Eastern Idaho Community Action

“At 11/01/2019, eicap transitioned the property management function to syringa property management, inc. For all ten housing properties. Syringa staff manage the operations and accounting for the properties. Syringa bills a management fee to eicap through each property, for the management function. Syringa does not compensate any current/prior officers, directors, or key employees of eicap.”

“Several bylaws updates were made during the year. Significant changes include: update to the democratic process in selection of lmi board members (update effective 11-12-24), and update to prohibit former employees from serving for 3 years following termination of their employment (update effective 12-10-24). The conflict of interest policy applicable to board members was also updated during the year to clarify that board members are prohibited from financial gain resulting from the organization's activities. The agency's document retention and destruction policy was updated during the year for roles of responsibility and adding details regarding specific types of documents.”

“A copy of form 990 is made available to the full board of directors electronically prior to filing the return with the internal revenue service.”

“The conflict of interest policy is reviewed annually. In the event any director or a member of his or her family has a personal business interest in, or is involved in any way with, an organization with which the board is considering a grant request or business contract, such interest or involvement should be disclosed to the board. In such event, the interested director shall neither vote nor participate in the discussion of the matter. The interested director shall be excused from the actual discussion and presence at that portion of the meeting when the matter giving rise to the apparent conflict is discussed. However, any director who is excluded from voting or presence pursuant to this policy may answer pertinent questions of other directors and be present when the interested director's knowledge regarding the matter will assist the board. The board will make the decision on whether/how to proceed in regards to the disclosed conflict. We updated our board conflict of interest policy this year, and are working to train our board members in understanding the policy, how to enforce it amongst themselves as a board, and ensuring completion of the disclosure process by decision-making in resolution of the conflict. We are also working to improve this process to ensure all information gets to relevant procurement employees.”

“The organization uses a wage comparability study to determine compensation of top management officials and other officers. The agency uses the most recently conducted wage study as a base with a yearly multiplier to conduct a wage analysis of all staff. The board of directors approves the compensation of the chief executive officer. The organization uses a wage comparability study to determine compensation of all positions within the agency. Each department director is responsible for the preparation of budgets using the wage study as a guide to ensure fair and equitable distribution of pay increases. All increases are documented on personnel action forms (pafs) and are reviewed and signed by the director, ceo, and hr director prior to the increase being applied. In the case of the ceo's compensation, the board president will sign.”

“The governing documents, conflict of interest policy, and financial statements are made available to the public upon request.”

“In 2024, we expanded services: in family services we added a rental assistance program beginning in june 2024. This enhanced eicap's ability to address housing instability in the community. This program has had a profound impact by reducing eviction rates and improving household stability. We also expanded our weatherization assistance program with new federal funding from the infrastructure investment and jobs act (iija). This funding strengthened our ability to provide energy efficiency improvements to low-income households. We completed our first project under the iija in march 2024. In addition to maintaining core weatherization services, the funding allowed us to serve more homes in underserved communities.”

“In our head start program we completed a change in scope during the year, which transitioned two seasonal classrooms at one center into a duration classroom. This change reduced overall classroom capacity to better accommodate the growing need for behavioral support among children. Family input gathered thorugh surveys indicated the duration services would better meet their needs, guiding the decision to shift from a seasonal to a full-day model.”

“There were no changes made from prior year.”