Good morning.
The Select Committee on Federal Administration and Policy Changes Committee meeting will come to order.
It is 9.33 a.m.
August 15th, 2025. I'm Councilmember Alexis Mercedes Rink, chair of the committee.
Will the committee clerk please call the roll and let the record reflect that Councilmembers Juarez and Rivera are excused.
Councilmember Hollingsworth.
Present.
Councilmember Kettle.
Here.
Councilmember Nelson.
Councilmember Saka.
Here.
Councilmember Strauss.
Present.
Councilmember Solomon.
Here.
Chair Rink.
Present.
Chair, there are five members present.
Wonderful.
Thank you.
Six.
And we will now move on to the approval of today's agenda.
For my colleagues and members of the public, the topic of energy policy will be discussed at a future federal select committee meeting.
My team found in speaking with our department experts this week that we really wanted to keep this conversation narrowed to a disaster and emergency management issues focused meeting.
So with that, I move to remove item one from the agenda to be heard at a later committee meeting.
Is there a second?
Second.
Thank you.
I move to adopt today's agenda as amended.
Is there a second?
Second.
Hearing no objection, the agenda is adopted.
Wonderful.
Welcome everyone to the Federal Select Committee on Federal Administration and Policy Changes and also please let the record reflect that Council President Nelson has joined us in person.
My apologies.
Thank you for joining us.
Good morning.
This will be the final meeting of this committee until after budget season is wrapped, and today we are focused on the topic of disaster and emergency management response systems.
I would like to thank Councilmember Kettle and his team for helping support the shaping of today's conversation alongside my team.
We always appreciate the collaborative environment that you and your team provides.
I've been looking forward to daylighting this topic specifically since establishing this select committee.
As in addition to chairing this committee, I also chair our Sustainability, City, Light, and Arts and Culture Committee.
And in this very first committee meeting I chaired back in January, committee members were briefed on the impact of the bomb cyclone.
That caused enough major damage to public property and the long-lasting power outages across the region that it required the governor's office to declare the event as a major disaster with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, FEMA, which has since been denied twice in April and June by the Trump regime with zero explanation of The majority of our congressional delegation have penned joint letters demanding answers and the federal recovery support that Washington State deserves.
To echo the sentiments, I have heard Councilmember Kettle say both on and off the day as many times, natural disaster and emergency response should never be a political issue.
And it is disturbing to comprehend that we are in a situation where that has already happened, especially considering when we know it's a matter of when and not if a major earthquake will hit the Pacific Northwest.
And since the Trump regime resumed power, Arkansas, California, Tennessee, Washington State, and Wisconsin have all been denied FEMA aid.
And this is unprecedented.
According to KUOW, for the last 25 years, disaster declarations have been approved 85% of the time.
And even during the first Trump regime, 88% of disaster declarations were approved.
Additionally, under the current Trump regime, it's very clear that they're unafraid to politicize deployment of the National Guard.
We saw this in Los Angeles earlier this summer and just this week with the president taking control of the police force within the nation's capital.
So I will keep saying it, we are not in normal times.
Our community members are scared and the people on this dais must do everything we can to protect our home and our Seattle values.
And with that, we will now open the hybrid public comment period.
Public comments should relate to items on today's agenda or within the purview of the committee.
Clerk, how many speakers are signed up for today?
Currently we have zero in-person speakers and there is one remote speaker.
Great.
Our remote speaker will be given two minutes.
Clerk, will you please read the public comment instructions?
The public comment period will be moderated in the following manner.
The public comment period is up to 30 minutes.
Speakers will be called in the order in which they are registered.
Speakers will alternate between sets of in-person and remote speakers until the public comment period is passed.
The public comment period is now open.
We will begin with the first speaker on the list, which is David Haynes.
And please press star six.
Hi, thank you, David Ainge.
When is council going to acknowledge that under Biden, FEMA was politicized And that progressives weaponized the entire government against innocent white citizens with a race and social justice lens of scorned experiences that dump other people's trauma onto the whole of community, blaming the wrong people for problems.
Under Biden, we saw FEMA as a corrupt agency that uses disasters to buy new equipment, trucks, and move into five-star hotels and catered food owned by middlemen of Wall Street donors to boost the morale of agency employees and make Wall Street middlemen happy.
While getting volunteers to only hand out extremely small bottles of water and snacks, while most all the money is spent on new trucks, hotels, and catered food.
