Whatcom Council creates emergency response fund for coronavirus, puts in $1.5 million
The Whatcom County Council has created an emergency fund to help pay for a ramped-up, local response to the COVID-19 pandemic and put $1.5 million into it.
Members did so on Tuesday, March 31 — seeding the fund with another $250,000 approved by the County Council, $250,000 promised by the city of Bellingham, and a $1 million loan from the county Public Utilities Improvement Fund, also referred to as the EDI Fund.
The county’s EDI pot has a little over $15 million in it, according to Whatcom County documents.
County budget officials said they expected to pay back that loan with funding assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which they said would allow them to eventually recoup about 75% of the costs for responding to COVID-19 and its impact on Whatcom County.
The $1.5 million will be used to fight the spread of the infectious respiratory illness and beat it back by paying for such things as supplies and contracts.
The global pandemic has taken root in the U.S. and Washington state.
Whatcom County has a total of 139 confirmed cases as of Tuesday, March 31. So far, seven county residents who have tested positive have died.
County Executive Satpal Sidhu had asked the County Council to OK a $4 million loan from the Public Utilities Improvement Fund, but three council members were able to block that by voting against the loan transfer. Such requests require a supermajority of the council, which translates into five yes votes out of seven members.
The council members who voted against the full $4 million were Tyler Byrd, Ben Elenbaas and Kathy Kershner.
Those council members wanted to approve smaller amounts of money as needed instead of one large pot as they expressed frustration with not getting information they have asked for.
The information they said they wanted included:
▪ What the money they previously approved has been spent on and how quickly, what Byrd called the “burn rate.” The County Council already had OKed $250,000, on March 10.
▪ What the strategy would be moving forward in terms of the COVID-19 response.
▪ A look at a model that the Whatcom County Health Department and Western Washington University are working on to project when the pandemic might peak in the county and how far county money might go.
Byrd said he was specifically frustrated by the county Health Department, saying “there has been a significant lack of communication coming out of the health department.”
That lack included what its strategy was, what was going on, when might the end be in sight, Byrd said.
“I don’t feel comfortable giving a $4 million blank check to people who don’t feel comfortable sharing information with me,” Byrd said.
Elenbaas said he had no doubt that the council would eventually spend $4 million but he wanted the requests to come in smaller increments and he wanted more budgetary information.
“I have no idea if that’s an appropriate amount,” he said.
Other council members, who supported the initial $4 million request, said allocating the money would allow for a swift response.
“We need to slow this COVID-19 down,” council member Carol Frazey said.
Council member Rud Browne said he supported “spending whatever we need to do to crush this thing as quickly as possible” because the cost would be a “fraction” of the economic impact of having COVID-19 drag out.
Sidhu and Whatcom Unified Command, the multi-governmental agency that’s directing local pandemic response, will distribute money from the fund, the county executive told The Bellingham Herald.
