DATE: May 21, 2024
TO: Board of Supervisors
SUBMITTED BY: Paul Nerland, County Administrative Officer
SUBJECT: Amendment to American Rescue Plan Act - State Local Fiscal Recovery Funds, Expenditure Plan
RECOMMENDED ACTION(S):
TITLE
1. Approve proposed amendments to the County of Fresno’s American Rescue Plan Act - State Local Fiscal Recovery Fund (ARPA-SLFRF) expenditure plan, clarifying the December 13, 2022 assignment of available funds for the Congregate Setting Retention Payments (CSRP) Program and earmarking funds for programs and services at the County Jail under Category A, which are responsive to the public health emergency or negative impacts of the pandemic; and
2. Approve proposed amendment to the County of Fresno’s ARPA-SLFRF expenditure plan by reassigning $5,376,527 of available funds under Category B Premium Pay for Essential Workers, to instead fund Category A programs, which are responsive to the public health emergency or negative impacts of the pandemic; and
3. Approve proposed amendments to the County of Fresno’s ARPA-SLFRF expenditure plan by amending scopes of work and funding availability initially approved for department programs, and instead redesignate funding availability for:
a. The CSRP program, with an approximate cost of $13,504,502; and
b. Earmark funds for programs and services at the County Jail under Category A, to be implemented by the Sheriff’s Office, with an estimated cost of $10,846,029.
REPORT
Approval of the first recommended action would amend your Board’s approved ARPA-SLFRF expenditure plan by clarifying the assignment of available funds for the Congregate Setting Retention Payments (CSRP) Program. Approval of the first recommended action will also earmark funds for the Sheriff’s Office to address negative impacts on services related to public safety, public health, and mental and behavioral health at the County Jail under Category A. The second recommended action would move approximately $5.3 million in SLFRF funding availability from Category B Premium Pay for Essential Workers to help fund programs under Category A. The third recommended action will designate funding availability to the CSRP program and for programs and services at the County Jail under Category A. The recommended changes to the County’s ARPA-SLFRF expenditure plan are shown on Attachment A. Approval of the recommended actions will revise the County’s ARPA-SLFRF expenditure plan in anticipation of the United States Department of the Treasury’s (Treasury) obligation deadline of December 31, 2024. This item is countywide.
ALTERNATIVE ACTION(S):
Your Board may choose not to accept the recommended actions, in which case the County’s ARPA-SLFRF expenditure plan will continue to reserve funds for programs that will likely not materialize. Due to Treasury’s recent restrictions to Category B Premium Pay for Essential Workers, approximately $5.3 million in funding availability held in Category B will not be expendable in its current category. Should your Board not approve the recommended actions, funding availability will not become available to spend on the CSRP program ($13,502,504) or assist the Sheriff’s Office to address negative impacts on services related to public safety, public health, and behavioral health at the County Jail ($10,846,029) under Category A, which will result in an increase to Net County Cost.
FISCAL IMPACT:
Approval of the recommended actions will result in no increase in Net County Cost. Recommended revisions to programs included in the FY 2023-24 Adopted Budget for Auditor-Controller/Treasurer-Tax Collector Org. 1033 - Disaster Claiming, Fund 0026, Subclass 91021, Account 7910 are shown as Attachment A. The recommended actions are fully funded with ARPA-SLFRF. Sufficient appropriations are included in the FY 2023-24 Adopted Budget for Auditor-Controller/Treasurer-Tax Collector Org. 1033 - Disaster Claiming, Fund 0026, Subclass 91021, Account 7910. Should your Board choose not to approve the recommended actions, implementation of the CSRP and funding assistance for the Sheriff’s Office to address negative impacts on services related to public safety, public health and behavioral health at the County Jail will result in an increase to Net County Cost.
DISCUSSION:
On February 1, 2022, your Board approved the County’s ARPA-SLFRF expenditure plan which earmarked funds for proposals that may be funded either in whole or in part by the County’s $194,063,657 allocation of SLFRF. Subsequent amendments to the initial expenditure plan have been considered and approved by your Board to account for changes in programs and/or to address funding needs.
On March 29, 2023, Congress terminated the National Emergency concerning the COVID-19 pandemic declared in 2020 pursuant to the National Emergencies Act. The COVID-19 National Emergency ended on April 10, 2023. Following the termination, the Treasury announced that recipients of ARPA-SLFRF generally may continue to make investments using SLFRF without any changes, except for the Premium Pay for Essential Workers eligible use category.
This Agenda Item accounts for the Treasury’s updates to Category B Premium Pay for Essential Workers and presents your Board with recommendations to redistribute available funds previously in the Premium Pay category into programs in Category A, Respond to the Public Health Emergency or Negative Economic Impacts. The recommended amendments to the expenditure plan will clarify the funding source for the implementation of the CSRP. Approval of the recommended actions will provide funding assistance for the Sheriff’s Office to address negative impacts on services related to public health and behavioral health at the County Jail and public safety including funding assistance to address public workforce capacity, retention, and recruitment.
