The Metro Nashville government has formed a COVID-19 Financial Oversight Committee in order to help decide where COVID relief funds are spent. Nashville has received $260 million in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding that is supposed to be used to help with COVID response, mitigation, and prevention.
District 26 Councilmember Courtney Johnston, who sits on the committee, told FOX 17 Nashville, “We have a Metro Council and we have a financial oversight committee committed to making sure we allocate these dollars in a responsible way and stretch these dollars to go as far as possible.”
She added that the process is fairly straightforward, where fellow councilmembers would submit requests for funding that would be reviewed by the committee to see if they qualify, according to the ARPA guidelines. The committee would then recommend whether or not the city council should grant the funding request.
So far, Metro Nashville has appropriated about $13 million of the ARPA dollars, Fox 17 reports.
According to the Metropolitan Government of Nashville & Davidson County, the purpose of the committee is to collect, consider, and recommend appropriate uses of all federal and state funds provided to the Metropolitan Government specifically for COVID-19 relief and recovery, including but not limited to federal CARES Act funds.
The COVID-19 Financial Oversight Committee consists of nine members. The members who sit on the committee include Ms. Sara Finley, Councilmember Jennifer Gamble, Mr. Edward Henley, Mr. Sean Henry, Councilmember Courtney Johnston, Dr. Harold Love, Ms. Vonda McDaniel, Mr. Junaid Odubeko, and Councilmember Sandra Sepulveda.
The committee, whose members are appointed through the end of August 2023, has several years to decide where all of the money goes. The process is in its early stages.
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Email tips to [email protected]
Photo “Nashville Courthouse” by Nicolas Henderson. CC BY 2.0.
