As people continue to lose jobs and coronavirus cases still increase, the Montgomery County Council has directed about $50 million to address various community needs related to the pandemic in the past two months.
Of those funds, $25 million was designated for a Public Health Emergency Grant (PHEG) program to provide small businesses and nonprofits with grants of up to $75,000. The awardees must have 100 employees or fewer and be able to demonstrate a 50% revenue loss in March.
As of Wednesday morning, $8.5 million has been awarded to 939 businesses and nonprofits.
Base grants of up to $10,000 are being awarded before applications are revisited to add to the grant for a total of up to $75,000.
The county received 6,758 applications in 11 days before the application process closed on April 25.
Rich Madaleno, the county’s budget director, said 640 restaurants applied to the program — 400 of which were awarded grants.
A list of the awardees and their grant amounts is expected to be sent to the council by the end of the week.
The council received an update on the program and other funds from Madaleno at its meeting Wednesday morning.
The appropriations have ranged from a $100,000 grant fund for local businesses that shift to manufacturing personal protective equipment to the $25 million PHEG program.
Madaleno said the county received more applications to the PHEG program than it anticipated and the finance department had to bring in other employees to help assess the applications. The department expects to be done with the first review of the applications by the end of the week, he said.
Criticism of delays
The council has been critical of the delay in getting money out to applicants of the PHEG program and other funds set up to help with responding to the public health crisis. It approved $20 million for the PHEG program on March 31.
Madaleno said one reason for the delays is that county staff members can’t create grant agreements, so new contracts or amended contracts have to be used for disbursement of the funds. Having grant agreements would allow the money to be provided upfront instead of providing it in installments when recipients send invoices to the county, he said.
Council Member Nancy Navarro is drafting legislation to create an office to handle grants and allow for grant agreements.
Madaleno said other problems are that having employees work remotely slows down the efficiency of tasks shared by staff members.
The finance department has several safeguards in place to approve funds before they go out the door, he said. The extra safeguards were put in place after former 20-year county employee Byung Il “Peter” Bang embezzled $6.7 million from the county between 2010 and 2016.
Bang was sentenced to 15 years in state prison in Montgomery County Circuit Court on March 7, 2019. The sentence runs concurrently with a federal sentence of four years in prison.
Council Member Craig Rice said Bang’s fraud was a result of staff members who did not follow all procedures and processes, not because of speeding through finance requests.
Rice said the county is on week seven since it first appropriated funds for a pandemic response. He said he understood if delays were because of a staffing problems, but it’s time to change procedures to get money out the door faster.
“We’ve got to step up and really add a little bit more fuel to the fire. I understand and I’m completely … empathetic to the challenges at the beginning,” he said. “But we’re not at the beginning any longer. Now we’re in the real crux, the midst of this pandemic. From that perspective, I would’ve hoped that we would have made a little bit more progress than we have been.”
Council Member Gabe Albornoz said the county could look into hiring a contractor to help increase efficiency to address technology problems.
Multiple funds
• Of the $10 million in a fund for grants to help individuals and families, $645,000 was distributed on April 27 to 601 families receiving services through the Care for Kids program.
The checks ranged from $500 to $1,450. Recipients of the funds must have an income of less than 50% of the federal poverty level. Household income levels that are 50% of the federal poverty level are $6,380 for individuals and $10,860 for a family of three.
• A second phase of the program will provide grants through nonprofits. A final phase will open applications to others not eligible for federal or state aid.
An additional $1 million was approved to support safety net programs — half of which will be used for food assistance to the community.
• No money has been provided to hospitals yet from the $10 million appropriated for emergency purchases and costs caused by surges in virus cases. Madaleno said a “memorandum of understanding” has been drafted between the county and local hospitals and is under review.
• The council approved $2 million for housing stabilization and rental assistance for residents who have informal rental agreements. Residents who have leases are protected from evictions under orders by Gov. Larry Hogan on April 3.
The funds were approved on April 28, but have not been distributed because legislation has to first be approved to amend the county code to expand the eligibility for the rental assistance program. The legislation was drafted on May 1 and the council has yet to pass it.
• Last week, the council approved $750,000 in grants to be awarded to food providers serving vulnerable residents. The grants must be used to purchase ethnic and culturally appropriate food for certain communities. The county’s Food Security Task Force will use $50,000 of the funds to develop a long-term strategy for food assistance.
The rest of the funds include $260,000 for the county’s Department of Health and Human Services and Manna Food to expand weekend meal distributions, as well as $250,000 to provide hotel rooms for medical health care workers, first responders and other front-line workers.
Health care workers and other front-line employees have had 23 hotel reservations and 29 room nights paid for through the $250,000 fund.
• Another $250,000 was allocated to purchase cloth face masks to distribute to vulnerable residents and public transportation riders. The county has ordered 250,000 cloth masks and is expected to order another 250,000 with the fund. More than a million gloves have been ordered, as well.
Madaleno said the only item of which the county has a short supply is surgical gowns. It is working on getting 100,000 gowns from the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda.
“The administration has been aggressive in going after personal protective equipment from any venue possible. … We have them coming from local manufacturers, as well as manufacturers abroad,” Madaleno said.
• A grant fund of $250,000 was also established to help cover costs for businesses and nonprofits to have employees work remotely.
• Another $100,000 program was started to provide grants for local manufacturers to switch production to personal protective equipment.
The program for the manufacturing grants for personal protective equipment has received 41 applications.
Council Member Andrew Friedson said he would like to get regular updates on how much of the funds has been spent. More information on when the rest of the money will be distributed by would be helpful, as well, Council President Sidney Katz said.
The council and the county staff will work together to figure out how $183 million in federal stimulus money for the county should be used in reimbursing the emergency funds and funding future needs.
Madaleno said county staff members have a draft plan for how to use the federal funds and hope to send it to the council by the end of the week.
Briana Adhikusuma can be reached at briana.adhikuusma@moco360.media.
