SHELBY COUNTY, Tenn. — Nearly $50 million of federal aid is coming to Shelby County to help with the response and fight against the coronavirus.
Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris described to commissioners Wednesday what could be done with the nearly $50 million in federal aid.
“We have really urgent and important needs that will be constantly coming through the pipeline and in front of you in respect to community services,” Harris said.
Harris said they have a lot of discretion in deciding what the money can be used for but said it must go to coronavirus relief.
“We will propose to you a relatively massive expansion of the health department in order to meet the needs of COVID over the long-term,” Harris said. “We will be hiring up to 60 temporary employees here in the health department here soon, and so those kinds of jobs will be covered by the stimulus package.”
The county mayor said they need to work with all the municipalities because unlike Memphis, they have not been awarded their own funds.
Harris also said the COVID stimulus cannot be used for budget shortfalls.
“And so we still have to go on a separate track to go about the work of the shortfall budget,” Harris said.
A committee also signed off on giving a favorable recommendation to a resolution put forward by commissioners Edmund Ford Jr. and Eddie Jones that would require Mayor Harris to present to commission how the administration plans to use the $50 million in funding before voting on the upcoming 2021 fiscal budget.
The proposed budget has some commissioners like Ford unhappy, and he at one point called it “garbage.”
A committee also voted to go back to last year’s budget and go from there.
As far as more federal funding, the mayor’s office said they plan to apply for more, including more money for hospitals.