To: County of Sonoma Board of Supervisors
Department or Agency Name(s): Human Services Department, Office of Equity, Economic Development Board, County Administrator’s Office
Staff Name and Phone Number: Angela Struckmann, 565‐6990; Alegría De La Cruz, 565‐8980; Sheba Person‐ Whitley 565‐7170; Sheryl Bratton, 565‐3778
Vote Requirement: 4/5th
Supervisorial District(s): Countywide
Title:
Title
American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) Update - Response, Implementation and Community Funding Approach
End
Recommended Action:
Recommended action
A) Approve COVID Response and Monitoring and ARPA Implementation Costs
B) Adopt Personnel Resolutions to:
i) Amend the Human Services Department position allocation list to reflect the addition of 1.0 time-limited full-time equivalent Program Planning and Evaluation Analyst and 1.0 time-limited full-time equivalent Administrative Aide through December 31, 2024.
ii) Amend the Human Resources Department position allocation list to reflect the addition of 1.0 time-limited full-time equivalent Risk Management Analyst through June 30, 2023.
C) Provide direction to staff on funding for the following items:
i) Public Health Lab and Morgue
ii) Lump Sum Pay for County workers
iii) Departmental Proposals for Early Funding
D) Approve Community Investment Buckets
E) Approve the approach for departmental proposals directly responsive to community-identified needs
F) Provide direction to staff on funding levels for the Community Investment Buckets
G) Approve timeline, evaluation, selection and award process for community investment awards, including community-based proposals and departmental proposals
(4/5th Vote Required)
end
Executive Summary:
The American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), signed into law on March 11, 2021, with an Interim Final Rule published on May 17, 2021 <<<https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2021-05-17/pdf/2021-10283.pdf>>>, provides federal resources to local governments to “change the course of the pandemic and deliver immediate relief for American workers, (see <<<https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/American-Rescue-Plan-Fact-Sheet.pdf>>>).” Funding objectives are to: support urgent COVID‐19 response efforts; replace lost revenue for eligible local governments to support vital public services and help retain jobs; support immediate economic stabilization for households and business; and address systemic public health and economic challenges that have contributed to the unequal impact of the pandemic.
The federal government allocated $96 million directly to the County of Sonoma, not including cities, tribes, or other jurisdictions. Funds must be obligated by December 31, 2024 and fully expended by December 31, 2026.
Consistent with eligible use of funds, the current FY 2021‐22 budget includes approximately $20 million for COVID response costs and ARPA implementation costs.
Today’s presentation is divided into two distinct parts.
Part 1 is designed to share information with the Board and get direction on key funding decisions. The objective of Part 1 of this item is to articulate known operational funding needs and to discuss County investments that are candidates for early funding decisions. Based on the outcome of Part 1, the amount of funding left for community and departmental proposals that are directly responsive to community identified needs will be established.
The specific elements of Part 1 include:
- total costs for on-going COVID response and monitoring costs as well as ARPA implementation costs through December 31, 2024, including approval of a Results-Based Accountability platform;
- three specific items for possible early funding decisions;
- based on the above, finalize the total amount available to fund community proposals and departmental proposals that are directly responsive to community-identified needs.
Part 2 will focus on finalizing the buckets for community needs based on community engagement, finalizing the funding level for the community needs, and finalizing the approach for departmental proposals that are directly responsive to community-identified themes.
The specific elements of Part 2 include:
- finalize the buckets based on the community engagement process;
- approve approach for departmental proposals directly responsive to community-identified needs;
- determine funding levels for each community need bucket ;
- approve the evaluation, selection and award process for community investment awards, including community-based and departmental proposals.
Discussion:
Part 1: Operational Funding Needs and Proposals for Potential Early Funding Decisions
Operational Funding Needs
To date, the Board has approved a total of approximately $20 million for COVID Response (about $19.1 million) and ARPA Implementation (about $900,000 for 4.0 FTEs; 2 in the Human Services Upstream team and 2 in Office of Equity (OoE)) for FY21-22 only. Staff have worked to determine on-going costs for COVID Response/Monitoring and ARPA Implementation through December 31, 2024. In total, it is estimated that these costs will be approximately $28.7 million.
