Leaders further discuss how to spend $5.3 million
Tuolumne County supervisors want to spend about half of $5.3 million of federal COVID-19 relief funds on county code enforcement, county fire equipment, and other needs, they said Friday in a non-action special board meeting on how to use federal American Rescue Plan Act stimulus funding expected to total about $10.6 million.
The board has directed county staff to come back with a detailed plan on how to spend or save the rest of the rescue funds, which Tuolumne County staff call ARPA funding.
Eric Erhardt, assistant county administrator, said Friday afternoon the board has directed county staff to include several items in a budget that will be adopted Sept. 21. Erhardt emphasized the items could change, and that the board did not decide “to spend or not spend money, but to build those items into the adopted budget.”
Here’s an itemized list of how county staff interpreted the board’s input from a three-hour meeting Friday morning:
• Pre-fund fire and code enforcement staff and equipment $350,000
• Economic stimulus: Relief Across Downtown Card program $500,000
• Funding for code enforcement abatement $250,000
• Fire apparatus funding $800,000
• Space needs study scope of work expansion $175,000
• GIS software $35,000
• Surveyor printer-scanner $25,000
• Animal Control facilities upgrades $60,000
• Increase cybersecurity $350,000
• Mailers to local businesses $10,000
The updated total the board discussed on Friday — $2.555 million — was a reduction from the $3.295 million they agreed to without voting to allocate on Aug. 3.
Debi Bautista, the county clerk-auditor-controller, urged the board to avoid entering into contracts until her staff has a final draft of stipulations on the rescue funds from the federal Department of Treasury.
“We don’t have to allocate all $5.3 million on Sept. 21,” Bautista said. “We need to figure out what all the rules are. They haven’t finalized anything. I think we need to be careful.”
Several people spoke to the board during public comment near the end of a three-hour meeting Friday morning.
Steve Campbell, a businessman and resident, urged the board to “prioritize all public funds to public safety,” specifically county law enforcement and county fire.
Kenny Ayers, a resident of Jamestown, said he doesn’t feel as safe in Tuolumne County as he did when he moved here seven years ago.
“Firewise, Highway 108 is a death trap,” Ayers told the board at the public meeting.
Carol Doud, of Sonora, said she harbors skepticism about recent pleas to fund law enforcement, because it seemed to her “the crime hoopla has come up in the last couple weeks.”
Doud urged the board to consider the root causes of crime, “substance abuse, domestice violence, child abuse,” and to consider funding programs that focus on those problems.
County Administrator Tracie Riggs told the board that the county needs to spend $350,000 on cybersecurity for postdisaster recovery of records and backups in the event of a cyberattack involving ransomware. The $350,000 to bolster county cybersecurity is separate from a county document management solution discussed recently by county staff and the board.
Kathleen Haff, the District 4 supervisor, said she rethought how much she wants to spend “because with the COVID cases spiking, and the variants, we don’t know what’s going to happen. Right now, I think we need to spend only on urgent needs.”
Haff said she was willing to allocate $35,000 for geographic information system software, $25,000 for a printer-scanner, and $10,000 for an animal control decontamination shower, and an unspecified amount on code enforcement.
“Everything else can wait until Oct. 1,” Haff said.
Anaiah Kirk, the District 3 supervisor, said he hopes the board will spend some of the rescue funds on county fire equipment, the GIS software, cybersecurity, the animal control shower and a washer-dryer.
David Goldemberg, the District 1 supervisor, said he favors spending rescue funds on county code enforcement and county fire equipment.
Last week, county staff summarized the ARPA funding. The county has had $5.3 million for fiscal year 2020-21 since May, and it’s earned $6,700 in interest on that so far. County staff anticipate their government will get an additional $5.3 million in late 2021-22.
The Board of Supervisors does not have to immediately allocate all the ARPA funds. They do have to decide how to spend those funds and obligate to spending all the funds by Dec. 31, 2024, and all the funds must be spent by 2026, Riggs said.
Based on guidance from the federal Department of Treasury, Tuolumne County staff have determined the county’s entire allocation of $10,581,713 can be considered lost revenue. The money can’t be used to pay down pension liability funds, or to pay off internal debt or external debt, or to build up contingency funds, reserves, or rainy day funds.
County staff are now expected to put together a draft plan on how to move forward with the county’s $5.3 million in ARPA funding. The draft plan is expected to be approved and incorporated into the county’s adopted budget.