Public Comment notifications.

Notifications of substantial action plan changes should be published to department page not public website.

Public Comments: Louisiana CDBG-DR Substantial Changes.

Process public announcements within the DOA LA pages that are not linked to email notifications.

To prevent delay by HUD all public announcements should be made so the general public will not be alerted until after the announcement closing date.
Examples of Action Plans where no public comments were recorded is a testament to the process.
This process reduces any type of review by HUD for the reallocation of program funds.

III. Public Comment
Per the state’s Initial Action Plan, this Amendment is considered substantial as it reallocates more than 15% of funds from the Bridge Loan Program. The formal public comment period for the plan was Wed., June 23, 2021 through Tues., July 6, 2021 at 5 p.m. CT. The state did not receive any comments. Citizens and organizations could comment on this amendment via:

  • The OCD-DRU website, http://www.doa.la.gov/Pages/ocd-dru/Action_Plans.aspx;
  • Emailing them to ocd@la.gov;
  • Mailing them to Disaster Recovery Unit, P.O. Box 94095, 70804-9095, Attn: Janice Lovett; or
  • Faxing them to the attention of Janice Lovett at (225) 219-9605.
The plan was available in Spanish and Vietnamese to reach the limited English proficiency citizens in the impacted areas. Citizens with disabilities or those who need other technical assistance could contact the OCD-DRU office for assistance via the methods listed above

Resource:
Example Public Comment Period: June 23, 2021 – July 6, 2021 FOR THE UTILIZATION OF COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT BLOCK GRANT FUNDS IN RESPONSE TO HURRICANES KATRINA AND RITA FIRST APPROPRIATION

Public Comments should be announced here.

Publish all public announcements to "Home > Division Offices, Office of Community Development > Policy and Reports / Action Plans" related to changes to any federal program managed by the state.
The state is required to give public notice and this meets that requirement.
No subscriber notices to the public should be given. Only internal managers and directors should be allerted.
Task force members assigned to active task force activities will be sent a text and email directly from the executive offices.

HUD has approved this location for publishing changes to the program waiving the policy requirement to have a dedicated website and notification system.
The dedicated website is https://restore.la.gov for the public while the action plans are linked no announcements to the news and media will be made.
This is a proven method to allow positive results to substaintion changes to action plans.

Resource:
Example Public Comment Announcement location