Leon County to move forward with local recovery grants despite mixed messages at Blueprint

Leon County is raring to go with a local storm recovery grant program despite reservations by two commissioners that it could jeopardize federal emergency funding.

Leon County government chief spokesperson Mathieu Cavell said in an interview with the Tallahassee Democrat that "all the assistance funding at the county would not interfere with federal assistance in any way." He also said an online portal to apply will open some time next week.

County Commissioner Christian Caban stood by the program at the Blueprint Intergovernmental Agency meeting Thursday. He first proposed the grants in a letter hours before the County Commission’s Tuesday meeting. The grant program garnered near unanimous approval.

"The county will be quickly standing up a micro-grant program that dovetails with FEMA's disaster relief process," Caban said in a statement, referring to the Federal Emergency Management Agency. "This will give folks ... in our rural communities help now while the federal government hopefully mobilizes even more aid."

But there's a differing stance on the program that was given by both County Commission chair Carolyn Cummings and Tallahassee Mayor John Dailey at Thursday's Blueprint meeting during discussion.

Local funding? Mixed messages at Blueprint meeting

Cummings said she was aware FEMA was in town to "explore the extent of the damage" caused by the storm and that she wouldn't want to inhibit their work. She also advised against local funding.

"If we're going to go in the direction of maybe providing (funds), it might inhibit the federal government," Cummings said. "I understand too, from individuals that have worked with FEMA, if any local relief is provided in many instances, the feds deduct that from what they would otherwise provide."

This information prompted City Commissioner Jeremy Matlow to ask about the latest move from the county, where earlier in the week they voted 6-1 to move forward with the local grant program.

Cummings said the notion of federal deductions was not raised at Tuesday's county meeting and that the county might have "taken a step too soon."

Dailey doubled down, saying "any money that local governments step up and contribute in their relief effort could send a message that the money requested (wasn't needed). It could hurt us."

But Caban said people don't have time to wait for FEMA money, which is why he called for action as quickly as possible.

FEMA's in town, but what does that mean for locals?

The federal disaster management agency is in the very early stage of "How a Disaster Gets Declared," which is the preliminary damage assessment.

Together with the county and the city, FEMA officials are touring impacted areas to determine the extent of the disaster, the impact on both individuals and facilities, types of federal assistance that may be needed, projected cost estimates of damage and more.

That information then gets sent to Gov. Ron DeSantis for him to decide if Florida will need federal assistance. It's not yet clear if Florida will be receiving federal help.

Arianna Otero is the City Solutions Reporter for the Tallahassee Democrat. Contact her via email at AOtero@tallahassee.com or on Twitter/X: @ari_v_otero.

This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Leon County will continue with local storm recovery grant program