Sedgwick County ditches $5 million relief plan for closed bars, nightclubs

After ordering bars and nightclubs closed to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus last week, Sedgwick County on Wednesday ditched a plan to set aside $5 million in relief funds to keep those companies afloat during the pandemic.

Instead, the county will stick to its original plan for its CARES Act federal funds, spending $99.6 million on direct expenses taken on by county government, cities and schools within Sedgwick County, and funding public health and social services.

“We have already gone through a process, a fairly lengthy process, to try and determine what the need is in the community and prioritize those,” said Lindsay Poe Rousseau, chief financial officer for Sedgwick County.

The county’s CARES Act consultant, Witt O’Brien’s, said setting aside the money for bars and nightclubs would set a precedent that would potentially force the county to compensate other businesses that have had to change their operations due to county orders, Rousseau said.

Another key concern with setting aside $5 million was duplicating other available federal relief aid, which isn’t allowed, Rousseau said.

Many of the bars and nightclubs that are shut down from July 24 to Aug. 21 are eligible for other types of federal aid, including unemployment benefits and forgivable loans through the Paycheck Protection Program. Another round of individual stimulus checks also is expected soon, which could help the workers at those businesses, Rousseau said.

Rousseau said the $5 million would have been split among 81 different businesses that have been forced to close or cut back its hours of operation by the county’s order. The vast majority of those businesses — 73 — are in Wichita. Andale, Colwich, Mulvane and Sedgwick each had one business closed and Cheney and Garden Plain had two.

Any federal money given out to those businesses could be audited, records would need to be retained for 5 years and the county could potentially be responsible for any misuse of those funds, Rousseau said, which could create more administrative burden on the county.

The consultant’s concerns left Rousseau “sufficiently scared,” she said.

The idea for $5 million in relief came last week from Commissioner Michael O’Donnell, who was against closing bars and clubs and proposed the additional money as a make-up for the county’s order.

“I recognize that this motion . . . it’s not perfect, but what I do know is that when we as a governing body tell certain businesses that they can’t open their doors, and then we still send them property tax bills for that same time, I think that’s very hypocritical,” O’Donnell said.

Commissioner Jim Howell, who also voted against closing bars and nightclubs, moved to scrap O’Donnell’s plan Wednesday.

He said he doesn’t think the government should close businesses or redistribute money to certain businesses.

“To me, this is government meddling and stuff we should stay out of,” he said.

“I think that money should be preserved for things that are actually designed to combat the coronavirus in our community, not necessarily focus on individuals and small businesses that have been harmed,” he said.

Commissioner Lacey Cruse, who voted to close bars and nightclubs, said closing those businesses wasn’t meant to harm but to protect the community from a pandemic that could get people sick and shut down other businesses, hospitals and schools if not curtailed.

“We make decisions, and they’re going to be right,” she said. “And we make decisions, and they’re going to be wrong in someone’s mind. So there’s no way to make every single person happy or understand that what we’re trying to do is slow the spread of this virus.”

Commissioners voted 3-2 to scrap the plan, with O’Donnell and Commission Chair Pete Meitzner voting together in the minority. Immediately following the vote, Meitzner said he meant to vote the other way.

WSU, Via Christi compete for testing money

The county’s top priority for its CARES Act money is improving COVID-19 testing, Rousseau said.

Due to a staff shortage and limited testing materials, it can take 10 or more days for a person to find out whether they had COVID-19 the day they were tested.

Elizabeth Ablah, professor in the Department of Population Health at the University of Kansas School of Medicine-Wichita, said Sedgwick County should be testing at least 2,234 people each day.

On average, 397 people a day have been tested since the county started testing on March 16, according to the county’s available testing data.

Sedgwick County has lagged the rest of the nation in testing for the majority of the pandemic and confusion over hospitalization numbers has led to speculation and disagreement among County Commissioners about the severity of the virus within the county.

To ramp up testing, the county is considering whether to award money to Wichita State University or Ascension Via Christi, one of the city’s largest hospital systems.

Wichita State’s proposal would cost the county $6 million, and the school would test 100,000 people. Via Christi’s plan would cost $7.6 million, and the hospital would test roughly 18,000 a month.

The commission is expected to choose between the two next month.

Beyond testing, the Health Department’s disease investigators are so “overwhelmed” with new cases that they have stopped contact tracing, Health Director Adrienne Byrne said Tuesday.

“We’ll always need to contact the cases (people who test positive) but what we have stopped doing is doing active contact investigations,” Byrne said.

Instead of tracking down and alerting anyone who may have come in contact with the disease, the county asks those who test positive for COVID-19 to “let people know that were within six feet for over 10 minutes,” Byrne said. The Health Department will also send a letter to anyone whose contact information the infected person knows and is willing to share “and let them know about quarantining for 14 days.”

This story was originally published July 29, 2020 at 4:45 PM.