Reporting Deputy: Admin Services Analyst II, Yolanda Muro Guzman
File # N/A
Details:
The Riverside County Sheriff’s Office, on behalf of the County of Riverside, is applying for Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant (JAG) funds available through the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs’ Bureau of Justice Assistance. The JAG program allows states, tribes, and local governments to support a broad range of activities to prevent and control crime based upon the jurisdiction’s identified needs and conditions. The Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant (JAG) program was created by the Violence Against Women and Department of Justice Reauthorization Act of 2005 (P.L. 109-162), which collapsed both the Edward Byrne Memorial Formula (Byrne Formula) Grant and the Local Law Enforcement Block Grant (LLEBG) into a single program. Unlike the Local Law Enforcement Block Grant, JAG does not require a local match, but the grant guidance stipulates that the fiscal agent deposits grant funds in a separate trust fund. JAG awards funding to jurisdictions using a formula incorporating population information and Part I violent crime data reported to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
2023 marks the tenth year the County has received the designation as a disparate area. A disparity exists when a county and multiple municipalities within that county are all eligible for direct awards, but the sum of the awards for the individual municipalities exceeds 400 percent of the county’s award amount. Jurisdictions certified as disparate must identify a fiscal agent that will submit a joint application for the aggregate eligible allocation on behalf of all the disparate municipalities. The combined application must specify how the award will be distributed to each unit of local government and describe the how the funds will be used.
The 17 eligible jurisdictions include Riverside County and the cities of Banning, Beaumont, Cathedral, Coachella, Corona, Desert Hot Springs, Hemet, Indio, Jurupa, Lake Elsinore, Menifee, Moreno Valley, Palm Springs, Perris, Riverside and Temecula. All eligible jurisdictions in the County have agreed per Inter-Local Agreement/MOU to reallocate the published JAG formula allocations to provide 10% of their JAG formula allocations to the County to act as the fiscal agent. The County Sheriff will use its share to offset its administrative costs.
The County acting as the fiscal agent, will submit the joint grant application and carry out the following administrative duties:
- Prepare a variety of performance and financial reports.
- Conduct a budget review of project expenditures.
- Administer claims reimbursement of funds to the eligible jurisdictions.
After the Jurisdiction completes its project activities, the County will reimburse funds to the Jurisdiction based on a review of allowable expenditures.
JAG provides supplemental funding for law enforcement activities in addition to prosecution and court programs, corrections, and community corrections programs not currently available with local funding. Eligible purchases include equipment and supplies, retention of previously grant-funded key personnel, pay for overtime for special enforcement projects, or backfilling personnel vacancies. JAG formula allocations and reallocations are summarized on the following schedule by jurisdiction:
This press release aims to inform the public of the County’s plan to distribute the JAG 2023 funding as outlined above.
Please direct any comments or questions to the Sheriff’s Media Information Bureau by calling (951) 955-2427 or emailing the Media Information Bureau.
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