— from Ed Andrews —
Last Tuesday, the County Council had a long discussion about what to do with the $943,250 Federal CARES Act funding they received. It seems they have already spent $147,000 although there has been confusion over who authorized the spending. In addition, the Council discussed taking a minimum of an additional $650,000 to help the county address their budget deficit. This means the County Council will allocate a minimum of $797,000 to the county budget while the rest of our community, who are also greatly suffering, will receive a bit more than 15% of the federal CARES relief fund that is supposed to help them.
While what the County Council is doing is not illegal, it flies in the face of the CARES Act intent. The US Department of Treasury says, “The CARES Act provides fast and direct economic assistance for American workers, families, and small businesses, and preserve jobs for our American industries.”
Many of our workers, families, small businesses, non-profit organizations and the hundreds of jobs that they represent will receive almost no relief if the County Council does not dramatically adjust its initial view on how the
CARES money should be spent. This money was intended to do much more than support our local government. The Council should work towards a more equitable distribution of this money that recognizes that we are all in this crisis together.
Our schools, resorts, restaurants and most small businesses have been closed for months and hundreds of islanders have entirely lost their income. The nation’s unemployment rate has reached the highest levels since the Great Depression. The unemployment rate in San Juan County is now at 27%—nearly twice the national level.
The Community Emergency Response Fund was established by the Orcas Island Community Foundation. It has put over $640,000 in grants to work to make sure every islander has food, a safe home and so that some of our
businesses and farmers have the resources they needed until government assistance could start flowing. This was done though the generosity of hundreds of wonderful donors. Without them, the damage done would have been far greater. Donors have limits though, and we are seeing those limits being reached. Private donations were meant to be a stop gap until the county could step up when they received the CARES Act funding.
A county plan that would take the majority of the CARES money for the county’s budget would leave the rest of our community to now fight for themselves—to fight for the scraps that the county is leaving behind. For this, my heart is breaking.
Imagine what the county could have done with $1,000,000 going out to the community? Imagine how many local businesses would have benefited from this significant support instead of what may be available now. Imagine if our food banks, resource centers and affordable housing had the support they needed to continue to meet the needs of our most vulnerable? Imagine if our county prioritized the local economy?
It is my sincere hope that the County Council will revisit their decision and distribute the CARES Act funding in a more fair and equitable way—with the majority of the funds directly supporting economic recovery and resiliency allowing us to not just survive this crisis but thrive.
I urge you to make your voices heard. The next County Council meeting is on Tuesday, June 2 at 9 a.m. You can share your thoughts during the public comments period. Dial in number can be found here, or submit a letter to councilpc@sanjuanco.com before Tuesday morning.
We the People deserve better!
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YES!! Thank YOU, Ed, for so eloquently articulating such a huge concern! Please, Orcas Island (and beyond) – Heed these words and answer the call for help raising the hard questions. WE DESERVE BETTER. Our small businesses deserve better. Our community deserves better.
The way the County Council has been handling this has been a huge disappointment, so far. What will it take to change?
Thanks to Ed Andrews for a clarion call to the County Council to rethink this apparently disastrously self-serving allocation. Is it possible that the rapid, strong, coordinated initiative of private donors and community support organizations, addressing the emergency needs of vulnerable islanders in the first months of this disaster, has somehow diverted the council’s attention from the hard weeks and months to come? Do you seriously expect that the private / nonprofit sector has made it OK for the county to gobble up the vast majority of federal aid for its own budgetary bandaids? We are all. public and private, going to have to dig ourselves out of this economy and protect those most hurt by it, with a combination of private and public efforts over months if not years. Where is County leadership at this moment?
This information was a shock to read. How did the people not know of this until after the fact? Was this decision made at a public hearing? Was there ample notice?
It may be legal for a county to allocate most of the Cares Act funds toward the county budget shortfall, but is it a conflict-of- interest? I ask with genuine curiosity and desire for answers- not finger-pointing – but because people deserve answers. This money was earmarked to directly help those most impacted, so…
How does the county propose to direct these monies to the people who most need it? Who decides? Through what county programs? This money would have given us the time to help our struggling businesses and not push so hard for phase 3 – especially given the report of a new case on SJI, even if it was work and travel-related.