This committee is nothing but drama, a racist world, bottom of the barrel, overdramatic scare tactic, always attempting to make it seem that gringo is the enemy and Trump is to blame for everything, like drama queens.
While Seattle represents everything that's wrong with America, i.e., sex changes for kids, miseducating kids based on ignorant skin color, Misjudgments based on the past over its own except yet still regurgitated by power mongering hypocrites, always playing the race card, button pushing voting blocks, while doing the bidding of pedophile groomers, conspiring against other people's kids as if you have the best interest of children.
As you continue to undermine public safety, acting like cops in the National Guard are the biggest threat, not the drip pushers and the pimps.
Reminding people that the LBGQT community doesn't have the best interest of community at large.
And Seattle's racist, anti-social injustice lens is more of a reminder that under racist Kamala Harris Biden administration, the FEMA affirmative action infraction decided to purposely not help white people and only help black people and illegals, reminding America how evil and hypocritical, progressive, bottom-of-the-barrel Democrats are in the Pacific Northwest, always copying the ignorant agenda of other people's regions as if in cahoots conspiring against citizens' futures for unvetted custom violators who tread on others.
All right, there are no additional speakers.
We'll now proceed to our items of business.
So moving out now to our first item of business, will the clerk please read item two into the record?
Item two, federal impacts on disaster and emergency management systems.
Briefing and discussion.
Wonderful.
And as our presenters make their way up to the table, once you're ready, please take a moment to introduce yourself by stating your full name and organization into the microphone for the record.
Thank you.
Oh, and please let the record reflect that Councilmember Saka has joined us in person.
Good morning.
Thank you for being here.
Good morning.
I'm Curry Mayer, the director of Seattle's Office of Emergency Management.
Thank you, Chair Rankin, for inviting me to speak on this important topic.
And thank you, committee members, for being here today.
I really appreciate your time.
I would like to start with what is the current landscape, kind of setting the stage for how the normal flow of disaster resources occurs and what we've been doing to date so that then when I talk about the changes that the federal government is proposing and some things that are already in place, it will make more sense.
So if you look at the chart here, the disaster at the bottom next to city response, as most disasters and emergencies are handled well by local government.
Not only is this our requirement as a local government to protect the safety of the people who live here, But also, we know our community.
We know the geography.
We have relationships with the communities that we serve.
And so we are best equipped to respond in a thoughtful way that understands what the public needs, also who is most vulnerable, and how we can best help.
So sometimes when there is a bigger disaster, we need outside resources, we meaning the city.
So the next level up in government is the county.
So we would make a request to them.
And as you travel each of the levels above the city response, Those are bigger areas from which to find resources so they have access to more resources, access to more money.
And so we're able to get additional help that we may not have in the city.
The next level up would be for state resources.
And then if it is also beyond what the state's capabilities are, the governor would then proclaim a local emergency.
So the city proclaims an emergency.
The state proclaims an emergency.
Then there is a disaster threshold of damages that you have to meet related to a disaster, and then you would apply to the federal government to ask for federal response.
So again, it's important to remember the county has more resources, the state does as well, and then of course the federal government has the most money and resources.
The arrow that points down shows that then those federal resources In the current system would come back to the city level and be under the command, if you will, or direction of city government.
Again, those people who know the most about their communities and would assist with the things that we need for response.
So the changes that have been proposed are quite substantive in nature.
And so just a couple of things I'd like to point out.
That Presidential Disaster Declaration and post-incident funding, currently the damage disaster threshold that we must meet is $1.89 per capita.
So Washington State's threshold is $14.5 million, which sounds like a lot of money, but time and again are disasters that are not necessarily catastrophic for the entire state, but for a region, the bomb cyclone that Council Member Rink mentioned was over the threshold of 14.5 million, even though there were only a couple of counties included in that, I think four altogether.
The proposal is to say that a presidential declaration will only apply if $7.56 Cents per capita is met, increasing that threshold that is required fourfold, which means that for Washington, that would be $58 million.
To give you a further example of what that means, the COVID response, which, although unusual, was one of the most expensive in history throughout the country, not just for us.
But Seattle's reimbursement just for COVID was $30 million.
So having to meet a damage threshold of 58 million, even for that COVID response that went on for over a year and involved many things that don't usually occur, would still not have met the threshold.
So currently, when we receive that direct federal assistance, we often get technical support from federal staff, from different agencies.
