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Peter D. O'Bryan Chairman District 4 Bob Solari Vice Chairman District 5 April 10, 2018 Office of Governor Rick Scott State of Florida The Capital 400 S. Monroe Street Tallahassee, FL 32399-0001 Dear Governor Scott: Susan Adams District 1 Joseph E. Flescher District 2 Tim Zorc District 3 In September 2017, Hurricane Irma severely impacted Indian River County, requiring sheltering of more than 1,100 residents and visitors in five (5) shelters across the county. The shelters were managed and operated by employees from the Indian River County School Board with cooperation from the American Red Cross, as has been the practice for decades and as required by Florida Statute Chapter 252. These efforts, and nearly 23,000 meals, resulted in substantive sheltering costs to the taxpayers. As you may know, the School Board has submitted reimbursement requests to FEMA. For decades, Indian River County, like most other counties and their school districts, have submitted separately for shelter costs and have been reimbursed accordingly, under the current statutory and regulatory framework. We have recently received direction that the Florida Division of Emergency Management and FEMA have decided that this long-standing partnership approach is invalid, that the Florida Statute has been misinterpreted for decades, and that school districts are no longer eligible applicants to receive FEMA reimbursement for sheltering costs. This will require school districts to submit their sheltering costs to counties for payment, require counties to promptly pay those invoices and only after payment to the School Board will the counties be allowed to submit those costs to FEMA for reimbursement. 1801 27th Street, Building A Vero Beach, FL 32960 (772) 226-1490 26