Ever know a family that hummed along just fine until someone dies and there’s a contested will? Normally rational, calm, level headed people can transform into unrecognizable personalities clamoring for a piece of the windfall. It’s a situation no one prepares you for and if the will isn’t clear it makes the situation all the more volatile.
Well, that’s exactly what our friends in Congress and our state government have done with the CARES Act and distributing hundreds of thousands of dollars of Coronavirus Relief Funds (CRF) to cities with vague, undefined rules that are shifting and changing as we speak. So far the only ones benefiting, at least from Minnetrista’s CRF $579K, are the attorneys wading thru it all.
Minnetrista hasn’t made a decision on how to allocate these funds but council and staff have already spent many thousands of dollars in our collective time on the matter. I started writing about it back in early August and have attended multiple workshops on CRF reporting requirements, spending rules, and countless hours in council discussions. I have no doubt it will be on our agenda again next week.
I’ll make a prediction that a decision won’t be made until after the election. Wagers anyone?
Stay tuned.
Minnetrista Governance Blog 