Johnson County excluded workers don’t need a middle man

For eight months now, the Fund Excluded Workers (FEW) coalition has struggled to get both the governments of Iowa City and Johnson County to do something neither body seemed predisposed to do: provide direct cash payments to those excluded from previous rounds of direct stimulus and hazard pay to those who worked on the front lines of the pandemic. At just the moment when the coalition has achieved some measure of success, the Johnson County Board of Supervisors seems poised to distribute funds to excluded workers in a manner that is not only unnecessary but would significantly reduce the amount of money going to them.

At last month’s Johnson County public input session regarding how to distribute American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds, 150 members of the FEW coalition were in attendance, including a large number of immigrants. In addition to the many individuals who spoke, dozens more have spoken before the Iowa City Council and at other county input sessions detailing their own plight during the pandemic and the need for cash assistance without barriers to access.

It is their courage and persistence that has gotten local government officials to do what, when ARPA was first announced, none of them wanted to do.

So, it is rather strange that, at the same meeting, after many FEW supporters spoke, a single representative from the Center for Worker Justice (CWJ) offered their services to act as a distributor for the money the FEW have fought hard for and won. It is doubly strange, because when CWJ was approached earlier this year to join the 17 other signatories, they refused. Until recently, they had done nothing to help the coalition and had expressed no support for them. Only once some had been won did they seem to be on board.

Perhaps because CWJ has been responsible for disbursing other forms of aid during the pandemic, they believed it would be obvious to enlist their services. But this is unnecessary. The county already has a general assistance fund through which cash payments can be distributed. Furthermore, ARPA allows for a percentage of funds to be used for administrative purposes, meaning hundreds of thousands of dollars could go solely to pay for CWJ’s services and not to provide for needy families. If the county were to distribute these funds through existing programs, no such haircut would be necessary.

This is not a commentary on CWJ’s actions during the pandemic. Rather, the FEW is composed of the very people whom an excluded workers fund is meant to help, so they should be the ones to determine how the funds are distributed. And they have been very clear that there should be no barriers to access, that the money should go directly to the people who need it. No one needs to speak for them, to represent their interests, because they are already speaking for themselves.

Johnson County’s own surveys and listening posts have shown overwhelming support for this approach, and it is the people’s will that should be respected. It’s not only the right thing to do, it’s the fiscally responsible one as well.

Nicholas Theisen covers Johnson County government at twitter.com/city_of_iowa.