2024-06-16 PL-INT-2024-007974 CNC Consulting Category PL.10

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MICHELE HOBBS 421 VICTORIA DRIVE CNC CONSULTING MOSCOW, ID 83843 775-544-0618 CNCCONSULTANTZ@GMAIL.COM June 16, 2024 Mr. Zendo Kern, Planning Director County of Hawai`i Planning Department 101 Pauahi Street, Suite 3 Hilo, HI 96720 Re: Statement of Qualification and Expression of Interest for Community Planning (Writer, Grant Writer) — Notice to Providers of Professional Services (HRS 103D-304) Dear Mr. Kern: CNC Consulting respectfully submits this Statement of Qualification and Expression of Interest for the County of Hawai`i's Invitation for Professional Services in Category of Services—PL.10) Community Planning (Writer, Grant Writer). Introduction to CNC Consulting As the owner and chief principal officer of CNC Consulting, I bring over thirty-four years of experience in local, state and federal government grant writing, grant management, budget development, strategic analysis and contract administration with various governmental and higher educational organizations in Alaska, Hawai`i, Idaho and Nevada. After retiring as the Administrative Services/Financial Officer for the City of Reno Fire Department in 2020, and relocating to Moscow, Idaho, I embarked on an adventure to establish my own consulting business to assist state, county and local government agencies with their grant submission and management needs. Having worked for the City of Reno 2003 through 2020, I have witnessed both the good times as well as the bad. From the "boom era" in 2004 through 2008, to the "bust era" leading to the great economic downturn from 2009 through 2016, I had first-hand experience managing dramatic funding reductions, which led to personnel lay-offs and massive budget reductions, severely affecting public service deliveries to our community. To this day, many of our local, state and federal governmental agencies' budgets and personnel resources have not rebounded to the pre-recession days. Agencies have maintained zero-base budgets for well over a decade with no increases in services, supplies or equipment. Any increases in budgets have most often been attributed to personnel collective labor agreement cost of living increases and the ever-increasing costs of fringe benefits. With continued budget restrictions, agencies need to explore as many grant opportunities as possible to seek additional external funding from federal, state, local and private organizations. Having witnessing this need first hand, and fortunately being very successful in obtaining grants for the Reno Fire Department for more than CNC CONSULTING 1