Deadline looms for Jackson County to spend COVID money. Will leaders break their stalemate?

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Nonnegotiable deadlines have a way of focusing the mind and bringing about compromise.

That dynamic is driving discussions at the Jackson County Courthouse these days as a firm, year-end deadline looms for the county’s elected officials to decide how they will spend $70 million in leftover COVID-relief dollars.

Or forfeit all that federal cash.

The county needs to decide where the money is going by the end of this year and spend it by the end of 2026, or it will go away.

This use-it-or-lose-it challenge could be what brokers a deal between County Executive Frank White Jr. and the county legislature that — in the spirit of all compromise — neither side will be fully happy with. But they each could get some of what they want.

For White, that’s money to spend on county buildings. For legislators, it’s cash to spend on social programs.

This standoff has lasted more than a year, with White insisting that a big chunk of the money go to renovate and outfit a downtown office building that the county bought in 2022 to house administrative departments that are now in the downtown courthouse.

Several legislators — it’s not clear if they constitute a majority — would rather spend the cash on one-time gifts to area nonprofit groups and social service agencies because they believe the office building is a money pit that the previous county legislature shouldn’t have bought.

“That was a great purchase,” counters former legislator Crystal Williams, who was in the faction that gave White the go-ahead to spend $9 million to buy the three-story office building at 1300 Washington St. “I am astounded at how ridiculous this has been.”

Reasons for building purchase

White’s aim in buying the former home of Argus Health Systems was to create a better atmosphere in a modern office building to conduct county business with taxpayers.

Much of those functions now occur on the bottom two floors of the 90-year-old downtown courthouse, where people come to pay their taxes in person or file business paperwork. It’s also where the county’s finance department is located and where candidates come to file for office.

Moving those functions nine blocks west to 1300 Washington St. was also designed to free up space in the 90-year-old courthouse for the circuit court system and prosecutors, which now occupy most of the building.

County Administrator Troy Schulte say the building is in need of about a quarter billion dollars in upgrades.

But some members of the current legislature — six of the nine members took office at the beginning of 2023 — wish their predecessors had never bought the Argus building on Quality Hill. They think it lacks sufficient parking, albeit free to the public, whereas free parking is virtually non-existent around the courthouse.

Despite having better highway access than the courthouse, critics dislike it being on the far western edge of the county.

“I believe that if we’re going to have most of our county administrative services in one facility, which is the administration’s desire, that it should be someplace kind of in the middle of the county,” said 6th District Legislator Sean Smith.

Other desires for COVID money

One of White’s main opponents on this issue is legislator Manny Abarca of the 1st District. Early this year he proposed giving the 1300 Washington building away for as little as $1. He later amended that to a proposal to sell it to the highest bidder, rather than spend $17 million in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds on renovations. That proposed resolution was never voted on and has been on hold for almost nine months.

But Abarca hasn’t given up trying to scuttle the project to free up ARPA money for other things that would meet the qualifications set out by the federal government.

At a legislative meeting this month, Abarca made that clear as he criticized White (who was absent) and the county executive’s top staffers who were in attendance for what he saw as their unwillingness to negotiate on the use of ARPA funds.

“If you all don’t start answering the phone, I think a majority of us are going to figure out how not to fund your 1300 Washington,” Abarca said.

Smith, Abarca’s co-sponsor on the building sale resolution, also faulted White for seemingly trying to force the legislature into accepting his terms for the use of the ARPA dollars by delaying the decision until now.

White’s administration consistently employs a strategy of “waiting until things are urgent and then it’s a take-it-or-leave-it-type proposition,” Smith said, and called that alleged strategy “repugnant” and “embarrassing.”

Whether it’s been White’s strategy or a function of the legislature not being willing to give ground, the passage of time has worked to White’s advantage.

Nearly 14 months has passed since White asked legislators to let him spend $23 million in ARPA dollars for making “critical improvements to county facilities,” of which that $17 million was to be set aside for renovations of the 83,000-square-foot administrative building at 1300 Washington.

However, his timing couldn’t have been worse, as residents were in an uproar over the 2023 property reassessment process. They worried that their taxes would spike, and so with little public discussion, the legislature voted 8-1 against the renovation plan. Today only the first floor of the three-story building is occupied — by the assessment department.

As chair of the legislature’s budget committee last year, Abarca took that as his cue to take the lead on finding other uses for the ARPA money. Last fall, he invited community groups to apply for all $66 million of ARPA funds then in the county’s accounts. The amount has grown since then due to interest payments.

At least 118 organizations applied for those dollars and were disappointed to learn before Christmas that the effort did not follow the strict procurement process set out by the feds. And some of the requests were for things that don’t qualify for ARPA funding.

‘Illegal’ process

The money can only be used to support public health, address the economic hardships caused by the pandemic, replace lost public revenue due to the health emergency and to invest in public infrastructure, including broadband.

As Abarca looked on from his seat in the legislative chamber, White scolded him publicly for providing applicants with false hope that they would get ARPA money for things that didn’t qualify.

“I’m sorry that these folks had to go through this process that they’ve gone through thinking that they were going to get ARPA funds when this legislator knew that the process that was being used was inappropriate and unlawful,” White said.

White repeatedly reminded legislators that since the pandemic hit in 2020, the county had distributed more than $150 million in federal COVID-relief money to support a variety of community needs from both ARPA and another federal program known as the CARES Act.

The county gave money to support law enforcement, local governments and public health services.

White said it has always been his plan and that of the previous legislature to spend what was left to meet some of the county’s capital improvement needs.

“The plan for ARPA is pretty much what it’s been from day one, when you guys were elected,” he said in late February. “We basically had funds that were available for the infrastructure needs of the county, for remodeling of the new administration building that we purchased, and that hasn’t changed.”

Compromise or coercion?

White recently offered to compromise. On Aug. 5, he sent legislators a letter restating his priority that ARPA dollars be used to take care of county government’s construction needs. In addition to 1300 Washington, he wants money set aside to make the courthouse’s main, north entrance compliant with a federal law that requires public buildings be accessible to people with disabilities.

Those front steps have been closed for months.

But by way of compromise, he offered to spend $28.5 million of that $70 million in leftover ARPA funds on aid to nonprofit groups, cities, public schools and public health.

“While this gives us a road map, I know our work isn’t finished,” he wrote. “I look forward to hearing your thoughts and collaborating with each of you as we refine this plan.”

Abarca, Smith and others in the legislature were not pleased and say they feel as if White is running out the clock in order to get his way.

At the legislature’s Aug. 19 meeting, legislator Donna Peyton, 2nd District At-Large, said she “took great offense” at White’s tactics and proposed a resolution now on hold that would open the way to negotiations over use of the federal money.

“I see this as a resolution that will commit us as a legislature to come together to not have discussions about what to do with ARPA funding, but to have discussions about what has been given to us,” she said.

The issue is on Monday’s agenda once again for possible discussion.