The $28.7 million Response/Monitoring and ARPA Implementation is further described in attachments D and E to this item.
• $23.8 million is for on-going response and monitoring for FY21-22 through December 31, 2023. It is important to note that this is the cost estimate assuming that COVID cases continue to decline; these figures do not reflect costs in the event of future surges or for additional vaccine deployments. This includes:
o $16.5 million presented to the Board on December 7 for Health’s FY21-22 COVID response costs.
o $800,000 for enhanced janitorial services at County facilities that are not FEMA eligible.
o $104,000 to add a 1.0 FTE limited term (18 months) Risk Management Analyst in the Human Resources Department. This position will be responsible for activities related to protecting the health and safety of the County’s workforce including completing contact tracing for positive cases and exposures, completing notification and reporting processes and managing the COVID-19 testing process for employees.
o $6.5 million is the Public Health staff estimated on-going response costs for July 1, 2022 through December 31, 2023 (18 months), including the COVID unit proposed by Dr. Mase on December 7, plus continuity of marketing and enhanced janitorial services through FY 22/23. As has occurred throughout the pandemic, staff will continue to work to ensure that as many of these costs are reimbursed by FEMA as possible, and assuming FEMA reimbursements/payments are received within a reasonable timeframe.
• $4.8 million is for ARPA implementation, which represents approximately 5% of our total ARPA award. This includes costs for the 4.0 Human Services-Upstream and Office of Equity positions already approved. Plus, the request for two additional time-limited positions in the Human Services finance section (described below), a total project term investment of approximately $667,000 for a cloud-based software system for data analytics integrated with social services software application Apricot, technical support through Sidekick Solutions, and a public facing dashboard through Clear Impact, and $39,600 for Equity & Results, LLC to support Results Based Accountability and equity capacity building through the Office of Equity.
The two additional allocations, along with the cloud-based data analytics system, Apricot and Clear Impact software are required to allow for the implementation of Results-Based Accountability (RBA) contract monitoring that includes a review of outcomes by demographics.
RBA contract monitoring is an evidence-based partnership approach between the county and its contracted service providers to establish, regularly monitor, and adjust services to meet equity-driven performance measures. This type of contract monitoring goes far beyond a simple review of compliance to basic contractual expectations as it invests in looking critically at performance outcomes being achieved under the contracts. It also predicates future funding on meeting current year performance expectations. While the Human Services Upstream team currently employs an RBA contract monitoring approach, the current system does not allow for the collection of disaggregated data by key demographics such as: race/ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity, and geographic region.
To effectively measure disaggregated demographic data, staff recommend providing additional resources to expand use of the HSD‐Upstream Shared Outcome Measurement system and to increase capacity to collect and to support community partners to collect demographic data.
Moving forward, the RBA monitoring process will help the County highlight how the ARPA investments are being leveraged to have a maximum impact on communities disproportionately impacted by COVID-19.
Proposals for Potential Early Funding Decisions
To the greatest extent possible, staff are recommending that the Board fund community and departmental proposals on the same timeline, as outlined in Part 2. However, there are a few proposals that are critical investment opportunities and/or don’t align well with that process due to their unique characteristics. They are as follows:
1. Public Health Lab/Morgue, $8 million
The proposal for the Public Health Lab and Morgue is unique in that it is a critical public health capital infrastructure investment, which is specifically identified as an eligible funding use in the ARPA legislation. This proposal does not fall within the funding areas discussed in the community working group efforts; rather, it has received community support in the form of letters of support from six community-based health organizations.
The original request for this proposal was $27.2 million. Since this proposal was submitted staff has identified $15.1 million in FY20-21 Year-end available General Fund, $13.9 million from the sale of Chanate and $10.2 million available to release the set aside for the demolition of Chanate, for a total of approximately $39.2 million in available funding. Of that, $20.1 million is required for the purchase of the Sears site for the new County Center, which leaves $19.2 million. If these funds are applied to the Public Health Lab and Morgue, a remaining balance of $8 million is still needed.
