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County staff outline grants policy update and rapid spending of SLFRF funds
Summary
Budget and grants staff told the San Juan County Council that the county expedited spending much of its State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds (SLFRF/ARPA) to reduce audit risk and uncertainty, and proposed a first-touch update to the county grants policy to improve controls, clarity and coordination.
San Juan County staff briefed the council on the county’s grants program, a first-touch update to the grants policy and recent steps to expedite spending of state and local fiscal recovery funds.
Tara Anderson, the county’s GRAMA and grants administrator, told the council that the county executed a strategy to obligate and spend a large portion of its SLFRF funds before the Treasury’s evolving guidance created retroactive audit risk. “We expedited the spending before the end of the obligation period to allow us to ensure that we could get ahead of some changes that might have happened,” Anderson said in the presentation. She said the county sought to place SLFRF money in government-service activities (staff retention, public health response, technology) and emergency-response infrastructure, and to limit future audit and administrative costs associated with multi-year federal funds.
Anderson also presented a first touch on revising Resolution 16-2014—the county’s grants policy adopted in 2014. She recommended clarifying what counts as a grant, adding policy language for pre-award notifications (so the auditor’s office and county manager are aware of significant grant activity), defining minimum thresholds for acceptance of awards, and adding suspension and compliance procedures to reduce federal audit findings. She said the county has already adopted a 15% de minimis indirect cost rate for grants and is training managers on compliance and reporting.
Why it matters: SLFRF guidance from Treasury has shifted over time and the county’s choice to accelerate spending reduces the risk of future clawbacks and lowers long-term audit costs. The policy update is intended to centralize oversight, avoid fragmented decision-making and make sure grants align with county priorities.
Discussion and next steps: Council members supported the update and asked staff to engage departments and elected offices during drafting. Anderson proposed bringing the revised policy back in two or three touches with examples of how other local governments handle pre-award notification, internal controls and grant acceptance thresholds. “We can consider a more coordinated effort across the departments, certainly around the central grants activity, monitoring and reporting,” she told the council.
