With the deadline here, the Schenectady City Council held a special finance committee meeting Friday to address American Rescue Plan Act funding reappropriations.
Municipalities are required to allocate the influx of federal COVID relief funding by December 31st, and must spend it by the end of 2026. Under the nearly $2 trillion stimulus bill signed by President Joe Biden in 2021, Schenectady received nearly $53 million.
$500,000 was allocated to the nonprofit COCOA House, which provides programs for inner-city youth.
Council President Marion Porterfield says the special meeting was called so the all-Democratic panel could discuss and vote to reallocate $108,420 in ARPA funding to COCOA House, directing it toward the 2025 summer youth employment program, carefully moving the money without losing it.
"Essentially that money would, essentially, yes, it would be used," said Porterfield. "It would still stay with the entity that it was under, the COCOA House, but the goal is to run the summer program through them. So essentially, the money does stay there, but will be specifically for that purpose."
Porterfield says the council simply wants to make every effort to ensure Schenectady spends all the ARPA funding that it was allotted, and do it in a way that the city doesn't have to return any funds to the federal government.
"It needs the mayor, Porterfield said. "As you can see, it went to the council. The mayor did sign all the documents, and now the next step, and really it's [an] administrative thing so you probably want to talk to the mayor or Corporation Counsel might even give a better idea of what their internal mechanism will now be."
Councilors approved the measure by a vote of 5 to 2, but Democratic Mayor Gary McCarthy says the issue may be dead in the water.
"They drafted the legislation because we're against the December 31st deadline," McCarthy said. "I signed the legislation Friday night under the assumption that in fact, the meeting had been properly called and they were moving ahead in a manner that's consistent with the code. Later, I find out that it's not."
McCarthy says failure to adhere to protocol means COCOA House will likely keep the money, for use as originally allocated.
"The meeting was three and a half hours on Friday night, one of the most unproductive city council meetings that I've attended in over two decades. The process for calling, I asked specifically during the meeting, and brought up that it's a special city council meeting. The mechanism for calling a special meeting is very clear in the code, the council members have to be personally served the notice on it, and anybody can call it on three days notice. And apparently what they did is they did not personally serve the council members. And so the whole thing, Friday night, may have been a waste of time and completely frivolous," said McCarthy.
Porterfield argues McCarthy had ample time during the meeting to express any concerns.
"He had an opportunity. When the meeting was called to order, if he thought it was not and the service was read, it was not done properly, then he had an opportunity to do so, and did not say that. Furthermore, after the meeting concluded, he signed the legislation," Porterfield said.
The Schenectady Corporation Counsel is now reviewing the matter.