Staff have not identified other available sources to cover this remaining $8 million funding gap.
The Public Health lab performs vital services to protect public health in the community. For example, they are the only local lab providing mycobacterium tuberculosis culture and smear and testing sensitivity. In addition, they test for common and uncommon diseases circulating the community, and data generated from the lab informs health providers and environmental health professionals to take appropriate action.
As we have seen all too well with the COVID-19 pandemic, infectious diseases have a disproportionate impact on low income communities and communities of color. The fact that ARPA specifically calls out “capital investments in public facilities to meet pandemic operational needs” illustrates an acknowledgement at the federal level that capital investments at the local level for critical public health infrastructure are a cornerstone of providing equitable and timely public health services.
The fact that this funding source has become available on the precise timeline that we must transition out of our outdated Public Health Lab and Morgue provides us with an important and unique opportunity.
As such, staff is recommending that the Board allocate $8 million of ARPA funding for this project today.
2. Lump Sum Pay for County Employees, $4.82 million
In order to recognize all current employees who contributed to providing continued services during the pandemic and who are hired by December 13, 2021, we are recommending the Board allocate ARPA funds equivalent to $1,000 per full-time regular employee. The recommendations include funds for pro-rated amounts for part-time employees based on their full-time equivalent (FTE) as of December 13, 2021. For non-retiree extra-help (EH) employees, allocated ARPA funds are recommended to be based on the number of hours EH worked since the start of the pandemic. For currently employed extra-help employees, for the time period of March 24, 2020 - December 13, 2021, EH who worked 200 to 1000 hours, ARPA funds would be allocated based on pro-ration of 50%; EH who worked 1001 and to 2000 hours, ARPA funds would be allocated based on pro-ration of 75%; and for EH who worked at least 2001 hours, ARPA funds would be allocated based on 100% of the $1000. The total cost for this will be approximately $4,820,000.
If approved by the Board, Human Resources will notice the employee organizations of the available funds and offer to meet with them. The amount approved would be paid to employees as soon as administratively feasible after notice to, and agreement with, the employee organizations.
As we recognize the ARPA rules have not been finalized by the federal government, the final rules may have limitations as to the employees that are eligible for payments funded with ARPA dollars, including those who primarily teleworked. Our research found that other jurisdictions have paid lump sums to all employees with the intent of using ARPA funds. The payments to all employees are recommended from the standpoint that California deemed all government employees as essential. Should the federal rules related to ARPA funds become clearer and include limitations as to eligible employees, funds may need to be allocated from other sources to cover this expense.
3. Department Proposals for Early Funding Decisions, $1.16 million
On September 14, staff presented preliminary departmental ARPA proposals for your Board’s consideration. This process and recommended next steps for the majority of departmental proposals are discussed in Part 2 below; a matrix showing those proposals and how they align with community feedback is available as attachment F to this item.
However, there are three proposals staff are recommending to be funded today. These proposals are summarized below. These three proposals are unique and are being recommended for early funding because they were very specifically identified as critically-needed investments in how the County does business through the community engagement process and they were recommended to be funded without modification by the County Administrator’s Office in September. The total cost of all three of these proposals is $1.16 million. They are as follows and the full proposals are included as Attachments G, H and I:
1. Enterprise Level Consolidated Demographic GIS Map, $450,000: currently, various data about the community is housed in different databases in different departments or on different governmental websites. This means there is no single geospatial repository for county staff to understand demographic information, such as race, ethnicity, gender, etc., along with county-derived data, such as assessed property value, park access, property sales, etc. This project would integrate multiple existing data sets into one and is a key tool needed for County staff to better understand the citizens they most need to serve.
