City Council Approves Uses Of COVID Funding

By YOLI BELL

The Progress

How to best spend more than $26 million in federal COVID funds was the question before the Mesquite City Council in a special call meeting held Tuesday afternoon, Sept. 7. Of course, it was a good problem for the city to have, but that didn’t make it any less daunting.

The American Rescue Plan funding, developed in 2020 to help municipal entities cover costs incurred due to the COVID-19 pandemic, has provided $26,501,498 dollars for use in the City of Mesquite alone.

In last week’s meeting, the City Council reviewed a list of projects proposed for the use of the fiscal recovery funds over a two year period. City Engineer Travis Anderson explained that the funding would come to the city in two annual tranches of $13,251,000 over the next two years.

Monies can carry over year to year, but only for a limited time. All funds must be obligated by the end of 2024, Anderson explained. The funding must be all spent by the end of 2026, he added.

Anderson shared his concern with this time constraint. “One of the things I am most worried about is labor force right now,” Anderson said. “That could end up being a problem in trying to get projects completed. And also I am concerned about pricing. These budgeting numbers are good now. But in three years things could be looking different and possibly changing. This is the best available information we have for now.”

Anderson explained that there were four eligible uses or categories set forth for the fiscal recovery funds.

The first of these was Public Health and Economic Impacts. This entails expenses for responding to the public health emergency or its negative economic impacts and could include providing assistance to households, small business, and nonprofits, or aid to impacted industries such as tourism, travel, and hospitality. In addition it includes continued actions to decrease the spread of COVID-19. This category also allows aid for planned expansions or upgrades of tourism, travel, and hospitality. Finally, it could also be used in developing affordable housing in the city.

This one was the largest category of the four, totalling more than $22 million of the funding over the two year period.

The second category allowable for use of the funds was called Premium Pay. This would provide backpay to city employees who took on additional roles or extended hours in responding to the effects of the pandemic last year. A total of $1 million was proposed to be set aside for this category from the first annual tranch of funding.

The third category, Revenue Loss, was to make up for the sharp reduction in revenue to the City which occurred due to the pandemic. Over $2.3 million was allocated for this category.

Finally, the fourth category of eligible use was Investment in Infrastructure including water, sewer, or broadband infrastructure. A little over $1 million was set aside for this category from the second annual tranch.

Anderson explained that all projects must meet two standards in order to be justified as an allowable use of funding. First, each project must specifically identify a need or negative impact from the pandemic that the project is seeking to address. And secondly, the City must identify how the project addressed that identified need or impact.

The list of proposals included money for turf replacement and new lighting at the regional sports and events complex, phase 2 of pickle ball courts, renovation and expansion of the justice facility, HVAC units in city buildings, a stabilization fund to replace lost city revenue, demo and replacement of Fire Station #1, animal shelter expansion, roof removal and replacement at the Jimmie Hughes Campus, waterline installation of Mesquite Technology and Commerce Center and more.

Councilman Brian Wursten wanted to know specifics on premium pay eligibility. He asked whether this category was only for paying city employees or if it extended to essential workers in the private sector.
“I know the people down at Smith’s, for example, were as much on the front lines of this, day in and day out, as anyone,” Wursten said. “So where does it end or where does it start, does this include them?”
Wursten said that he had already received questions about this from community members.

Anderson responded that it was his understanding that this was to provide backpay for City employees. But he said that more research could be done with other municipalities to clarify this.
City Finance Director Dodie Melendez confirmed that this was her understanding as well.

Mesquite Mayor Al Litman pointed out that, given turnover in employees and other variables, it would be difficult enough to provide backpay to City employees. It would be near impossible to include the private sector and ensure that the funding was going to eligible persons.

“My feeling is: this ought to be limited to the City,” said Councilman George Gault. “Businesses had access to other funds as this came along. And in terms of the premium pay I feel this should go to people who were at-risk during this time, people who were out in the public meeting with people in one way or another.”

The proposed demolition and replacement of Fire Station #1 was also a topic of discussion. It led to a planning conversation regarding where a new station would best be located to replace the downtown station. The discussion covered whether it was best to keep Station #1 in its current spot behind City Hall or to construct a new station elsewhere nearby.

Anderson acknowledged that the biggest negative in replacing the facility in its current location is that it would take eight months to build a new one. In the meantime, firemen would have to be temporarily housed in a trailer of some kind on site, while they are on duty at the station.

Anderson stated that Councilman Wes Boger had raised the idea of using the vacant city lot just south of the public library to build the new fire station. This could be done without displacing the firemen. Anderson admitted that this idea was attractive to him.

Gault suggested that, in light of the downtown revitalization efforts currently ongoing, a more in-depth conversation ought to be agendized in a future meeting about the range of possibilities for which the library site could be used. He said that there were a number of ideas that should be considered by the council as well.

Boger asked if the discussion of where to build the new fire station ought to be put on another council agenda. “If so, I would like that done soon so that it can be fully discussed,” Boger said.

The matter ended with a unanimous approval of Fiscal Rescue Funds for Capitol Projects with no comment made from the public.