South Florida may have to repay millions in federal Hurricane Wilma aid

The following article was published in the South Florida Sun Sentinel on October 29, 2011:

South Floridians may have to repay millions in federal aid

By Larry Barszewski

Six years after Hurricane Wilma swept through South Florida, local governments may be on the hook to repay millions of dollars they received in federal disaster recovery funds.

City, county and school officials have been haggling with federal auditors over the questioned reimbursements. Most of the payments had previously been approved by federal emergency management officials.

In 18 South Florida audits the Department of Homeland Security‘s Office of Inspector General questioned more than $50 million in disaster payments.

In one of the most recent the office concluded in April that Deerfield Beach should repay $3.9 million of the $13.9 million it received. But city leaders have been in discussion with federal officials and now think they’ve gotten the repayment figure down to $1.6 million.

That’s still a hefty price, and they’re hoping the whole amount will go away.

“All the work that was done by the city of Deerfield Beach, whether it was in a residential neighborhood [or] industrial park, was in fact approved by inspectors representing FEMA before it was done,” City Manager Burgess Hanson said.

Negotiations can drag on for years. Boca Raton still has not resolved $5.5 million in questioned expenses from a 2008 OIG investigation Assistant City Manager Mike Woika said. The amount has been reduced to $4.8 million, he said, but the city is still appealing that figure.

“We’re pretty clear we followed everything we were supposed to,” Woika said. “We’re still hopeful that once someone takes a hard look at this, they’ll see the city is correct.”

Many of the OIG determinations came about because OIG did not have proof that proper procedures were followed or didn’t have the paperwork to justify an expense.

For instance, the OIG reports have questioned $3.9 million in payments to the Broward Sheriff’s Office that it said should have been submitted to insurance companies for coverage. Deerfield Beach’s would disallow $2.9 million in cleanup costs at a gated community because it’s unclear whether all the costs were eligible. Auditors said Fort Lauderdale may have overpaid $1.1 million in Wilma debris removal costs.

Hollywood looks like it will have to repay $1.3 million out of $5 million identified during its OIG review city spokeswoman Raelin Storey said. However, the city isn’t facing a hit in its reserves because of additional debris removal payments the city anticipates receiving.

“We have known for quite some time that there would be a repayment of money,” Storey said. “We also knew there was additional reimbursement.”

Storey said the city is expecting another $4.6 million in debris removal claims to be approved. If that stands up, the city would end up getting the difference of $3.3 million, she said.

Find this article here:  http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/weather/hurricane/fl-wilma-fema-wants-reimbursements-20111028,0,1041510.story