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Marietta City Council will not have completed allocations for emergency homelessness reprieve by year's end.
Legislators and other city administrators are looking to other routes for public funds to support a warming center at a local church through the county homeless project, local food banks and vouchers for motel stays to be carried by law enforcement for immediate distribution on cold nights.
In January of this year, a Marietta law enforcement officer was called out to one of the homeless encampments for a wellness check.The police officer was at a loss for available action that cold January afternoon, speaking with the Times and Councilman Geoff Schenkel about not wanting to find a frozen body but also having nowhere to offer those without a home.
The officer asked to remain nameless at that time and that request is continuing to be honored by the Times.
"What am I supposed to do?" they asked the councilman. "They're not breaking any laws, they're not on private property. And I don't have anywhere to take them."
Eleven months later, the hope is to provide a warm place to land, with access to behavioral health and food resources while sheltered from the cold.
The hiccups experienced this month? How to legally pay for the aid.
"If you're concerned that the attorney general is going to give you a slap on the wrist, then find out ahead of time, if that's coming or not," challenged Schenkel, council representative for the Fourth Ward, during the latest Finance Committee meeting Monday concerning the confusion of source funds.
Schenkel repeated both in the public meeting and following in consult with City Law Director Paul Bertram and the Times that swift action now is not only an act of charity but a crime prevention measure.
Background
In the final regular business meeting before council on Dec. 17, legislators were offered an alternative by the city law director to the initial plan that week to allocate a total of $75,000 in general fund monies in varying amounts to the Washington County Homeless Project, Salvation Army, Gospel Mission Food Pantry, Washington-Morgan Community Action and Harvest of Hope.
Bertram asked the legislators on Dec. 17 to not suspend readings and call for a vote on the resulting "preliminary" resolutions until this week's special business meeting, to allow for further clarification on the parameters and use of the coronavirus-specific Community Development Block Grant dollars instead of funds from the city's general fund.
On Monday, the Finance Committee met again following the change in resolutions for an explanation from the law director and city auditor, and to question available uses and limitations of federal Community Development Block Grant funding, versus direct CARES act funding and the potential to partner with the Marietta Community Foundation.
Finding the right pot of money
What's in flux is which pot of money the funds can come from, when the state auditor has guided city officials that the city cannot use $75,000 in general fund money to provide relief.
Monday, during the final finance committee meeting of the year, Councilwoman Susan Boyer argued that a statute within the Ohio Revised Code which was passed in October of 1953 she has interpreted to mean the city can use general fund dollars.
However, explained Bertram, that statute (ORC 751.10) may be misapplied, though provide a loose precedent for directing adaptation in crisis.
Following council's public discussion, Bertram explained to the Times that the 751st chapter is "antiquated" calling back to when cities also had "relief rolls" and utilized portions of real estate taxes for monthly housing certificates for indigents and orphans. Such relief rolls and the portions allocated to individuals were administered by a city's director of public safety as "an overseer of the poor."
"That doesn't exist anymore," explained Bertram.
But the framework for adapting to a present crisis may be used, guided Schenkel.
Options
1. City fronts the $75,000 in requested aid to the five organizations through remaining CARES Act Round One dollars it has received from the state (approximately $110,000 remaining within city coffers now that the deadline to spend has been extended past Dec. 30.)
2. City allocates coming Community Development Block Grant Coronavirus funds (separate from the annual allocation) to the same nonprofits, for disbursement as a reimbursement after expenditure.
3. City fronts General Fund dollars to the Community Development Block Grant Coronavirus fund line item to then be paid in a cash advance to the nonprofits, with a written contract for reimbursement to the general fund when the CDBG funds arrive.
4. With a potential cooperative venture with the Marietta Community Foundation, as indicated is a possibility by both Schenkel and emails provided to the Times between the homeless coalition and the foundation, the city may also consider two sub-options:
4a. If the Marietta Community Foundation were to agree in writing to front the dollars needed to by the five entities, the city legislators could also agree to reimburse the foundation from either the CARES Act dollars or the CDBG dollars (if direction from Anthony Forte, a program manager for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development located in the Columbus office who explained to council on Dec. 9 that he is the state expert in homelessness response funding, would green-light the expenditures requested as eligible for the HUD funding.)
4b. Bertram also theorized a second option Monday, considering asking the foundation to instead serve as both the disburser and policer of the CARES Act dollars.
Each of the options is under scrutiny by the law director and council, with Bertram pledging to research further the viability of each to minimize legal risk in the aftermath of the pandemic to the city.
What's Next
Bertram committed to speaking with the executive director of the Marietta Community Foundation and City Auditor Sherri Hess today to begin framing remaining needs from the nonprofits to form agreements for fund disbursements.
With that guidance, and contact with the homeless coalition representatives (Steve and Teresa Porter and their legal counsel Robin Bozian) the hope is to form final options for council to discuss determinate detail on Jan. 4 in Finance Committee.
Other business
Council also met predominantly in executive session for Employee Relations Committee on Monday afternoon to accept the next three-year contract, retroactively to Nov. 1, for the International Association of Fire Fighters.
The contract has been under negotiation with the union for the majority of 2020 as a standard rotating discussion of pay and benefits. This new contract expires on Oct. 31, 2023, if passed on Wednesday by vote of council, and would take effect on Jan. 1, 2021.
Janelle Patterson may be reached at jpatterson@mariettatimes.com.