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Councilmember Litten noted the once in a lifetime opportunity the use of American Rescue Plan (ARP) funds present, even taking out significant allotments to apply to the wastewater treatment plan infrastructure. He added that all of the funds do not need to be spent immediately and envisioned their expenditure being decided in a process similar to the Council budget priorities. Mayor George indicated that her administration is working on budget items and that all directors have been asked to submit requests for their respective departments. An internal team within the administration meets on the ARP funds weekly and final guidance on them is expected in July. The mayor indicated that the plan would be to solicit input from Council. The committee welcomed a working list of projects and spoke to current and past successful ideas. The mayor stated that final guidance on the ARP is likely to be delivered in the third or fourth week of July. She has been meeting with the Ohio Conference of Mayors and the US Conference of Mayors, which have been pushing to expand the allowance of investments in businesses in the plan. There has been a great deal of mixed messaging on what's covered under the ARP. Chief of Staff Storey explained the timelines of the tranches of funding. Money for projects covered under the ARP must be encumbered by 12/31/2024 and the project must be completed by 12/31/2026. Chairman Bullock indicated that councilmembers have expressed interest in applying stimulus for people/businesses still recovering from the pandemic, back logged investments such as a baseball fields/sewer infrastructure, and the city's own personnel costs. He suggested using the funding to free up capacity for things that do not fall under ARP guidance. Mayor George expressed a desire to use funds strategically to set the city up for the long term. Chief of Staff Storey shared the mixed guidance and signals that the city has received from the federal government in regard to ARP funding. Permissible projects fall under 5 categories: public health, economic impacts,public sector revenue, premium pay for essential workers, and broadband/infrastructure investment. There has been jockeying back and forth between the White House & Treasury Department on what's covered under the ARP, and final guidance could be delivered on July 20'h or 27h. Mayor George anticipated having a list of planned uses for the September regular meeting of Council. Councilmember Litten suggested that the city have no further proposed uses beyond IWWIP & rent assistance until the guidance is received. He expressed a preference that Council comes of recess with a list of potential uses rather than proposals from the administration. Mayor George noted that was her intention and that both the IWWIP &rent assistance proposals were both time sensitive, due to changes in the water/sewer rates and potential pending evictions. Councilmember Shachner contemplated the uses of ARP funding and suggested permissible ones might include lead paint remediation, development of affordable housing, and potentially less restricted funding for programs already in use, such as the HOME program. Chief of Staff Storey