By Dustin Fawcett
The American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 brought about an allocation of $32 million, in two separate $16 million installments, to Ector County. While many counties in Texas have been working tirelessly with their communities on how they plan to utilize these funds, Ector County has done very little, other than determining they will hire a third-party firm to assist in this process.
Our neighbors to the north in Lubbock County have held at least 14 public meetings specifically for how the community thinks they should spend these ARPA funds. Counties throughout Texas have provided outlined plans based on their community’s involvement in the process, yet Ector County has not publicized a single document of planning. Additionally, Lubbock County has already allocated $938,798 to their various fire departments, which includes their volunteer fire departments, for personal protective equipment and other life-saving necessities.
Our neighbors to the east in Midland County have already allocated $2.4 million to Midland Memorial of their ARPA funds to use on contract staff and incentive pay for current staff. The City of Odessa has allocated $3 million to Medical Center Hospital out of these funds and $1 million to Odessa Regional Medical Center.
Yet the county continues to sit on their hands.
This piece of legislation is relatively specific in that it outlines what the funds can be spent on, they are very broad categories with a large amount of latitude for local governments to allocate this funding in ways they see fit. The argument that this legislation has “all kinds of strings attached” is simply false and a cop-out to not getting to work on behalf of the people.
If you visit the Texas Association of Counties website you can see that “Treasury guidelines allow broad actions by local governments to:
1) Support the public health response to the coronavirus pandemic.
2) Address the negative economic effects caused by COVID-19 by aiding workers and families, small businesses, nonprofits or industries such as tourism and travel that were hit particularly hard by the pandemic.
3) Replace lost public sector revenue.
4) Provide premium pay for workers performing essential work during the pandemic.
5) Invest in water and sewer infrastructure.
6) Invest in broadband infrastructure.”
We should be holding regular meetings of all of the taxing entities as well as with key stakeholders and the general public about what best benefits the citizens of Ector County. Water infrastructure in West Odessa as well as broadband infrastructure (an issue I have worked intimately on with the ConnEctor Task Force which is working with the State Broadband Office and the Federal Reserve) are two main components that should be prioritized along with allocating a portion to our local hospitals.
We need an action plan and we need it now. The community deserves it. For far too long we have been reactive rather than proactive when it comes to county governance. Ector County residents deserve better.
Fawcett is a candidiate for Ector County judge.