Again, experience or expertise that may not exist at the local level.
So the new requirements, we may not get any federal assistance.
And something else is an example.
That you've probably seen a lot in the news.
There's been pretty severe cuts to the National Weather Service.
As you might imagine, they are a critical component of our preparedness and thinking about response, intense storms, whether in the wintertime or heat or the disaster that Seattle Response to the most often.
So also it's important to note that disaster doesn't have to be catastrophic for it to be really expensive for us to recover.
The bomb cyclone, again, is a good example.
It was really impactful for this area and some of our surrounding neighbors, but not catastrophic like an earthquake.
And it still had, just for Seattle, $7.4 million worth of damages.
Sorry, I need to go back one.
Whoops.
Sorry about that.
All right.
So OK.
So the federal government has outlined new terms and conditions for us to receive federal grant funds that may make Seattle ineligible.
It's also important to remember that the state has to apply for the grants first, and then cities and local jurisdictions are sub-recipients to that grant.
The Emergency Management Performance Grant, which are funds that currently support two of my staff, two FDEs, may not be available for Seattle this calendar year.
The NOFO has come out, so the Notice of Funding Opportunity.
But what we've heard from our colleagues in Washington, DC, and also in other places around the country is that Even if that grant is released, that there may not be any funding tied to it.
So that would have big impacts for us.
And I have a staff of 13, so missing two is a big deal.
We also often rely on FEMA classes for those topics that we don't have a lot of staff to help us with.
Debris management is a good example.
Also, some of the federal reimbursement Courses that FEMA does are particularly helpful for local government.
So the new terms and conditions are also more strict.
One of the new things that was required is that the local jurors or whoever receives the grant funds attest that they will have no DEI programs For the length of time that the grant is the performance period for the grant.
And if they find that you have done that in some way, they can take the money back regardless of if it's still in play.
Some of the response to that across the country and also here in Washington has been to file lawsuits.
So to apply for the grants and then to file a lawsuit and say the terms and conditions are unlawful.
We haven't, in fact, seen a lot of success with then the administration following what judges have put in place after those lawsuits.
And sometimes those lawsuits take a long time to remedy or to go through that whole process.
You also may have seen recently in the news that Trump released a new executive order, which aims to give political appointees power over the billions of dollars in grants awarded by any of the federal agencies, so not just for emergency management.
Oversight for these officials includes making certain the grants adhere to Trump administration policies.
It also requires agencies to make it so that current and future federal grants can be terminated at any time.
Including during the grant period.
Agencies cannot announce new funding opportunities until the protocols are in place, according to this new order.
And the immediate impact of that is further delay on the opportunities being released and, of course, funding being released to local government of any kind.
Just to give you another example, I mentioned the bomb cyclone.
We did apply for a federal declaration, meaning the state applied for the bomb cyclone.
Just Seattle alone sustained over $7.4 million worth of damages.
We then give that damage information to King County, who's Thresholds by themselves is $10.7 million, so we were a huge chunk of that.
The state's claim exceeded the damage threshold of $4.5 million, and as Council Member Rankin mentioned, that was denied.
We then appealed it, and the appeal was also denied.
The only information that was given back in the denial was that we did not meet the criteria.
Which, as you might imagine, was confusing because we felt like we had exceeded it.
So what that means is all of that damage, mostly to city light infrastructure, is now the responsibility of Seattle alone.
So the federal changes are also affecting regional emergency preparedness.
I am happy to tell you, though, that Washington is a very collaborative state.
The emergency managers across jurisdictions and at the county and state level Work together all the time.
One of the major efforts that we're working on now, spearheaded by Washington Emergency Management Division, is hosting a number of workshops to look at possible alternate sources of funding to put aside both for recovery and for mitigation projects.
It is important to note that a lot of the help that we get from the federal government is also for mitigation projects, which are spread across the departments here in Seattle and have a real impact.
So we're looking at those alternative funding supports, as I said, with the colleagues in emergency management.
We continue to collaborate with them on a number of fronts.
We're having a big earthquake exercise in October.
We're having a FIFA scenario-related exercise in January that will be quite extensive, and it will allow us to work with all of our partners.
And then just to give you an example of the partners that we work with on a regular basis, including for Getting ready for FEMA.
I mentioned King County Emergency Management and Washington Emergency Management.
There's also a regional partnership with eight counties in the Puget Sound area.
