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i/. e). I. <br />DEPARTMENTAL <br />INDIAN RIVER COUNTY, FLORIDA <br />MEMORANDUM <br />TO: Honorable Board of County Commissioners <br />THROUGH: Jason Brown, County Administrator <br />FROM: John King, Director <br />Department of Emergency Services <br />DATE: March 26, 2018 <br />SUBJECT: Letter to Governor Rick Scott Regarding FEMA Reimbursement for Hurricane Irma <br />It is respectfully requested that the information contained herein be given formal consideration by the <br />Board of County Commissioners at the next scheduled meeting. <br />BACKGOUND: <br />Staff recommends the Board of County Commissions send a letter to Governor Rick Scott requesting <br />his intervention in the recent notice of change for FEMA reimbursement of Hurricane Irma shelter <br />costs. For decades Indian River County, like most other counties and their school districts, have <br />submitted separately for shelter costs and have been reimbursed accordingly, under the current <br />statutory and regulatory framework. <br />We have recently received direction that the Florida Division of Emergency Management and FEMA <br />have decided that this long-standing partnership approach is invalid, that the Florida Statute has been <br />misinterpreted for decades, and that school districts are no longer eligible applicants to receive <br />FEMA reimbursement for sheltering costs. This will require school districts to submit their <br />sheltering costs to counties for payment, require counties to promptly pay those invoices and only <br />after payment to the School Board will the counties be allowed to submit those costs to FEMA for <br />reimbursement. <br />FUNDING: <br />This change in reimbursement creates an immediate financial impact to Indian River County for <br />costs related to Hurricane Irma; this is on top of the millions of dollars in damages to public <br />properties that have already been recognized. We are also concerned this change in policy will make <br />the previous FEMA sheltering cost reimbursements vulnerable to deobligation. As you recall, as late <br />as July 2017 this county was appealing FEMA's deobligation decisions for the 2004 hurricane <br />season (Hurricanes Frances and Jeanne). <br />24 <br />