Thursday, May 28, 2020
The new AZCares Fund has been established by the governor to distribute these resources based on population data from last year’s Census estimate, the same method used for the federal government’s initial disbursements.
The City of Tucson and unincorporated Pima County already received money directly from the federal government, so they are not eligible for this new round of funding. The Town of Marana will receive about $5.6 million and the Town of Oro Valley will receive about $5.2 million. Marana has roughly 3,000 more residents than Oro Valley.
The Town of Sahuarita is set to receive about $3.6 million and the City of South Tucson will get $656,000. For a total list of municipalities and funding amounts, click here.
In addition, these local governments along with tribal communities, schools and other groups, are now eligible to receive $150 million in “expedited reimbursements” from the Federal Emergency Management Administration for expenses related to addressing COVID-19, such as purchasing testing supplies, personal protective equipment and more.
A new system called the Arizona Express Pay Program, has been created with the intention to streamline the application process for accessing these FEMA funds.
For more information about these new initiatives, visit arizonatogether.org.
Tags: COVID19 , Coronavirus , FEMA , Federal Aid , CARES Act , AZCares Fund , Doug Ducey , Governor , Local Government , Nonprofit , Funding , Image
Larger jurisdictions received their funds directly from the federal government, but Gov. Doug Ducey said Wednesday that the remaining cities and counties in the state will get $441 million directly, based on population. They will also have access to another $150 million in emergency relief funds.
“Our office has met with mayors and county leaders to hear directly how COVID-19 is impacting their communities, and this plan delivers for them,” said Ducey, during a roundtable with a half-dozen mayors and county officials from around the state.
“It maximizes flexibility and prioritizes getting dollars quickly to where they’re needed most,” he said. “Key points the plan is focused on are maximizing flexibility, minimizing red tape and getting needed relief funds to local communities faster.”
Tucson Weekly asked the candidates running for Board of Supervisors seats this year if they approved of those decisions and if they would have done anything differently. Here’s what the candidates in District 3 had to say.
In the District 3 Democratic primary, six-term Supervisor Sharon Bronson is facing Juan Padres, who is making his first run for public office. Padres, who previously worked for the autonomous trucking company TuSimple, is now operating his own business, a courier service between Tucson and Nogales. He is also involved in bringing Mexican craft beers to the Tucson market.
Bronson, who voted in favor of closing bars and limiting restaurants to take out and delivery in March, said responding to the virus has been challenging because of a lack of resources coming from federal agencies.
But the closure was based on a legal technicality, not on the merits of the complaints.
In a letter addressed to state Sen. Vince Leach along with state Reps. Mark Finchem and Bret Roberts, Government Accountability Unit Chief Council Linley Wilson said the AG's office "determined the impending investigation was moot" after the Board of Supervisors repealed their May 13 proclamation during last Thursday's Board of Supervisors meeting.
The three lawmakers filed a compliant with Brnovich's office on May 15, asking the AG to investigate citing Pima County's proclamation was exceeding its authority by creating additional regulations after Gov. Ducey issued his May 12 executive order allowing restaurants and bars to reopen.
Chief Civil Deputy County Attorney Andrew Flagg responded to the complaint last Friday via letter pointing out that the lawmaker's case was "moot" since the May 13 proclamation had been repealed. It would appear Brnovich's office agrees with Pima County.
Pima County had 2,167 confirmed cases.
The coronavirus had killed 857 people statewide, including 186 in Pima County, according to the report.
In Maricopa County, the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases had risen to 8,896.
Because symptoms can take as long as two weeks to appear after exposure to the virus (while some people can remain entirely asymptomatic), health officials continue to urge the public to avoid unnecessary trips and gatherings of more than 10 people, especially if you have underlying health conditions, and have advised people to cover their faces with masks in public.
Less than two week after Gov. Doug Ducey lifted Arizona's stay-at-home order, Arizona hospitals are reporting their largest number of people hospitalized with COVID symptoms, as well as more people visiting emergency rooms. Today's Arizona Department of Health Services report shows that through yesterday, 945 Arizonans were hospitalized. A record number of 600 people arrived at emergency rooms with COVID-like symptom on May 27, according to the report.
As Pima County emerges from the state's stay-at-home order, many establishments have reopened and more are planning to in the weeks to come as local elected officials attempt to enact emergency regulations or otherwise advise people how to safely avoid COVID-19 infection.
Dr. Bob England, Pima County's Interim Health Director, said the next few weeks will show healthcare experts two things: The degree to which our population has developed an immunity to COVID-19 and the seasonality of the disease. He said if the virus behaves really seasonally and cases continue to drop since Arizona’s stay-home order was lifted May 15, that’s good news in the short run. However, he said there could be bad news later in the year.
“But in the long run, that may mean we’re in for it in the winter because if it comes back with a vengeance during the time we have other respiratory viruses and flus circulating, that could be a real mess for all of us,” England said.
