Wasilla Council discusses CARES funding distribution

WASILLA — The Wasilla City Council held a committee on the whole at their meeting on Monday to discuss how the remaining 91 percent of their allotted CARES act funds could be distributed to residents in the city of Wasilla. Leading the charge to distribute more funds to residents for several meetings, Councilman Tim Burney proposed individual payments to those who have had to switch to working from home.

“People have to work from home and there’s a new sense of that so we kind of calculated that at about $1,250. I think we would be doing our residents, a good service by offering that,” said Burney. “It’s really something that I think we should consider as a council.”

Wasilla Finance Director Troy Tankersly reported that there had not been any significant change to the expenditures from CARES act funds received by the city. Wasilla has spent a total of $8.6 million. Of that total, $2.5 million was spent on small business grants, $4.7 million went to public safety reimbursement and city mitigation expenses, $668,000 went out in Personal Protective Equipment grants, $720,000 went to the Alaska Housing Finance Corporation for rent relief, and $35,000 went to Enstar and MEA for utility relief. Of the second tier of CARES funding received by the city, only 9.02 percent has been spent.

“As far as the discussion goes to an individual, the CARES act funding doesn’t allow it per se. It’s for business stability,” said Tankersly.

Burney listed Burlington, VT as a municipality that had successfully distributed checks to residents, and Tankersly noted that the Mat-Su Borough had proposed such a program that was dissolved due to not being within the guidelines.

“What about those people that are forced to work from home and have to change their whole gameplan. Like literally, they have to change their whole life to be able to work from home.”

Other council members asked if there were suggestions on how to legally distribute payments to Wasilla residents for working from home and how that would be different from individual checks without a basis of need.

“I think handing out Federal dollars liberally, I’m not sure is the right course of action unless there’s a need that’s identified and fits within the program. I just don’t see it as a very conservative approach to managing finances. I don’t see it as good stewardship,” said Councilman Jordan Rausa.

Burney received support from Councilman James Harvey, who wanted to pursue the discussion around Burlington. Harvey had asked Tankersly about the feasibility of providing child care assistance with CARES funds and Tankersly reached out to Alaska Family Services for an answer he had not yet received. Tankersly also noted that the city’s online sales tax payment program was online this week. Tankersly also approached AHFC as well as utility companies to inquire whether they could use additional funding. AHFC told Tankersly that they had received more funding than they would be able to distribute and the need was undetermined by utility companies.

“It really doesn’t matter the distance between us, we’re both held to the same guidelines of CARES act money and how we can use it and if they found a way to use it to benefit their residents then I think by all means it’s something we should look into,” said Harvey. “Our job isn’t to step aside and say well somebody else should take care of the people, our job as the city council is to do exactly that, take care of our citizens the best way we can and if there’s a need out there that we’re not meeting and there’s a possibility we could meet that need we should absolutely explore that.”

Tankersly reported that there was not currently any PPE grant funding available through the city, and that many businesses has reported that they were unable to spend their grant funds from one phase to the next, and that $38,000 in PPE grant funds had been returned to the city. Harvey asked Tankersly about the financial impacts of the pandemic to the city, and Tankersly responded that most of the expenses were cleaning related but that the Menard Center had suffered dramatic losses. Harvey asked to continue the discussion on how to implement a fifth phase of CARES act funds during the next meeting of the Wasilla city council.

“I think that we just send a good message knowing that it’s not going to make a diff on a national level or probably on a state level, it would just send a nice message from the city of Wasilla that we are live and well and we are doing good,” said Councilman Rausa. “The good lord has blessed us and he’s answering our prayers to send as much of this money back as we can.”