Monterey Bay leaders mull how to spend stimulus

Several Monterey County cities are in the midst of developing plans on how to distribute federal relief funding that could arrive by this summer.

The money could provide renewed services lost from the COVID-19 pandemic.

The federal government will distribute funds directly to all counties and cities with populations greater than 50,000. For cities with populations less than 50,000, the state will need to allocate the funds using a formula provided by the federal government. Estimates suggest that California counties will receive $7.7 billion and California cities will receive $8.4 billion.

The Monterey Bay Economic Partnership broke down each city and county’s share of the funding in the three counties in its network — Monterey, Santa Cruz and San Benito. Monterey County is receiving $84.18 million.

The city of Salinas, the most populous in the county, is receiving $50.46 million — more than twice what every city along the Monterey Peninsula is receiving combined. Monterey is receiving $6.48 million, Marina $4.29, Pacific Grove $2.9 million, Sand City $800,00, Carmel about $720,000 and Del Rey Oaks a little over $300,000. Watsonville and Santa Cruz are netting $18.8 million and $14.9 million, respectively.

Monterey City Manager Hans Uslar said Tuesday the funding could be dispersed in a number of ways, including to help the city with its general fund loss of roughly $32 million since the start of the pandemic.

City services that have been cut, such as the cost to fully open the library, sports center and summer programs could benefit from the stimulus money, Uslar said. A need unique to Monterey is its Conference Center, a key driver of revenue both directly and from

money spent in the city by conference-goers.

But as all cities with conference centers struggle to reopen, a fierce competition is emerging, Uslar said. Some of the stimulus funds could go to subsidizing the conference center to compete with centers in other cities that are providing space a little cost or even free.

Monterey is in the middle of developing its budget for the upcoming fiscal year beginning July 1 and allocation of the federal funding is highly contingent on what priorities the city council sets.

In Pacific Grove, City Manager Ben Harvey is in the midst of creating staff recommendations on stimulus money spending for its city council to decide upon. The council can accept the recommendations, change them or reject them.

Harvey said the city was “thrilled” to get the allocation it did and he is looking at spending part of it on ending the furlough of city workers.

“It has impacted the services we have been able to

deliver,” Harvey said about Pacific Grove Friday furloughs. “We don’t like telling residents that we will get to what they need on Monday.”

Using the allocation to restore in part Pacific Grove’s general fund is also an option. The city’s fund balance stood at roughly $10.5 million prior to the onset of the pandemic; today it’s down to about $7.5 million.

Other options include funding programs like Pacific Grove’s renters assistance or grants to help ailing businesses.

Kate Roberts, president and chief executive of the Monterey Bay Economic Partnership, is suggesting cities and counties approach the federal allocations in a collaborative way, essentially getting more bang for the buck by unifying efforts.

She offered as an example MBEP’s Monterey Bay Housing Trust. When it was created MBEP invested $2 million in seed money, but then partnered with the Housing Trust of Silicon Valley for a fourto-one matching investment

that brought the total amount raised to $10 million. It eventually hit $12 million.

Roberts cited a New York Times article in which Regina Romero, mayor of Tucson, Ariz., is investing $5 million in a regional tourism marketing group. The Monterey Bay Area could also take a regional approach to investing the federal dollars it receives into a tourismfocused spending plan.

Some city leaders are already adopting such an approach. Watsonville City Manager Matt Huffaker said in an MBEP oped that local jurisdictions would be better off with a regional partnership. “We need to be coordinated in how these funds are deployed in order to maximize their impact,” he said.

Huffaker also serves as the vice chair of MBEP’s board of directors.

Such an approach will be raised during a meeting of city managers and county chief administrative officers on Friday, Roberts said.