Submitted by Suanne Z. Thamm
Reporter – News Analyst
September 8, 2021
At the end of the September 7, 2021 Regular Meeting of the Fernandina Beach City Commission (FBCC), City Manager Dale Martin and Commissioners discussed the status of the settlement of the City’s claim against FEMA for reimbursement of damages to the City Marina caused by Hurricane Matthew in 2016.
Martin thanked Commissioners for their patience and support in resolving the FEMA dispute. He provided them with a spread sheet of costs that will be provided to FEMA in the amount of $6,854,351.27 for the southern attenuator. City Comptroller Pauline Testagrose has provided the information, which must be acted upon by FEMA no later than 60 days after receipt. Martin added that the City is also compiling costs for the northern attenuator, which are expected to total around $2M.
“Hopefully, this will all be put to bed shortly before Thanksgiving,” Martin said.
Commissioner Chip Ross addressed Martin. “We keep hearing over and over again that the City ‘lost’ the paperwork that went to FEMA. My understanding is that all the paperwork that the City forwarded to FEMA from the git-go is what [FEMA based its decision on]. Is that correct?”
Martin responded, “Correct. With respect to the ‘lost’ document, one of the early FEMA contractors prepared a document on his own and submitted it to FEMA. That document was never provided to the City. Subsequently, when the City asked for a copy of that, FEMA admitted that they had destroyed the document. When the contractors asked for a copy of the document from FEMA, they were also told that it had been destroyed. The City never had a copy of that document.”
Ross continued, “Just to make it perfectly clear, all the paperwork that the City submitted initially was the basis for FEMA’s decision [to pay the City’s claim]. There was no new information provided to them. The City was not faulted for providing incomplete information.”
Martin said, “Correct. Our request for arbitration included 24 attachments or exhibits.”
Commissioners expressed gratitude to the City Manager, City Attorney and City staff for pursuing this matter on behalf of the citizens.
Mayor Lednovich commended City Manager Martin for fighting for the City and the taxpayers.
I wish that all the naysayers, who would not give the City the benefit of the doubt in this case, would now step up to congratulate staff and commissioners for a job well done.
Ditto, Trudie Richards. Thanks for staying with it.
Well done and thank you to all who contributed to this outstanding conclusion.
The city marina will now be almost totally debt free and able to operate as a solvent enterprise fund.
Gerald Decker
Chair, Marina Advisory Board
There was always something suspicious about FEMA’s and the contractor’s statements about the “destroyed” document. The contractor (Branch Diversified???) said that they destroyed it since they didn’t get the job. I can understand why FEMA might want to destroy a document that didn’t support their position; but in these days of digital document preparation and document retention standards to not be able to reproduce such a document defies belief.
Hopefully the proceeds due to the City will be promptly issued and this matter can be laid to rest. A dinner featuring crow will be scheduled for all the pundits in the near future.
As to Gerald’s optimistic economic forecast for the marina, the costs of the frequent dredging required will continue to keep the marina operating in the red. The only long term solution is to bite the bullet and follow the original ATM reconfiguration plan to abandon the southern slips and relocate them to the northern side. Recognizing this will require extension of the northern attenuator and cooperation of OHPA with regards to channel realignment.