Boone County received $21.2 million in May through the federal Coronavirus Aid, Recovery and Economic Security Act to be used to mitigate the economic fallout caused by the pandemic.
Eight months later, the County Commission, led by Presiding Commissioner Dan Atwill, has distributed less than one-sixth of it.
And time is running out. The money must be distributed or committed by the end of the year, and it can only be used to cover costs incurred before the end of 2020. However, recipients can use it in 2021 to reimburse themselves retroactively for costs incurred before the end of the year.
Any money not distributed or committed to a recipient by the end of the year goes back to the federal government.
The commission now has three weeks to distribute the money, and its recipients have even less time to spend it.
So far, the county has distributed just $3 million of the $21.2 million:
- $1,799,004.64 to Columbia/Boone County Public Health and Human Services Department to hire additional contact tracers and disease investigators and pay for testing patients without insurance.
- $504,800 to Boone County school districts to purchase internet hotspots for virtual learning.
- $500,000 to Central Missouri Community Action, a nonprofit that will use the money to help people struggling to pay their utility bills.
- $11,995 to the Sturgeon R-V school district to purchase temperature scanners.
- $122,753.28 for computer software to help the commission distribute the rest of the money.
Columbia’s Housing Programs Division also received $495,000 to be distributed as grants for struggling local businesses. The division announced Monday that 49 businesses would receive $10,000 grants through the Small Business Recovery GrantProgram.
All three County Commission members, Atwill, Janet Thompson and Fred Parry, have said repeatedly over the past few months the reason it’s taking so long is because they want to proceed with caution. They said the guidelines for how the money can be spent are vague and the county is subject to a federal audit ensuring the money is spent appropriately.
Meanwhile, some other Missouri counties are much further along in getting the funding distributed.
Not stacking up
By August, Jackson County, home of Kansas City, had already distributed $81 million of its $122.7 million, according to a county news release. By Dec. 1, the entirety of the remaining funds had been allocated, Public Information Officer Marshanna Smith said. The county legislature was expected to finalize Monday.
As of Dec. 1, Greene County, home of Springfield, had approved or distributed $28 million of the $34 million it received, according to a county news release.
Callaway County, adjacent to Boone County, received $5.1 million and, as of last week, had spent $2.9 million of it, Callaway County Auditor Karen Rentschler said. She said most of the remaining money has been allocated and is just waiting on invoices. She did not expect to have any funds left at the end of the month.
Boone County has only distributed money to projects the commission has decided require the funding immediately, commissioners have previously told the Missourian.
To proceed with caution and decide where the remaining money should go, the commission bought software in July that created an online portal to streamline applications for the funding. The portal didn’t go live until Sept. 8, and it accepted applications until Nov. 16.
Thompson told the Missourian on Sunday that an announcement would be made as quickly as possible, likely this week. The county is in the process of preparing contracts with recipients, she said.
“You’ll see a lot of movement in the next week or so,” she said, adding that she thought the county would be able to distribute all the money by the end of the year.
However, on Nov. 16, Atwill said via email the county would be announcing funding recipients “in a few days.” It has been three weeks, and no such announcement has been made.
In September, Atwill deemed it likely all the funding would be distributed before the application portal closed Nov. 16. The county later changed its plans and decided to wait until after the application portal closed to select recipients.
Atwill, who has taken the lead on the project, has not responded to repeated attempts to make contact via telephone and email.
Meanwhile, some of the money that’s already been distributed is facing deadline pressure. Randy Cole, Columbia’s housing programs manager, who is in charge of distributing the small business grants, said his team had a lot of work to do very quickly. His team had to review each application to ensure it meets federal requirements and standards, create agreements with each grantee and undergo legal review, Cole said.
“There are several different hands and checks in place that have to be there, and it’s good that they’re there to make sure we’re doing things right,” he said. “But those things take time.”
Cole originally proposed this idea, as well as a few others, to the City Council in August and then to the County Commission in June, but the county didn’t finalize the deal until late November.
Frustration in the city
Some mid-Missouri leaders have been frustrated by the pace of the process.
State Sen. Caleb Rowden, who represents Boone County, said via email he was deeply troubled that the county is “sitting on these dollars” while business and families are struggling.
“It is clear the county has no plan, and their constituents are suffering as a result,” he said. “I am hopeful the commissioners will find the motivation to recognize the moment we are in and act with the urgency mid-Missourians deserve going forward.”
The Columbia City Council sent a letter to the commission in June asking it to distribute the money quickly and on a per capita basis. After they received no response, council members expressed their frustration at an August meeting.
“We have born the brunt of these expenses,” Mayor Brian Treece said while explaining the city’s need for relief funding and its struggles obtaining it from the county.
Fifth Ward Councilperson Matt Pitzer agreed and asked: “But what else can we do?”
“Protest,” Third Ward Councilperson Karl Skala said.
At that meeting, Treece estimated the money wouldn’t be distributed until late September, a deadline that passed more than two months ago.