Lucerne County Council May Announce American Rescue Awards Vote Tuesday

Tuesday’s decision on 75 US Rescue Plan awards totaling $60 million is unlikely, Lucerne County Council vice chairman John Lombardo said Sunday.

“There is a lot more information that needs to be digested before the money is released,” Lombardo said.

Last week, the county publicly released the names of the applicants and the dollar amounts of their proposed bonuses because the county council was due to vote on the awards on Tuesday. No project summaries were prepared for the publicized list because nominee submissions are posted on the District Counselor’s electronic portal, which is viewed by councilors for scoring, with each councilor using a unique password.

Lombardo said board members did not receive average scores and other useful information until the list was made public.

For example, he said that board members learned that about five applicants had zero scores. The council divided the candidates into several groups, and Lombardo said those with no points were in the same group. While some board members may have refrained from evaluating due to a conflict of interest with a particular applicant, Lombardo said further clarification is needed to determine why these applications were not evaluated by any of the 11 board members. He also wants to know if the board members who didn’t score in that particular group intentionally chose not to participate, or if they reported technical problems accessing the link.

“That alone is enough to throw everything into doubt,” Lombardo said, referring to those without glasses.

Lombardo said he thinks most council members have enough unresolved issues to shelve them. Inquiries were also made about whether any of the 75 other coronavirus-related sponsors received through the county, Lombardo said. Although it was not expressly stated as a ban beforehand, board members may have the right to make it a condition of eligibility now, he said.

In addition, Lombardo said he was contacted by some of the 75 applicants who were selected and informed him that they were willing to accept a lower dollar fee and still be able to complete their projects. Board members agreed to fully fund all requests as is, as they wanted to ensure that all projects were completed as required by the program. However, Lombardo said there may be a way for some recipients to cut back on their plans or only complete one stage so that they show progress and help people by freeing up more American Rescue funds for additional recipients.

The scoring process

Instead of relying on advice from the board or an administrative committee, the 11 board members decided to review the applications themselves so that everyone had a chance to participate.

District consultant American Rescue, Columbia, Maryland-based Booth Management Consulting, created an online portal for council members to individually review and evaluate 139 external applications based on similar factors such as project impact on district priorities, community outcomes, racial differences. equity and inclusiveness, and an overview of the overall project budget.

Since the list of awards is based on an independent assessment and parameters of the board, board members should not change it without reason because adding and removing after the names are released defeats the purpose of the scoring system, officials said. .

Council members stated that this was an unusual situation because they did not select recipients jointly through the usual discussions, debates and majority preferences.

A list of recipients is posted on the home page of the county’s website at luzernecounty.org.

Council member Chris Perry said on Sunday that he looks forward to continuing discussions on Tuesday.

“I want to respect the process set by the council, but I also want to keep the options open because there is no way to know what additional information might be presented on Tuesday,” Perry said.

Tuesday’s meeting begins at 6:00 pm at the River Street County Courthouse in Wilkes-Barre. Instructions for remote participation can be found at the link to the online board meeting at luzernecounty.org.

Contact Jennifer Learn-Andes at 570-991-6388 or tweet @TLJenLearnAndes.