2. Community Engagement, $400,000: proposal includes engaging with a consultant analyze existing community engagement vehicles at the County of Sonoma, including the Commission on the Status of Woman and the Commission on Human Rights, and to develop a Community Engagement Strategy in collaboration with the County Communications and Policy, Grants, and Special Projects Teams at the County Administrator’s Office. The intent is to guide county departments/agencies’ efforts to achieve equitable participation and access to government services and resources to communities traditionally underserved and communities of color. The product of this consultant’s work will create a road map and recommended investments for long-term community engagement practices.
3. Language Access, $310,000: request to engage consultant that can evaluate the County’s existing language access provision, assess additional departmental and agency needs, and to recommend infrastructure and capacity needed to successfully implement a County-wide Language Access Policy.
The combined total for Part 1 items is $42,705,905, leaving $53,313,067 for the Community Process described in Part 2 below.
Part 2: Community and Departmental Proposal and Award Process
ARPA allows for use of funding in five categories:
- Supporting the public health response
- Addressing negative economic impacts
- Replacing revenue loss
- Providing premium pay for essential workers
- Investing in water, sewer, and broadband infrastructure
With regards to revenue loss, the level of “revenue loss” experienced by a municipality is determined by specific guidelines issued by the Treasury. This revenue loss value could then be utilized for any general government purpose and does not need to be linked to a different funding category. The guidelines call for a single calculation for the entire entity in question, and do not allow for exclusions of one-time or special purpose revenues. As such, the receipt of PG&E settlement funds in 2020 cancels out the significant revenue loss the County would have otherwise recorded. Setting aside the PG&E settlement funds, the County’s revenue losses due to COVID exceed $50 million. The County has been working with our lobbyists and representatives to advocate changes to these guidelines since the summer months, but there is no word or anticipated timeline as to if or when these guidelines will change.
In addition, legislation has been introduced that would allow for a more flexible use of ARPA funds, including utilizing funding to respond to natural disasters and allowing for certain specific additional infrastructure investments. However, because that legislation has not been passed and the timing of finalizing the rule and the approval of the legislation is unknown, staff recommends adhering to the distribution guidelines as articulated in the Interim Final Rule so that the Board can finalize funding decisions today, thereby allowing program implementation to begin at once.
Additionally, while ARPA funds must be obligated by December 31, 2024 and spent by December 31, 2026, there is not a way to obligate costs for the staffing needed to administer any ARPA-funded contracts. Given the heavy requirements associated with federally funded contract administration, staff is therefore recommending that all funds be both obligated and expended by December 31, 2024.
Approve Funding “Buckets” Based on Community Needs
In response to Board direction in July, staff completed a series of community engagement efforts including holding virtual town halls, distributing community surveys and convening an ARPA Equity Workgroup. All of these efforts focused on:
1. Presenting data on COVID impacts in Sonoma County while recognizing disproportionality to ensure an equitable recovery; and
2. Eliciting specific feedback from and about individuals who were disproportionately impacted.
Based on feedback and ideas from the Town Halls, Community Surveys, the Equity Work Group, and Board member inputs received on November 2, the community identified specific needs within each of these major categories: Negative Economic Impacts on Individuals and Households, Disparities in Public Health Outcomes, and Broadband Infrastructure needs. The more specific needs within each of these areas is listed in the table below (Figure 1), and further detail received from these engagement efforts to narrow the disparity gap is listed below the table. Priorities listed in Figure 1 were mentioned 5 or more times across the different data sources.
In addition to these needs, the community identified that, if internal County structures are not adequately resourced, then distributing funding to our partners cannot address disproportionality. In alignment with this feedback, the County must invest in its own infrastructure to support relationships with underserved communities and ensure culturally responsive program design and service provision. Thus, these recommendations included below with an asterisk (*) and italicized are items that allow for County-led Investments in Cultural Responsiveness to ensure that the funding distribution framework successfully creates the conditions for accountability and long-term success through investments in the priority areas established by the community. Staff is recommending that departments and community providers be invited to submit proposals in the RFP proposal described in further detail below.
