1. (a) Composition. There is a regional review committee in each of the 24 state planning regions. Each committee consists of at least 12 members appointed at the pleasure of the governor.
2. (b) Role. Under the Community Development Fund each Regional Review Committee is responsible for determining local project priorities and objective factors based on public input in accordance with the requirements in the applicable TxCDBG Action Plan. The RRC shall establish the numerical value of the points assigned to each scoring factor and determine the total combined points for all RRC scoring factors. Each regional review committee may review and comment on other TxCDBG applications.

3. (c) General requirements. In the performance of its responsibilities, each regional review committee shall comply with all federal and state laws and regulations relating to the administration of community development block grant nonentitlement area funds including, but not limited to, requirements of this subchapter, the scoring procedures specified in the current Regional Review Committee Guidebook, and the procedures established by the regional review committee under the TxCDBG.

   1. (1) RRC Must Notify Applicants of Public Hearing to Adopt Local Project Priorities and Objective Scoring Factors.

      1. (A) The RRC proceedings are subject to the Texas Open Meetings Act. The notice of the public hearing and agenda to determine local project priorities and objective scoring criteria must be posted electronically in the Secretary of State's internet site under the Texas Register/Open Meetings, http://www.sos.state.tx.us/texreg/. The notification process requires three days (72-hours) advance notice. The public hearing information must include the date, time and place of the RRC public hearing and the full agenda.
      2. (B) In addition, the RRC must notify each eligible locality in the region in writing of the date, time and place of the RRC public hearing at least five days prior to the public hearing. One of the following four methods must be utilized when sending the notice: certified mail; electronic mail; first class (regular) mail, with a return receipt for local signature enclosed; or deliver in person (e.g., at a Council of Governments (COG) meeting);
      3. (C) A notice of the public hearing must be published in a regional newspaper in the region at least three days in advance of the actual meeting. A published newspaper article is acceptable in lieu of a public notice if it meets the content (date, time, location and purpose) and timing requirements.
      4. (D) The RRC must provide for public comments on the public hearing agenda. RRC discussions, deliberations and votes must be taken in public and must comply with the Texas Open Meetings Act.
   2. (2) Quorum Required for Public Hearing. A public hearing of the RRC requires a quorum of seven members (regardless of status of term or elected office) appointed by the governor. Each Regional Review Committee must establish a policy that prohibits voting by committee members who arrive late or do not attend the entire public hearing held to adopt local project priorities and objective scoring factors and other RRC procedures.
   3. (3) Only Appointed RRC Members May Vote on RRC Actions. An appointed member may designate a local official alternate from his/her city or county to participate in the RRCs deliberations for the purpose of meeting a quorum. This alternate person must be authorized in writing from the official being represented prior to his/her participation at any RRC meeting where voting is to occur. Please note, however, that proxies cannot vote on RRC matters. (This means that proxies may not vote on organizational matters, selection of project priorities, objective scoring factors, and any other related scoring procedures.) Proxies are there to satisfy the quorum requirements.
   4. (4) RRC May Provide Information to the Department Concerning Threshold Criteria. RRCs are encouraged to provide information that would assist the Department in determining applicant compliance with eligibility thresholds and other information that may be considered by the Department in the state scoring factors.

4. (d) RRC Responsible for Adopting Local Project Priorities and Objective Scoring Factors.

