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Sampson County adopts ordinance to document use of American Rescue Plan funds
Summary
The Sampson County Board of Commissioners adopted a project ordinance retroactively documenting how more than $12 million in American Rescue Plan Act fiscal recovery funds were used, including allocations for water infrastructure, premium pay and revenue replacement for public safety payroll and contracts to avoid a potential federal clawback.
The Sampson County Board of Commissioners at a special meeting in the County Auditorium adopted a project ordinance to retroactively document the county's use of American Rescue Plan Act fiscal recovery funds, county staff said.
Melissa, a county staff member, told commissioners, "Back in 2021, we received 12, a little bit over $12,000,000 in fiscal recovery funds from the US Treasury. In September of 20 21, we the board approved the general funding plan for use of those funds." She said the ordinance uses a U.S. Treasury template to list allowable uses and to formally record how some of the money was spent.
The ordinance matters because federal rules require documented project-level approvals for many categories of ARPA spending. Commissioners said the documentation effort is intended to keep the county in compliance and to avoid federal recoupment. An unnamed commissioner summarized the risk, saying the documentation work will "help you avoid the clawback of 2,400,000.0 to the feds."
County staff described several categories of prior spending covered by the ordinance: water infrastructure projects (including two elevated storage tanks and booster pump stations), premium pay or bonus pay for certain employees, and revenue-replacement uses. Melissa said the county can use up to $10,000,000 of the allocation for revenue replacement (a permitted ARPA use), and that the ordinance retroactively approves using part of the funds to cover sheriff's department and detention center officers' salaries and benefits and to pay for contracts for services the county entered into.
Commissioners said the county worked with outside advisers to prepare the ordinance. Melissa said the North Carolina Association of County Commissioners and the UNC School of Government reviewed the materials and assisted in preparing the retroactive approval so the county would not be in violation of federal requirements.
Commission discussion emphasized that this is not new money but a paper trail correction. One commissioner told Melissa, "But, Melissa, let's be clear. None of this is new money. This is this is cleaning up paperwork." The motion to adopt the grant project ordinance was made and seconded and carried by voice vote.
The ordinance follows a general funding plan the board approved in September 2021; commissioners said the original plan was high-level and some specific expenditures were not documented at the time. The adopted ordinance retroactively documents those uses.
No dollar amounts beyond the $12.3 million total ARPA allocation, the $10 million revenue-replacement cap and the stated $2.4 million potential clawback were provided during the meeting.
Commissioners did not specify a timeline for publishing the fully updated project files or for any follow-up audits; staff indicated the documentation step completed at this meeting was the last missing piece to align county records with state and federal requirements.
