Feud over COVID-19 money, other allegations surface at chaotic Clay County meeting
An emergency meeting of the Clay County Commission descended at times into shouting matches and accusations of wrongdoing over its effort to obtain federal funding for coronavirus-related expenses.
The county is due $29.3 million from the federal CARES Act to fund unexpected pandemic-related costs. How much of it to share with Kansas City and whether there’s enough oversight of how the money will be spent were questions hashed out during a contentious, impromptu hour-long emergency meeting Monday night.
The meeting, where at times Presiding Commissioner Jerry Nolte and county counselor Lowell Pearson shouted at each other, showcased both the fractious nature of Clay County government as well as the political and territorial turf battles emerging over the region’s response to the coronavirus pandemic.
There was some question about whether Monday’s meeting was even a proper one. Under the Missouri Sunshine Law, notification of a public meeting should be given 24 hours before the meeting. Clay County’s attorney, Lowell Pearson, said questions about the county getting federal funding constituted an emergency; Nolte said there was no emergency. Nolte said he didn’t find out about the meeting until 5:01 p.m., less than an hour before it started.
A key issue that surfaced at Monday’s meeting was how much of that $29.3 million coming to Clay County does it have to share with Kansas City, which accounts for 54% of the county’s population.
Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas said Monday night that the city should receive a share of funding from each county that is proportional to the percentage of Kansas City’s population within each county. CARES Act provides funding directly to cities with populations of 500,000 or more; Kansas City has slightly less than that and has to ask leaders of the four counties that the city touches for a share of its funding.
“I have been working with both the governor of Missouri and the state treasurer and ultimately the counties to make sure Kansas City, Missouri, would get a proportional share, based on a percentage of population,” Lucas said.
Under that plan, Kansas City would get $15.8 million, or 54%.
But what a 2-1 majority of the Clay County Commission passed on Friday was an allocation of $11.6 million to Kansas City.
Nolte brought up Monday night that the commission’s funding formula shortchanged Kansas City. But Commissioner Luann Ridgeway interrupted Nolte when he brought up the funding formula.
“I realize that you want to give Kansas City tons more money than our community partners, but that decision was made last Friday when we entered into ... what we believed to be a reasonable distribution of CARES money to meet our deadline,” Ridgeway said.
Lucas, who listened to parts of Monday’s meeting, said such comments were “somewhat frustrating.”
“I spend more time every day talking to leaders from our four counties,” Lucas told The Star. “All we ask for is — I know we are a big city — but to make sure our city gets a fair share.”
Through a spokeswoman, Missouri Treasurer Scott Fitzpatrick’s office said Monday night that Kansas City should get $15.8 million in order for Clay County to not be held responsible for how Kansas City spends its CARES Act money.
“In order for the state to enter an agreement with the county to not hold the county responsible for the use of funds by the city, the county will need to provide the city with its share of the funding based on proportion of population,” Fitzpatrick’s office said in an email. “That amount is approximately $15.8 million.”
Clay County has not yet received the CARES Act money. Part of that is because the paperwork the Missouri treasurer’s office received last Friday was not acceptable.
“Since an acceptable certification has not been received, the application has not been approved,” Fitzpatrick’s office said.
Which brings up another big issue from Monday’s meeting.
Ridgeway accused Nolte of altering a document in the application sent to the Missouri treasurer and putting the county’s receipt of the federal coronavirus funding in danger.
“That’s because you altered, in a material way, a document that had been signed and was a public record,” Ridgeway said. “You altered it before it went down there. We are trying to walk that back.”
The document in question is a federal funding certification form, essentially a promise that Clay County would only spend CARES Act money to cover costs on coronavirus-related expenses that had not been previously budgeted. The document was approved by Ridgeway and Commissioner Gene Owen last Friday over Nolte’s objection.
Nolte added a notation to the document last Friday saying that he believed some parts of what his colleagues passed did not comply with regulations because it lacked procedures to verify that the expenses were actually related to the county’s coronavirus response. Under the CARES Act, counties or cities that spend money from the Coronavirus Relief Fund on expenses not related to the pandemic are on the hook to pay the money back.
“The addendum I put on there was specifically put on there so we would save the county and taxpayers from any kind of liability from the fact that this was rushed through,” Nolte said.
In an interview after Monday’s meeting, Nolte said that Clay County could be on the hook for any Kansas City expenses that are not eligible under the CARES Act. That’s if Kansas City gets less from Clay County than the $15.8 million.
Nolte said those costs would be examined and audited. He noted that Ridgeway and Owen have been opposed to audits in the past, a reference to their efforts against Missouri Auditor Nicole Galloway’s performance audit of the county that started in 2018 and remains ongoing and tied up in court.
“Ridgeway and Owen don’t have a great record with audits,” Nolte said.
Ridgeway and Owen, who vote together on nearly all substantive county issues, did not respond to requests for comment.
Monday’s meeting adds to emerging divisions across the Kansas City region of how to respond to the coronavirus pandemic, with cities and counties starting to adopt different policies of when and how to re-open local economies.
“It grows a little frustrating after a little while that we are trying to address these issues not only for Kansas City, Missouri, but the entire region,” Lucas said Monday. “And we get push back.”
