City Council is expected to take action Aug. 11 on legislation providing a second round of financial relief totaling $7.24 million for nonprofit and for-profit businesses with revenue losses because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Ordinance 2020-0412 would provide 66 Duval County professional and youth sports teams, churches and social service organizations with direct financial payments.
In June, the Council approved $16.54 million for 72 nonprofit and for-profit groups.
The first round of payments came from $20 million in the $167 million the city received from the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act.
According to the bill, about $3.4 million of the second round will come from CARES Act money placed in the city’s general fund contingency account.
The remaining $3.78 is being reappropriated from unused money in the city’s COVID-19 small business loan and grant program partnership with VyStar Credit Union.
During a news conference Aug. 5, Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry said the city has provided $24 million to nonprofit and for-profit organizations since receiving the federal coronavirus aid in April.
Curry said another $14 million in direct financial support has gone to small businesses and $2 million to seniors and people with disabilities.
According to the Council Auditor’s Office, about $5 million of assistance has come from city reserve funds, which total about $245 million, city CFO Patrick “Joey” Greive said during Council budget hearings Aug. 6.
“We’ve increased our reserves significantly since I’ve been in office. Reserves are there when you need them. I consider a global pandemic, a pandemic in our city, a time of need for citizens in our community and it’s a wise use of reserves,” Curry said.
Who gets the money
The largest payment of $2.16 million would go to Jacksonville Baseball LLC, the parent company of the Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp Minor League Baseball team. It’s the only award of more than $1 million in the second round.
The Regional Food Bank of Northeast Florida Inc. would receive the second-largest award of $630,000.
Aid requests were scored by Curry administration officials. They considered the amount each applicant requested, how the organization impacts local employment and the number of people reached by its services, according to Curry Chief of Staff Jordan Elsbury.
More help for small businesses
Aid proposed by Council member Garrett Dennis would set aside $1 million for reimbursements up to $10,000 for costs small businesses faced for sanitation and cleaning after customers and employees tested positive for the virus.
Three businesses in Jacksonville Beach were closed temporarily in June after confirmed cases, according to Daily Record news partner News4Jax.com.
That bill received some resistance this week, passing two Council committees in 5-2 votes.
“It’s one thing at the beginning of the COVID outbreak, when businesses were mandated to shut down, to help those businesses. It’s a different thing when they’re making a business decision to reopen or close,” Council member LeAnna Cumber said during an Aug. 4 Finance Committee meeting. “At some point government needs to let business and let the capitalist market take over.”
Council is scheduled to vote on Dennis’s bill Aug. 11.
If both bills pass, Council will have authorized nearly $11 million in direct COVID-19 aid to businesses, nonprofits and individuals in the past month
Council unanimously approved a bill July 28 introduced by Council member Joyce Morgan that puts another $2 million into the Small Business Relief Grant Program for the third round of payments.
It also injects another $1 million into the COVID-19 Senior & Disabled Financial Assistance Program, which Elsbury said in an Aug. 4 email will be readvertised in two to three weeks.
Funding for businesses on the waiting list
The first round of small business relief grants the Council approved in May appropriated $9 million for 4,500 one-time $2,000 debit cards intended to help businesses with fewer than 100 employees and a 25% or more reduction in revenue because of the pandemic to pay rent and utilities.
The latest funding will provide up to 1,000 more grants to businesses who were put on a waiting list after the first two application rounds, according to Elsbury.
He said about 1,600 applications were unfunded after the second round of small business grants in June. The program’s aid slots ran out in less than three hours June 8.
Elsbury said officials still need to complete screening for duplicates and applicants who are ineligible before the total need is known.
The city is amending its contract with Fidelity National Information Services Inc., the company that issued debit cards for nearly all of the city’s direct payment COVID-19 aid programs, to distribute the new aid.
Elsbury said the latest debit cards for small businesses and seniors will be available in two to three weeks.