Figure 1: Funding Buckets & Major Priorities
|
1) Disparities in Public Health Outcomes |
2) Negative Economic Impacts on Households and Individuals |
3) Infrastructure |
|
Mental Health Services |
Immediate direct assistance to households (housing, debt relief, etc) |
Broadband |
|
Promotores |
Childcare, childcare facilities, childcare workforce |
|
|
Housing and Shelter |
Educational Disparities |
|
|
*Culturally Responsive Disaster Response and Long-Term Recovery |
Small BIPOC-led businesses, nonprofits, and community-based organizations |
|
|
*Create resilient community hubs and spaces |
Invest in workforce training and development |
|
|
|
Universal Basic Income Pilot |
|
|
|
*Culturally Responsive Disaster Response and Long-Term Recovery |
|
|
|
*Capacity Building for BIPOC businesses (County investments in technical assistance and outreach to potential partners) |
|
|
|
*Improve contracting experience for vendors; speed up time to issue payments to vendors |
|
|
|
*Invest in capacity to provide expedited pathways to distribute assistance funds; emphasize county/community partnerships to grow safety net |
|
The list below provides stated priorities, projects, and strategies from the community engagement efforts that the County could potentially award under each priority funding bucket. Funding bolded projects would ripple positive impacts across multiple priorities; only together can these programs and strategies create the tightly woven network that will serve people who would otherwise experience underservice. Funding italicized projects reflect potential County investments to support culturally responsive service delivery and program design.
Investments Could Include:
1. Disparities in Public Health Outcomes
1.1) Mental Health Services
a. Make mental health services accessible
b. Focus on staffing-culturally responsive and bilingual providers
1.2) Promotores*
a. Pay a living wage
b. Support their work in multiple sectors
c. Create and support formation of resilient community and neighborhood hubs and spaces*
d. Invest in capacity to provide expedited pathways to distribute assistance funds*
e. Emphasize county/community partnerships to grow safety net*
1.3) Housing and Shelter
a. Alternative care sites
b. Short-term/long-term housing shelters
c. Rehab facilities
1.4) Culturally Responsive Disaster Response and Long-Term Recovery*
1.5) Improve contracting experience for vendors; speed up time to issue payments to
vendors*
2. Negative Economic Impacts on Households and Individuals
2.1) Assistance to households/basic needs
a. Provide cash and other direct resources to disproportionately impacted community members
b. Rental assistance
c. Universal Basic Income
2.2) Childcare and childcare facilities
a. Train and support providers*
b. Expand workforce; pay a living wage
c. Accessible and affordable care/subsidies
d. Invest in capacity to provide expedited pathways to distribute assistance funds*
e. Emphasize county/community partnerships to grow safety net*
2.3) Educational Disparities
a. Address learning loss, especially for high school students who graduated with virtual learning
b. Support teachers
2.4) Small BIPOC-led businesses, nonprofits, and community-based organizations
a. Support BIPOC led or focused CBOs and non-profits
b. Foster BIPOC led or focused mutual aid networks
c. Vocational training for recent high school graduates*
d. County investments in technical assistance and outreach to support capacity building for BIPOC businesses*
2.5) Culturally Responsive Disaster Response and Long-Term Recovery*
2.6) Improve contracting experience for vendors; speed up time to issue payments to
vendors*
3. Infrastructure
3.1) Broadband
a. Address educational disparities and learning loss*, especially for high school students who graduated with virtual learning
b. Support teachers
Process for Departmental Proposals
On September 14, staff presented 53 preliminary proposals submitted by departments to your Board for ARPA funding. At that time, the County Administrator’s Office recommended 17 as being strong candidates for funding (either as submitted or with modification), and 11 as eligible for consideration, but not as strong as those that were recommended. Six of the others were recommended as proposals better suited to the community award process. Three were not recommended and 16 were only able to be funded under the revenue loss category, which our county does not qualify for due to how PG&E revenues affected the revenue loss calculation provided by the Treasury.