Sound Transit, Red Cross, the University of Washington, UW Med, Public Health, King County Regional Homelessness Authority, Washington State Patrol, King County Metro, PSC, and a number of others.
So we're lucky that we have that coalition of partners.
So with that, I'm happy to answer questions, but also I'm going to pass it to Anne.
Thank you, Director, Mayor.
I'm Anne Maher with our Office of Intergovernmental Relations.
Good morning, Councilmembers.
I'm gonna keep it fairly short here, but did just want to flag a few things on the horizon on the congressional level.
So Congress is currently on recess, but prior to that, the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, which is co-chaired by our own Congressmember Rick Larson, introduced H.R.
4669, Fixing Emergency Management for Americans.
And this is a bipartisan legislation and really intending to restore FEMA as a cabinet-level agency.
Concurrently, Secretary Kristi Noem with DHS and Secretary Pete Hegseth of DOD are leading the President's FEMA Review Council, and this is comprised of really federal, state, and local government jurisdictions along with individuals.
Mayor Jane Castor of Tampa is on that council, and there has been some outreach through her through the U.S.
Conference of Mayors.
And this came out of an early January executive order from the president, but they're really just trying to get feedback from government jurisdictions.
I think, you know, the interesting thing to note here is that Congress appears to be acting sort of in opposition to the administration.
We were sort of curious where, you know, the direction they'd be heading.
So we've been monitoring that, and, you know, it's great to see bipartisan legislation coming out of Congress.
But as you know, we head into the fall.
It will be pretty interesting to see where they land.
Congress will be doing markup of that FEMA bill, along with the Council will be providing their recommendations around that same time.
And on a similar note, House and Senate are going through their appropriations process.
And just given the scrutiny around immigration right now, this bill will face political headwind.
And so we will, of course, be monitoring where that comes out.
The draft of the House version did include some grants that are important to the city, including UASI, which is the Urban Security Area Initiative grant.
So, you know, as the September 30th government deadline is approaching, there'll be, you know, a lot to get done in Congress, and so we will, of course, be monitoring those changes in coordination with OEM.
Happy to answer any questions.
Wonderful.
Thank you both.
Colleagues, questions that you have for our panelists this morning?
Council President Nelson.
Well, Director, as you were talking, it occurred to me that Trump is the disaster in so many ways.
But for today's conversation, it's because his cuts will cause the emergencies we usually Rely on FEMA to help manage.
And by cause, I should say, worsen.
Because cuts to the Weather Service, to USGS, to NOAA.
We rely on early warnings to help prepare our constituents for potential impacts of those storms coming in.
And if we can't track them or see them, then we can't.
Then our people are going to be in danger.
So that's what really occurs to me.
And I just feel like the words disaster, catastrophe, big orange bomb, cyclone, those are all the things that come to mind in your conversation.
But I do have a question.
Let's see, it is how much of our neighborhood emergency hubs are funded with FEMA dollars and other federal dollars, but that's really key because those are the ways that we organize our response.
So that's a great question.
I appreciate that.
And just for context for everyone, the emergency hubs are primarily for communication.
They are run by volunteers that are connected with our office, but we don't direct them in any way.
It's a really wonderful group of volunteers.
And why they're so important is those, then, communication hubs are throughout the city in a number of different neighborhoods, and they can provide immediate damage assessment or we're fine in this area, maybe we're isolated, but we'll be OK for a little while.
So that's kind of the backdrop.
We're very proud of them.
They do not get federal dollars, though.
We do training for them initially when they are going to stand up, and then they are run and operated by volunteers.
Okay.
So the equipment and the training is already covered with local dollars?
Yes.
Yes.
Okay.
So that's good news.
Thank you for that question, Council President.
Council Member Salomon and then Council Member Kettle.
Council Member Salomon Salomon Salomon Salomon Salomon Salomon Salomon Salomon Salomon Salomon Salomon Salomon Salomon Salomon Salomon Salomon Salomon Salomon Salomon Salomon Salomon Salomon Salomon Salomon Salomon Salomon Salomon Salomon Salomon Salomon Salomon Salomon Salomon Salomon Salomon Salomon Salomon Salomon Salomon Salomon Salomon Salomon Salomon Salomon Salomon Salomon Salomon Salomon Salomon Salomon Salomon Salomon Salomon Salomon Salomon Salomon Salomon Salomon Salomon Salomon Salomon Salomon Salomon Salomon Salomon Salomon Salomon Salomon Salomon Salomon Salomon Salomon Salomon Salomon Salomon Salomon Salomon Salomon Salomon Salomon Salomon Salomon Salomon Salomon Salomon Salomon Salomon Salomon Salomon Salomon Salomon Salomon Salomon Salomon Salomon Salomon Salomon Salomon Salomon Salomon Salomon And again, great shout out for the emergency hubs, those volunteers.
