Senator Monford’s Press Conference on Hurricane Michael Funding

Mayor Angela Sapp and Interim City Manager, Jack L. McLean Jr., joined Senators Bill Montford (D-Tallahassee, District 3); George Gainer (R-Panama City, District 2; and Doug Broxson (R-Pensacola, District 1) at the March 7, 2019 press conference to announce the filing of SB 1610, Emergency Mitigation and Response, that appropriates $315,285,000 to cities, counties, and businesses damaged by Hurricane Michael

Message From City Manager

Hurricane Michael Surcharge
The City paid $1,819,660 of $3.2M owed to mutual aid cities to date. One hundred and fifty linemen from Alabama, Georgia, and Florida came to our rescue. Many of our customers/citizens are now seeing a Hurricane Michael Surcharge on the February utility bills. The City applied to FEMA for the $3.2M owed the mutual aid cities. The City has not received any FEMA funding and the federal government is not likely to reimburse the City for the $3.2M it will spend by the end of the current fiscal year any time soon. Based on recent disaster experiences of other cities and counties, the earliest FEMA reimbursement dollars will be available to the City is 3 years from the October 10, 2018 disaster declaration.

After December 2018 legal notices, the City Commission passed a sunset Hurricane Michael Surcharge to pay the mutual aid cities, who help to our utility’s crews restore power faster than other utilities in the county. Notice of the planned increase were sent to our 4700 customers on January 24 and February 12, 2019. The average residential surcharge is $9.00. This surcharge will sunset in 4 years. The FEMA funds, when received, will be placed in Emergency Funds to help with future disasters and emergencies.
Because of the Hurricane Michael Surcharge, the City will be better able to handle any future hurricane or emergency.

Thank you for being a valued customer!

The Hillcrest Cemetery’s Western Gate, along Solomon Road (14^th St.) is closed. The Western Gate will be open only for funerals and maintenance work by the Public Works Department and the Utility Department. Going forward, the public may access the cemetery at the entrance, Eastern Gate, Sunset Drive.