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County staff brief commissioners on federal grant‑risk review; ARPA reporting glitch flagged
Summary
County finance staff told the commission they are convening weekly to monitor federal grant risks after recent abrupt federal terminations and warned of a technical glitch at the U.S. Treasury that could complicate ARPA reporting deadlines.
Chief Financial Officer Lindsay Powrousseau told the commission April 16 that Sedgwick County is convening a standing interdepartmental group to track federal grant risks and to coordinate response planning for possible early terminations of federal awards.
Powrousseau said the county typically receives $10–12 million in federal grant funds annually for operations and programs, with about $8 million of that flowing through the health department. She described the meeting group — which includes grants compliance staff, department leads and budget staff — as a way to spot risks early, prioritize grants for monitoring, and prepare contingency messaging and workforce steps.
She said the county has already experienced sudden federal changes in recent weeks and cited a U.S. Treasury webinar noting an unintended contract cancellation that supports ARPA technical reporting. Treasury announced the contract was reinstated at a lower rate, Powrousseau said, but staff warned that the interruption could cause technical problems when counties attempt to file required quarterly ARPA reports. “If we run into any technical issues ... it could take significant time for that to be corrected,” she said, and noted Treasury indicated strict compliance expectations despite the technical problems.
Powrousseau described the county’s standard reactive and proactive approaches: where a federal award is terminated unexpectedly, county practice has been to continue operations for a temporary period (60 days) while working to reassign or place affected employees, to provide a short reduction‑in‑force package if layoffs are required, and to stand up a community resource page to help affected clients access workforce and social services. On the proactive side, she said the county maintains a risk assessment of each federal grant (high/medium/low) and will brief commissioners earlier on grants judged to be at higher risk.
Commissioners asked for more detail on the dollar value of federal grants and on timing for the community‑resources page; Powrousseau said the county will provide periodic updates and that the page is being re‑established using a COVID‑era template.
