Pittsburgh finds way to avoid forfeiting nearly $9M in federal covid relief funds

Working against a ticking clock that gives the city only six months to put under contract all remaining federal covid-19 relief dollars, Pittsburgh officials are changing funding streams for projects that might be too slow for the federal government’s looming deadlines.

The goal, Director of the Office of Management and Budget Jake Pawlak said, is to ensure none of the $335 million the city received from the American Rescue Plan Act has to be forfeited.

City officials have expressed a strong desire to ensure every dollar is spent and nothing gets left behind at the end of this year, when any money from the economic stimulus bill that isn’t under contract will be lost.

The money must be spent by the end of 2026.

Legislation introduced Tuesday to City Council would juggle about $8.7 million in covid relief dollars from projects that seem unlikely to meet those timelines — including city step repairs, recreation center upgrades and the redevelopment of the Thaddeus Stevens school building in the city’s West End — to projects that are poised to meet the looming deadlines.

The projects losing covid relief money will see their budgets replenished by existing bond funding, Pawlak said, as other projects that are currently being paid for by the bond will receive those federal dollars instead.

Legislation to provide that replacement funding is set to be introduced to council next week, he said.

Those projects are still moving ahead, Pawlak said.

Much of the covid relief cash moving from other projects will instead be spent on the new Department of Public Works facility under construction in Pittsburgh’s Knoxville neighborhood. Some of the money also will be spent to bolster existing paving and demolition contracts.

Councilman Anthony Coghill, D-Beechview, said he’s not concerned how the new public works facility in his district is funded — as long as it gets the money. He said he understood the need to shuffle funding sources to ensure the city wasn’t leaving behind federal money.

“It’s good we don’t have to give it back,” he said. “I was surprised it wasn’t all under contract and spent by now.”

Ultimately, Pawlak said, the plan is to have a “dollar-for-dollar” swap that leaves all of the projects fully funded, though they’ll be drawing money from different sources.

The bond funding is not on the tight deadline imposed by federal officials for covid relief money.

A new allocation also appeared on the city’s spending plan, which would provide $600,000 in federal covid relief money for a mobile restroom project that would place up to 10 portable bathrooms throughout the city. Officials launched a short-term pilot program with portable bathrooms Downtown that wrapped up early this year.

Pawlak described the new spending plan as a “clean-up measure” to ensure the city won’t have to give up money because officials couldn’t finalize some contracts on time.

“Every other dollar in the ARPA allocation plan is on track” to be under contract by the end of the year, he said.

He did, however, acknowledge that officials may need to make additional adjustments if there are “unforeseen circumstances” that slow down efforts to get the money under contract.

City Council will hold a public hearing on the legislation before voting on the measure.