Local governments join to discuss FEMA
Mayor Gunter appointed to the U.S. Conference of Mayors subcommittee
Local governments have begun meeting to address like topics for discussions to be held with the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
The first meeting of the Intergovernmental Emergency Management Task Force, to which Mayor John Gunter has been appointed, focused on how to discuss and collect input for change.
City of Cape Coral Emergency Management and Resilience Director Ryan Lamb said three members from Florida were placed on the FEMA advisory council — Florida Division of Emergency Management Executive Director Kevin Guthrie, Miami-Dade County Sheriff Rosie Cordero-Stutz, and City of Tampa Mayor Jane Castor.
Castor created a U.S. Conference of Mayors subcommittee to which Gunter was appointed, Lamb said.
Lamb shared some of the topics from the first meeting, which will help develop recommendations to provide to FEMA -policy reform, funding resources and partnerships in emergency management. He provided an interesting statistic — 99% of congressional districts have been presidentially declared a disaster in the past decade.
Lamb said there needs to be some form of a federal emergency agency must continue to exist — what form it takes, and revisions are the topics discussed.
A survey was released, which he said they are going through to provide input and feedback.
The primary issues — debris and the time and cost associated with it; reimbursements for public assistance and individual assistance; temporary housing; national standard for municipalities and expectations for emergency management; the number of federal agencies involved — 90 — is too many as well as the systems and processes limits the speed of recovery coming forward.
Lamb also touched upon state Sen. Bill 180 – emergencies – with key topics of substantial improvements, assessing impact fees, and public hurricane shelter funding. He said the bill puts responsibilities down to the municipality level.
Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the legislation on June 26.
“There are a lot of questions around that right now,” Lamb said, adding that there is a lot of shifting in the world of emergency management at the state and federal level. “We are well positioned to have a voice in this process that I think will yield a good outcome for the city of Cape Coral.”
Gunter said the next meeting is Aug. 12.
“I think what you are going to see is a different type of approach when it comes to natural disasters,” he said. “They know what they have now is broken. These discussions will be very quick. It sounded like the next couple of months the decision will be made.”
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