   1. (1) Preliminary Meetings to Obtain Public Input and Provide Input to the RRC for Consideration During the Public Hearing to Discuss, Select, and Adopt Scoring Factors. The RRCs may hold preliminary meetings prior to the public hearing to obtain public input regarding priorities and scoring factors. Preliminary meetings held by the RRC are subject to the Texas Open Meetings Act. The RRC must notify each eligible locality in the region of the date, time and place of the preliminary meeting at least five days in advance of the meeting by first class (regular) mail, electronic mail, or telephone call. If a quorum is not established, the RRC preliminary meetings may be still be held, but no formal action may be taken. Sample scoring criteria may be developed with public participation and submitted to the Department for preliminary review and for full discussion and deliberation by the RRC during the public hearing.
   2. (2) Hold Public Hearing to Discuss, Select, and Adopt Scoring Factors. During the public hearing to discuss priorities and adopt objective scoring criteria, the public must be given an opportunity to comment on the priorities and the scoring criteria being considered by the RRC. The RRC may limit the duration of public comment period and length of time for comments. The final selection of the scoring factors is the responsibility of each RRC and must be consistent with the requirements in the applicable TxCDBG Action Plan. The RRC may not adopt scoring factors that directly negate or offset the TxCDBG state scoring factors.
   3. (3) RRC Indicates How Responses Will Be Scored and Identify Data Sources. The RRC must clearly indicate how responses would be scored under each factor and use data sources that are verifiable to the public. After the RRC has adopted its scoring factors, the score awarded to a particular application under any RRC scoring factor may not be dependent upon an individual RRC member's judgment or discretion. (This does not preclude collective RRC action that the state TxCDBG has approved under any appeals process.)
5. (e) RRC Selects Administrative Support Staff. The RRC shall select one of the following entities to develop the RRC Guidebook, calculate the RRC scores, and provide other administrative RRC support: Regional Council of Governments (COG), TxCDBG staff or TxCDBG designee, or a combination of COG and TxCDBG staff or TxCDBG designee. The RRC Guidebook must identify the entity responsible for calculating the scores and must define the role of each entity selected. The RRC support staff, as determined above, is responsible for reviewing and verifying RRC information found in the application for scoring purposes, but may not accept additional information from applicants. The RRC support staff may only use the application information forwarded by the Department for scoring purposes.

6. (f) RRC May Establish Maximum Grant Amounts. RRC may establish maximum grant amounts within the following ranges:

   1. (1) Single Jurisdiction Applications: $275,000 or an amount equal to 12.5% of its combined 2009 and 2010 allocation, whichever is less, up to $800,000
   2. (2) Multi-Jurisdiction Applications: $350,000 - $800,000
   3. (3) Where the RRC takes no action, the grant maximum will be $800,000 for single jurisdiction applications and $800,000 for multi-jurisdiction applications.
   4. (4) TxCDBG may grant an exception to the minimum level if funds are distributed among all eligible applicants. In order to ensure there are sufficient funds in the CDBG award to provide a substantial benefit and to provide for construction efficiencies, RRCs should not prioritize application amounts lower than the maximum above or $200,000, whichever is lower.
7. (g) RRC Housing and Non-Border Colonia Set-Asides Encouraged. Each Regional Review Committee is highly encouraged to allocate a percentage or amount of its Community Development Fund (CD) allocation to housing projects and for RRCs in eligible areas, non-border colonia projects, for that region. Under a set-aside, the highest ranked applications for a housing or non-border colonia activity, regardless of the position in the overall ranking, would be selected to the extent permitted by the housing or non-border colonia set-aside level. If the region allocates a percentage of its funds to housing and/or non-border colonia activities and applications conforming to the maximum and minimum amounts are not received to use the entire set-asides, the remaining funds may be used for other eligible activities. (Under a housing and/or non-border colonia set-aside process, a community would not be able to receive an award for both a housing or non-border colonia activity and an award for another Community Development Fund activity during the biennial process. Housing projects/activities must conform to eligibility requirements in 42 U.S.C Section 5305 and applicable HUD regulations.) The RRC must include any set-aside in its Regional Review Committee Guidebook.
8. (h) RRC Guidebook Adopted and Approved At Least 90 Days Prior to Application Deadline. The RRC Guidebook should be adopted by the RRC and approved by TxCDBG staff at least 90 days prior to the CD application deadline set by the Department. The RRC shall disseminate the RRC Guidebook to the applicants upon written approval by the Department. The RRC will be required to submit the public input documentation along with the RRC Guidebook to the Department.
9. (i) RRC Scores Are Due to the Department Within 30 Days to Completion of the Deficiency Period. RRC scores are due to the Department within 30 days after the Department notifies the region in writing that the deficiency period is complete. The RRC may not change the requested amount of TxCDBG funding, change the scope of the project proposed, or negotiate the specifics of any application. Regional scores may be calculated and reported to the Department on less than full point intervals (i.e., using decimal points) in order to reduce the chance of ties between regional applicants. The Department will retain these same intervals when calculating the total scores and final rankings. The RRC shall announce the RRC scores to the public after the Department has reviewed the scores for accuracy and written approval is received.
10. (j) COGs Preparing Applications/Administering CD Contracts May Not Be Selected As RRC Support Staff. COGs that prepare CD Fund applications and manage contracts will not be allowed to serve as Regional Review Committee (RRC) support staff for that region during the public hearing and scoring of applications. These COGs may not prepare the RRC Guidebook or score the region's applications.

