County of Sonoma 

Recovery Plan 

State and Local Fiscal Recovery 

Funds 

2021 Report 
County of Sonoma 2021 Recovery Plan Performance Report 1

 County of Sonoma 

2021 Recovery Plan 

Table of Contents 

General Overview ........................................................................................................................ 3 

Executive Summary .................................................................................................................. 3 

Uses of Funds ........................................................................................................................... 3 

Promoting Equitable Outcomes ................................................................................................. 4 

Community Engagement and Use of Evidence ......................................................................... 5 

Table of Expenses by Expenditure Category ............................................................................ 6 

Project Inventory ......................................................................................................................... 8 

Ineligible Activities: Tax Offset Provision ............................................................................. 10
County of Sonoma 2021 Recovery Plan Performance Report 2

GENERAL OVERVIEW 

Executive Summary 

The American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), signed into law on March 11, 2021, with an Interim 

Rule published on May 17, 2021 https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2021-05-17/pdf/2021-

10283.pdf, provides federal resources to local governments to “change the course of the 

pandemic and deliver immediate relief for American workers, as stated by the White House 

announcing its passage (see https://www.whitehouse.gov/wpcontent/uploads/2021/03/American-Rescue-Plan-Fact-Sheet.pdf). 

Additionally, according to the U.S. Department of the Treasury, the funding objectives are to: 

support urgent COVID-19 response efforts; replace lost revenue for eligible local governments 

to support vital public services and help retain jobs; support immediate economic stabilization 

for households and business; and address systemic public health and economic challenges that 

have contributed to the unequal impact of the pandemic. 

The federal government allocated $96 million directly to the County of Sonoma, not including 

cities, tribes, or other jurisdictions. Consistent with eligible use of funds, during FY 2021-22 

budget hearings the Adopted budget includes $19.5 million from the ARPA allocation to finance 

a portion of the FY 21-22 $48 million estimated total for COVID-19 response costs from Health 

Services and other county supporting agencies. The Adopted budget included 2.0 positions for 

the Human Services department, which anticipated using the Upstream Platform and the 

Results-Based-Accountability (RBA) system to evaluate community grants issued with ARPA 

funds. 

The county is currently working with County Departments and Community groups to provide 

input and submit project requests for use of ARPA funds. 

During FY 2021-22 Budget Hearings, the Board of Supervisors approved a process for the 

distribution of ARPA funds. This plan calls for funding to be distributed in three primary areas: 

1. Funding for COVID-19 pandemic response 

2. Funding for strategic investments in County departmental services 

3. Funding for direct community support 

At Budget Hearings, the Board of Supervisors allocated approximately $20 million to fund 

COVID-19 response costs that are not otherwise reimbursable through Federal funding and set 

a timeline for the other funding distributions, with the following dates set for Board action on 

ARPA funding: 

 June 18, 2021: Board of Supervisors approves ARPA distribution process 

 July 27, 2021: Board receives an update on the process for distributing funding directly 

to the community 

 September 14, 2021: Board reviews preliminary departmental proposals for ARPA 

funding and selects proposals for further development (no funding allocation decisions) 

 November 2, 2021: Board defines community funding areas based on needs analysis 

(no funding allocation decisions) 
County of Sonoma 2021 Recovery Plan Performance Report 3

 December 14, 2021: Board allocates funding to specific departmental proposals and 

community funding areas 

Uses of Funds 

The American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) was signed into law on March 11, 2021, the third 

major aid package coming from the Federal Government in response to the COVID-19 

epidemic. Among other provisions, the Act provides resources to local governments to 

combat COVID-19 and its ongoing effects on the country, its people, and its economy. As 

part of this package the County of Sonoma will receive $96,018,973. Half of this funding 

was received in May 2021, and the other half will be delivered in the spring of 2022. All 

funding must be obligated by December 31, 2024 and spent by December 31, 2026. 

