St. Clair County commissioners taking $1 million in ARPA funds back to districts

Two years after the revenue first rolled in, St. Clair County is spreading its remaining millions in American Rescue Plan Act funds around a bit more than, perhaps, once anticipated.

County commissioners agreed last Thursday to allocate another $1 million to each of their seven districts — in addition to the $500,000 each received already — enabling board members to once again choose how to boost priorities in communities they represent.

The remaining $9.8 million of the roughly $31 million the county originally received in ARPA funds in 2021 would be left for helping move the county’s health department operations into the main administration building in downtown Port Huron, as well as other so far unspecified county capital improvement needs.

“The DHS (Michigan Department of Health and Human Services) is out of half the building. … I think they have a year to relocate and do what they need to do,” County Board Chairman Jeff Bohm said Tuesday of moving the county’s health agency from its aging 28th Street address to 200 Grand River Ave. “We have met with architects that will be designing a retrofit of that building to move the health department there. The health department building is by far the worst building that the county has times five.”

The latest decision follows months of discussion and criticism from some residents on the previous avenue explored by officials to spend the bulk of the funds.

Originally, the board's informal consensus was to focus on backing new infrastructure on 26 Mile Road, or Marine City Highway, and ultimately support future economic development along the corridor.

A shift in representation on the board of commissioners last year, however, tipped the scales of that discussion as residents in the rural area of the county began to populate bi-monthly public comment periods with concerns about the impact of theoretical development despite some officials’ emphasis on preparing for a working population growth spilling north out of Macomb County.

“Obviously, when there’s a change in board membership, there’s a change in the board philosophy,” said Commissioner Steve Simasko, a former county official who returned to office in November 2022, representing the board’s most-western district.

Simasko had proposed processes to evaluate the use of ARPA funds months ahead of his election, and in an interview this month, he recalled it as among his motivations for running.

“Now, we’re looking at it (with) my contribution, Joi’s contribution, (and) Dave’s always felt that way,” he said, referring to Commissioners Joi Torello, who was also elected last year, and Dave Rushing, a long-time sitting board member who’s expressed a more conservative view on the use of ARPA dollars. “And the board listened. The board did listen and responded to, in an open meeting, the sentiments of the community.”

Health department building, other capital needs

This spring, when commissioners began to shift away from the 26 Mile Road discussion, the board signed off on attributing $7 million to capital needs from a long, prioritized list prepared by the administration.

That included things like roof replacements for the main county library branch and courthouse buildings downtown and out-of-date radios for the sheriff’s department — priorities that, Simasko said, put “little things that help people” above “the next big thing” or a “conceptual initiative” like 26 Mile.

Last week, County Administrator Karry Hepting told commissioners that since the board originally put some funds toward capital projects, her office has received additional requests.

Officials did not discuss those additional projects, specifically, last week, and Hepting couldn’t be immediately reached in follow-up this week.

"We recently received proposals from departments for our 2024-2028 Capital Improvement Program," Finance Director Dena Alderdyce said via email early Wednsesday. "We have not met internally to discuss those projects yet, but those new projects will not be presented to the board until their November meetings in conjunction with the 2024 budget presentation."

The list of capital priorities this spring itemized about $23.8 million for a St. Clair County Health Department building, only a portion of which could have been eligible for ARPA funds.

A separate special study issued in May 2022 of the existing SCCHD building detailed a recommendation to either expand or renovate it at $17.7 million or build anew for $15.8 million.

At their regular meeting this month, officials said even if they attribute some of the remaining $9.8 million in ARPA funds to additional capital projects, some of a $6 million from a health department fund balance could go toward relocating the local agency.

“You would want to keep a portion in fund balance for cash flow reasons within the county’s fund balance policy,” Hepting said last week. “So, you would want to keep at least a million.”

Bohm said it was going to be about six months until they’d have a better idea of how much funds they’d need for SCCHD’s move.

Officials said the opportunity to move them downtown came when DHHS did not notify the county in time to renew its lease in the administration building. Alderdyce said they lease 33,694 square feet of space.

The department has been in the 28th Street building since 1980.

Health Director Liz King said in a statement that they're hopeful to begin operations at the new location in 2025.

"SCCHD is looking forward to moving operations downtown, being in a central more accessible location and in a modern building that will bring improved service delivery for the public," she said, "while continuing to providequality and compassionate public health services in our community.

County utilizing subrecipient agreements to help navigate ARPA rules

After the county first saw ARPA funds, commissioners agreed to allocate the half-million to each district.

Now, they get another chance to weigh community needs.

But officials said the parameters won’t be the same, falling under a different area of federal regulations.

“I think it’s really important to have a subrecipient agreement because we had some struggles with recipients on our last 500,000,” Board Vice-Chairperson Jorja Baldwin said in an interview earlier this month. “That was all money that didn’t have the same restrictions that these dollars do. That was all lost revenue that we were allowed to use kind of in a more broad sense. Now, we are (under) very specific uses, and it has to fit in those very clear buckets set by the federal government. So, it’s going be a little bit more difficult.”

