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Board Approves Match for Chico's Incentive/Causeway Bond Sale
Jun 14, 2005 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE FORT MYERS, Fla. (June 14, 2005) - The Board of Lee County Commissioners today approved the following items during its regular weekly meeting. They are: Chico's - Approved a 20 percent local match of a state incentive application for Chico's FAS to expand in Lee County, creating an additional 398 jobs earning 200 percent of the average local wage. The county will fund $398,000 and the state would fund $1.592 million for a total incentive of $5,000 per job created (total $1.99 million incentive paid over four years through tax refunds). Bonds - Set-up the accounts to receive the proceeds from the Sanibel Causeway bonds sold June 1. The county sold $67.4 million in transportation bonds to help fund the replacement of the Causeway bridges. The sale is expected to close June 22. The entire project is funded as follows: Bond Proceeds (excluding Issuance Costs) $ 66,500,000 Cleveland Clinic - Approved a zoning extension for a proposed Cleveland Clinic project on 40 acres at the southeast corner of Ben Hill Griffin Parkway and Alico Road. Road Improvement - Approved a consultant for design improvements to the Veterans Parkway eastbound off-ramp at Del Prado Boulevard. Hurricane Funds - Agreed to challenge the state methodology used to distribute CDBG Hurricane Recovery Funds. The county was denied funding based on scoring that put it one, one-hundredth of a percent below the state's cutoff score (see position paper below). POSITION PAPER FLORIDA DEPARTMENT OF COMMUNITY AFFAIRS v Congress made available to Florida $100,915,626 in Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funding. The basic allocation formula is: 50% of the funds go toward unmet housing needs, 25% of the funds go toward unmet business needs and 25% of the funds go toward unmet public assistance needs, "to areas facing the greatest need". v Lee County understands that all 67 Counties experienced hurricane damage in 2004. v The Governor's Hurricane Housing Work Group determined hurricane damage assessment tiers and allocation of hurricane housing recovery programs funds (1/27/2005), 12 Counties in Tier I and 11 Counties in Tier II (Lee County in Tier II). v The Florida Department of Community Affairs (DCA) determined a disaster impact score, considering the housing units damaged, infrastructure and business impact of Florida Counties. v DCA determined that fifteen (15) Counties receive CDBG disaster funds, 12 Counties from Tier I and 3 Counties from Tier II. ISSUE: v On March 11, 2005, Lee County requested justification as to how the disaster impact score cut off was determined. At the March 7, 2005 Disaster Recovery Initiative Application Workshop it was stated by DCA staff that the disaster impact score cutoff was .70. Therefore, Lee County with a disaster impact score of .69 was not eligible for funding. v On March 22, 2005, Lee County sent a certified letter requesting that DCA justify how the disaster impact cutoff score was determined. v On May 31, 2005, DCA responded, "These three scores of damage assessment were combined to derive an overall disaster impact score for all 67 counties in our state. The disaster impact score for the last county funded was .74. Lee County disaster impact score was calculated at .69, which reflects a five point difference in disaster impact scores." DCA did not address how the disaster impact score was determined. v The last three Counties funded, Okeechobee, Volusia and Osceola had the following disaster impact scores .79, .76 and .74 respectively. There is a five-point difference in the disaster impact score between Okeechobee and Osceola. There is no explanation as to how the disaster impact score was determined. v Additionally, there has been no explanation as to how the "County Cap" funding was determined. Seven (7) counties received $9,000,000 and eight (8) counties received $4,375,000. REQUEST: v Lee County receives its fair share of federal CDBG funding. v DCA explain the methodology in determining the disaster impact score cut off. v DCA explain how the "County Cap" was determined. LEE COUNTY LONG TERM RECOVERY Priority populations are uninsured, underinsured. Most victims are elderly and disabled with fix income and low-income families. February 3, 2005 - Total FEMA teleregistrations = 34,584 All funds received will be used for replacement housing for those meetings the funding qualifications. |