New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
Council advances 3 ARPA proposals for bidding
WEST HAVEN — The City Council took its first steps toward spending federal American Rescue Plan Act funding this week, voting to seek bids for hunger, sidewalk and stormwater management improvement projects.
The vote at Monday’s City Council meeting was not to expend any of the city’s $29 million allocation of ARPA funding, but to task the volunteer ARPA Committee with finding contractors who can perform the requested services within the suggested budget.
The projects, which came from Mayor Nancy Rossi’s plan, are to spend $400,000 on food and clothing bank programs to address hunger and food insecurity in the elderly and youth population; $250,000 for sidewalk and crosswalk improvements near school and youth facilities; and a vacuum truck to address stormwater runoff in a more affordable way for the city.
The council passed a resolution last year that it must approve all expenditures of ARPA funding after a former City Hall employee entrusted to manage the $1.15 million federal CARES Act was federally indicted for wire fraud after allegedly using fraudulent invoices to shift much of the grant into a shell company’s bank account. Former state Rep. Michael DiMassa, who worked as an administrative assistant in City Hall, received approval from the City Council in December 2020 to act as a mayoral designee to manage the CARES Act funds.
Both the CARES Act and ARPA funding are federal grants intended to provide relief and economic recovery for municipalities from the COVID-19 pandemic. The U.S. Treasury has determined that ARPA funds must be fully obligated to specific expenses by Dec. 31, 2024, and must be spent by Dec. 31, 2026.
Although all three ARPA proposals passed the council for the ARPA Committee to receive bids and quotes, Councilwoman Meli Garthwait, R-2, expressed concerns that the council was acting without knowing if the city may have to deal with additional financial obligations and parameters starting next month. Earlier this month, the Municipal Accountability Review Board, a state oversight board, voted to move West Haven into its highest level of oversight. Following the state statute, Gov. Ned Lamont must decide after a 30-day public comment period whether he will recommend
West Haven for Tier IV under the MARB.
Fellow Republican Councilman Steven Johnstone, D-10, questioned whether MARB would present a “speed bump” to any program approvals.
Garthwait did not challenge the proposal for addressing food insecurity, because it is “urgent,” but she wondered if the council should wait to move forward on sidewalk improvement projects and obtaining its own vacuum truck.
Councilman Gary Donovan, D-At Large, said the council’s vote would not cost the city any money or reflect the advancement of any projects.
“There’s not going to be any more spending of money and saying, ‘Oops,’” said Councilwoman Bridgette Hoskie, D-1, chairwoman of the council’s finance committee.
Like Garthwait, Hoskie said programs to address hunger in West Haven “can’t wait.”
The $400,000 food insecurity plan advanced by the council would allocate $100,000 to a nonprofit program that would collaborate with the city’s elderly services and local housing authority programs to address gaps in food and personal hygiene items for residents over 65, $100,000 to a nonprofit to provide supplemental food and personal hygiene items to students and their families and $200,000 to support programming and infrastructure for the nonprofit carrying out these programs.
Councilman Ron Quagliani, D-At Large, said officials want to see the school sidewalk proposal completed before the start of the new school year in the fall so construction does not overlap with academics. Hoskie expressed concerns that the council does not have a list of sidewalks that would be addressed under the plan.
Corporation Counsel Lee Tiernan said the city would receive a list of sidewalks before they vote to approve construction, as it would be included in the scope of work provided to bidding contractors.
On the proposal for the purchase of a vacuum truck, Councilwoman Robbin Watt-Hamilton, D-5, said the program would benefit all areas of the city impacted by flooding instead of one district.
“We have a lot of residents that have waited a long time for the city to start making inroads” on flooding, Hoskie said.