Central Coast counties describe financial frustration over pending FEMA disaster reimbursements

CENTRAL COAST, Calif. (KION-TV) - In March 2023, the Pajaro levee was breached during winter storms, causing devastation to the surrounding communities.

While those communities continue to recover, those affected counties are still feeling the financial impact.

“That has created a huge budget problem and cash flow issue for our county,” County Administrative Officer for Santa Cruz County Carlos Palacios said.

Santa Cruz County said, they’re still waiting on over $100 million in unpaid federal disaster reimbursement.

According to Palacios, since 2017 Santa Cruz County has seen eight federally declared disasters.
However, he said they’ve only been able to recoup just over half of what they’ve spent from state and federal partners, including FEMA.

“It's created a lot of uncertainty in our budget process, because we just don't know if we're going to get reimbursed for some of these claims that we've submitted," Palacios said.

Over in the County of Monterey, some disaster expenses from 2017 weren’t reimbursed until just last year. On Oct. 15, the county moved forward with a hiring freeze, they said due in part to the financial impact from unpaid disaster expenses.

“We're not going to get that FEMA money for five or six years, and it just hits it up at a bad time. Here, we've had quite a few disasters here in the last few years, from fires to floods," County of Monterey District 2 Supervisor Glenn Church said.

Supervisor church adds, they’re waiting on at least $70 million from FEMA. The lengthy reimbursement process is now contributing to financial worries for both counties.

KION News asked FEMA is there are any ways to potentially streamline the process in order to get assistance out faster.

“A lot of our policy is based on the statutes that we're guided by, obviously and subject to, obviously, someone else's decision if they want to change law to assist us," FEMA Federal Coordinating Officer Andrew Grant said.

Santa Cruz County Supervisor Zach Friend is one of the people advocating for reform in Washington D.C. with the reimbursement process.

"Their processes take too long, and they also are too bureaucratic. The good examples are their sister, their sister agency, the federal highways administration, which has a very streamlined and efficient process for funding us on road disaster," Palacios said.

“I've spoken to both counties and a lot of other applicants about the situation, and it's tough, because we have to go through this process. Nothing is eligible until it's eligible. And so I just try to caution them to not make any assumptions about what might be or what might not be," FEMA Federal Coordinating Officer Andrew Grant said.

Both Santa Cruz and Monterey Counties warn of future budget uncertainty as they wait for those funds. Some county officials KION spoke with are also calling on congress to take action to increase FEMA's operating budget.