How will Sunflower County spend its American Rescue Plan Act money?
That discussion occupied a good portion of the board of supervisors’ regular meeting on Monday morning.
Initially, Attorney Johnny McWilliams responded to prior concerns regarding doling out $610,000 of the money towards sewer repairs affecting the North Sunflower Medical Center in Ruleville.
McWilliams updated the members on the status of the letters that he submitted to the state's attorney general and the auditor. McWilliams stated that he has not received anything in writing from either; however, he did acknowledge a verbal reply from someone in the audit department.
McWilliams said, "They advised me that they do not see anything illegal about that project. But he went on to say he would not do it the way I had proposed to you all to do it. He said he would not do it by interlocal agreement; he suggested that what we need would be a grant agreement."
McWilliams asserted that although it was not explicitly spelled out, his personal thoughts are that since the money came to Sunflower County as a grant, if the county is not the one actually spending the money, then they should have a grant agreement with whoever actually was going to be spending it. And he suggested several provisions to make sure that it was carried out correctly.
Additionally, McWilliams mentioned that he had received a contract from The Capital Group and Attorney Jon McCormick. They spoke to the county lawmakers back in July about serving as consultants to insure the best possible course of actions with regard to choosing and implementing the federal money projects.
At that time, the county lawmakers were given two options, a complete assistance package at a cost of 7% of the total federal funds received from the government or an a-la-cart alternative. The decision to accept or reject the proposal was tabled until later.
Speaking of their first visit, McWilliams said the group was obviously knowledgeable regarding the proper procedures, but also acknowledged what he thought was the reason the county leaders declined to engage in a contract at that time.
"The problem was they wanted 7% of all of the ARPA money, which I thought was out of line," McWilliams said.
In the new agreement that was presented, they are proposing to contract with the county on an hourly basis, per project at a cost of $225 per hour. McWilliams called the fee reasonable and stated that there are some proposed projects that he would feel better about having professional advice on.
McWilliams clarified that he was not asking them to approve any contract on Monday because there was some language that needed to be changed that was not clear. He only mentioned it for their information and to give them something to consider.
District 1 Supervisor Glenn Donald then stated that he had also had a conversation with Tommy Goodwin and Allison Denson of South Delta Planning and Development District Incorporated and they had stated that they would like to make a presentation to the board members.
According to him, they are offering consulting services free of charge. Donald asserted that he was not against hiring The Capital Group, but was simply sharing that additional information and resources are available. They agreed to schedule a presentation from South Delta.
Then, upon the recommendation of District 3 Supervisor Ben Gaston, McWilliams was instructed to also contact Jon McCormick—The Capital Group—to begin working on the wording of a contract for them to serve as consultant. McWilliams stated, "In my way of thinking that does not preclude South Delta from helping us at all."
It was also suggested that the contract contain a max cap amount.
Afterwards Gaston raised a discussion about the proposed projects for the ARPA funds and the related lost revenue funds and the county lawmakers decided to set a date for a work session to discuss and work through all of their proposed spending. "I want to identify what we've got to do, identify what the cost is and then let's meet and storm-brain some decisions," Gaston said.
County Administrator/Chancery Clerk Gloria McIntosh presented information on the unused monies. She said, "Right now, out of the lost revenue, we've purchased that one garbage truck $307,200, so the balance there right now is $949,704."
McIntosh said the second garbage truck will also be purchased out of that fund, which would mean subtracting another $307,200. She added, "For the rest of the money that was not lost revenue, it was $1,181,757.50 and we have expended $416,457.10 to include the premium pay for the whole year, so the balance right now is $765,300.40 because we have expended money for PPE that totals, right now $34,780.65."
McIntosh mentioned another $1,600 that was expended in the tax collector's office for improvement there and said that was the total expenditures so far. She then reminded the decision makers of the available balance in each fund.
Donald told the other members that he had been verbally cautioned by Goodwin and Denson not to use the restricted, unrestricted or ARPA funds to purchase garbage trucks. "We done bought these trucks, we done ordered them, I think we ought to consider doing a short-term loan to pay for these trucks because from what I was told you ain't going to be able to buy the garbage trucks off the restricted or non-restricted," Donald said.
Donald's comments initiated a “roundtable discussion” wherein McIntosh, McWilliams and each member of the board was able to offer their opinion. The work session is scheduled for December 7 at 9 a.m.
