Jackson County has a looming problem and it’s not the Royals stadium or property tax disputes

By Jill Draper

Officials want your ideas on how to spend millions of undesignated Covid funds in Jackson County. Wait, that was last fall. The money is still undesignated, and change of plans, they don’t want your ideas. Or maybe they do, but for a much smaller pot of money.

It all depends on which officials you ask. 

The clock is ticking as County Executive Frank White Jr. and county legislators battle over how to allocate nearly $70 million in undesignated federal pandemic money before the calendar year ends. Divided into two camps, they’ve been at an impasse for months. If they can’t agree on how the money should be spent, it reverts to the U.S. General Fund. 

Jackson County received $136.5 million in the latest round of pandemic funds called ARPA (American Rescue Plan Act). Roughly half has been allocated for public health expenditures. Legislator Manny Abarca, 1st District, and several colleagues would like to award $54 million of the remaining $70 million to nonprofits and city agencies for community programs and improvements.

“That’s what the funds are for,” Abarca says. “They’re supposed to stimulate the economy and address needs like crime, mental health, housing and transportation.”

But other legislators have aligned with White, who has his own priorities and wants to spend a big chunk of the money on renovating the downtown courthouse and 1300 Washington, an office building the county purchased two years ago. Abarca claims that White has promised pet projects to those who side with him. “White wants to focus on buildings and not building the community,” Abarca gripes.

Meanwhile, organizations like the nonprofit Consuming Fire Ministries daycare are wondering what the heck happened.  

“Our location in south Kansas City is in a childcare desert, so our services are in high demand. However, operating costs made it difficult to stay in business, let alone make necessary upgrades to the facility and playground,” wrote daycare employee Esther Lott to the Telegraph. 

She says after submitting paperwork and attending a public hearing, “We received an email that we had completed all necessary steps to receive funding. But requests for updates on when the funds will be released have been pretty much met with silence.” 

What happened is that County Executive White scolded “a member of the legislature” for using a non-county-managed website and bypassing both the County Counselor’s Office and the Finance and Purchasing Department in soliciting and selecting the award recipients. 

In a letter dated Dec. 18, 2023 White declared the process used to solicit proposals last fall, including funds for the daycare, the Community Assistance Council, Grandview Assistance Program and Hickman Mills and Grandview school districts, among others, was illegal. Consequently, the undesignated ARPA money was left undesignated in the new 2024 budget, and Abarca’s coalition did not have enough votes to implement a different version of the budget.

Still, a little over a year ago in May 2023, Abarca thought he and White were close to an agreement. Abarca, then budget chair, had looked at ARPA categories and spending amounts by some 30 counties across the nation similar in size to Jackson County to determine a best practices approach for distributing the funds. He put together a rough plan and shared it with White and Caleb Clifford, chief of staff.

They seemed supportive, he says, only $1.2 million away from a deal. He went back to his plan and shaved off a few category amounts. But that same week White and Clifford increased their ask to $12 million for their own priorities, Abarca says, noting, “That’s not negotiation. At that point, it’s a hostage situation.” 

He decided to move forward with the support of what he calls “the clear majority of legislators.” Communities and nonprofits were invited to send their ideas and needs. White’s staff members also were invited to participate, but they declined, Abarca says. “It became clear they didn’t want to find a solution. They wanted to delay.”

Abarca set up an online portal managed by an outside agency to collect grant applications. He claims it was parallel to another outside portal the county had been using for the last 20 years to channel money to nonprofits. “There was nothing illegal about it,” he says. 

The applications were reviewed and 35 recipients were told they would be receiving ARPA funds before White declared the entire process unlawful. Why didn’t White object earlier? “That’s a good question,” Abarca says.

Troy Schulte, county administrator, says Abarca and other legislators definitely were told they were operating outside of the standard procurement process. “We advised them on the front end,” he says.

What happens next? White is the only one who can amend the current budget in order to allocate the undesignated ARPA funds before time runs out, and once he amends it, the legislature must vote on the change. It’s uncertain how many of the nine legislators will support his priorities and he wants a clear majority, according to Abarca.

White has been unavailable for interviews, but his staff sent a message stating he is working collaboratively with elected leaders to allocate the remaining ARPA funds. “Investment areas include community projects, healthcare and county facility capital improvements. Once a plan is finalized, the county’s finance and purchasing department will begin the public solicitation process.”

That sounds reasonable, pretty much like what Abarca intended in the first place. And if White wants to open up a new community grant process, Abaca says he’s all in. “Where is it? Let’s do it! I’m ready.”

But White’s staff later clarified, “When we in the county say ‘public solicitation,’ that’s not for ideas. That’s for RFPs.” And who is deciding what requests for proposals to issue? That would be the county’s Finance and Purchasing Department.

That same department might still agree to solicit ideas from the community, just for a smaller amount of money than $54 million, says Schulte. “If the legislators can reach an agreement, it’s very possible.” He says White intends to call for a vote on the undesignated funds “probably around Labor Day.”