Martino: Local Government At Its Best
May 15, 2020
Once again, the City Council of Palm Beach Gardens along with its Administration has embraced the mantle of Leadership when its residents and business community are most in need of it. At its May Council meeting, to combat the coronavirus contagion with a unified response of care, concern, and compassion, Mayor Carl Woods, Vice-Mayor Maria Marino, Council members Mark Marciano, Rachelle Litt, and Chelsea Reed, created the Palm Beach Gardens Economic Recovery Act Grant Fund. This Act will provide financial assistance to our unemployed residents and small businesses that have been directly affected by the personal and economic devastations of the Covid-19 epidemic.
The Palm Beach Gardens Economic Recovery Act Grant Fund will be funded with $1,300,000 from the City’s budgeted Economic Development Fund. It consists of two Relief Funds to provide help and support to our jobless residents and struggling businesses.
The Palm Beach Gardens Unemployed Residents Relief Fund is designed to assist residents who have lost employment due to the coronavirus pandemic. The Unemployed Residents Relief Fund will receive $300,000. The fund will provide a one-time Publix gift card worth $250 to a limited number of residents to counterbalance daily living costs. A complete list of criteria is available on the City’s website.
In a further demonstration of their leadership and conviction that the defeat of Covid-19 will take a collective force, Mayor Woods and the City Council have joined with the Palm Beach North Chamber of Commerce and the PGA Corridor Association for the inspiration and implementation of the Palm Beach Gardens Small Business Relief Fund. It will be funded with $1,000,000. The Small Business Relief Fund will provide one-time grant payments of $20,000 to 50 small businesses within the city affected by the Covid-19 shut-down. For eligibility businesses must be locally owned or independently operated. Businesses must have been licensed in Palm Beach Gardens for 18 months or more, and have 25 employees or fewer. Businesses may not have already have been approved or received Covid-19 relief funds from other sources, such as, the SBA Paycheck Protection Program. A complete list of criteria is available on the City’s website.
From my perspective, Mayor Woods, the City Council, and the Administration should be applauded and congratulated. They have recognized constituent needs, deliberated to understand them, offered solutions to fix them, and implemented actions to remediate them. That is local government performing at its best; we in Palm Beach Gardens should be proud and appreciative.