Under the legislation, funding can be used to address five areas: 

1. Support ongoing public health response to COVID-19 

2. Address negative economic impacts of the pandemic 

3. Replace public sector revenue loss 

4. Provide premium pay for essential workers 

5. Invest in water, sewer, and broadband infrastructure. 

The Treasury Department’s preliminary guidelines, call for a single calculation for the 

entire entity in question, and do not allow for exclusions of one-time or special purpose 

revenues. Due to the 2017 Wildfire event the county’s financial recorded 4 years later a 

PG&E settlement amount which masks the county’s revenue loss experienced due to the 

Pandemic. Setting aside the PGE settlement funds, the County’s revenue losses due to 

COVID exceed $50 million. Although the total ARPA allocation for the County does not 

change, it limits potential uses of the funds to the other four categories. Sonoma County 

is requesting the guidelines allow the county an exemption so we may apply a portion of 

the funding to general government purposes under the designation of revenue loss. 

At Budget Hearings, staff presented a plan to distribute funding under three primary 

pillars: 

1. Funding for COVID-19 response (EC 1) 

2. Funding for departmental projects (EC 2 – EC6) 

3. Funding directly to the community (EC 2 – EC 6) 

Funding for COIVD-19 response (EC 1) totaling $19.5 million is included in the FY 2021-

22 adopted budget. This funding will ensure that the County has the resources it needs in 

order to continue to respond to the pandemic. This funding level may need to be 

increased based on the potential for continued response costs as a portion of the 

population remains unvaccinated and case rates and hospitalizations continue to rise. 

Departments are working on proposals for projects under the second pillar. These will be 

evaluated based on a number of factors, including ARPA eligibility, alignment with the 

Strategic Plan, and the furtherance of promoting racial equity and social justice in the way 

the County departments deliver core services. Staff will return on September 14 to 

present initial proposals to the Board. At that time the Board will prioritize proposals and 

select which they would like to move forward for more detailed project development. 

Funding will not be allocated at that meeting. 
County of Sonoma 2021 Recovery Plan Performance Report 4

The third pillar of funding allocated directly to the community is being managed by 

Upstream Investments in conjunction with the Office of Equity and the Economic 

Development Board. On November 2, staff will return to discuss and finalize areas for 

distribution based on community needs. During Budget Hearings, the Board requested 

that these departments return to present more information on the process for assessing 

community needs in alignment with the Department of Health’s report on COVID-19 

response and needs. 

On December 14, the Board will meet to determine final funding allocations to County 

projects, to the key areas of need for direct funding to the community and to re-assess 

funding needed for immediate COVID response. As dictated by ARPA, the Board and the 

Public will receive regular updates on the funding through the duration of the grants. 

Promoting equitable outcomes 

To support the ARPA Implementation Plan, the Office of Equity proposes to utilize an 

Equity Design process that builds on the best practices of the Latinx Health Work Group 

through the creation of an ARPA Equity Work Group. This Group will develop community 

priorities and areas of focus and plans to operationalize those priorities through the 

RFP/funding process for community investments. 

The process for creating the membership of the ARPA Equity Work Group will include a 

short application for the applicant to complete, a letter of recommendation from a 

community member or community-based organization, and an interview with a multidepartmental panel of Equity Core Team members, and staff and leadership from a 

number of County departments. 

The Office of Equity proposes to form the ARPA Equity Work Group during the month of 

August and will meet at least once to inform the Board’s September 14, 2021 discussion. 

After receiving further direction from the Board on September 14, the ARPA Equity Work 

Group will continue to work to develop unmet community and business needs, evaluation 

criteria, and to support a community engagement process that will co-create our County’s 

path to an equitable recovery from this pandemic, as well as to inform and support the 

County’s future equitable disaster response. 

The ARPA Equity Work Group engagement will also be supplemented by targeted focus 

group meetings with community-based organizations, outreach to each supervisorial 

district in the county, as well as a review and analysis of recent community feedback and 

public comment. This proposed combination of community engagement strategies 

recognizes the ongoing work that our community partners have undertaken throughout 

the pandemic, and will ensure that the funding criteria and investments reflect community 

needs. 

