09-28-2020 Council Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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MINUTES OF THE ORONO CITY COUNCIL MEETING Monday, September 14, 2020 6:00 o’clock p.m. _____________________________________________________________________________________ Page 24 of 26 Rief said they are not and he had a discussion with Mound and they have worked up a business program and are working to reallocate that money to their businesses. He said it was very challenging and he’s not sure how they went with that. Rief noted the hardest thing is trying to figure out how to keep it in the community and make an impact and the guidance changes continually so he’s a little worried about what’s going to happen a year from now when they get a data practice request on how they spent the CARES Act money. He knows PPE is legitimate and the City wants to make it as legitimate as possible so that the spotlight doesn’t shine on them in the future. Crosby asked what dollars could they get to local businesses affected by the shutdown that would feasibly pass the test. Rief said some of it is loans, grants and it’s a complicated process almost like an SBA loan, you must ensure you’re not being biased one way or the other and have certain criteria to exclude or include. It became enough that Rief didn’t know they had the Staff to do that. Crosby understands and said it’s too bad they can’t forward some of the relief on to the local businesses that have had to shut down or minimize capacity. Rief said they have $145,000 remaining but have two months to spend it. Walsh said whatever they don’t spend, they have one Council meeting before that time where they would vote to allocate the rest of those funds to the schools or there is zero balance left. 18. ORONO CARES FOR SCHOOLS GRANT PROGRAM Rief said, as mentioned in the previous item, the funding is important to the schools and the schools and Rief met with the County Manager and they were highly encouraging Cities to work with the schools. He said they are allowed to transfer their funds over to another governmental agency and they think trying to keep the tax dollars in the local area as much as possible is the right thing to do. Rief decided to only allocate the money to districts that have more than 5% of the Orono tax base, which essentially left West Tonka (35.19% of money allocated) and Orono (64.81% of money allocated) School Districts. Rief is making a recommendation of $300,000 dedicated to the program. Rief’s guidance to the school districts are to provide the City with only with items that meet the medical, public health expenses and compliance with public health measures components, as those are the easiest to justify to the auditor. The agreement approved tonight for the school districts ensures that they are giving the City all the paperwork, invoices, checks and expenditures so when the auditors ask the City how they managed the funding, it’s the same way the City would manage it. Rief encouraged the districts to submit everything they have, for example, if they have $500,000 in expenditures and the City is able to reallocate the rest of the $145,000 they can push that out without having to do too much more. Rief is asking for the allocation of $300,000 tonight and if the districts had any additional expenses between now and October 23, 2020, the City can vet that before the November 9, 2020 Council Meeting (which is the last chance to spend the money). Attorney Mattick said it’s a very straightforward agreement, noting he was worried about it at first, but candidly with all the COVID stuff, the guidance is changing. His concern is once they pledge to a community or school and the money has been spent, if it was determined to be eligible in September but not eligible in October, the City would be stuck. He said they’ve tried to stay on top of it and thinks they’re good to go. Under current guidance he feels comfortable with that but they’re still getting updates tonight on some of those things. As they sit, he thinks they’re fine.