FEMA red tape strangling local governments
As Jefferson Parish still awaits millions of dollars in reimbursements for emergency-repair spending after Hurricane Katrina, its finance director, Gwen Bolotte, has grown increasingly weary of delivering the same records again and again to FEMA or state disaster recovery officials. With money just now beginning to flow to bigger infrastructure repair projects, she blames a revolving door of FEMA officials and relentless document requests from the state. Send in two invoices under the same contract, and state monitors typically will demand a copy of the contract each time, Bolotte says…. “I would think there would be a permanent file; most auditors have a permanent file,” she said. “People are getting frustrated, having to produce the same paperwork.”…. Bolotte is part of a large contingent of locals officials who are mired in what seems an endless slog as they try to land grants through FEMA’s Public Assistance program.
As if it wasn’t bad enough that southern Louisiana and coastal Mississippi and Alabama weren’t decimate by Hurricane Katrina (almost two years ago, BTW), now local governments in the affected areas are having to dance to the tune of inept bureaucrats seemingly more concerned with rules, regulations, and paperwork than with actually doing something to make a difference.
Dealing with FEMA has become such of frustrating clusterf—k of epic proportions that Texas’ current hurricane response plan relies more on companies like Wal-Mart, H-E-B, and Home Depot than FEMA. To be fair, there were many good things that FEMA did in the aftermath of Katrina. Nonetheless, the enduring picture that remains lodged in the public consciousness is that of thousands of trailers stuck in Hope, AR, and trucks full of ice driving around aimlessly on their trips to nowhere. What we remember are the mistakes, the ineptitude, and the incompetence…never mind the lies and broken promises.
While no government agency could be expected to be 100% ready and mobilized for a natural disaster of the scope and breadth of Katrina, neither should such rampant malfeasance be easily excused. Two years later, and local governments are still having to wade through a maze of bureaucratic ineptitude and incompetence that’s frankly insulting. No, we shouldn’t expect perfection, but then that was never the issue. Expecting a minimum of competence and concern and a minimal degree of willingness to accomplish the assigned mission hardly seems unreasonable.
The so-called PA, unfamiliar to most citizens and perplexing even to many government officials seeking the money, is the top source of federal disaster funding to rebuild public infrastructure: schools, roads, sewer lines, hospitals and civic auditoriums, police and fire stations. The program also offers rebuilding money to certain private institutions, such as universities, that are deemed essential to civic life.
FEMA expects to spend a whopping $2.7 billion on repair and construction projects across south Louisiana, more than five times the city of New Orleans’ annual operating budget before Katrina hit. That doesn’t include billions of public assistance dollars directed to emergency purposes, such as overtime and debris removal.
The process of getting the money, however, has proceeded in slow motion, because of the program’s inherent complexity and because of a failure of local officials to master the bureaucratic labyrinth.
And how much taxpayer money, never mind time and effort, has been wasted while local governments try to navigate the federal bureaucracy? Instead of putting their communities back together, no mean feat in itself, too many local officials are trying to figure out who needs what forms where and how often.
There’s still a good deal of work needing to be done to put lives and communities along the Gulf Coast back together. That by itself is a daunting challenge. Local governments shouldn’t have to wear the federal bureaucracy like a ball and chain, but that’s exactly what they’re being forced to do. It’s a sad exercise in cynical governance, but it’s completely in character with the Bush Administration’s overall response to Katrina. As soon as the klieg lights went out in Jackson Square, Our Glorious and Benevolent Leader’s promise to do whatever is necessary to put things back together was likely wiped from his memory. Subsequent events have only served to cement this impression.
Hey, it’s not like these people vote Republican….
For two years now, communities along the Gulf Coast have been forced to bear the consequences of broken promises and an almost criminal ineptitude and lack of compassion. This will likely continue to be the case long after The Worst President EVER © is behind bars in a federal prison has left office and retired to Hell Crawford, TX. He’ll have all the comforts a man could want…which is more than could be said for thousands of residents along the Gulf Coast.