At the meeting on September 14, your Board indicated a preference to hear feedback from the community regarding needs prior to selecting any departmental proposals for funding.
Staff have provided a matrix (Attachment F) illustrating how the 28 proposals categorized as “recommended” or “eligible for consideration” align with the feedback obtained through the community engagement processes. However, because these were submitted as preliminary proposals, and due to the timing of finalizing the community engagement process, staff is not currently prepared to recommend these proposals for funding, aside from the three presented in Part 1 of this Board item.
Staff is recommending that departments be invited to submit updated or new proposals through the RFP process that will be available to community-based organizations. This approach will allow departmental proposals to be evaluated with the same criteria as that of the community proposals. Additionally, this community/departmental comprehensive proposal process will ensure that the best proposals are selected, regardless of which entity is providing the services. In some cases, departments may elect to re-frame previously submitted proposals, include novel proposals, or they may choose not to re-submit a proposal based on updated information and timing.
Departmental proposals will be evaluated under the RFP selection process discussed below.
Determining Funding Levels for Community Buckets and Approve Set Aside for Rapid Financial Assistance
As noted in the in the table above, Negative Economic Impacts, Disparities in Public Health Outcomes and investments in Broadband Infrastructure were the three main areas of funding need. While the majority of remaining available funds would be distributed through an RFP process described below, there are two needs that the Board may wish to allocate funding towards outside of that process.
Allocations outside of the RFP Process
First, under Negative Economic Impacts, specific urgency was noted surrounding the need for immediate financial assistance to address impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on low-income community members. There are existing structures that have directed funding to those community members most disproportionately impacted (such as CURA) and this allocation could flow through them without the need for an additional competitive process. However, this new allocation offers an opportunity to develop more flexible eligibility criteria, as well as planning and executing focused outreach efforts with community-based organizations who specialize in culturally responsive outreach and engagement to ensure the equitable disbursement of ARPA funds.
Due to the emphasis on this need expressed by the community and its time sensitive nature, staff is recommending that $9 million be set aside for this purpose. This allocation would allow for more assistance to be made more immediately available for those community members who have not been able to access other forms of relief to address their needs. Staff will work with community partners, the COVID-19 Unit of Department of Health Services, the Office of Equity, and the Human Services Department to examine opportunities to make eligibility criteria as flexible as possible, and to ensure an equitable disbursement of ARPA funds across all communities in need. Upon conclusion of this work, staff will return to the Board with a plan to execute this Rapid Community Assistance in early 2022.
Second, investments in Broadband Infrastructure were identified as a critical area of need during the community engagement process. However, due to a number of factors, including the unprecedented nature of such an investment and uncertainty surrounding available funding through other state and federal sources, staff is presenting a range of funding options for Broadband investment from ARPA funds. Staff recommends funding the first option at $2,000,000, which provides needed funding to create a governance organization. Despite unknowns in overall funding, it is relatively clear that no other sources will allow for these types of administrative costs. Investing ARPA dollars in this administrative structure will ensure that Sonoma County is well=positioned to more expediently leverage and deploy future funding for infrastructure.
Should the Board elect to fund options 2 or 3 utilizing ARPA funds, which would allow for some initial infrastructure build out, staff recommends that those amounts be set aside at this time. Staff will then analyze how best to utilize those funds and will return to the Board with implementation options at a future date.
1. $2,000,000 - This would fund administration and overhead for a pre-revenue broadband governance organization until 12/31/2024.
2. $4,500,000 - This would fund item one, plus provide a set-aside to potentially connect 1.5%, or 130 of the underserved residences in Sonoma County by 12/31/2024.
3. $9,000,000 - This would fund item one, plus provide a set-aside to potentially connect 4%, or 347 of the underserved residences in Sonoma County by 12/31/2024.
RFP Funding Levels and Process
Should the board elect to fund all elements presented to this point in this Board item, $35,313,067 to $42,313,067 will remain that will be issued through the Community RFP process.
