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Athens-Clarke County pauses ARPA recaptures after subgrantee appeals, approves limited reallocations
Summary
Following appeals from multiple ARPA subgrantees and a staff review of reimbursement delays, the commission decided not to recapture funds now and authorized limited internal reallocations so programs can continue while staff and the Chamber work to speed reimbursements.
After extensive public testimony from subgrantees and their partners, Athens-Clarke County's Mayor and Commission on March 3 voted to pause planned mass recaptures of ARPA subgrant dollars and to allow limited internal reallocations tied to items G, H and I in the staff report.
Representatives from funded programs described multi-step reimbursement delays that leave small nonprofits out of pocket: funds flow from subgrantee → Chamber of Commerce (as subrecipient) → county for final reimbursement. "The bottleneck is simply the reimbursement process itself," said Alvie Coz of the Athens Area Chamber of Commerce, urging the commission to table recapture to allow outstanding reimbursements to be processed.
Kirk Dominic, interim CEO of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Athens, told commissioners a recommended recapture of $130,456 would imperil programming and said his organization had since corrected reporting and documented roughly $145,745 in eligible expenses through December. Several other organizations, including Quality Care for Children and Goodwill of North Georgia, described similar timing and documentation issues.
County staff briefed the commission on the complexity of the reimbursement pipeline and said technical assistance meetings (more than 90, they reported) have been provided to help subgrantees and the Chamber accelerate documentation. Commissioners withdrew an initial blanket recapture motion and instead voted to withhold recapture and approve limited reallocations (items G, H, I) so partners like the Boys & Girls Club and dirt‑road programs could continue operations while staff and the Chamber finish reviews. Commissioner Fischer recused herself from the final vote because of a personal connection to a beneficiary organization.
The commission directed staff to prepare a revised budget ordinance reflecting the limited reallocations and to report back in July on reimbursement progress and any remaining unspent funds. Commissioners emphasized the need to streamline payments — some cited paper checks as a cause of delay — and asked for more reliable electronic payment options and clearer submission processes for subgrantees.