In the city of Port Huron, which received the next highest amount of ARPA funds in the county in 2021 at close to $18 million, has already used a host of subrecipient agreements to oversee the vast majority of stimulus funds already designated or spent.

Cynthia Broomfield, the city’s special projects coordinator, said she reports to the U.S. Treasury the month after every quarter on how Port Huron has spent its money and the status of those projects.

“And when I sign a new project, there’s quite a few questions about its purpose, the intentions for the money, and specifically how it relates to COVID or the response to COVID, rather,” she said in an interview earlier this month. “So, that’s what all these subrecipients that come to us (do), and even our own internal projects, we can look at it through that mind frame. We do have $10 million that is to be used for just general government purposes. … Everything else has to have pretty specific ties.”

As of the end of this year’s second quarter, the city had spent over $11.4 million of the $17.8 million allotted for use on ARPA projects. Although City Council has signed off on smaller projects since, some $200,000 remained.

According to the U.S. Department of Treasury, the expenditure categories include public health, negative economic impacts, services to disproportionately impacted communities, premium pay, infrastructure, revenue replacement, and other administrative needs.

County officials said they wanted some consultant help to aid the smaller communities in each commissioner district in deciding which proposed ARPA projects are eligible.

Hepting told commissioners the Michigan Association of Counties already had prequalified contacts St. Clair County could utilize without having to issue its own request for proposals.

Commissioners largely supported the idea.

“What I’m afraid of is a good majority of the 31 cities, townships and village, or probably two-thirds of them, are going to struggle with the paperwork,” Bohm said during last Thursday’s meeting. “And what I don’t want to do is create a ton of additional work for the administration — that we’ve already got our hands full with a lot of these ARPA funds, a lot of these construction projects that we have going on.”

Commissioners still weighing $1M priorities in districts

When the county board floated the use of millions to help build underground infrastructure and new water or sewer access along 26 Mile, the idea, oft-spearheaded by Bohm, was to loan funds to Ira Township, which is considering a wastewater build. That loan repayment, the chairman has said, would’ve established a longer-term loan program for other future county priorities decades down the road.

But just because they’ve moved on from the larger corridor discussion doesn’t mean the 26 Mile Road priority is entirely dead.

“There’s still some funding sources that are out there that we’re still waiting on,” Bohm said Tuesday. “Don’t think that I’m not continuing to work (on it). We’ve got state monies, an MEDC (Michigan Economic Development Corporation) grant that we applied for that may require some matching funds. We’re waiting to hear on that.

“… We have a congressional earmark (request) out. We’ve been working with (state Sen.) Kevin Hertel’s office. So, we’re just kind of waiting to see what that looks like.”

When asked about potential needs for his $1 million, Bohm said he’d been approached by local fire departments about needing new radios.

“How much that looks like financially, I’m going to say it’s probably going to be about 250,000 — just a ballpark figure as I’ve been getting estimates,” he said. As for the rest: “I’ll reach out to other people in the district to see what priorities they have. I’m sure everybody’s going to have an idea on how money should be spent.”

Other commissioners shared a similar intent.

In a message early Wednesday, Torello said she hadn’t decided how to use the funds or where.

As the newest board member, her predecessor had spent all of that district's intial $500,000 in Marysville, though the district also includes Port Huron Township, where she resides, and one Kimball Township precinct.

“We’ll see how it all pans out,” Torello said.

“I am going to have some meetings with several people for the funds that have been allocated to us,” she said. “… Hopefully, I can figure out what is most important to the constituents and allocate funds to areas that need the most attention.”

Simasko, too, hadn’t made any major decisions — except on method.

“My initial response will be a per-capita distribution (to the) townships and municipalities based on population,” he said. “... My position is if it fits within the treasury regulations for an approved or appropriate ARPA expenditure, then I’m going to agree with it. I’m not going to second-guess it. The townships, the municipalities, they need that latitude because they best know how to serve their community.”

Baldwin hadn’t named any specific priorities but confirmed this month she preferred investments that’d have long-term helpful effects for her district rather than one-off expenditures.

During the last board meeting, she said the $1 million also didn’t preclude commissioners from using their funds anywhere in the county since they as a board represent the county at large.

That had been in response to Commissioner Dave Vandenbossche, who was the only dissenting vote in the decision over how they broke up allocations.

He said there were plenty of other potential needs around the county they should address, citing aging boats with the sheriff’s department’s marine division and an older facility occupied by emergency management.

“We had a township supervisor fall this week going up a set of stairs in our emergency management building that were (to) the second floor,” Vandenbossche told his colleagues. “… Which blows my mind that we have to go up stairs every time we have a meeting, it makes no sense.”

Vandenbossche, as well as Commissioner Lisa Beedon, didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment in follow-up this week.

While board members have until the end of 2024 to designate ARPA funds, and unlike his colleagues, Rushing said he already had plans for “the entire million.”

“I still have to talk with other supervisors and elected officials and make sure we’re on the same page,” he said. “I’m not going to say any specifics just yet, but it’ll be used for infrastructure.”

Contact Jackie Smith at (810) 989-6270 or jssmith@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Port Huron Times Herald: St. Clair County commissioners taking $1M in ARPA funds back to districts