thank you for your consideration. Ken Lee | Principal KEN LEE CONSULTING, LLC T: 949.529.0915 | C: ken@kenleeconsulting.com | www.kenleeconsulting.com 1 Via E-mail December 11, 2023 Members of the City Council CITY OF ANAHEIM 200 S Anaheim Boulevard 7th Floor Anaheim, CA 92805 SUBJECT: December 12, 2023 City Council Meeting Agenda Item No. 11 – Community Care Response Team (CCRT) Homeless Housing, Assistance and Prevention Program Subrecipient Agreement with Kingdom Causes, Inc., dba City Net Dear Honorable Mayor Aitken, Mayor Pro Tem Rubalcava, and Members of the City Council: I am submitting this written public comment to respectfully urge you to approve Agenda Item No. 11 on the December 12, 2023 Regular City Council Meeting Agenda. Approval of this item would continue the successful Community Care Response Team (CCRT) Homeless Housing, Assistance and Prevention Program Subrecipient Agreement with Kingdom Causes, Inc., dba City Net. I ﬁrst encountered City Net in Anaheim nearly ten years ago when I was part of the leadership team at Sa-Rang Community Church (“SRCC”), located at 1111 N. Brookhurst St., Anaheim, CA 92801. SRCC was looking to connect our congregation’s desire to engage homelessness in the city with real solutions that would end homelessness. We began to trust City Net as a leading voice in mobilizing compassion and care in the city, and in channeling efforts from city and county agencies, the business community, volunteers, non-proﬁt organizations, and the faith community into common conversation around ending homelessness in Anaheim. For years I and other members of the SRCC team enthusiastically participated in the Anaheim Homeless Collaborative meetings convened by City Net in partnership with the City, to work together across sectors to coordinate care. Over time, I learned more about City Net and their great work in the city and grew to admire their work so much that I accepted an invitation to join the City Net Board of Directors in 2021. I was eager to learn how they had grown as an agency to rapidly institute high-quality programs and services to meet such profound needs across the region. What I have learned as a Board Member has conﬁrmed what I saw from a distance—that City Net is not only ﬁlled with professional staff who are compassionate, knowledgeable, and committed to solutions, but that as an agency, City Net operates with the highest level of accountability and professionalism. City Net has achieved a long organizational history of excellence, efﬁciency, and integrity in administrating complicated homeless services programs like CCRT in Anaheim. To manage the complexity of more than 50 contracts, which together exceed $35 million annually, City Net has a robust system of ﬁnancial management guided by Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP). City Net has achieved a Platinum Level Seal of Transparency (the highest rating possible) with GuideStar for the past ﬁve years, including 2023. City Net is also a Four- Star ranked nonproﬁt organization with Charity Navigator (also the highest rank). Page 2 Anaheim 12/12/2023 City Council Meeting – Agenda Item No. 11 Since City Net has received ESG funding in Anaheim, each year since 2016, City Net has completed third-party monitoring visits through the City of Anaheim by the City’s contracted monitoring agency, Michael Baker International. These seven monitoring visits (annually from 2016 through 2022) have included thorough reviews of all ﬁnancial and programmatic systems, policies, and procedures to ensure strict adherence to HUD standards. Michael Baker International has reported no ﬁndings on City Net’s ﬁnancial or programmatic systems in any of these seven these monitoring visits. In fact, they have been so impressed with City Net that they have referred other cities they work with to City Net to engage City Net’s homeless services. Additionally, since 2020 City Net has undergone annual ﬁnancial audits for both internal and external accountability, including a mandated audit for receiving over $750K in federal funding. Evidence and reports of City Net’s clean audits from 2020, 2021 and 2022 can be produced upon request. City Net operates in the black, has never declared bankruptcy, has no outstanding litigations or claims, and has no impending ofﬁce closures, mergers, or acquisitions. To conclude, again, I respectfully urge you to vote yes on Item No. 11, to continue City Net’s longstanding service to neighbors experiencing homelessness in the City of Anaheim. Sincerely, Ken Lee Board Member Kingdom Causes, Inc., dba City Net