Current print subscribers can create a free account by clicking here
Otherwise, follow the link below to join.
To Our Valued Readers –
Visitors to our website will be limited to five stories per month unless they opt to subscribe. The five stories do not include our exclusive content written by our journalists.
For $6.99, less than 20 cents a day, digital subscribers will receive unlimited access to YourValley.net, including exclusive content from our newsroom and access to our Daily Independent e-edition.
Our commitment to balanced, fair reporting and local coverage provides insight and perspective not found anywhere else.
Your financial commitment will help to preserve the kind of honest journalism produced by our reporters and editors. We trust you agree that independent journalism is an essential component of our democracy. Please click here to subscribe.
More than $29 million in CARES Act funds may soon be coming to Scottsdale.
The municipality has a planned conversation on June 16 to discuss and provide direction for funding of city programs and key funding areas, and amounts of funding for those programs and key funding areas; contingent on the city receiving federal CARES Act funds from the state.
City Treasurer Jeff Nichols says the city is in the process of applying for the funds; and Scottsdale has not been provided with information to determine how their amount of $29.6 million was calculated.
The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security --- CARES --- Act was passed by Congress and signed into law by President Trump on March 27.
Through the CARES Act, a Coronavirus Relief Fund was created and appropriated $150 billion to be used to make payments for specific uses to states, the District of Columbia, U.S. Territories and tribal governments.
Initially, Arizona received $2.8 billion, which was dispersed to: Maricopa County; Mesa; Phoenix; Pima County; Tucson and the state. If Scottsdale receives funds, it would come from the state’s allocated portion of $1.6 billion.
Only municipalities with a population of more than 500,000 were eligible for the funds initially.
U.S. Census Bureau data estimates Mesa’s population to be 518,012 as of July 1, 2019. Mesa received $90,389,099.40 from the CARES Act.
Scottsdale’s population is estimated by the Census to be 258,069.
On May 19, while planning the city’s upcoming fiscal year budget, city officials said they had not received any direct funds from the CARES Act fund.
About a week later, on May 27, City Councilwoman Solange Whitehead announced on Facebook that Scottsdale would receive an allocation of $29,628,014.
“It sounds, to me, that it’s a guaranteed figure and then we have to still apply for it,” Ms. Whitehead said of the $29.6 million allocation to be received from the state. “We are strategizing internally, the staff, and certainly me --- I met with the treasurer yesterday --- on how to make that money, not delay a catastrophe, but prevent it.”
The CARES Act states payments from the fund may only be used to cover costs that:
Are necessary expenditures incurred due to the public health emergency with respect to COVID-19;
Were not accounted for in the budget most recently approved as of March 27, 2020 (the date of enactment of the CARES Act) for the state or government; and
Were incurred during the period that begins on March 1, and ends on Dec. 30.
“Now that we have an amount, the City Council is scheduled to discuss this topic in more detail during a work study session June 16, with final action schedule to occur July 1,” Scottsdale Spokesman Kelly Corsette said.
Mr. Nichols, in a June 2 email to Independent Newsmedia said the city treasurer’s office expected to finish the application process before the end of the week.
“We are expecting to receive the funds via ACH (electronic transfer) 3-5 business days from there, so I would expect it should be received by the end of next week,” Mr. Nichols said.
While the city had not received notice of any funds during its May 19 budget discussion, City Manager Jim Thompson had a head start on a shortlist for potential uses, shall Scottsdale receive CARES Act money.
During the discussion Mr. Thompson presented possible uses including: public facility retrofits for safety; personal protective equipment, sanitation and cleaning; telework/technology expenses; emergency response; business assistance programs; arts, culture and signature events; care for vulnerable citizens; utility assistance; and food delivery.
“First we would want to replenish our personal protective equipment and such on the city operations side,” Mr. Thompson said. “These are expenses that we’ve already incurred in this year’s budget, that we’ve absorbed in this year’s budget by additional reductions to pay for these things.”
Mr. Thompson says for business assistance programs, the city has many they believe would work well.
“That’s what we were looking at in our CARES --- we didn’t put any numbers to it, any percentages, because we didn’t want to set any false expectations, not knowing if we’d receive any money at all,” Mr. Thompson said.
Mr. Thompson says the funds Scottsdale receives from the state could be further restricted than what federal guidelines stipulates for CARES funds.
One councilwoman’s priorities
Ms. Whitehead, who is one of seven elected members to decide how to spend the CARES Act funds, has come up with her own ideas for using the money in the community.
“First and foremost we have to have it go to the most-vulnerable people,” she said. “We don’t want people to be homeless. I’m reading, as these dollars run out --- for example, rental assistance. If someone gets three months of rental assistance, but they need a year’s worth, they still end up homeless. We can’t let that happen, so we have to be there with that helping hand to make sure people who are doing the right thing and have loss their jobs due to COVID do get that helping hand.”
Secondly, she is proposing low-interest loans to small businesses --- pointing to modeling a program off of what other municipalities have done.
“Phoenix, Mesa, Tempe, what they have done is provided means for small businesses or local businesses to get low-interest loans with the money. The city backs up the loan so that, for instance, Phoenix is internally doing the loans,” she said.
“I think I would favor using a credit union --- we’re not going to go to Bank of America or Wells Fargo --- but a local, credit union, then you’re supporting local jobs again. And, back up loans to give them that safety, a way to bridge, now and when they can go back to making a profit. That’s something I’m very interested in.”
Ms. Whitehead noted the city can’t default on the loans because they have the means to follow-up with people.
“This is not welfare,” she said.
Melissa Rosequist Managing Editor | East Valley @mrosequist_
I first started my journalism portfolio at the age of 15 while in high school before going on to study at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communications. Being in the journalism field is the only professional avenue I was ever interested in, and have worked hard covering topics from school boards to hard news while working for the Independent, where I have been awarded for my reporting.
By 
