Dougherty County setting priorities for $17 million in COVID relief funding

ALBANY — In setting priorities for spending federal coronavirus relief funds, Dougherty County officials are zeroing in on boosting pay for front-line employees, paying medical costs for sick workers and rural broadband.

The draft document for year one under consideration also includes $400,000 for three COVID-19 vaccination clinics held earlier this year and $300,000 for incentives for employees who got vaccinated, $756,000 for technology for technology, including computers, software and radios, and $200,000 for employee incentives in priority 1 outlays.

The county will receive $17.5 million over two years.

An additional $120,000 is earmarked for spending on personal protective equipment for the first year.

The Dougherty County Commission passed a $73 million general fund budget in June that did not raise taxes but did include spending up to $6.6 million of the $14.4 million of the county’s reserve funds to balance the budget.

“The (allocation) is to minimize the burden on taxpayers and commit to providing high-quality services to the community,” Dougherty County Administrator Michael McCoy said of the COVID relief funds. “COVID brought an additional cost of $1.8 million — that’s just for the current (health) plan year that ends at the end of the year.”

The proposed spending plan for federal funds calls for an outlay of $1.5 million for workers sickened by the novel coronavirus and $500,000 for next year.

After passing the initial budget, commissioners amended the document to include $3.2 million in additional funding to boost pay for about 152 employees with the Dougherty County Police Department, Dougherty County Sheriff’s Office and Emergency Medical Services.

The county agreed to the pay hikes, funded with federal dollars for two years, after the sheriff’s office warned of a staffing crisis at the jail, with nearly one in four positions vacant.

“We’re prioritizing operational expenses, as a result of COVID, that the county is having to fund,” McCoy said.

Two outlays, of $400,000 for the county library system and $370,000 for the Dougherty County Health Department, were identified as priority 2 projects.

Among those identified in the third category of priority 3 were $250,000 for a jail mental health initiative, $50,000 each for housing and addressing homelessness and $100,000 for ASPIRE mental health and developmental disability services.

That first-year proposal, plus spending outlined for the second year, would total $19.58 million, about $2.58 million more than the amount the county will receive, so some decisions will have to be made to trim the list.

“The bottom line is there is consensus to fund priority 1 and 2 on the proposed ARP funds as proposed by the administration,” McCoy said.

Another decision also looms down the road, how to address the burden of public safety raises once the federal dollars run dry.

“Those are the options, either cut the pay or (continue it) with local tax dollars,” McCoy said.

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