With Platte County potentially set to receive up to $20 million in federal funding through the American Rescue Plan Act signed into law earlier this month by President Joe Biden, officials held a virtual meeting of a COVID response committee this week.
New second district commissioner Joe Vanover led the meeting on Tuesday, March 23, with treasurer Rob Willard, prosecutor Eric Zahnd and director of facilities Daniel Erickson in attendance.
Vanover said the money could be used to solve some of the county’s outstanding one-time expenses by updating facilities and systems using federal funds. During the meeting, it was stated that money from the 2020 CARES Act has been mostly allocated and any remaining funds have yet to be tallied.
In a statement made prior to the meeting, Vanover said, “The latest round of federal funds will be best spent by paying for the county government’s transition to the post-COVID period. We need to update our buildings to offer a more convenient and safer customer experience. We should spend some money to improve our buildings to provide a workplace free of issues that can lead to respiratory and health conditions. We can improve our ability to do business with the citizens through our website and ease public access by digitizing more records. Funding more work-from-home will reduce potential transmission and will lower the need to add office space in the future. We may also be able to implement innovative methods to keep the jail population below capacity and still maintain a high level of public safety. All of this can be accomplished through the county’s existing procedures to approve proposals, get bids, and award contracts.
“We do not need to add another layer of bureaucracy to spend the money to respond to COVID as we transition to the new way of doing the business of the county government.”
At the meeting, Zahnd said one of the lessons learned over the past year was that county buildings needed renovation to address the realities of the post-pandemic world.
“We know our beautiful historic courthouse is not set up for a COVID environment,” Zahnd said, suggesting beefed up air filtration systems and changes in how cases are handled.
Zahnd noted that his staff has worked to maintain communication with crime victims and others throughout the pandemic via text messaging, which many younger clients tend to prefer. He wants to look into ways to continue to modernize communications.
No criminal cases have been tried in Platte County in 15 months, Zahnd said, but criminal cases are still being filed. This has led to a tremendous backlog of cases that will take time to clear once trials resume.
“There is a light at the end of the tunnel, but it’s the oncoming train,” he said, with trials set to resume in May.
Willard noted the shift in sales tax revenues to use tax during the pandemic, showing the shift to online shopping instead of in-person shopping.
“Generally, we came out better than expected,” Willard said, but some areas took a serious hit during the pandemic, and these remain in services essential to the county’s continued operations.
Vanover said that recorder of deeds Gloria Boyer is looking at ways to digitize records to allow remote access to historical documents. Also, collector Sheila Palmer hopes to relocate her office to cut down on foot traffic throughout the administrative building.
Erickson — who oversees several departments, including facilities, planning and zoning and parks and recreation — said that the shutdown last spring and change over to remote work for many county employees turned out better than expected. He did second the call for digitization of records, which would make working from home easier.
Major Erik Holland of the Sheriff’s Office joined the hour-long meeting late and reiterated many of the statements made by other officeholders and department heads. Updates to ventilation systems, installation of remote video conferencing and other modernization efforts to ensure the sheriff’s office can continue operations while keeping staff and inmates in the Platte County Detention Center safe and free of disease.
Another meeting of the new committee will be scheduled as more details of the American Rescue Plan become clear.