The city of Sedona will be receiving some much-needed funding and it couldn’t have come at a better time.
Staff announced at the July 14 Sedona City Council meeting that the city will get a portion of the federally-funded Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act — better known as the CARES Act.
A city report states that on May 27 Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey announced that Arizona cities, towns and counties would receive $441 million of the $1.86 billion in federal COVID-19 relief funding that the state received. The state applied a formula of approximately $114.80 per city or town resident, or populations living in unincorporated areas for counties, to determine distribution amounts. Sedona is to receive $1,186,985.
In a letter from Ducey to Sedona Mayor Sandy Moriarty announcing the awarding of the funds, he wrote, in part, “We appreciate your leadership and partnership during this difficult time. We have designed this program to provide maximum flexibility to local leaders like yourself so that you can best respond to the individual needs of your community.
“As you know, this program was designed based on specific feedback we received from you and your colleagues. We look forward to seeing the many innovative ways that you all will utilize these dollars on behalf of our shared citizens.”
The item was on the consent portion of the agenda and was not discussed by council. But the following day, City Manager Justin Clifton said he was pleased with the funding the city will be receiving.
“It’s very helpful to get some of the CARES Act money to address some of our significant anticipated revenue losses,” he said. “The governor gave less money per capita than what the state and cities and counties above 500,000 received in their direct allocation. But it’s still very helpful and better than nothing.”
In terms of how the money will be used, Clifton added, “We decided to use the funds to offset police department wages. But that’s really only because we had to book it to a certain qualifying expense. Regardless, the funding has the impact of offsetting losses in revenue, which benefits the entire organization.”