This approach will be paired with forthcoming (August 2021) industry and occupationlevel data from EDB through their consultant, Dr. Robert Eyler, that demonstrates areas 
County of Sonoma 2021 Recovery Plan Performance Report 5

of ongoing need for economic and workforce recovery that present opportunities for 

investment. This approach will also include the Office of Equity and the Human Services 

Department’s work to update the Portrait of Sonoma and to co-develop an action agenda 

with a community Design Team. 

Lastly, data from the Portrait of Sonoma County update, expected to be available in 

September, 2021, will be used to assess community need. The Portrait of Sonoma 

County uses the Human Development Index to highlight disparities across education, 

income and health indicators. In addition, the updated report will also be informed by and 

respond to the numerous crises that have struck our County since 2017, all of which have 

disproportionately harmed low-income BIPOC communities. New sources of data will be 

used to augment our traditional sources with a view to capturing the effects of these 

crises in real time and this information will inform ARPA investment strategies. Measure 

of America, the organization completing this updated report and agenda for action, will 

release it to the public in November, and has agreed to make the data available for 

internal use only by the County for ARPA planning purposes in September. 

Community Engagement and Use of Evidence 

The Office of Equity will co-lead our County’s effort to ensure equitable allocation of 

American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds to address the disproportionate public health 

and economic impacts on the hardest hit communities, populations, and households by 

COVID-19. The Office of Equity is working to support the Human Services Department, 

the Economic Development Board, the Department of Health Services, the Community 

Development Commission, and the County Administrator’s Office to understand the 

efficacy and impact of previously invested COVID-19 funding on meeting the needs of 

these community members during the pandemic. Engagement with the community and 

collecting data are necessary to understanding and ensuring the program is reaching the 

population of community that was disproportionally affected by COVID19 pandemic. One 

Department Analyst position will drive our work to develop a strong set of priorities and 

criteria to ensure an equitable distribution of these additional funds, and accountability 

metrics so that this significant investment in recovery reaches and supports communities 

of color who experienced disproportionate impacts. The second Department Analyst 

position will engage with our community members and community-based organizations to 

develop community priorities, to ensure equitable access to these critical funds, and to 

connect community members and community-based organizations to those accountability 

metrics to ensure they are partners in achieving the racial equity principles embedded in 

the ARPA as well as the County’s Racial equity & Social Justice Strategic Plan pillar. 

The Office of Equity will work with Human Services’ Upstream Investments team to apply 

a racial equity + Results Based Accountability (equity + RBA) model to develop and track 

internal and external progress in addressing disproportionate outcomes related to the 

COVID-19 pandemic. Working with community organizations and community members, 

the County will develop and apply a set of specific performance measures and metrics on 

these new resources to achieve a just and equitable recovery. With the support of expert 

resources in the Office of Equity’s consultant Equity & Results, working together with our 
County of Sonoma 2021 Recovery Plan Performance Report 6

community, County departments will learn how to develop new mechanisms to 

strategically disrupt common funding and investment practices that may perpetuate 

inequities and replace them with actions that address the root causes of the problem and 

lead to improved outcomes for disproportionately impacted members of communities of 

color 

Upstream Investments is a Policy Initiative chartered by the Board of Supervisors to 

advance evidence informed prevention focused practices across the County. 

Organizations with effective practices and programs have the highest potential to improve 

education, health and economic wellness for all Sonoma County residents. On April 2, 

2019, the Board of Supervisors adopted a set of Safety Net Contracting Principles (see 

https://sonomacounty.ca.gov/CAO/News/Contracting-Principles-Letter-from-the-SafetyNet-Departments/). Subsequently, on 3/10/2020 the Board of Supervisors accepted 

Results-based Accountability (RBA) as the approach to operationalize these principles. 