Based on the needs expressed by the community, we are requesting a funding allocation of 60% of the available total for Negative Economic Impacts and 40% for addressing Disparities in Public Health Outcomes.
The table below illustrates the funding options presented in this item, with the last two items being the portion of ARPA funds being issued through the Community RFP Process:
Summary of Funding Elements in this item:
|
Part 1: On-going Response and Monitoring |
$23,808,265 |
|
Part 1: Implementation |
$4,917,640 |
|
Part 1: Public Health Lab |
$8,000,000 |
|
Part 1: Lump Sum Pay for County Employees |
$4,820,000 |
|
Part 1: Department Proposals |
$1,160,000 |
|
Part 2: Rapid Emergency Financial Assistance |
$9,000,000 |
|
Part 2: Broadband |
$2,000,000-$9,000,000 |
|
Part 2: Negative Economic Impacts |
$21,187,840-$25,387,840 |
|
Part 2: Disparities in Public Health Outcomes |
$14,125,227-$16,925,227 |
|
TOTAL |
$96,018,972 |
Authorization to Re-allocate Funds
Staff intend to stay as close as possible to the funding allocations approved by your Board today. However, until proposals are received, we will not know the true amount needed to properly fund the projects within each priority area. As a result, we are requesting the authority to re-prioritize amounts, based on how many qualifying proposals are received per funding bucket and their requested award amounts. For example, if the strongest, highest cost proposals are received under the Disparities in Public Health Outcomes, and Negative Economic Impacts does not receive as many proposals, we request the discretion to allocate more funds to the strongest proposals according to our selection criteria described below.
Timeline, Evaluation, Selection and Award Process for Community Investment Awards
January 2022- The Human Services Department will host community workshops to inform interested parties about the upcoming RFP process and to create opportunities to build cross-agency partnerships for joint funding applications.
January/February 2022 - ARPA RFP will be released with a proposal deadline set 6 - 8 weeks after the release.
March/April 2022 - A review committee composed of individuals with backgrounds in program planning and evaluation, knowledge of the target population to be served and individuals representing the needs of low-income communities and communities of color most disproportionately impacted by COVID-19 will review proposals and make recommendations for funding. Criteria for recommendations will elevate proposals that:
- Prioritize cross-agency partnerships
- Demonstrate evidence-informed program design
- Support relationships with underserved communities and culturally responsive program design and service provision
- Foster Black, Indigenous, Latinx, and AAPI networks of mutual learning and support
- Serve prioritized census tracts identified in the Portrait of Sonoma
- Identify if projects are one-time investments, or how they will support the work after ARPA funding has expired.
May- June 2022 - Bring recommended funding agreements for Board approval and provide technical assistance. Agencies and departments representing funded proposals will attend 1 - 2 RBA workshops to identify performance measures and learn more about federal funding requirements including eligibility documentation, reporting, and program and fiscal monitoring.
July 1, 2022 - June 30, 2024 - Investments/assistance dispersed throughout the community. Contractors and departments will submit quarterly performance reports and participate in regular RBA Turn the Curve conversations with HSD staff. HSD staff will ensure compliance with federal requirements.
Updates to the Board
Staff plans to return to your Board during the Fall of 2023 to report on results achieved in 2022 and to report on the status of all categories of funding. This reporting process will include recommendations from staff on re-allocating funds if certain areas are on track to be under or over the allocated amounts. Reports will also include results of the RBA process to illustrate the extent to which ARPA-funded projects are achieving intended goals.
Strategic Plan:
This item directly supports the County’s Five-year Strategic Plan and is aligned with the following pillar, goal, and objective.
Pillar: Healthy and Safe Communities
Goal: Goal 1: Expand integrated system of care to address gaps in services to the County’s most vulnerable.
Objective: Objective 2: Identify gaps in the Safety Net system of services and identify areas where departments can address those gaps directly, and seek guidance from the Board when additional resources and/or policy direction is needed.
