City Manager

Stimulus Funds

Background

What is the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009?

The United States Congress passed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act on Jan. 6, 2009. On Feb. 17, 2009 President Barack Obama signed the act, referred to informally as the economic stimulus program or plan. The full text of the Act is available online.

What is the Act supposed to do?

The purposes of the act are to:

• Preserve and create jobs and promote economic recovery.
• Assist those most impacted by the recession.
• Provide investments needed to increase economic efficiency by spurring technological advances in science and health.
• Invest in transportation, environmental protection, and other infrastructure that will provide long-term economic benefits.
• Stabilize state and local government budgets, in order to minimize and avoid reduction in essential services and counterproductive state and local tax increases.

What are stimulus funds?

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 is informally referred to as the federal stimulus plan. The funds that have been set aside are designed to jump-start the economy, promoting economic recovery and growth.

Most of the stimulus money will be distributed through the states. This includes money that the states will get to divide, as they want, but some will devolve to local governments by formula. Some money is being distributed on a regional basis through metropolitan planning organizations.

Will these dollars solve our budgetary issues?

City officials recognize that the stimulus is not a cure-all for local budget problems. States are able to use some stimulus funds to shore up general revenue accounts, but local governments don't have that option. Money for cities is mostly for capital projects. Stimulus funds cannot be relied on to fix holes in general fund budgets.

The City of Clearwater is actively pursuing stimulus funds. The following funds (listed by department) have been requested:

Police

Justice Assistance Grant (JAG) Recovery - Prisoner Transport System. The city requests $383,713 for this purpose. A countywide project with the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office to transport Clearwater prisoners to the Pinellas County jail, thus freeing Clearwater officers back into service more quickly.

Justice Assistance Grant (JAG) Recovery - Hispanic Outreach Center - $118,304. A partnership request with the Hispanic Outreach Center, to fund two positions, a Victim Advocate and a Gang Prevention Specialist, as well as contract dollars to provide on-call, civilian interpreters to assist police officers.

Edward Byrne Memorial Recovery Act Competitive Grant - Gang Awareness/Investigations Training - $153,684. Request will fund training and overtime for a project that will increase the capacity of police officers to identify, investigate and prosecute violent crimes that are committed by the increasing numbers of gang members.

JAG Recovery Act funding - $100,000. Funding will allow Clearwater to contract with the Hispanic Outreach Center for the provision of victim advocacy, gang prevention, and interpreter/translation services. The funding will allow the HOC to hire a full time victim advocate and a gang prevention specialst.

General Services/Fleet

Energy Efficiency & Conservation Block Grant (EECBG) - Energy Efficiency Improvements/Lighting - $1, 075,400. City has contracted with Honeywell to perform audits of several city buildings to see where the stimulus money could be spent to generate maximum energy savings for the City.

Diesel Emissions Reduction Act - Environmental Protection Agency - 25% of Vehicle Replacement. Funds requested to offset portion of purchase cost for one hybrid refuse (garbage) truck.

Department of Energy (DOE) - Transportation Electrification - Fully funds retrofit of conventional refuse trucks into hybrid trucks. The test will involve 20-30 existing diesel trucks and last about two years. There is no direct cost to the City, but some limited in-kind staff hours will be contributed to the project.

Public Utilities

The Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) is distributing and managing stimulus funds for public utilities projects through the existing State Revolving Loan Fund (SRF). The state received $88 million in stimulus funds for drinking water infrastructure projects and $132 million for wastewater system improvements. Clearwater is reviewing the SRF criteria to determine if it is feasible for the city to obtain funding for certain Public Utilities projects. If the SRF is not the most cost effective option to secure a loan, the City will pursue bond funding to pay for the following potential Public Utilities projects:

Potable Water Wellfields Expansion - Phase 2, $3,419,000. This project consists of 13 new raw water production well sites to maximize wellfield capacity and reduce the amount of water purchased from Pinellas County.

Idlewild/The Mall Sanitary Sewer Expansion, $4,279,773. A septic tank replacement project to eliminate the use of septic tanks in the project area.

Sanitary Sewer Overflow Abatement, $5,351,788. Construction of sanitary sewer mains.

Reclaimed Water Projects - Skycrest, Morningside, and Chautauqua/Coachman Ridge areas, $22,932,615. Approximately $12.8 million of this would be spent in Skycrest, $4 million in Morningside, and $3.95 million in the Chautauqua/Coachman Ridge area.

Wastewater Treatment Rehabilitation, $10,818,400. This work consists of rehabilitation of the city's three wastewater treatment facilities

Reverse Osmosis Water Treatment Plant Expansion, $5,195,000. Construction of a1-MGD expansion, bringing water capacity to 4-MGD, allowing the City to reduce the amount of water purchased from Pinellas County.

Engineering

Transportation Enhancement Funds - East Avenue Section of Pinellas Trail - $1,392,000. Project provides for construction on the East Avenue section of the Pinellas Trail, creating a lane for bicycles.

Economic Development

The U.S. Environmental Protection - $200,000. Grant funds to be used in Clearwater's designated brownfields area to conduct community-wide Phase I and Phase II environmental site assessments; cleanup planning; implementation of a public health monitoring plan; support of community outreach activities.

Frequently Asked Questions

Will citizens be eligible to receive funds directly?

Stimulus funds will provide increases in weekly unemployment benefits and food stamps; training programs for unemployed workers; and federal income tax credits to consumers who purchase Energy Star appliances.

State Revolving Fund loans to the city will not mean that utilities customers will get a rebate, or even that there will be no rate hikes in the future. Debt service is one component of utility rates and other variables, such as employee salaries and the cost of chemicals and other supplies, could eat up any savings that State Revolving loans would bring to the debt service. Rate increases could be lower than they would be because of State Revolving loan money.

The city's Housing Division will receive an additional $251,549 in Community Development Block Grant-R 2009 Economic Stimulus Funds. Those funds are provided to qualifying individuals through our community housing partners. Please contact the following to see if you are eligible:

Clearwater Neighborhood Housing Services, Inc. - (727) 442-4155
Community Service Foundation - (727) 461-0618
Homes for Independence - (727) 538-7370, ext. 357
Habitat for Humanity of Pinellas County - (727) 536-4755
Tampa Bay Community Development Corporation - (727) 442-7075

Any other inquiries should be directed to the city's Housing Office at (727) 562-4036.

Local businesses may receive subcontracts on individual city projects.

What is meant by the term transparency in government?

President Obama wants a new level of "transparency" as state and local governments spend economic-stimulus dollars. The purpose of transparency is to avoid wasteful spending and to ensure accountability. State and local governments are being asked to spend stimulus funds quickly, but also to account for every dollar according to federal rules that were still being written late in April of this year. This website, as well as the state and federal sites for stimulus funds, help provide transparency for residents.

Other Helpful Resources

http://www.flarecovery.com
http://www.whitehouse.gov
http://www.pinellascounty.org/recovery
http://www.flrules.org/gateway/ChapterHome.asp?Chapter=62-503
http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=111_cong_bills&docid=f:h1enr.pdf