See https://sonomacounty.legistar.com/LegislationDetail.aspx?ID=4388232&GUID=64C25113-9FF5-4C48-

A86A-C32A464190B8&Options=&Search=

RBA provides an evidence-based process and tools to collaboratively develop shared 

outcomes and monitor the progress of these investments. Once earmarked, funding 

categories can be identified based on a community needs assessments derived from the 

combined data available from Safety Net county programs, community partners, and the 

2020 census quantified (if available) through Healthy Places and/or Human Development 

indices. RBA is used for planning, reporting, and monitoring of performance measures for 

CBO contracts with plans for complete adoption in the next 3-5 years. Upstream staff are 

committed to using RBA to implement a collective impact approach to improving 

community well-being through evidence-based interventions. 

Utilizing a RBA approach to support the County’s racial equity work builds on this 

expertise and deep work with our community-based partners who are also implementing 

RBA. The Office of Equity, together with the Upstream team, will help to center equity at 

the core of all of the County’s RBA efforts tracking ARPA investments intended to 

achieve an equitable recovery. By linking the County’s equity and RBA efforts and 

utilizing a racial equity + RBA approach in the way the County measures the impact of 

specific equity-driven ARPA allocations, the County will be able to track efforts grounded 

in data to show which investments have supported greater equity. 

Using a combination of community engagement and the racial equity + RBA approach, 

the Board will have the additional capacity to inform CBO funding categories, result 

areas, performance indicators, and known prevention strategies. This framework ensures 

that those American Rescue Plan Act funds directed at an equitable recovery can 

achieve the greatest impact. The investment evaluation and outcomes tracking process 

will detail intended results, proven strategies, and focus on disproportionately impacted 

communities and populations. 

After engagement with the ARPA Equity Work Group, the Office of Equity and HSDUpstream staff will continue seeking Board direction and approval for the funding areas. 

Staff will then develop, coordinate, and manage the process from assessing needs to 

drafting the Request for Proposals. The Board may decide to award grants. Once the 
County of Sonoma 2021 Recovery Plan Performance Report 7

grant contracts are in place, staff will work together with community- based program staff 

to develop shared performance measures to track progress at the program level. In 

addition, an online dashboard will be developed to transparently track program progress 

in real time, while connecting program level efforts to results and population indicators. 

The investments will be sustained over a three-year period. During this time period, the 

contracts will be actively monitored through the racial equity + RBA process. This process 

includes capacity building for staff and community partners on how to develop and track 

new equity metrics, as well as regularly scheduled meetings with contracted CBOs to 

ensure intended outcomes are and will be achieved. Staff recommends year 2 and 3 

funding agreement is contingent on the attainment status of preceding year expected 

outcomes. 

Using an expanded functionality of HSD-Upstream RBA Apricot tracking system, the 

county will establish performance measures for each contract/program, and develop an 

online dashboard to track performance measures and the contribution to population 

indicators. 
County of Sonoma 2021 Recovery Plan Performance Report 8

Table of Expenses by Expenditure Category 

As of July 31, 2021, Sonoma County has does not have expenditures to report as the 

County is in the process of designing the ARPA program and evaluating County 

Departmental and Community projects to submit to the Board for final review and 

approval. Expenditures will be updated as projects are approved.

Category Cumulative 

expenditures to 

date ($) 

Amount spent 

since last 

Recovery Plan 

1 Expenditure Category: Public Health 

1.1 COVID-19 Vaccination 

1.2 COVID-19 Testing 

1.3 COVID-19 Contact Tracing 

1.4 Prevention in Congregate Settings (Nursing 

Homes, Prisons/Jails, Dense Work Sites, 

Schools, etc.) 

