"More NOFOs and Insufficient Headcount" is my wordy way of summarizing the bind in which there is a once-in-a-generation amount of federal funding available across the United States, but — here in Alameda — this city is under-staffed to apply for as many of those funding opportunities as possible, to administer the grants that are actually won, and to simultaneously handle all the other everyday tasks of city-level Planning and Public Works departments.

Academics have a less wordy way of putting this: the City of Alameda has "low bureaucratic capacity."

Here's an extract from a recent report from the Urban Institute:

This report — titled Is Federal Infrastructure Investment Advancing Equity Goals? — is analyzing counties, rather than cities. But the question it prompts still applies to the City of Alameda: are the residents, businesses, visitors, and other stakeholders of Alameda missing out on potential repairs and improvements to the city's infrastructure because the City of Alameda is understaffed to effectively apply and win as many grants as possible from federal funds?