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Item No. 6. Meeting Date: August 3, 2020 Type of Business: Work Session City Administrator Review: ______ City of Mounds View Staff Report To: Honorable Mayor and City Council From: Mark Beer, Finance Director Item Title/Subject: 2020 CARES Act Grant The City has received $1,004,135 in CARES Act grant funding. The funds need to be spent or disbursed by November 15 and any remaining funds will need to be returned to Ramsey County. The CARES Act provides that payments can only be used to cover costs that: 1. Are necessary expenditures incurred due to the public health emergency with respect to the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19); 2. Were not accounted for in the budget most recently approved as of March 27, 2020 (the date of the enactment of the CARES Act) for the State or government; and 3. Were incurred during the period that begins on March 1, 2020, and ends on December 30, 2020. City staff has been exploring the most efficient ways to utilize the CARES Act Grant, we have many small expenditures that would satisfy the grant requirements but there would be a significant balance remaining. Many cities with police departments have focused on U.S. Treasury guidance for public safety payroll to satisfy eligibility and fully utilize the grant funds. The guidance provided by the U.S. Treasury (attached) on page 3 item 3 indicates that “Payroll expenses for public safety, public health, health care, human services, and similar employees whose services are substantially dedicated to mitigating or responding to the COVID-19 public health emergency”, would be eligible expenses. The Q&A (attached) provides further that Public Safety payroll expenditures “as a matter of administrative convenience in light of the emergency nature of this program, a State, territorial, local, or Tribal government may presume that payroll costs for public health and public safety employees are payments for services substantially dedicated to mitigating or responding to the COVID-19 public health emergency.” The League of Minnesota Cities (LMC) has also provided some guidance on eligible public safety expenses. Q15. The guidance provides that funding may be used to meet payroll expenses for public safety, public health, health care, human services, and similar employees whose services are substantially dedicated to mitigating or responding to the COVID-19 public health emergency. May CFR payments be used to cover such an employee’s entire payroll cost or just the portion of time spent on mitigating or responding to the COVID-19 public health emergency?