County funds employee bonuses with federal COVID-19 relief dollars

The Union County Quorum Court met Thursday, and Justices of the Peace took their first bite out of COVID-19 relief funds issued earlier this year through the American Rescue Plan by funding employee bonuses.

Last month, the Quorum Court voted to pay employees of the county hazard pay bonuses for every day they worked at their regular work stations from March 11, 2020 to April 8, 2021, the period when Arkansas was under a State of Emergency due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Full-time workers were paid $10 for every day they worked during the period, and those employees who work 12-hour shifts were paid $15 for every day during the period. Additionally, four part-time deputy coroners and two part-time Union County Sheriff’s deputies received flat bonuses of $500.

Funding the bonuses Thursday required the Quorum Court to pass multiple appropriation ordinances, as well as codifying amendments to the original bonus ordinance that passed last month.

Originally, the Quorum

Court voted only to pay the $10 per day bonuses and the $500 bonuses for the deputy coroners. However, discussion continued after the ordinance passed, and JPs subsequently agreed that those with half-day shifts should receive $15 per day and that the two part-time Sheriff’s deputies also were eligible for the flat $500 bonuses. On Thursday, they passed a new ordinance laying out all the bonuses that were to be paid.

Following that, JPs passed an ordinance creating a new budget line specifically for funds from the American Rescue Plan. Funds immediately placed into the budget line included $446,502.28 for the bonuses; $1,501,659 in federal relief money; and $20,000 for a new generator for the Union County Local Health Unit. All of the funds are federal money from the American Rescue Plan.

“We have to set up a budget in order to spend those funds. We’ll put the money into that budget each time we appropriate it,” District 1 JP Mike Dumas, who chairs the Quorum Court’s Finance Committee, said. “This will be the the budget for this rescue fund. … Funds are over there in reserve, and each time we appropriate it they’ll move into this line item budget.”

Dumas said that for other projects the county wants to use the relief funds for, the Southwest Arkansas Planning and Development District, a regional economic and community development nonprofit, will assist with ensuring that any expenditures are allowed under the federal guidelines that govern the money’s uses.

“As of today, we have about $3.5 million and we’ll receive that much (again) some time next year,” Dumas said. “The judge has talked to the Planning and Development District prevention desk to handle all the paperwork, and I’ve talked to … the director of the Planning and Development District and they are going to assume that responsibility for all of the cities and counties. They are going to be advising and helping us in implementing how those funds are spent.”

JPs subsequently appropriated the bonus money into department budget lines to be distributed to employees. The funds were distributed into the county general budget ($306,771.47); the industrial waste budget ($3,234.11); the highway budget ($78,012.17); the cost recorder budget ($2,729.93); the solid waste budget ($45,019.32); the 911 coordinator budget ($1,955.22); the victim witness (services) budget ($5,767.29); and the public defender budget ($3,012.77).

Dumas said there are several other projects the Quorum Court could look into funding with American Rescue Plan funds in the future, including, possibly, a 911 dispatch center.

“There are a couple of projects that we’re in the process of developing to spend those funds. … All of those things are going to be guided by the Planning and Development District,” he said. “We’ll do a report every quarter and hopefully we spend the money wisely or else in 2027, we’ll have to pay it back to the federal government. I hope we can spend it like they want us to.”

He said in all, the county is slated to receive about $7.5 million in relief funds from the American Rescue Plan.