Special Board of Aldermen 08-22-2022 Page 3
Chairman Dowd
Any questions for Mr. Griffin?
Alderman Klee
The question that | have Mr. Griffin is relative to putting it in the PD. | know you say just you’re kind of putting in there
for a second. It was for lack of a better do we do that because they had expenses that the city kind of reimbursed
them for so we put into that account and then put it into the other account? Is that why we do that or is it just...?
John Griffin, CFO/Treasurer/Tax Collector
Mr. Chairman if | may, that's a great question. My objective was to, you know, make it simple and also we have
excellent tracking mechanisms on payroll. So when my objective was to not have several reporting periods with
several different departments and divisions. All will be acceptable as long as they were general governmental
services. But in this case, | think within three months to a six month period Alderwoman Klee we'll be able to fully
report our spend to the US Treasury and wrap this up.
Alderman Klee
Just a comment. | just want to say that | appreciate them doing it as quickly as possible so thank you.
Alderman Clemons
So I'm gonna follow up on that and Mr. Griffin correct me if I'm wrong. The salaries in the in the Police Department, |
assume, are more than $14.5 million and so therefore by doing this and putting this into the Police Department
budget, the salaries that we can then essentially move out funding, the equivalent sum of money from that's already
been budgeted to the police, out into these things that we already approved. Is that what we're doing here?
John Griffin, CFO/Treasurer/Tax Collector
That's a great question Alderman Clemons. The beauty of this ARPA funding is we can go back to March of 2020.
So the reason why we selected Fiscal 22 is we've already spent those monies. So really what's going to happen is
we're going to put for a split second, we're going to put $14,500,000 into the available budget of the Police
Department and subsequently move into these areas that you'll see on the on the Resolution. So there's no impact on
the Fiscal 23 budget for police. There's no impact on Fiscal 22 because we've already concluded the year. So it’s
more. It's truly it's an accounting exercise that's totally appropriate per the rules of the US Treasury.
Alderman Clemons
Well no, | mean, | guess my question is are we doing that to get around a rule or that that's my question? In other
words, are we doing this because some of the things that we would have to spend this money on the reporting
requirements are arcane or archaic and this is just an easy...?
John Griffin, CFO/Treasurer/Tax Collector
Yeah | would say getting around the rule. | would say this particular approach was developed over several comment
periods where cities and towns such as ours were commenting of how onerous it would be if we had to take more of —
Alderman Clemons more of a traditional federal grant approach where you have all kinds of rules and regulations on
supplanting of salaries, grantors, loans that we were just really handcuffed if we if we went down that road. So itis a
workaround that many of our fellow towns and cities are using and totally, totally legal and totally endorsed by the US
Treasury.
Alderman Clemons
Yeah, just a quick comment. | appreciate the answer and no | understand what we're doing here. So | will support
this, thank you.
Alderman Sullivan
