2020.08.03 CC Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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Hugo City Council Meeting Minutes for August 3, 2020 Page 2 of 6 billion for direct assistance to state governments based on their populations. On June 25, 2020, Governor Watz distributed $841 million dollars of that money to county, cities, and townships for Corona related virus expenses. Cities with a population of 200 or more were allowed to receive $75.43 per capita. On June 29, 2020, the City submitted the certification form to the Department of Revenue certifying the City’s intent to comply with the eligible use parameters outlined in the CARES Act and requesting distributions of the City’s portion. On July 7, 2020, the City received $1,148,713 from the MN Department of Revenue and has until November 15, 2020 to spend the funds on eligible expenses. After that the unspent funds needed to be sent to the County. She provided details on the eligible purposes for CFR payments. The Finance Department had prepared a proposed supplemental budget that met the criteria set forth by the US Treasury Department. Included in the proposed budget were expenses for personal protection, telework, audio visual and permitting upgrades. Reimbursement of cost will also occur for employees pulled away from their regular duties to respond to the virus and for public safety employees whose work was dedicated to addressing the public health emergency. Wobse explained the budget was broken down between hard and soft costs, and staff had not budgeted funds for small business grants because of the amount of support coming from other layers of government, including Washington County who had allocated $10 million of their funds to assist small businesses. St. Johns Hospital had submitted a request for $32,000 of the City’s funds to cover non-reimbursable costs related to the virus. Wobse asked that Council discuss donations to local hospitals and businesses and to provide details about a grant program and establish dollar amounts. Staff would then adjust the draft budget. She asked that Council then approve the resolution adopting the CARES Act Funding Budget. Haas said it would be a huge mistake to only fund City expenses already covered by the tax levy and not leave any funds available for small business that have had tremendous hardships. Miron responded that businesses could participate in multi-layers of grant programs from the federal, state, and county government. He asked how the process worked in terms of quantifying expenses and if it would only apply to additional expenses beyond what businesses have already received funding for. Bear responded that it was all federal money to be used for expenses related to the corona virus. Expenses would need to be documented and shown they had not already been reimbursed. If the City implemented a program, the City would need to make sure they were not already covered by another program. Miron said he was in favor of allocating resources for a grant program if the process was simple. He asked if staff was working with business on existing grant programs, and if the resolution was modified tonight to allocate money for small business grants and the City found there were not enough applications to use it, could another resolution passed to reallocate back to the proposed budget. Bear responded that the business community had not been reaching out to the City. Businesses had been successful in receiving other resources that were made available. Bear suggested if the City created its own program, it should be vetted by the EDA and should be easy to administer