What can be done to encourage Council to revisit and rethink their decision, and choose instead to allocate the monies to directly help the people most impacted so they don’t lose their homes, shops, and livelihoods?
The money IS being allocated so that people don’t lose their homes and their livelihoods. Almost all of that funding will go towards helping people keep their job at the County, people who spend their money in the local economy. And even with that, the County will still likely have to layoff employees, but because it’s the big bad County nobody cares about those workers.
$1,000,000 is a drop in the bucket of funding for this crisis, I think it’s a perfectly appropriate use of the funds to address the huge budget shortfall that will cause drastic effects to the County government. Especially because allocating the funding that way is known issue to the County rather than wading into the messy business of trying to determine which businesses get funds and which don’t. I personally don’t want the local government involved in deciding which business are the most neediest. Again, $1m is not getting you very far.
Of course this post completely ignores what the County has already done during the crisis, including organizing the delivery of hundreds of meals to vulnerable people in our community, rental assistance, etc. But some people will take any opportunity to make the County look bad, and this crisis has proved an excellent opportunity for those folks in our community.
What about using more money from the Budget Stabilization Fund (“rainy day fund”) to help make up the difference? If ever there was a rainy day, this is it.
This is so disappointing to read about. When I moved here thirty years ago, this was a caring , loving community and still is in so many respects. My life has changed drastically and have had to go on disability. Without the wonderful resources here made available for people like me I can stay in the home I love and not have to move from the paradise, I fought so had to move to. Please continue to put us, the community first. This terrible virus has changed all our lives so drastically, but as during WWII, people need to pull together. People need to help People. Please allocate these funds carefully, mindfully, keeping the people’s needs first on the list.
From Minor Lile’s Orcas Issues article:
“CARES Grant
In early May, San Juan County received a CARES Fund grant of $943,250 that was routed through the Washington State Department of Commerce. These funds are from the Federal CARES Act and may be used for a wide array of purposes and are available through the end of the year. The grant for San Juan County was calculated on a per capita basis of $55 per person based on a population base of 17,150. Friday Harbor received an additional CARES grant of $72,600.
There was a curious moment at Tuesday’s meeting when Milene Henley advised the Council that approximately $147,000 of the CARES Grant has already been allocated or spent. When Council member Bill Watson asked who had authorized those allocations, Ms. Henley replied, ‘things happen quickly when you’re running an EOC” (the EOC is the Emergency Operations Center that is coordinating the County’s overall response to the Coronavirus epidemic). Councilmember Hughes added, “we can figure that out later” and the discussion moved on.
After some discussion, the Council came to a tentative agreement that of the $807,000 remaining CARES Grant funds, $650,000 would tentatively be allocated to reduce the budget imbalance, with the remaining $157,000 available for community support. A leading candidate for receiving a significant portion of this $157,000 is the San Juan County Economic Development Council.”
In the public comment section that followed, Hillary Canty suggested that the remaining monies go to the social services organizations of the community. I totally support this notion. Organizations like the Orcas Island Community Foundation and Orcas Community Resource Center are best suited to vet the responsible distribution of funds to people in our community who need it the most.
Thank you Henry Stamper for your comments.
The only exception I take with your comments and with the reporting of this issue has to do with the statement that the county is using the funds to cover a budget shortfall.
By law, the CARES funds cannot be used to backfill budget shortfalls. Even if the Council and every citizen of this county wanted to, it couldn’t be done. The money has specific use requirements and is only paid to the county on an audited, reimbursement basis, meaning that they are only getting paid if a federal auditor agrees with the expenditure and those monies must be directly linked to Covid response.
I fully echo your statement that this is a “drop in the bucket” in terms of relief. Our county services are about to take a hit.
At the 2:34 mark Rick Hughes says “…we are holding onto that money whether it be for surge in the future or to fill this budget hole…”
The money can not be used to fill a budget hole. This is CARES 101. To be clear, I support them holding onto a chunk of this money. They will need it, but they are not the only ones hemorrhaging right now. I have only been asking for fair and equitable.
At the 2:34 mark Rick Hughes says “…we are holding onto that money whether it be for surge in the future or to fill this budget hole…”
Filling a budget hole is not allowed. This is CARES 101. To be clear, I know that the county needs relief. They need it just as everyone else does. I am only asking for fair and equitable. This was a discussion that the CC did not put much discussion into at all. I hope they do today.