The Polk County Commissioners heard a plan on Tuesday to share approximately 50 percent of the counties funding from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act with the county’s partner organizations and through small business relief grants. Polk County Administration Chuck Whiting presented the layout of a plan that would earmark approximately $400,000 for several Polk County partners such as Tri-County Community Corrections, $700,000 with Public Health partner organizations including both public and private schools, and $800,000 in small business relief.
Whiting said the county would use approximately $2 million from the CARES Act funding for county COVID-19 costs even though they could likely exceed that amount pretty quickly if they wanted. “Polk County received just about $4 million,” said Whiting. “The cities and townships received I want to say almost another $2 million. I think it’s a little less than that. We have to figure out what to do with this money. It has to be COVID related, so I talked to the board today about basically splitting the $4 million into two pots. One would be to help the county recover it’s COVID related operational costs. Public Health has been swamped with COVID related work. We’ve seen a lot in our Social Services Department as well. Law Enforcement has to take a certain approach to what they do for COVID. I’ve done some calculations, and we can easily use the $2 million and cover a lot more then that if we wanted to for county COVID costs.”
Whiting said he’s been working with city and economic development staff in Fosston, Crookston, and East Grand Forks to use their expertise to get some of the county’s funds to businesses both within those cities and others areas throughout the county. “The other half of this money is to get money into the community, particularly to small businesses,” said Whiting. “I have a chunk of almost $800,000 for the small business relief portion of this. I’ve been working with the staff from Fosston, Crookston, and East Grand Forks of supplementing what they’re doing with their CARES money for small businesses. And use them to help me get these monies out in local grants essentially. The methods they use and the staff they use to evaluate those things are something the county doesn’t typically do. We’ve retained some for the businesses in the rest of the county. The three city staffs have been very gracious with me on this that they will assist in perhaps dealing with a business that isn’t in city limits processing some of the paperwork involved.”
The remaining funds would be split between a variety of county partners such as schools, Occupational Development, long-term care facilities, and many others. Whiting said the idea is any agency that crosses county lines with have the funding from Polk County earmarked to assist Polk County’s residents. “The remaining funds we essentially looked at two types of groups,” said Whiting. “The ones Public Health works with – schools, nursing homes, some of the community outreach groups. So, we’re going to work toward distributing funds that way. Then there are some other organizations, either quasi-governmental organizations that Polk County works with or our Social Services department works with. I think the board seems supportive of this distribution approach. I have to do some additional work to bring back to the board to put a stamp on this thing and get it going. That’s going to be an effort in itself, but hopefully, within the next two weeks, we can turn this plan into action and get this money rolling through the communities.”
Whiting also said he’s been in meetings with several other counties in the region and across the state and believes his plan is similar to what many other counties will come up to get funds into the community.
BUDGET
The County Commissioners are also entering the 2021 budgeting phase, and money saved by using CARES Act funds in 2020 can be rolled into helping offset the 2021 budget. Whiting said he believes the board wants to retain whatever they’re able to help the general tax base of the county in 2021. “I think preliminary talks with the board is to try to make sure whatever we’re able to retain, we retain to help the general taxpayers of the county,” said Whiting. “By doing a conservative budget and a conservative levy next year, we can see some ripples of getting this (CARES Act funds) to property owners that may not be serviced by one of these groups. We still view all of our taxpayers as the recipients of this, and I think that’s a solid approach.”
The county has always been fiscally responsible, according to Whiting, who added he anticipated a similar levy around three percent. “Polk County government has always been conservative and fiscally healthy,” said Whiting. “We even out the highs and lows in our approach, so we don’t have to do anything drastic in bad times, and we don’t overindulge in good times. We see some impacts from COVID, but I think from a rainy day standpoint, we’re well-suited to go ahead. In bad times the demand for county services goes up, and in good times you don’t ever extend because they don’t always last. I think the board will talk about potential levy increases, and I doubt very much it will be over three percent. I can’t imagine that will be anything we’ll approach.”
Whiting also said additional funding sources for the county would be explored in the coming weeks. While adding that because the county has gotten through a lot of it’s building upgrades putting off some work wouldn’t be as detrimental as it may have been in other years.
COUNTY ADMINISTRATOR EVALUATION
The Polk County Commissioners also held a closed session for the annual review of Whiting on Tuesday. Board Chair Gary Willhite provided a summary of the evaluation. “COVID-19 has been the curveball this year, but Chuck took strong leadership in keeping the county in business during that time,” said Willhite. “We expressed the fact that he has the respect and support of department heads. He keeps updated with current trends, what’s happening with the Association of Minnesota Counties, what other counties are doing. Particularly scored high with the technical side, knowing what the job is. And being a good communicator, conveying leadership, motivating other, willing to accept responsibility, and maybe the big thing, being a problem-solving.”
Willhite continued by saying Whiting the commissioners are happy with the job Whiting is doing and his effectiveness as keeping the county out of the red. “You need to make decisions on how the county is going to function and how the commissioners are going to,” said Willhite. “I think we’re getting through that pretty well. We’re starting a budgeting season right now. Keeping us out of the red is an important thing, so we’re very happy with the job he is doing for us.”