11. (k) Impacts of Failure to Adopt RRC Objective Scoring Factors. If a Regional Review Committee (RRC) for a region fails to approve an objective scoring methodology to the satisfaction of the TxCDBG consistent with the requirements in the applicable Action Plan by the established deadline or if the RRC fails to implement the approved methodology then the state TxCDBG staff will begin with the final RRC scoring factors for the 2009/2010 cycle and adjust them based on the following:

    1. (1) The state may establish the maximum number of regional scoring factors that may be used in order to improve review and verification efficiency and may insert factors to provide a minimum number of factors;
    2. (2) The state may determine that certain regional scoring factors may not be used because the data is not readily available or would require excessive effort to verify the information in a timely manner; and
    3. (3) To ensure consistency, the state may determine the acceptable data source for a particular regional scoring factor.

12. (l) Appeals. Appeals will be handled in accordance with the following procedures:

    1. (1) Written Notification to RRC and the Department. An applicant must notify its Regional Review Committee and the Department in writing of the alleged specific violation of the RRC scoring guidebook within five working days following the date the RRC scores are made available to the applicants (RRC staff support is advised to record this date).
    2. (2) RRC Notification to Applicants of Appeal(s). Within ten working days following the receipt of an appeal, the RRC will notify all applicants in the region that the RRC will reconvene to hear the appeal. The RRC will give notice to applicants that their scores may be affected by the outcome of the appeal and may present pertinent information at the RRC appeal meeting.
    3. (3) RRC Reconvenes to Hear the Appeal(s). In an open meeting, the RRC shall consult with the appellant jurisdiction and consider the appeal. With a simple majority quorum present (i.e., seven members), the RRC will vote to either deny the appeal and forward the appeal and the original regional scores to the Department or to sustain the appeal and proceed with corrective actions. If the RRC sustains the appeal, the RRC makes corrections and forwards the corrected regional scores to the Department. The RRC administrative staff will send a written description of the results of the appeals meeting to all applicants in the region and to the Department. Please note that applicants negatively affected by an original appeal have the same procedural rights to participate in the scoring appeal meeting, including presenting relevant information to the RRC.
    4. (4) Applicants May Appeal a Decision of the RRC. Within five working days following the decision of the RRC, an applicant may submit an appeal of the RRC decision to the Department. The appeal must be submitted to the Department in writing stating the alleged specific violation of the RRC scoring guidebook.
    5. (5) The Department Makes Final Scoring and Ranking Determinations. If the appeal is unresolved by the RRC or denied at the regional level, and the applicant appeals a decision of the RRC, the Department Executive Director will make a final determination as follows: sustain the appeal and make funding recommendations based on corrected regional scores; or reject the appeal and make funding recommendations considering the original RRC submitted scores. The Department will notify the region of the decision and post the final rankings for the region.
    6. (6) An applicant applying under the Community Development Fund may appeal the scoring decision of the Department Executive Director by filing an appeal with the Board. The Board shall hold a hearing on the appeal and render a decision. After the Board renders its decision, the Department will post the final rankings for the region.

Source Note:The provisions of this §30.7 adopted to be effective December 23, 1991, 16 TexReg 7008; amended to be effective August 5, 1997, 22 TexReg 6937; transferred effective October 31, 2001, as published in the Texas Register August 2, 2002, 27 TexReg 6835; amended to be effective January 26, 2003, 28 TexReg 537; amended to be effective May 4, 2003, 28 TexReg 3712; amended to be effective March 4, 2007, 32 TexReg 829; amended to be effective March 16, 2009, 34 TexReg 1799; amended to be effective July 9, 2009, 34 TexReg 4516; amended to be effective September 11, 2011, 36 TexReg 5676; transferred effective October 1, 2011, aspublished in the Texas Register December 23, 2011, 36 TexReg 9011.