10-28-2020 Council Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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STAFF REPORT TO: Mayor Keis and Members of the City Council FROM: Heidi Heller, City Clerk DATE: October 28, 2020 RE: 2020 CARES Act Grant County-Municipality Agreement ACTION TO BE CONSIDERED: Approve the 2020 CARES Act County – Municipality Agreement between Ramsey County and the City of Little Canada. BACKGROUND: The Office of the Secretary of State (OSS) received funding through the 2020 CARES Act “to prevent, prepare for, and respond to coronavirus, domestically or internationally, for the 2020 Federal election cycle.” Minnesota Laws 2020, Chapter 77, authorized the use of these funds within Minnesota, including allowing for distributing these funds to local governments for use consistent with the state and federal requirements. A work group including members of the OSS staff, county representatives, and city representatives was tasked with determining a fair, equitable, and efficient way to allocate these funds to local governments through a grant-making process. The work group recommended, and the OSS adopted, a grant-making structure that provides a block-grant to Counties, with the instruction that Counties work with their municipalities to determine a fair, equitable, and mutually agreeable method for allocating the funds within the County and between municipalities. However, if a County and its encompassed municipalities cannot come to a mutual agreement, a default allocation mechanism is provided. Both the distribution of funds to Counties, and the default municipality distribution, are based on a formula using various election-related factors. Ramsey County applied for $421,304.25 from the OSS funding for county-wide COVID-19 related costs. Approximately $58,825.50 of this was the share for the local municipalities that conduct their own elections, and $5,685.42 of this was Little Canada’s share. Ramsey County requested that Little Canada direct their city’s share to them since the County has provided all of Little Canada’s COVID-19 election-related supplies for both the Primary and General Elections. The City has not had to purchase any COVID-19 election supplies. Ramsey County received all of the grant funds and would only distribute the non-contract cities’ shares to those cities who do not approve this agreement. STAFF RECOMMENDATION: Staff recommends approval of the 2020 CARES Act County – Municipality Agreement between Ramsey County and the City of Little Canada, which allows Ramsey County to keep Little Canada’s share of the Federal CARES Act grant funds for COVID-19 election-related costs incurred by Ramsey County on behalf of Little Canada.