President Donald Trump signs the CARES Act on March 27 in the Oval Office at the White House. Audrain County has received nearly $3 million from a $150 billion relief fund established in the bill. The county commission now has to develop a plan to disburse the money to municipal governments and other governmental agencies in the county. [Erin Schaff/Tribune News Service]

Audrain County has received nearly $3 million from the coronavirus relief bill. It’s now up to the Audrain County Commission to come up with a plan on how to distribute the funds.

The Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security, or CARES Act, included a provision for a $150 billion relief fund for states. From that, Missouri received nearly $2.4 billion which it now has disbursed to the counties. County commissions now must provide funds to municipalities and other government entities under very vague and broad rules. Audrain County received $2.97 million.

“Quite frankly, the list of guidelines from the federal government in the state was one page,” Audrain County Presiding Commissioner Steve Hobbs said.

Commissioners have consulted the county attorney, an attorney through the Missouri Association of Counties, other county commissions and other governmental consultancy organizations on the best process moving forward.

“We don’want to kill this thing with paper work, but we just need to make sure we are doing the right thing and that it is fair,” Hobbs said

The county and other entities are limited in how they can spend the money. Funds can only be applied to expenses incurred past March 27 that were not already planned in an organization’s or local government’s budget and must be related to COVID-19 mitigation spending.

“I think every county in the state right now is taking a deep breath and saying, ’OK, let’s find out all the information we can on how we administer this,’” Hobbs said.

The commission plans to create a grant application for eligible entities. The county is working on a scoring framework to determine award amounts and eligibility. For the entities that receive an award, they will enter into a contract with the county that stipulates exactly how the funds will be expended.

If an entity spends the money outside of the expected stipulations, then that entity would have to return what was spent. If it was only the county spending the money and it did not follow federal rules it also would have to return what was spent to the federal government.

“The worst thing we could do is shoot from the hip and say, ’Oh, here’s this money,’ and then entities have to pay it back,” Hobbs said. “We want to make sure we’re following the rules right.”

Hobbs expects to start receiving inquiries from entities in the coming days. The county’s inquiries have been met with a lot of “I don’t knows,” Hobbs said. The commission has asked questions on the specifics about how the money can be spent.

Audrain County’s biggest hit due to COVID-19 was its economy and so commissioners are trying to find out as much information as possible before funds are rolled out, Hobbs said.

It will take at least two more weeks before grant applications are available and the commission starts to contact agencies with the application.

“We are trying to make sure that when we do this we don’t have to go back and say, ’Oops, we were wrong. We can’t do that,’” Hobbs said.

So, the commission is figuring out the proper rules and criteria for disbursements. The commission expects to receive a sample application and contract from the Missouri Association of Counties attorney soon. They then will be able to modify both based on county needs.

“Efforts that have been expended in Boone County are quite different than what they are for Audrain County or Monroe County,” Hobbs said.

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