I haven't worked with them in various parts of the city, know their dedication, know the work that they do, because when it really comes down to it, and again, this may be more for public consumption, if we have a major disaster, Your neighbors become your emergency responders because police and fire and medical may not be able to get to you for several days.
So that's why we make a push for neighborhood resiliency, neighborhood cohesion, to be able to support each other for at least 72 hours in the event of a major disaster, particularly earthquake.
Because it's not a matter of if, it's a matter of when we're going to have a major earthquake.
Which kind of gets me to the question I wanted to ask regarding the equity in terms of who FEMA is going to help and when.
So we've applied several times for relief and have been denied.
I'm wondering if, you know, the Fourth of July flooding that happened in Texas, has Texas applied for relief and gotten it?
Or the disasters that hit the Carolinas.
Just thinking that if we can show that, hey, these states who are red got it, these states who are blue aren't, it seems to me to be setting us up for a pretty well-grounded lawsuit against Yes, let's just put it there.
So anyway, thoughts on that?
So first, I want to say thank you for including emergency management and public safety.
I couldn't agree more.
We are sort of the little sister of emergency management, kind of behind the scenes that people don't always consider.
So I appreciate that.
I think part of the struggle or challenge across the country really has been that the decisions that are made and who gets help don't seem to follow a logical pattern.
So initially, it was considered that only blue states would get assistance.
And then we saw that that wasn't true either, that I believe Arkansas did not get some of the funding that they had asked for.
It's hard to know whether or not How that will pan out, I think it does bring some light to if FEMA is returned to a cabinet-level position and is directly under the White House.
Does that mean that the White House will have more oversight about who gets funding and who doesn't?
I don't know.
It's something that's been discussed.
Because it's hard to know and it doesn't seem to be logical, I think our best solution is to think about how are we gonna do this as best we can without the federal funding that we've relied on for so long.
It's not.
I think it's a super complicated situation, though.
We get so much assistance, really funding assistance for mitigation, which, of course, reduces the impact of a known hazard.
In some ways, that's more impactful than recovery.
Recovery also, though, tends to be really expensive.
So whether or not we're able to marshal the funds that we need from local sources, I think, has yet to be seen.
So I think it's complicated and hard to know.
I appreciate you bringing that up.
Thank you.
Thank you, Council Member Salomon.
Council Member Kettle.
Chair, thank you.
I appreciate the opportunity.
Apologize for no video.
Not sure what's going on.
I've recycled the demons in the computer are affecting this.
That said, you probably don't want to see me anyway, so here we go.
I just wanted to, A, thank Chair for having this on.
As you know, I always appreciate when every meeting becomes a public safety community meeting like yesterday's community meeting.
Liza Rankin.
And because it really has the opportunity to highlight the challenges that we're facing to include with the federal government.
Liza Rankin.
On this area I've been speaking regarding the federal government at my committee as part of the chair comment.
A few, three meetings ago, I spoke to federal law enforcement, specifically, you know, ICE and the need for federal law enforcement to hold itself to a higher standard, to be a varsity versus junior varsity.
And then earlier this week, I spoke as well, particularly related to the National Guard deployment to Washington, D.C., in that, you know, What we need in our cities is not the National Guard.
With public safety, what we need to interdict drugs or guns coming into our city is the ATF or the DEA or FBI.
That's what we need in our city.
Liza Rankin, Ph.D.: : And the same thing we need.
We need support for sworn officers like Governor Ferguson's Liza Rankin, Ph.D.: : Plan here in Washington State, you know, for public safety support our firefighters either with personnel and really equipment that's really important.
And it's important because this is not just for our city.
It's also for For example, the LA wildfires, which I spoke about earlier this week.
The fact that firefighters from our city and from the region went to California to support them in that disaster, that natural disaster.
And it kind of highlights to what we're talking about today.
And so we need FEMA to be not Strip down to nothing, which has happened to a lot of departments and agencies throughout federal government, but to be enhanced because it has been incorporating the lessons learned of Katrina and other places to be a force multiplier for our country, for our counties, and for our cities.
