CLAYTON — ӣƵ County’s top attorney said Tuesday a plan to use NFL Rams settlement money to pay nonprofits awaiting federal pandemic aid could be illegal.
Council Chair Shalonda Webb on Monday proposed using Rams settlement money because the pandemic funds have been delayed for more than a year.
But payments have to go through the county’s bidding process and can’t be given directly to a predetermined group, county counselor Dana Redwing wrote in a letter to County Council members on Tuesday.
“The current legislation identifies the sponsor’s desired recipients without any competitive process and without the rigors for fairness and the avoidance of improper influence that the law requires,” Redwing wrote.
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Eight nonprofits were promised $8 million in pandemic relief money in the fall of 2022 and then went through a lengthy compliance process. But the contracts have yet to be signed because the county doesn’t have the capacity to monitor how the recipients use the money, County Executive Sam Page has said.
Webb said Tuesday afternoon she had yet to review Redwing’s letter.
View life in ӣƵ through the Post-Dispatch photographers' lenses. Edited by Jenna Jones.