in 2002, the members of the Fire Alliance, including the CFSCI, developed a standard application, with one timeframe. It was based on the very successful Community-Based Wildfire Prevention Grants Program established in 2001 to administer funds on behalf of BLM. This is discussed in detail in the article on the California Fire Safe Council. The members of the Fire Alliance designated the CFSCI as the administrator of the Clearinghouse without a competitive bidding process. Two independent aspects of the Clearinghouse The Clearinghouse consists of two aspects: project selection and funding administration. Historically, both parts have been overseen by the CFSCI; however, they are actually independent functions. Project selection "FSC [i.e., the CFSCI] convenes a grant review and brokering session that includes all agencies with funding in the clearinghouse and a volunteer-based review committee of grant experts, for example, from state and local government and the private sector. For grants that pass through the FSC, the FSC board of directors also will have to have a procedural vote to approve the grants at a regularly scheduled quarterly meeting to ensure the FSC complies with its policies in the area of subgranting." Grant Administration "FSC [i.e., the CFSCI] funds and monitors programs. FSC plans to advance funding to subrecipients on a quarterly basis. Monitoring includes reviewing quarterly reports, checking in with subrecipients via phone and doing monitoring visits as needed." Grant administration also includes the authority of the CFSCI to cancel previously approved grants. No public oversight Even though it administers millions of public funds on behalf of Federal agencies, the CFSCI operates the Clearinghouse without any public oversight. Even its own Board of Directors has been kept out of the loop; for example, in 2003 the Board was asked to vote to accept the list of approved projects even though the list was not yet available for them to see and in 2005 questions by the Board about the selection process were brushed aside by Chairman Turbeville. References External links CAL FIRE also called CDF or California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection California Fire Alliance (now called preventwildfireca.org) California Fire Safe Council (click on the link for the Grants Clearinghouse for details about the current program) Fire prevention Federal assistance in the United States Wildfires in California