And this is important to highlight for our residents.
Liza Rankin, Ph.D.: : And for everyone, you know, both in the city county and the state about what is going on in Washington DC with administration has relates to emergency management emergency preparedness and we need to be.
You know, working in conjunction with our county counterparts and our state counterparts to the best of our ability from anything from highlighting the discrepancies.
And I recognize the Arkansas example, but just the approach and that we get versus other parts of the city to Council Member Solomon's point.
And we need to continue to push these.
You know, at the same time, we need to do our job here, too, in Seattle.
And so, you know, one of the things in my discussions with OEM as part of this new world in which we're living, we do need to clean up our budget lines.
As noted in the presentation, you know, two positions out of the OEM.
We're kind of historically based on the grants and given the uncertainty that that is something that we need to to address as we go through our budget process, because at the end of the day, we need a strong OEM that's there when it's needed.
And I've been engaging With the executive at different levels to support OEM and its partnership with other departments.
So it can be there when it's needed.
So, Chair, I just wanted to highlight that.
I don't really have a question since the briefing pretty much spoke to the different pieces.
And what's next for Congress?
Dave Kuntz, A online is they need FEMA to be able to do its job.
I'm less concerned about it being cabinet level.
I just, we just need for it to do its job, whether it's there or within the Homeland Security, whatever it may be.
Dave Kuntz, Just needs to do its job.
Dave Kuntz, Thank you chair.
Thank you, Councilmember Kettle.
Councilmember Strauss?
Yeah.
Excuse me.
Thank you, Chair.
And thank you for the presentation.
Thank you for all of the work you do.
I don't have a question for you today.
Just want to mirror some of the comments made by Councilmember Solomon and Councilmember Kettle, where our first responders, if you will, in one of those Large disasters will be our neighbors.
It will be the people closest to us.
I also recognize that emergency management can sometimes be overlooked when things are fine.
And when they are not, you are the one that we are relying upon.
And so I just want to take this moment to publicly thank you for all of the work that you do, the readiness.
Every time the Emergency Operations Center is activated, Most people aren't aware of the activity that is occurring and your center is just buzzing with activity to make sure if something happens, we're ready and to do our best to make sure something doesn't happen.
But in the world of natural disasters, we don't have that control.
And so I just want to take this moment to publicly thank you for keeping us as ready as possible.
In any large natural disaster especially, We'll never be ready.
And I think that that's something to acknowledge.
And I just appreciate so much you having us as ready as we can be.
So thank you, Curry.
Thank you.
I really appreciate that.
Thank you, Council Member Kettle for your support as well.
Thank you, Council Member Strauss.
Colleagues, any additional questions?
Oh, Council President Nelson.
Yeah, I just have one.
It seems like we end up talking a lot about the contradictions and the illogical nature of the decisions that are made at the federal level.
But I have a question about the performance.
Let's see, what are the criteria of the performance grant that you stand to not be able to get?
And I'm asking because On page, I don't know what page it is, eight of your presentation, raising the threshold to $7.56, $7.56 from $1.89 per capita to qualify or Yeah, that's to qualify, I suppose.
But my point is that that is basically meaning that the more money you spend, the more you stand to get from the federal.
And you run a very cost-effective emergency management response.
And so my thinking is that it's contradictory that If I'm reading this right, your performance would have to become less efficient in order for the city to qualify for these grants.
It seems like Trump is always just responding to pretend emergencies like immigration, like public safety, like when actually rates are going down in DC and in Seattle.
And yet, you know, deploying the national resources in a way that is completely wasteful.
He's encouraging waste, I guess, is what I'm trying to say.
But please respond to my question about the criteria.
Yeah, I really appreciate the question.
Thank you.
I think there's two areas of concern here.
One is related to the change in the per capita to to even be able to apply for a disaster declaration.
It's important to note that, so then if you were successful in getting that disaster declaration, that would mean that recovery money, you are eligible to apply For reimbursement.
So FEMA doesn't say, I'm so sorry you had that disaster.
Here's a check for a million dollars.
What they say is, here now are certain categories.
Yes, you can apply for these categories of reimbursement for money that you, the local government or the state government, have already spent.
So you have to spend it yourself and then you apply to get reimbursed.
So even if there's a federal declaration with that high amount, there's another level of they could still say, this is not eligible for reimbursement.
