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23 - Procedure for expending the City's allocation of Coronavirus Relief FundingItem No. 23 TO: Mayor and City Council FROM: Grayson Path, City Manager SUBJECT: CRF Program Funding Plan for Expenditure of Funding DATE: December 14, 2020 BACKGROUND: On June S, 2020, the City Council authorized a Resolution for the signing of Terms and Conditions to receive Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act funding, also known as Coronavirus Relief Fund (CRF) with the Texas Department of Emergency Management (TDEM). This funding is designed to help governments who are responding to the CoVid-19 pandemic. The City of Paris has been allocated a maximum amount of $55 per capita which is $1,393,150.00. An initial 20% was given to the City upon submittal of the Resolution this summer. The remaining balance is available for reimbursement. Working with our Third Party Administrator, Resource Management & Consulting Company, we have submitted the necessary documents to receive 100% of our allocated reimbursement total, dependent on any final requirements that the TDEM provides. STATUS OF ISSUE: When the program was first announced this summer, the funding was restricted to abnormal CoVid-19 related expenses (ex: testing kits, ventilators, payroll directly caused by CoVid-19, etc.). Therefore, the City would have realistically been limited to a portion of the total available allocation because we simply did not have a significant amount of abnormal expenses due to CoVid-19. This opened us up to assisting the Health District and Schools in an attempt to bring the money to our community vs. losing it. In recent months though, the Federal/State Government has clarified what are eligible payroll expenses which now allows full utilization of funding. Now, in short, the City is able to identify any and all first responder payroll (Fire, Police, and EMS) as eligible expenses, whether it was a direct response to CoVid-19 or not. We have done this in order to receive our entire allocation. By doing this, we are going to receive a significant amount of funding that is not directly tied to an abnormal CoVid-19 expense given our budget covered the payroll. This in affect gives us options for spending this money. We have three external commitments: 1) Third Party Administrator, 2) Health District, and 3) Schools, all of which were approved by the City Council. All other expenses though are internal (testing kits, ventilators, cleaning supplies, masks, payroll, overtime, etc.), and given our FY19/20 Budget was able to absorb these expenses without exceeding budget, we have options for the balance of CRF Program Funding beyond the external commitments. This agenda item is to seek City Council guidance on how to expend the funds we will receive. An immediate option is to simply reimburse the City funds spent on payroll, testing kits, ventilators, cleaning supplies, etc., in essence adding this money to the reserve given our normal operating budget has already covered this without issue. Another option is to set this money aside for a purpose TBD, such as future street work, capital improvements, equipment purchases, etc. There are many possibilities with this, all of which could be determined at a future date. A third option though is to set this money aside for the pursuit of disaster -related purchases. The City Manager would like to recommend this third option tonight for your consideration. The City Manager recommends that given this funding was originally raised for the purpose of responding to an emergency situation, even though the funding is being received and in essence the strings are being removed, these funds could still yet be spent on emergency -related expenses, whether that is virus, storm, fire, flood, or some other disaster. Therefore, the City Manager proposes that, once the external commitments are satisfied, the remaining balance be set aside and the City use these funds to make purchases in such a way as to invest in our municipal emer enc -. response abilities. While I would like to keep this broad so as not to eliminate good ideas, the intent is that the purchase(s) would be for our own city operational disaster or emergency response related abilities and would not be for something perishable (ex: supplies), thus a true investment in our ability to respond to situations. Ideas are vehicles, trailers, gear, training, tools, etc. While this does direct it more towards Police, Fire and EMS, all other departments can have disaster - related roles that might need purchases to help prepare ourselves for that role. In addition, by setting the funds aside, there would be no specific timeframe to expend them, thus we can proceed to draw these funds down until exhausted, whether that occurs in 2021 or some year thereafter. The City Council is responsible for determining the use of these funds, so this could be brought back to a future meeting. However, if the City Council is agreeable to the above stated proposal, the City Manager can work with the City Attorney to draft a Resolution that would earmark these funds towards purchases that invest in the City of Paris' ability to respond to emergency situations. City Departments could bring to the City Manager requests for processing to then be brought to the City Council for consideration. BUDGET: The City was allocated $1,393,150.00 in CRF Program Funding. The City has the following external commitments: 1. Resource Management & Consulting Co. Third Party Administrator $22,500.00 2. Paris -Lamar County Health Dept. CoVid-19 Response $44,295.34 3. Paris ISD Operation Connectivity $87,000.00 4. Chisum ISD Operation Connectivity $5,225.00 5. North Lamar ISD Operation Connectivity $18,133.00 Total $177,153.34 Net Balance: 1. Allocation $1,393,150.00 2. Commitments $177,153.34 Balance $1,215,996.66 OPTIONS: 1. Utilize the balance of CRF Program Funding for purchases that invest in the City of Paris' ability to respond to emergency situations as proposed by the City Manager. 2. Utilize the balance of CRF Program Funding for reimbursing the City's General Fund for CoVid-19 expenses to -date, plus other expenses as determined by the City Council. 3. Utilize the balance of CRF Program Funding for future expenses TBD. 4. Other options as determined by the City Council. Whichever option is pursued, it is recommended that a Resolution be drafted identifying the direction; said resolution to be brought back in a future City Council meeting. RECOMMENDATION: 1. Utilize the balance of CRF Program Funding for purchases that invest in the City of Paris' ability to respond to emergency situations as proposed by the City Manager. A resolution would be drafted and brought back to the City Council.