INDIAN RIVER COUNTY — Hurricanes Frances and Jeanne are nearly 10 years in the rear view mirror, but the Indian River County staff is still dealing with repercussions of broken promises by the federal government after the storms.
The Board of County Commissioners Tuesday voted 5-0, reluctantly they said, to pay back $1.7 million in funding that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) had approved and the state paid for the Rockridge sewer project.
After the project was completed, FEMA reneged on the commitment to pay for sewer infrastructure for the neighborhood just off 17th Street west of Indian River Boulevard that flooded severely after the September 2004 hurricanes.
Water stood several feet deep in the streets, rising high enough to flood homes. At the time, Rockridge homes were on septic systems.
“Six years later, FEMA decided to de-obligate these funds,” said Chairman Peter O’Bryan.
O’Bryan explained that the State had actually fronted the money to the County and now FEMA is withholding money to the State because the County has appealed the decision and has yet to pay back the $1.7 million in “de-obliagated” funds.
“If we don’t return these funds, we hurt the State,” O’Bryan said, adding that the “bad actor” has been FEMA, not the State.
County Administrator Joe Baird explained that FEMA did not honor the approval of the funds that was made by a top-ranking FEMA official.
“FEMA says the person who worked for them should have never approved the project,” Baird said.
When questions arose from the dais and from the public about whether or not the sewer project achieved its objectives — in light of the fact that parts of Rockridge still flood badly after a heavy rain — County Budget Director Jason Brown said the project was deemed “an unqualified success.”
Baird told Commissioners that, in the event of a major hurricane, the fact that the County had not repaid the funds “would put us in a bad situation with the State.”
Commissioner Wesley Davis made a motion that the county repay the money, but that staff pay it in pennies as a form of protest. Commissioner Tim Zorc seconded this motion, but Commissioner Bob Solari raised concerns about the staff time and the cost of transporting $1.7 million in pennies to Tallahassee.
Baird said an electronic transfer would be “the professional way to handle it,” but it was decided that the county would cut a check for the round dollar amount and include 37 pennies for the remaining 37 cents, with a note.
The funds were deposited into the Indian River County Utilities enterprise fund and from that fund the $1.7 would come. It would not be paid out of property taxes, but by county water-sewer ratepayers out of utility reserve funds.
County Attorney Dylan Reingold said he would emphasize to the various agencies that the County’s decision to repay the funds does not in any way end the appeal of the FEMA decision.