We're sorry you spent that money.
They tend to be things like public assistance, so public facilities, damage to roadways, bridges, Seattle facilities, and then some individual assistance for business and families.
Are the overarching categories where that would come into play?
So that's one piece that's at stake.
The other that you mentioned, the Emergency Management Performance Grant, Which is one of the oldest grants in emergency management.
The thing that we love about it in my field is that it's very general.
In other words, it doesn't say, you have to focus on terrorism.
It basically says, what are the emergency management capabilities that you want to enhance, and how can we support that work?
So for Seattle, the two areas that we most often ask for support in the way of funding are for training and exercises, which means all of the work we do with all of our partners, some of which I mentioned, we then are able to train with them and do exercises around scenarios like either FIFA or Earthquake.
So that we can test our capabilities and know what we're really going to be able to do and where there might be gaps.
So that's one area.
The other that is very impactful and which Councilmember Solomon alluded to earlier, the importance of community outreach and educating our communities.
In language, according to their cultural norms, all of those things are important.
So that's the other piece, that community engagement that we ask for assistance and funding so that we can put together programs that match what our community needs.
That is also at stake with losing those two FTEs.
So rather than, I'm so glad you brought that up, because rather than, oh, it's just two FTEs, it's really specific work that is really integral to what we do and how that makes us successful.
Working with partners and then our ability to have a really robust community outreach.
And also, as you mentioned, Council Member Solomon, you're absolutely right.
We often think of first responders as police and fire, but it's really your neighbor.
Because you may not be able to reach those first responders that are connected to government for quite some time.
So our ability to teach hazard awareness and some basic disaster skills is super important, and that's part of the thing that would be compromised.
Thank you.
Council Member Salomon.
Thank you very much, Madam Chair.
I also wanted to make a pitch again for the Office of Emergency Management.
If you have not had an opportunity to go to their facility and see it and see how they operate, it is very eye-opening.
I had many opportunities.
To be in that space and again to work with those folks.
Fun fact, did you know that the Emergency Operations Center was activated after the Seahawks won the Super Bowl?
Yeah.
So again, fun fact that because of the massive parade that was coming through town, they were activated.
So that gives you an idea that when we're talking about FIFA and all the folks coming into the city from all over the world, they're going to be busy.
So again, just wanted to give you some acknowledgement there.
Thank you very much, Madam Chair.
Thank you.
We'd love to have you any time.
We'd love to have you come visit.
Let me know.
It's that invisible work, right?
It's certainly appreciated.
Yes, like three blocks down the road.
It's easy to get to.
It's a downhill walk.
Wonderful.
I'll jump into a couple of my questions maybe to give my colleagues a moment in case anyone has some final questions.
One is actually just building on some of the points raised by Council President Nelson, just this point about raising of the capita.
The per capita amount and the reimbursement amount.
And I really appreciated the context you provided just citing how much was spent on COVID response.
And when I see these new thresholds, it feels like an effective way of locking us out of getting funding or to the point that the council president raised, incentivizing and overspend.
My immediate question to incentivizing wasteful spending, wasteful spending is then what are the audits of claims?
Could you kind of extrapolate on when we make How many claims if there's an auditing process, or maybe there's a policy change related to auditing, claims that any emergency response agencies are making?
How are these evaluated?
Has that ever been a part of the process, or is that in the discussion now?
Yeah, absolutely.
I'm glad that you brought that up.
So there are a number of criteria that have to be looked at in order to qualify, one for the federal declaration, as I mentioned, When you apply then for reimbursement in certain categories, there's a lot of very detailed requirements that you have to meet.
So the first thing that the federal government looks at, if you're going to apply for, let's say they say, yes, you, Washington, now have this federal declaration.
You apply for reimbursement.
The first thing they look at is something called the Stafford Act.
So the Stafford Act was actually put in place in the 70s, but has been amended a number of times, usually after some large national events, so after 9-11, after Katrina.
And what it does is spells out, these are the categories of disasters that are eligible for reimbursement.
OK, it's much more detailed than that, but that's the summary.
So then there are different categories of reimbursement.
So immediate public safety measures.
And COVID, again, is kind of an off example because there was so much about public safety vaccinations putting in place All of the extra healthcare folks that we needed help, not only from public health but from local hospitals, all of that was in the immediate emergency measures.
And then there are public buildings and facilities.
