Randy Brock, the GOP candidate for governor, had planned to fly off to the Republican Governors Association conference in Aspen, Colo., early today (he’s giving a talk and raising money at the event), but he cancelled his flight at the last minute to hold a press conference.
What could be more important than a speech at the RGA? Brock, who has kept his press events to a minimum, is calling reporters together to Waterbury this morning to raise questions about the way in which the Shumlin administration has handled information about Federal Emergency Management Agency funds for state property damaged by Tropical Storm Irene.
Last week Brock asked for email communication between the administration and FEMA officials regarding funding for the Waterbury State Office Complex and the Vermont State Hospital. On Monday, he received some of the memos he requested.
The information, he said, leads him to question whether administration officials were aware that FEMA had made no firm commitment to the state when they told lawmakers last spring that the federal government would cover 90 percent of the cost to rebuild.
On July 20, the Shumlin administration told lawmakers that FEMA had walked away from its commitment to the state.
“Did they know, or should they have known, or did they make assumptions?” Brock asked. “How did the administration come to the conclusion we were going to receive 90 percent funding? The documents I’ve received don’t lead to that conclusion, and it begs question, how did we arrive at this conclusion?”
Brock says there is no clear indication of how much the state would receive and no mention of 90 percent funding in 34 pages of memos between state and federal officials obtained from the Shumlin administration. The date of the communications was between Jan. 6 and April 25. Most of the documents detail proposals for the facilities.
In a memo on Feb. 23, Nick Russo, a FEMA official, tells Jeb Spaulding, the secretary of the administration, that “FEMA doesn’t have the legal authority to make a conceptual ok. We can say FEMA will participate however, to what extent is dependent on our Stafford Act and the CFR requirements. We are required to obtain all required info and balance insurance proceeds against the costs. Secondly, we can only reimburse those costs deemed to (be) ‘reasonable’ which can only be determined after a direction is chosen and BCA is established for the project.”
Spaulding writes back later that day: “We will do our best (to) compile the information quickly, but some of it may take awhile and I still don’t understand why we can’t get a conceptual O.K. about FEMA participation with building the proposed replacement hospital based on what we currently know …”
Brock says he is expecting many more emails from the administration that may shed more light on whether there is “any evidence there was more certainty than there appears at this point.”
“The documents I’ve seen today raise more questions and they’re very troubling,” Brock said. “I can’t help but think did we pay attention or did we arrive at what we wanted to see? I don’t know the answer to that.”
When he served as a state senator last legislative session, Brock said he doesn’t remember his colleagues in Senate Institutions talking about the level of financial uncertainty that he says is now apparent in the communications between the Shumlin administration and FEMA.
Had he and other senators known the degree to which FEMA was qualifying its stance, Brock says “we would have perhaps have been much more probative.” He recalls not having any question that “this money not might be there.”
“I certainly never had any indication that there was significant degree of uncertainty, and from talking with my colleagues in (Senate) Institutions, I didn’t get a sense for most of them that they were aware of this,” Brock said.
Since Irene’s devastation last August, state officials have consistently said they have been assured FEMA will kick in a good chunk of money to restore or replace state assets at the historic Waterbury complex, which has 70 buildings that housed some 1,200 state workers and the state hospital.
For months, the Shumlin administration has said the state was counting on a 90 percent match from FEMA to cover the cost of rebuilding the Waterbury State Office Complex and the Vermont State Hospital. Ten days ago, Michael Clasen, deputy secretary of the Agency of Administration, told lawmakers that FEMA is reneging on its financial commitment to the state.
The announcement on July 20 came as a shock to lawmakers who set aside $18 million in the capital bill in April based on the assumption that the federal government would provide most of the funding to cover the cost of renovations and new construction at the state office compound in Waterbury, building a new state hospital in Berlin and funding improvements at local hospitals for new psychiatric facilities.
There is a $120 million figure gap between the $182.8 million the state estimates it will cost to renovate and replace state assets and the $62 million that the state or its insurance has pitched in to cover damage costs.
Two state officials told lawmakers that FEMA was walking away from a commitment to help fill that gap.
At a press conference last week, Spaulding said the state had hoped for $80 million from FEMA. An attempt to reach him Monday night was unsuccessful.
According to a spreadsheet from a June presentation, state officials anticipated $88.3 million in federal reimbursements for the state hospital and office complex.
A FEMA official disagreed with the Shumlin administration’s assessment last month and said the agency was working to “maximize” funding for the state.
Deputy Federal Coordinating Officer Steven Ward, who is working in Vermont with a team evaluating the state’s documentation, told VTDigger.org “The process is not complete. We have a long way to go.”
The projects are slated to take several years. Delays in reimbursement or reduced funding from FEMA could force the state to scratch its original plans for the facilities. The cost of improvements to Rutland Regional Medical Center and the Brattleboro Retreat would have to be made up in state reimbursement rates for patients, officials said.
Editor’s note: This story was updated at 5:27 a.m. and 5:48 a.m. Aug. 1.
