The Flathead County commissioners are scheduled to vote Tuesday on a proposal to rescind their prior declaration of a COVID-19 emergency, which made available hundreds of thousands of dollars for contact tracing and other efforts to mitigate the pandemic.

A resolution before the commissioners states that emergency funding "has not been utilized or necessary in Flathead County, nor is it anticipated to be."

A previous resolution, which the commissioners passed in March, opened up about $570,000 from the county's general fund and about $269,000 from a special emergency fund, which the Flathead City-County Health Department could use to fight COVID-19, according to Commissioner Randy Brodehl.

"We have not spent even a dime of that on COVID stuff," Brodehl said Monday. He added that rescinding the emergency declaration is primarily a "fiscal matter," a way to "clean up our books" before the new year. The commissioners can issue a new emergency declaration at any time, he said.

The county's emergency funds are separate from relief reimbursements under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act that Congress passed in March.

Joe Russell, who this month reprised his role as Flathead County's health officer, said the health department is spending the last of its CARES Act funding before it expires Dec. 30. Russell said there's no need for additional emergency funding from the county.

"We haven't needed it, and it's right for the commissioners to get that resolution off," Russell said. "We don't have any desire to tap into that fund."

At least 51 people in Flathead County have died of COVID-19, and the county experienced a dramatic surge in coronavirus infections in October, overwhelming health department staff tasked with contact tracing and case investigations. Numbers of infections have since tapered off, allowing the department to resume those efforts for all new cases.

“It appears we hit the top of our curve four weeks ago. The numbers have continually gone down,” Tamalee Robinson, the county's former interim health officer, said during a Board of Health meeting last week. “This has been the first week since I don’t even remember when, that I actually feel like our COVID team is on top of things."

Robinson stepped down this month after criticizing the commissioners and the Board of Health in her resignation letter, saying members had fostered a "toxic environment," allowed "ideological biases" to get in the way of public health efforts and failed "to enact or publicly support even the most basic recommendations" on mask usage and gathering restrictions.

The commissioners in July declined to extend the window for salaried health department employees to use their accrued compensatory time. And in early November, the commissioners rejected a department request for overtime pay for seven salaried employees who, according to a deputy health officer, were routinely working up to 80 hours a week.

"This lack of support has undermined morale within health office personnel, leading to numerous resignations," Robinson wrote in her letter dated Nov. 27. "As a result, my department has been continuously understaffed in key positions, which makes it difficult to respond to in a timely manner and mitigate the rapidly rising numbers of COVID-19 in our community."

The latest directive from outgoing Gov. Steve Bullock caps gatherings at 25 people and requires people to wear masks in all businesses and other buildings that are open to the public. The health department has, in turn, stopped granting approval for organized events larger than 25 people, but Flathead County officials have not enforced the governor's orders through fines, arrests or citations.

Russell, the new health officer, who also served in that position from 1998 to 2017, said case numbers now are "moving in the right direction."

"What will happen after the winter holiday break, only time will tell," he said. "But we're moving in the right direction. We're actually reducing some of our COVID contact investigating staff right now, and we're starting to plan for our vaccine response."

The commissioners will vote on the resolution rescinding the prior emergency declaration at 10:45 a.m. Tuesday in the commissioner chambers on the third floor of the courthouse in Kalispell. Public comments will be taken for 15 minutes beginning at 8:45 a.m.

Reporter Chad Sokol can be reached at 758-4434 or csokol@dailyinterlake.com