 

1.5 Personal Protective Equipment 

1.6 Medical Expenses (including Alternative Care 

Facilities) 

 

1.7 Capital Investments or Physical Plant Changes 

to Public Facilities that respond to the COVID19 public health emergency 

 

1.8 Other COVID-19 Public Health Expenses 

(including Communications, Enforcement, 

Isolation/Quarantine) 

 

1.9 Payroll Costs for Public Health, Safety, and 

Other Public Sector Staff Responding to 

COVID-19 

 

1.10 Mental Health Services 

1.11 Substance Use Services 

1.12 Other Public Health Services 

2 Expenditure Category: Negative Economic 

Impacts 

 

2.1 Household Assistance: Food Programs 

2.2 Household Assistance: Rent, Mortgage, and 

Utility Aid 

 

2.3 Household Assistance: Cash Transfers 

2.4 Household Assistance: Internet Access 

Programs 

 

2.5 Household Assistance: Eviction Prevention 

2.6 Unemployment Benefits or Cash Assistance to 

Unemployed Workers 

 
County of Sonoma 2021 Recovery Plan Performance Report 9

Category Cumulative 

expenditures to 

date ($) 

Amount spent 

since last 

Recovery Plan 

2.7 Job Training Assistance (e.g., Sectoral jobtraining, Subsidized Employment, Employment 

Supports or Incentives) 

 

2.8 Contributions to UI Trust Funds* 

2.9 Small Business Economic Assistance (General) 

2.10 Aid to nonprofit organizations 

2.11 Aid to Tourism, Travel, or Hospitality 

2.12 Aid to Other Impacted Industries 

2.13 Other Economic Support 

2.14 Rehiring Public Sector Staff 

3 Expenditure Category: Services to 

Disproportionately Impacted Communities 

 

3.1 Education Assistance: Early Learning 

3.2 Education Assistance: Aid to High-Poverty 

Districts 

 

3.3 Education Assistance: Academic Services 

3.4 Education Assistance: Social, Emotional, and 

Mental Health Services 

 

3.5 Education Assistance: Other 

3.6 Healthy Childhood Environments: Child Care 

3.7 Healthy Childhood Environments: Home Visiting 

3.8 Healthy Childhood Environments: Services to 

Foster Youth or Families Involved in Child 

Welfare System 

 

3.9. Healthy Childhood Environments: Other 

3.10 Housing Support: Affordable Housing 

3.11 Housing Support: Services for Unhoused 

persons 

 

3.12 Housing Support: Other Housing Assistance 

3.13 Social Determinants of Health: Other 

3.14 Social Determinants of Health: Community 

Health Workers or Benefits Navigators 

 

3.15 Social Determinants of Health: Lead 

Remediation 

 

3.16 Social Determinants of Health: Community 

Violence Interventions 

 

4 Expenditure Category: Premium Pay 

4.1 Public Sector Employees 

4.2 Private Sector: Grants to other employers 

5 Expenditure Category: Infrastructure 

5.1 Clean Water: Centralized wastewater treatment 

5.2 Clean Water: Centralized wastewater collection 

and conveyance 

 
County of Sonoma 2021 Recovery Plan Performance Report 10

Category Cumulative 

expenditures to 

date ($) 

Amount spent 

since last 

Recovery Plan 

5.3 Clean Water: Decentralized wastewater 

5.4 Clean Water: Combined sewer overflows 

5.5 Clean Water: Other sewer infrastructure 

5.6 Clean Water: Stormwater 

5.7 Clean Water: Energy conservation 

5.8 Clean Water: Water conservation 

5.9 Clean Water: Nonpoint source 

5.10 Drinking water: Treatment 

5.11 Drinking water: Transmission & distribution 

5.12 Drinking water: Transmission & distribution: 

lead remediation 

 

5.13 Drinking water: Source 

5.14 Drinking water: Storage 

5.15 Drinking water: Other water infrastructure 

5.16 Broadband: “Last Mile” projects 

5.17 Broadband: Other projects 

6 Expenditure Category: Revenue Replacement 

6.1 Provision of Government Services 

7 Administrative and Other 

7.1 Administrative Expenses 

7.2 Evaluation and data analysis 

7.3 Transfers to Other Units of Government 

7.4 Transfers to Nonentitlement Units 

(States and Territories only) 

 

See Section C(7) on page 27 of the Reporting Guidance for additional information. 

Project Inventory 

The County will add Project Inventory details once submissions have been evaluated and 

approved by County Board of Supervisors.