Congregate Setting Retention Payments Program
When your Board approved ARPA spending for the implementation of the CSRP program, the Agenda did not specify which ARPA-SLFRF eligible category to report CSRP expenditures, which inadvertently misclassified the program in the County’s quarterly expenditure report submitted to the Treasury. The recommended actions will clarify your Board’s December 13, 2022, funding commitment to the CSRP program ($13,504,502) by designating the CSRP program under Category A, public sector capacity and redesignating available funds to complete the program.
The CSRP program was created during the pandemic to address vacancy rates in positions that required individuals to work in congregate settings within the Probation Department (the Juvenile Justice Campus) and Sheriff’s Office (the Jail facilities). The CSRP program compensates eligible employees with bi-weekly payments ($150 per pay period) for individuals working in congregate settings who have an active payroll status and occupy a permanently allocated position within the Probation Department or the Sheriff’s Office. The CSRP program is effective from December 26, 2022 through June 22, 2025, with an anticipated total cost of $13,504,502.
Funding available to fully implement the CSRP program will result from reassigning a portion of funds in the Category B Premium Pay and reassigning unspent funds from the following programs:
• Category B, funding availability ($5,376,527)
• Category A, Ongoing COVID Mitigation Claims ($1,150,975)
• Category A, Contingency Hospital Surge Capacity ($4,000,000)
• Category A, Improvements to Brix/Mercer ($2,816,000)
• Category A, Access Points at County Public Libraries ($161,000)
The Treasury’s Final Rule permits recipients to use ARPA-SLFRF to respond to the public health impacts or negative economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. SLFRF funding may be used to support a broader set of uses to restore and support public sector employment. The Final Rule permits recipients, including the County, to use SLFRF to provide worker retention incentives, including reasonable increases in compensation to persuade employees to remain with the employer as compared to other employment options. Under the Public Health-Negative Economic Impact: Public Sector Capacity eligible use category, recipients can use funds to support and expand the workforce, including by helping impacted workers enter in-demand careers, such as in health care and childcare, and build public sector capacity, including hiring public sector workers and providing retention incentives. The CSRP program provides retention incentives for County employees who work in congregate settings. The County has had difficulty recruiting and retaining staff to work in its congregate settings, and these retention incentives would help the County retain these critical staff.
Address negative impacts on public safety, public health and behavioral health at the County Jail
Your Board’s approved expenditure plan identifies $30.1M to assist County departments with On-going COVID-19 Mitigation Claims (through 2023) for expenditures related to testing, treatment, prevention, and mitigation efforts. At the end of FY 22-23, total expenditures under the On-going COVID-19 Mitigation program totaled to approximately $18.1M, while the unspent available funding amount totals approximately $11.9M.
As noted earlier, if your Board approves the reassignment of $1,150,975 of the available $11.9M to assist with implementation of the CSRP program, the remaining available funding amounts to approximately $10.8M under Ongoing COVID-19 Mitigation.
During the preparation of this Agenda Item, the Sheriff’s Office represented to the CAO’s Office that although the public health emergency has ended, the Sheriff’s Office continues to incur unforeseen expenses related to improving public safety and medical treatment of individuals in custody at the County Jail due to the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Sheriff’s Office is responsible for the provisions of care, monitoring, and control of infectious disease, which includes COVID-19, at the County Jail. Infectious control is provided through contract with WellPath, the primary medical provider that provides services including infectious disease prevention, dedicated medical staff who are responsible for identifying trends, monitoring, minimizing risk of outbreaks, and providing treatment for all incarcerated persons who require medical attention while being detained. Additionally, the Sheriff’s Office represents that there is additional need to provide increased behavioral health services and treatment for individuals detained at the Jail, such as opioid use disorders, violence prevention, and behavioral health care which are also provided by WellPath. The Treasury recognizes that the pandemic exacerbated mental health and substance use challenges for many Americans, which has proven to be true for individuals incarcerated at the Jail.
The Sheriff’s Office represents that even though the public health emergency has technically ended, its operational budget continues to be negatively impacted by increasing costs to provide for public safety, public health, mental and behavioral health services at the County Jail due to the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. If your Board approves the Sheriff’s Office request, the remaining balance under Ongoing COVID-19 mitigation, which is estimated at $10.8M, will be designated to the Sheriff’s Office to address negative impacts on services related to public safety, which includes assistance to address public workforce capacity, retention, and recruitment, and funding assistance to address negative impacts on services related to public health and behavioral health at the County Jail.
With your Board’s approval of the recommended actions, ARPA-SLFRF will become available to assist the Sheriff’s Office. In coordination with the County Administrative Office, Department of Public Health, and Behavioral Health, staff will vet programs for eligibility, prepare scopes of work, and/or agreements and return to your Board at a later date to request your Board’s approval of how the $10.8M designated to the Sheriff’s Office will be specifically spent.
The Final Rule provides substantial flexibility for each jurisdiction to meet local needs within the ARPA-SLFRF eligible use categories. Although the public health emergency has ended, the Final Rule allows recipients to continue using SLFRF to respond to the public health impacts or negative economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.
REFERENCE MATERIAL:
BAI #48, December 13, 2022
BAI #9, November 8, 2022
BAI #3, February 1, 2022
ATTACHMENTS INCLUDED AND/OR ON FILE:
Attachment A - Revisions to Expenditure Plan
CAO ANALYST:
George Uc