England said now was the time to prepare, both as residents and healthcare providers, for any potential resurgence. England added that if COVID-19 behaves like other coronaviruses, and if our immune system behaves as it does with other illnesses caused by coronaviruses, “then maybe we’ve got a couple of years worth of protection to look forward to. That means this may be an every winter phenomenon.”
• Pima County Justice Court is set to start hearing eviction cases next week, with 500 on the docket. Evictions had been delayed as a result of the spread COVID-19 and the subsequent economic meltdown, but as the moratorium nears its end and Arizona hits triple-digit temperatures, many people in Pima County are now facing losing their home. An eviction prevention fair is happening today. Details here.
Wednesday, May 27, 2020
ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Click here to read their biggest stories as soon as they’re published.
A senior Democratic congressman on Tuesday called for a watchdog probe into a $3 million Indian Health Service contract given to a former White House official to provide masks to Navajo Nation hospitals hit hard by the coronavirus.
ProPublica reported on Friday that IHS granted the contract for 1 million respirator masks to Zach Fuentes, a former deputy chief of staff to President Donald Trump, 11 days after Fuentes formed his company. The contract was granted with limited competitive bidding.
The Indian Health Service acknowledged on Wednesday that 1 million respirator masks it purchased from a former Trump White House official do not meet Food and Drug Administration standards for “use in healthcare settings by health care providers.”
The IHS statement calls into question why the agency purchased expensive medical gear that it now cannot use as intended. The masks were purchased as part of a frantic agency push to supply Navajo hospitals with desperately needed protective equipment in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic.
ProPublica revealed last week that Zach Fuentes, President Donald Trump’s former deputy chief of staff, formed a company in early April and 11 days later won a $3 million contract with IHS to provide specialized respirator masks to the agency for use in Navajo hospitals. The contract was granted with limited competitive bidding.
University of Arizona President Dr. Robert Robbins was joined by a panel of university leaders from different disciplines to talk about their plan to reopen the campus on August 24.
As before, Robbins and Dr. Richard Carmona, a former US Surgeon General who is tasked with directing the campus reentry plan, said their plan is to reopen the campus as safely as possible. Robbins said their intention is to open the campus back up for the fall semester, but they will not reopen unless it's deemed safe to do so.
There are 89 days left until the beginning of the fall semester. Robbins hopes to have a final answer about reopening by the 60-day mark so that students can have time to plan their living situations and other matters.
The university hopes to come to a final decision in concert with local and state officials considering the present risk of transmission. Carmona said they will use the epidemiological data of Southern Arizona to drive their decisions.
“Many colleges and universities are struggling with this now, making decisions just empirically to open or not open because of the fear, the uncertainty,” Carmona said. “But I think this is truly an academic approach to be able to take the thought leaders in our university, challenge them to come up with the best practices, aggregate that data, bring it forward so that the incident management team can sort through it, and then come up with a plan ... to ensure that we mitigate risk and are optimally prepared to open our university when [Robbins makes] the decision.”
Tags: COVID19 , Coronavirus , University of Arizona , UA , Campus Reentry Plan , Robert Robbins , Image
With the widespread economic fallout of the pandemic, many renters in Southern Arizona are facing a tough financial situation and an eviction will only set them further back.
In response to the impending displacement of vulnerable people, the Pima County Constables Office has organized an eviction prevention resource fair in partnership with a handful of local nonprofits and government service agencies.
Tags: Eviction , Pima County , Constable , Rent , Housing , COVID19 , Coronavirus , Economy , Image
A firm set up by a former telemarketer who once settled federal fraud charges for $2.7 million. A vodka distributor accused in a pending lawsuit of overstating its projected sales. An aspiring weapons dealer operating out of a single-family home.
These three privately held companies are part of the new medical supply chain, offered a total of almost $74 million by the federal government to find and rapidly deliver vital protective equipment and COVID-19 testing supplies across the U.S. While there’s no evidence that they obtained their deals through political connections, none of the three had to bid against competing firms. One has already lost its contract for lack of performance; it’s unclear if the other two can fulfill their orders on time, or at all.
They are among about 345 first-time federal contractors promised at least $1.8 billion in deals by the Trump administration since March, representing about 13% of total government spending on pandemic-related contracts of $13.8 billion, a ProPublica analysis of federal procurement data found. Like the three companies, many of the new contractors have no experience acquiring medical products.
Some of them, including the ex-telemarketer’s company and another firm established by a former White House aide, formed only days or weeks before landing multimillion-dollar government contracts. The U.S. government’s reliance on them, with what appears to be scant vetting of their credentials, represents a major gamble whose outcome could affect how many Americans are infected by the coronavirus and how quickly the U.S. economy recovers.
“We’re putting schedule above quality, to some extent, in this time of great need,” said Trevor Brown, a professor of public management at Ohio State University. “There’s just so much pressure to get PPE into the field, I’m not surprised there’s a relaxing of focus on the quality of the product.”
