Jefferson County officials confident that $26.4 million in CARES money has been spent wisely

How does one go about spending $26,406,492 in six months?

For Jefferson County officials, the answer is: Very carefully.

County officials learned in mid-year that it would be eligible for that $26.4 million as part of the federal CARES (Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security) Act, which was designed to help pay for unexpected expenses related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“When we talked about how we were going to set it up, I wanted to make sure it was fair and equitable for all concerned,” County Executive Dennis Gannon said. “I have to give credit to Wes (Yates, county counselor), who said early on to not make exceptions.”

Long before the first checks were cut in September, a group that included Gannon, his executive assistant Leah Smith, Yates, County Auditor Kristy Apprill, county Director of Administration David Courtway and executive director of the Jefferson County Economic Development Corporation Todd Tracy met for hours at a time to sort through a shifting set of guidelines issued by state and federal officials on how to allocate that money.

At the time, the guidelines on how to spend the money came with a deadline: Anything not spent by Dec. 31, 2020, had to go back to the feds.

As it turned out, that deadline has been extended.

Good thing. To date, Apprill said, the county has spent $23,330,992.52 – leaving about $3 million of that money to be spent. But the county now has until June 30, although expenses to be covered must have been incurred during 2020.

“We’re getting down to a couple of million dollars left,” Gannon said. “We aren’t committed to spending every last dime, but I think we did a really good job of making sure it went where it was needed.”

Where it went

County government itself chewed up $2,348,214.

“Most of that was for the reallocation of our staff when employees took CARES Act family medical leave,” Gannon said. He said the cost of losing employees when they missed work for quarantining, either because they tested positive for the virus or contact tracing, was reimbursed. “There was an expense to staff all of our doors with monitors to check temperatures and take down contact-tracing information. We bought the PPE for all of our departments, as well as for other agencies in the county. There were a lot of expenses.

“We wanted to make sure the county was made whole on every expense we had to put out, and I’m comfortable we have recouped all the money COVID has cost us,” he said.

“Another expense was put in by our administrative staff. We spent much of the day on many days on COVID-related stuff. Administering the CARES Act, auditing the family leaves,” he said.

The Jefferson County Health Department, which netted $5,241,161, received the largest single outlay of the county’s CARES Act funds.

A late directive from the state asking counties to allocate at least 15 percent of their CARES money to the local health agency, and Gannon said he’s proud Jefferson County exceeded that.

“Part of the reason why the Health Department can come into a place like a church, essentially an empty canvas, and set up a mass vaccination clinic that processes a lot of people efficiently is because of money provided through the CARES Act,” Gannon said.

Public entities, including school districts, fire and ambulance districts, and others deemed to be working for the public good – including hospitals and nursing homes – sliced off the largest piece of the pie at $11,043,933.

The largest single recipient of that group was the county’s largest school district, Fox C-6. It received reimbursements for $2,207,400.

“Generally speaking, we spent the funds on PPE, Chromebooks, unemployment costs, substitute teachers through Kelly Services, COVID leave costs and some payroll,” a district spokesman said.

Next was Mercy Hospital Jefferson in Crystal City, which was awarded $1,134,044.

“CARES Act funding helped Mercy Hospital Jefferson offset a portion of the extra costs required to care for our community during the COVID-19 pandemic,” a hospital spokesman said. “Some of those additional costs include the supplies for the areas impacted by COVID, tents and staffing for various new areas including COVID test collection sites, COVID vaccine clinics, screeners to check every person who enters the hospital and supplemental staffing to meet the intense requirements of caring for the hundreds of COVID patients who needed hospital care.”

The county’s municipalities were in line for $1,939,455, led by the largest city, Arnold, which received $605,243.

“Some of it was for reimbursement of supplies such as PPE,” City Administrator Bryan Richison said. “I guess a bigger-ticket item was we have been able to upgrade some of the computer software in our office, particularly in the building department, to better serve our residents and to allow our employees to work from home if necessary. We’re in the process of implementing that now. We were a little behind in software upgrades, so that money will help. The main idea is the software upgrades will benefit the public and our employees. The ability to work from home if necessary is an added plus. It’s difficult to know what’s ahead.”

Businesses also benefitted

To date, 192 businesses and nonprofit agencies around the county have received CARES Act money.

The money was divvied out in two ways – the Business Safe Reimbursement Program, which reimbursed items bought to make their businesses, employees and customers safer, such as face masks and cleaning supplies. Those reimbursements are capped at $5,000 per firm. A total of $225,062 has been allocated in that fashion.

The second type of assistance, Emergency Relief, maxes out at $25,000, and is intended to provide relief for other expenses. To date, $2,389,637 has gone to small, locally owned businesses and nonprofit groups.

“For some of those who applied, it has been a slow process,” Gannon said. “We have had to send requests to clarify what they were asking for. Sometimes we had to go back two or three times, and in some cases make four or five contacts, to get the information we were looking for.”

Gannon said he’s satisfied the county’s effort to spend the $26.4 million has helped.

“At the end of the day, I’m satisfied. I really feel the people who were approved for this money, they aren’t spending it improperly. I don’t want to say we did a great job, because that sounds like you’re bragging. Were there things that I would have tweaked? Sure. But this has turned out better than what I would have expected a year ago. That said, would I like to do this again? Definitely not.”