The grant deadline Jacksonville City Councilman Reggie Gaffney almost missed

Reggie Gaffney and supporters, including Katrina Brown, at his swearing in.

Councilman Reggie Gaffney has been a busy man these days, as a member of the Finance Committee that spent much of August wrestling with Jacksonville’s municipal budget.

The Jacksonville Democrat’s been so busy, in fact, that his Community Rehabilitation Center came perilously close to missing a grant deadline, as his executive assistant, Jill Kestner, wrote to Mayor Lenny Curry‘s Chief of Staff, Kerri Stewart.

“Upon review of CRC’s grant application to U. S. Department of Health and Human (DHHS), Health Resources add Services Administration (HRSA), Under the Section 330 program to establish a new federally approved Community Health Center (CHC), under the Service Area Competition (SAC) funding competition to provide healthcare services to our area, we identified that we had not requested a letter of support from the Mayor. This grant will be submitted TOMORROW and it would greatly strengthen the application if we indeed did have his support,” Kestner wrote.

“Please review the attached template, revise as needed, scan and return via email once printed on COJ letter head and executed if at all possible. I realize this is 11th hour but we would be most grateful if this could be accomplished,” Kestner added.

Kestner got confirmation on Tuesday morning from Stewart that the letter was being written.

By Tuesday afternoon, she got nervous.

“Just checking in to see if miracles can happen?? Any word on status?? Sorry to have to bother you!”

Stewart sent Kestner the letter, attached in an email. Alas, there was a snag.

“NO ATTACHMENT!!!! HELP! HELP!”

From there, the attachment was re-sent.

Success!

Kestner enthused: “You are the BOMB!!!”

Stewart was gracious, as is her wont. However, the rushed process did not escape fulfillment staff without notice.

“Also, for your situational awareness and toward your goal of protecting Kerri’s time, requests for grant-related letters of support (LOS) are typically sent with more advance, as a courtesy to the mayor and his staff,” wrote Sheri Webber, a public communications officer.

All’s well that ends well.