Pillar: Healthy and Safe Communities
Goal: Goal 2: Establish equitable and data-driven distribution of services
Objective: Objective 3: Identify and eliminate data gaps for underrepresented groups, and collaborate with the community to implement measures to mitigate the negative impacts caused by the lack of access to services by racial and ethnic groups that are disproportion
The learnings from ARPA can be used to address data gaps in other areas of the County infrastructure.
Prior Board Actions:
12/7/21: COVID-19 Emergency Response Strategy, Appropriations and Delegated Authority Update
11/2/21: File # 2021-1197, Received ARPA Funding Plan implementation update and provided staff direction for 12/14/21 meeting; received presentation and reports on COVID-19 economic impact from Dr. Rob Eyler and Dr. Marlene Orozco; authorized the Director of the Human Services Department to execute a contract with the selected winner of the RFP for Enterprise Resource Planning System to support compliance with ARPA-funded county programs.
9/14/21: File # 2021-0828, Received County Department Preliminary Proposals with recommendations for funding. Board determined that community input should be heard prior to making department allocations.
7/27/21: File # 2021-0730, Received an update on Community Funding portion of ARPA implementation and allocated additional resources for ARPA implementation.
Fiscal Summary
|
Expenditures |
FY 21-22 Adopted |
FY22-23 Projected |
FY 23-24 Projected |
|
Budgeted Expenses |
$18,037,221 |
$6,155,345 |
$3,142,881 |
|
Additional Appropriation Requested |
$532,600 |
|
|
|
Total Expenditures |
$18,569,8210 |
$ 6,155,345 |
$ 3,142,8810 |
|
Funding Sources |
|
|
|
|
General Fund/WA GF |
|
|
|
|
State/Federal |
$18,569,8210 |
$6,155,345 |
$3,142,8810 |
|
Fees/Other |
|
|
|
|
Use of Fund Balance |
|
|
|
|
Contingencies |
|
|
|
|
Total Sources |
$ 18,569,8210 |
$ 6,155,345 |
$ 3,142,8810 |
Narrative Explanation of Fiscal Impacts:
The fiscal impacts above illustrate only the On-going Monitoring/Response and ARPA implementation costs. The $532,600 of additional FY21-22 additional appropriations requested relates to the elements of ARPA implementation for FY21-22 that have not been previously approved by the Board, and which are discussed in Part 1 of this time. These include the additional 2.0 FTE resources at the Human Services Department, and FY21-22 portion of costs for the RBA reporting platform.
Adjustments to the FY21-22 budget to address any items approved by the Board today will be included in the Q1 Consolidated Budget Adjustment, and budgets for future years will be included in future recommended budgets.
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Staffing Impacts: |
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Position Title (Payroll Classification) |
Monthly Salary Range (A-I Step) |
Additions (Number) |
Deletions (Number) |
|
Program Planning and Evaluation Analyst |
$37.79-$45.93 |
1.0 |
0 |
|
Administrative Aide |
$27.64-$33.59 |
1.0 |
0 |
|
Risk Management Analyst II - Project |
$40.95-$49.78 |
1.0 |
0 |
Narrative Explanation of Staffing Impacts (If Required):
2.0 Limited Term (through 12/31/24) FTEs (1.0 Policy, Planning & Evaluation Analyst and 1.0 Admin Aide) to Human Services Finance section to monitor contracts issued through the ARPA RFP process.
1.0 Limited Term (through 6/30/23) Risk Management Analyst will be added to Human Resources to execute tasks related to protecting the health and safety of the County’s workforce.
Attachments:
Attachment A: PowerPoint Presentation
Attachment B: Position Resolution - Human Services
Attachment C: Position Resolution - Human Resources
Attachment D: Response and Monitoring Budget
Attachment E: ARPA Implementation Budget
Attachment F: Departmental Proposal Crosswalk to Community Buckets Matrix
Attachment G: Enterprise Level Consolidated Demographic GIS Map Proposal
Attachment H: Community Engagement Proposal
Attachment I: Language Access Proposal
Related Items “On File” with the Clerk of the Board:
None