Receive comprehensive review on American Rescue Plan revenues and expenditures plan to date and provide Board direction and feedback. (No general fund impact) (Rinde/Nunes/Will)

Receive comprehensive review on American Rescue Plan revenues and expenditures plan to date and provide Board direction and feedback.

ARP Background
Over the past year, County staff and the Board of Supervisors (Board) have worked to develop the American Rescue Plan (ARP) Board Guiding Principles and Expenditure Plan. With the adoption of the Expenditure Plan on September 28, 2021, staff developed a process by which to distill projects for consideration, vet internal and external proposals through groups of subject matter experts, and receive feedback from Board Liaisons.  Throughout this process, staff have returned to the full Board with recommendations for funding. Over the past several months, staff have presented items on each of the five priority category areas, priority projects as appropriate, and a Mini Grants program as directed by the Board.

Over the last six months, the Expenditure Plan has been actively implemented and ARP funding still remains, both funds allocated to a specific priority category area as well as certain other amounts including reserves and revenue reimbursement. At this inflection point in the process, staff has prepared several documents outlining efforts thus far and considerations for projects that have been surfaced by the Board previously. Outlining the remainder of the ARP process will help ensure timeliness and compliance with the federal regulations and requirements.

ARP Policy Changes
In addition to the efforts undertaken by the Board and County staff, the U.S. Treasury has continued to alter and shape the ARP policy and regulatory landscape. In January 2022, the U.S. Treasury Final Rule was released, which provides broader flexibility and clarifies provisions from the Interim Final Rule. Despite many changes, the core pieces of ARP remain intact, as projects must address the harm or impact caused by COVID-19. Other core components of ARP include rigorous reporting requirements, federal procurement and contracting requirements, and adherence to eligibility criteria. These policy changes have not substantially altered the way that staff have approached this process, but are important as the County moves toward executing more contracts and providing funds to a wide variety of organizations. In addition, the U.S. Treasury formula for calculation of revenue reimbursement was adjusted and now provides a greater amount of capacity to address revenue losses from COVID-19 and pay for general government expenditures. 

Expenditure Report
The primary update in this item is the current Expenditure Plan, which may be found in Attachment A of this staff report. The Expenditure Plan details the major categories of spending, amounts allocated, and illustrates fund balances by category. This spreadsheet indicates progress in all areas of the plan, as well as areas in which expenditure has not yet been determined, such as Reserves and Revenue Reimbursement.

Outstanding Projects
During Board updates for the Children, Youth, and Families and Parks and Facilities ARP workgroups, the Board requested that several projects return for consideration and funding through ARP. The projects associated with Children, Youth, and Families are the Yolo Crisis Nursery and the Boys and Girls Club proposals. The Yolo Crisis Nursery request is for $1,100,000 to support the development and construction of a new Crisis Nursery facility with expanded capacity. The Boys and Girls Club request is for $700,000 over three years to provide afterschool and childcare programming at the Boys and Girls Club facility located in Woodland.

In addition to these projects, staff was directed at the last ARP meeting by the Board to engage with local organizations in East Yolo to determine what Parks needs may be identified by partner organizations. County staff engaged with the City of West Sacramento, who identified two projects for consideration. The first project would support the implementation of the Bryte Park Master Plan, with an estimated current funding gap of $3,500,000. The second project would support the implementation of the Great Delta Trail, with an estimated current funding gap of $2,000,000. The City would appreciate any significant amount of funding in partnership and did not provide a specific dollar amount of ask but brought attention to the funding gaps that exist to complete these projects.

The concept proposals for these projects and the Children, Youth, and Families projects may be found in Attachment B, C, and D of this staff report. The Board can consider taking action on these specific projects if there was a consensus. Staff would request the Board to indicate a desire to partially or fully fund these proposals and would request direction to return to a subsequent meeting with contractual documents for approval. 

Projects for Consideration
In addition to the existing Expenditure Plan and Outstanding Projects identified in this staff report, there exist many internal and external needs that have been previously discussed by the Board and have not had funding identified, or have an identified funding gap, that still require funds. The purpose of this list is to generate concepts that have already been identified in Yolo County and may align with the remaining, unallocated ARP dollars. The full list of these projects may be found in Attachment E. The list is not exhaustive but does represent projects and initiatives throughout Yolo County that have been formally discussed with the full Board.

Next Steps
Staff anticipates Board feedback and direction for the outstanding projects. Depending on Board feedback, staff would plan to return with appropriate projects, contracts, and concepts over the following months, with a planned quarterly check-in scheduled for July 2022. In the interim, staff will continue to evaluate the proposals received as part of the Mini Grants program, return with recommendations under the Strategic Plan Implementation areas, and plan to determine the majority of ARP project spending by December 2022.

Many agencies