Members of Escucha Mi Voz Washington debrief following city council’s decision April 19th.
Benito Herrera Sosa was one of three people permitted to speak in support of the ARPA request during the public comment period of Tuesday night’s meeting.
The Washington City Council voted down a request Tuesday to use the city’s remaining federal COVID relief funds for premium pay to residents who were excluded from receiving stimulus checks.
Escucha Mi Voz Washington, the group requesting American Rescue Plan Act funds be spent to distribute $1,400 checks to an estimated 140 city residents, brought their request back to the council nearly three months after their first council appearance. During the interim they have spoken to the Washington County Board of Supervisors and have informally discussed their request with Mayor Jaron Rosien, City Administrator Deanna McCusker, and Council Members Bethany Glinsmann, Illa Earnest, and Millie Youngquist. Rosien explained it was up to the six council members to decide whether to look into this request further or deny the request, “I’ve had many councilors speak in support of the population of misplaced workers. Many councilors speak in support of this request being valid and deserving. The main question I believe has been whether it’s the role of local government to fix the problem which is some believe is a problem that the federal government caused.”
Council Members Earnest, Elaine Moore, and Fran Stigers all agreed in the belief that it was not up to them to provide pandemic relief to residents that did not receive stimulus checks. Council Member Millie Youngquist said that of the citizens who contacted her about this request, 10 to 1 of them were in favor, “I know we’re not used to giving money to individuals and this is terribly unusual but the government did allow this money to be used in this way and just to say, ‘Well, the government created the problem we’re going to let them fix it.’ Well, we know that that is not going to happen. We have the opportunity, two wrongs don’t make a right.”
Moore’s motion to deny the request passed with Youngquist and Glinsmann voting nay. Escucha Mi Voz Washington member Benito Herrera Sosa gave KCII a statement following the council’s decision, translated by Miriam Alarcon Avila, “In a democracy you can lose or you can win and this is just the beginning. The owners of the council are the people and we will keep fighting in a peaceful way but constant and we remember the names of the four councilors who thought that the water waste is more important than a human life and we will organize so that they, when they go to vote, they will get justice.”
The premium pay was estimated to cost about $200,000, and the city currently has around $300,000 left unspent from the approximate $1.08 million total they have so far spent on water and sewer infrastructure and police video equipment upgrades. As stated by the U.S. Department of the Treasury, local governments may use ARPA dollars to provide premium pay for essential workers, offering additional support to those who have and will bear the greatest health risks because of their service in critical sectors.