Recreational facilities are also a category, which may seem odd, except recreation facilities are often used for shelters or for, you know, vaccine location, things like that.
And then there are smaller categories that usually have to do with personnel and equipment, expertise that was needed for that specific disaster.
So the things that you ask for, you can't just say, we need $100 million for this disaster.
It was terrible.
It has to meet those criteria.
And you, in fact, as a jurisdiction, might have something that you believe was really important for your recovery that did not meet one of those categories, and then you would not receive reimbursement for that.
Thank you for laying that out.
And just to provide broader context, my thinking is by raising the threshold of this criteria, of course, I'm thinking about jurisdictions other than our own, but other jurisdictions that are even less resourced than we are that might be incentivized to balloon their numbers out of desperation to get some amount of resources and then any subsequent audit process that could then penalize them from further support.
You have to have extensive documentation.
And then as you go through the recovery process and using that federal funding, which usually takes years, there are audits all along the way that the federal government does to make sure that you're meeting the requirements, that the work is actually doing what you said it was going to do in the first place.
So yeah, it's quite complicated.
I appreciate whoever does that paperwork.
It's hard to.
Just overspend on something that's not actually related to the disaster.
That doesn't really happen because they have all those checks.
Got it.
Thank you for laying that out and clarifying that.
And kind of building to that point, we know there are a number of ongoing lawsuits between different jurisdictions and the federal government right now overfunding.
And recently, we've seen the federal administration ignore court rulings.
So my question is, what are the consequences of not receiving funding while we wait for lawsuits to settle?
Yeah.
Yeah, thank you for mentioning that.
So you have heard both in the media and the state of Washington is involved in a number of lawsuits already.
One was about the bomb cyclone, and then the city of Seattle just a couple of weeks ago also is talking about suing about the unreasonable terms and conditions.
What happens is that there's a huge delay, a further delay in funding while you're waiting We've also seen that even though sometimes there's an injunction then by a judge, that then the administration doesn't always follow what the injunction says.
So to give an example for us and make it Seattle-specific, the notice of funding came out very late.
The federal fiscal year, as you know, starts at the beginning of October.
We already know that funding will not be released This calendar year.
So we have a gap from September to the end of the year.
Well, we will not receive that funding, even if we were to get it later.
And then we have heard that they may say to different jurisdictions whether or not they are awarded the grant, but then whether or not there will be money there.
And then if you're waiting for a lawsuit, that can further delay.
So that has real impact right away for us in Seattle.
Thank you for laying that out.
And my final question is just as we turn an eye towards D.C., if the National Guard takes over to commandeer a city's local police force, they don't have the same authority as a police force to arrest people for minor criminal offenses.
But are rather using this moment seemingly as a political statement.
What is OEM's role in communicating if something like this happens to Seattle to the general public?
What should the public know as there are increasing fears and concerns about our city being a target?
I think that the important role for communicating with the public would not just be OEM, but all of the departments that have connections with different communities, Department of Neighborhoods, the Police Department, the Fire Department.
We all have connections in different ways to different communities.
So I think probably the first most important message would be for people to not be afraid.
As you know, fear is a tactic that keeps people from taking any kind of action or people not understanding what you just said.
That they don't have the authority to arrest people.
I think it's also important for us to give the message that our law enforcement knows our communities and is committed to public safety and will continue to do their jobs in that way.
And then, you know, in general people should not be afraid.
And not be afraid to speak up and talk about those things that seem scary or that may make them feel fearful when it's more about a tactic rather than the actual authority that they would have.
National Guard is often used in disasters for disaster kinds of work that's not law enforcement, like clearing debris and doing other kinds of things.
Yeah.
Thank you.
Colleagues, any final questions?
All right.
Well, with that, we will close out this item on the agenda.
Thank you both for being here and laying this out for us and for the listening public.
This was really informative.
Thank you for the work you do.
Thank you.
Thank you.
I appreciate it.
Thanks, everyone.
We have reached the end of today's agenda.
Is there any further business to come before committee?
No, I know it's the Friday before recess, so I think everyone's eager to get out of here.
I'll take a personal moment of privilege to say, because I think this is our last meeting before recess as a full body.
So I hope everyone has a fabulous recess and enjoys the sun and gets some good rest.
And we will see you all in September, just in time for budget.
With that, hearing no further business, we are adjourned.
It is 1027 a.m.
Thank you, everyone.