Kane County ARPA committee approves a series of fund reprogramming measures to move dollars into projects ready to spend

The Kane County American Rescue Plan (ARPA) Committee on Feb. 26 approved a set of resolutions that reprogrammed ARPA funds from existing projects into other county projects the committee said were ready to use the money.

Committee members voted, by roll call, to move money from projects including the Office of Emergency Management Mobile Operations Command Post; the Environmental and Water Resources Department’s Ogden Gardens project; the county information technology department’s 2-1-1 phone system project; and a grant to the Association for Individual Development. The reprogrammed funds were directed to the Building Management Department’s access-control project, recycling contractual services and commodities, the county public-health behavioral-health initiative, and HVAC renovations at the Kane County satellite office in Elgin.

The committee’s action follows staff updates that the county is on track to obligate and spend ARPA funds by the timeframe it established. Chair Verne Teppe presided over the meeting and asked for roll calls on each item.

Key votes and amounts recorded in the meeting record were: - $314 moved from the Office of Emergency Management Mobile Operations Command Post ARPA project to the Building Management Department’s access-control ARPA project (motion moved and seconded; roll call recorded all members present voting yes). - $7,265 moved from the Environmental and Water Resources Department’s Ogden Gardens ARPA project to the department’s scribe gauging ARPA project (motion moved and seconded; roll call recorded unanimous yes). - $239,230.95 moved from the Environmental and Water Resources Department’s Ogden Gardens ARPA project to the department’s recycling contractual services and commodities ARPA project (motion moved and seconded; roll call recorded unanimous yes). - $25,450 moved from the Information Technology Department’s 2-1-1 phone system ARPA project to the Kane County Public Health Department’s project addressing behavioral-health needs of Kane County residents (motion moved and seconded; roll call recorded unanimous yes). - $54,550 moved from the Information Technology Department’s 2-1-1 phone system ARPA project to the Building Management Department’s access-control ARPA project (motion moved and seconded; roll call recorded unanimous yes). - A reprogramming described in the meeting record as $46,202,100.55 from an ARPA project listed as awarded to the Association for Individual Development to the Building Management Department’s Kane County satellite-office HVAC renovations in Elgin (motion moved and seconded; roll call recorded unanimous yes). The amount and the listed source appear in the committee’s agenda item as stated during the meeting.

Discussion and staff clarifications Committee member questions focused on whether ARPA dollars moved between projects must remain within ARPA-authorized projects. A county staff member, identified in the record as Mr. Roth, confirmed that ARPA funds can only be reprogrammed between projects that were originally authorized as ARPA projects; funds may be transferred across departments so long as the receiving project is an ARPA-authorized project.

Roger Drake, identified as IT and building-management staff, explained the county’s access-control work that several of the reallocations support. Drake said the access-control system includes closed-circuit cameras, door controls and HID proximity cards and that it was used during the COVID-19 period to help identify who swiped into buildings for contact-tracing and targeted sanitation. “We install both closed circuit cameras and door controls, HID proximity cards and other measures of access control throughout the buildings,” Drake said. He added that the system now supports routine access-control requests—such as checking who entered a building on a particular date—and could be useful if future public-health events required tracing who had been in county facilities.

Committee members also remarked that small reprogramming transfers are a recurring pattern as projects that cannot spend all their funds return modest sums to be used where there is demonstrated need; members framed these reallocations as a way to use every ARPA dollar effectively.

Outcome and next steps All reprogramming measures on the agenda were approved by roll call. Committee members said staff will continue to work with consultants and departments to ensure payments are recorded accurately and that remaining ARPA balances are allocated to projects that can obligate and spend the funds in the county’s required timeframe.

Questions about specific project budgets, the rationale for the very large amount listed for the Association for Individual Development transfer, and the contract details behind those transfers were not discussed at length in the meeting record and would require follow-up with county staff to clarify.