A Groveling Flagler County Amplifies FEMA Falsehoods as Feds Release $3.72 Million Owed Flagler Beach Pier

Setting aside what a federal judge called a “categorical freeze of appropriated and obligated funds,” the Federal Emergency Management Administration on Aug. 28 released a reimbursement of $3.72 million for the Flagler Beach pier’s $15 million demolition and reconstruction project, bringing FEMA’s share to $11.2 million.

The money was neither unexpected nor a special appropriation, but a reflection of rebuilding costs that increased over the years. The money was owed the city, had been congressionally approved, and had been unlawfully held up by the Trump administration, along with billions in grant dollars for other communities across the country.

A FEMA news release issued Thursday and reflecting the administration’s version described the Flagler Beach and other disbursements differently, as “additional” funds somehow made possible by the Trump administration. The characterization is inaccurate. Flagler County government repeated it. The toadyism is a reflection of local officials’ fear of bucking the official line and risking another funding freeze or future disfavor, either from federal agencies or state agencies subservient to them.

In 2019, FEMA estimated the cost of demolishing and replacing the pier at $9 million. That increased to $10 million a year later, and to $14 million when the contract was awarded earlier this year. The $14 million doesn’t include design costs. The city “sought recognition of the actual contract cost” from FEMA, City Manager Dale Martin said Thursday, since FEMA is responsible for reimbursing 75 percent of recovery costs. The $3.72 million was that recognition. (State and local funds split the remaining 25 percent. In this case, a legislative appropriation awarded $5 million to the project, sparing local governments from expending any strictly local dollars.)

FEMA issued a release Thursday boasting of an “Additional $178 Million Approved to Support Florida’s Recovery,” and claimed that since Jan. 20, when Donald Trump took office, “FEMA has approved more than 2,900 state and local recovery projects through the state-managed Public Assistance program.”

Both statements are grossly misleading.

The $178 million is not “additional” money that FEMA approved since Jan. 20. The money was in the pipeline and was owed to numerous communities, but was intentionally held up by the Trump administration as it reviewed the grants and fired FEMA personnel, further slowing the agency’s responsiveness to local communities. Contrary to the second statement in the release, the Department of Homeland Security, which now reviews the majority of grants, had delayed releasing the money at the president’s order, causing disruptions in many communities.

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced at a cabinet meeting earlier this year that “We’re going to eliminate FEMA.” Flagler County Emergency Management Director Jonathan Lord cautioned the County Commission to be prepared for significant changes in the way the federal government would assist with disaster recovery, funding included. (See: “Flagler Emergency Management Director Jonathan Lord Warns of a Different Disaster Ahead: the Vanishing of FEMA Money.”)

Despite two federal judges’ orders to release federal grants (and in one order, file a compliance report on FEMA grants by March 14), delays continued. “Federal agencies and departments can spend, award, or suspend money based only on the power Congress has given to them–they have no other spending power,”  federal District Judge John J. McConnell Jr. ruled in March. “The Executive has not pointed to any constitutional or statutory authority that would allow them to
impose this type of categorical freeze.”

In a court filing of its own, the Trump administration claimed it was not freezing the money and was complying with the injunction, but that it had instituted a “manual review process” (meaning that grant requests were being reviewed one by one) to ensure against “fraud, waste, or abuse,” essentially presuming communities like Flagler Beach and Flagler County guilty of fraud, waste and abuse until proven otherwise. “[A]nd in any event the Court’s injunction does not prohibit agencies from engaging in ‘reviews’— only freezes on payments, which the manual review process is not,” the administration argued.

On Tuesday, a federal judge in Boston blocked the administration from reallocating $4 billion in FEMA grants that fell under the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities program. The administration had initially announced it was eliminating the program, then backtracked and said it was merely “reviewing” its grants.

Facing mounting pressure, FEMA and the Department of Homeland Security started releasing the grants they’d held up, allowing local and federal officials disingenuously to recast the money flow as a victory enabled by the Trump administration. Media–local media especially–played along with the manipulation.

Last week, U.S. Rep. Randy Fine, who represents Flagler and five other counties, boastfully took credit for getting $8.8 million released to Flagler County for a dune-reconstruction project, saying FEMA had been delaying the money for years and citing his “powerful friends” in Washington as the reason for the money’s release. In fact, the money was owed since Flagler County filed for it last fall (Hurricane Milton struck in October), and it was Fine’s “powerful friends” who had caused the delays. Fine never mentioned the administration’s role or the judge’s order. He said he made phone calls that got the money moving.

Local officials in turn did not hesitate to grovel.

“I can only assume that your inquiry on the status prompted this to be sent to us,” County Administrator Heidi Petito wrote Fine’s aides on Aug. 26, just before his visit. “Thank you for bringing attention to our remaining projects, we greatly appreciate the support and partnership!” Fine then appeared at the county’s Emergency Operations Center with a sign blaring his name that read, “Delivering for Flagler County.” (“The lectern sign was brought and placed by Congressman Randy Fine’s team for his remarks,” a county spokesperson said. “Flagler County did not purchase or provide the sign.)

After FEMA’s release of the money owed the pier, Charles Gann, a Fine aide, emailed Petito about it and asked: “Are the county and city tracking this?” An obvious hint for marketable credit.

The next day Flagler County government amplified FEMA’s rewriting of the facts by repeating, in a release of its own, the falsehood about “additional $178 million to support Florida’s recovery,” quoting the FEMA release and Fine’s boasts when he was in Flagler County.