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TALLAHASSEE — Lee County has fewer hurricane shelter spaces than any other Florida county except one. But it won't get money from the Legislature to build more.
The Legislature also has ignored a request to rebuild the Charlotte County emergency operations center, which lost its roof during Hurricane Charley last year.
And there will be no money to harden community centers at mobile home communities, senior complexes or women's crisis shelters, as suggested by Gov. Jeb Bush.
Instead, $12.5 million in funding for shelters and emergency operations centers for the upcoming hurricane season will go to counties and cities that are home to influential legislators.
"You would think projects in our community might receive some kind of priority," Lee County Public Safety Director John Wilson said.
Lee County is short more than 87,000 shelter spaces, a gap expected to exceed 102,000 by 2009, according to the state's 2004 shelter status report. Only Pinellas County is worse.
No Lee County legislators are members of the House and Senate Transportation and Economic Development Budget Committee, which decides how the money should be spent.
State Rep. Mike Davis, R-Naples, is the only Southwest Florida legislator on the committee.
He couldn't be reached for comment Wednesday.
Negotiators crafting a state budget bill to be voted on next week set aside $3.5 million to build a new emergency operations center in Bay County.
The current 50-year-old emergency center is 10 feet above sea level, 800 feet from shore and would be underwater in a Category 3 storm.
The center is in the home district of House Speaker Allan Bense, R-Panama City.
"It did help; I do think so," said Sid Busick, emergency management specialist for Bay County.
Budget negotiators also used $750,000 of emergency preparedness money for a hurricane center in Pinellas County sought by Sen. Mike Fasano, the Senate's chief negotiator; $409,000 to cover uninsured losses to a private Orlando center for the disabled, requested by Senate Judiciary Chairman Dan Webster; and $100,000 to make a Jacksonville YMCA wheelchair accessible.
Jacksonville has one of the lowest hurricane risks in Florida but is in the home district of Rep. Don Davis, R-Jacksonville. He chairs the House Committee on Transportation and Economic Development Appropriations that wrote that part of the budget.
Davis acknowledges the connections to funded projects involving people such as Bense, or Sen. Ken Pruitt, the next Senate president.
"You've got to admit when you sort of get a directive from the speaker of the House who appointed you to this chairmanship that he needs help with his emergency operations center in Bay County, the chances are pretty good he's going to get it," Davis said.
"He never talked to me about it, but I knew it came down from him."
Sen. Mike Bennett, R-Bradenton, who represents parts of Lee County and didn't know his staff had asked for money for Charlotte, also did not know about the available shelter cash.
"None of my counties have said anything or asked me," he said. "It's pretty hard for me to beat them (lawmakers) up if nobody asks."
With new shelter projects being added even during negotiations, Bennett said he would approach Fasano for a share.
"I know he has a pot of money — he asked me the other day if I had anything I needed funded."
Who gets the money is the Legislature's decision, said Danny Kilcollins, planning manager for the DCA's Division of Emergency Management. "The Legislature says do it, and we do our best to do it."
With roofs collapsing and doors flying apart during the 2004 storms, Florida officials promised to assess the state's shelters, emergency operations centers and other critical facilities.
That study didn't begin until last month. Because of limited time, the state is examining only newer buildings. The survey is due June 1, the start of hurricane season.
Davis blamed this year's funding on the fact a study hadn't been done.
"They'll probably come back to us with some definite recommendations. We didn't have any this time," Davis said.
Kilcollins said the report will arrive in time to help direct how the division awards its $3 million in 2005 shelter grants. The agency's own criteria can exclude areas of need.
"We haven't got one dime out of that money," Wilson said.
Because most of Lee County's shelters are in the surge areas for a Category 5 storm, the state ranks its applications so low it gets no money.
The county instead will rely on local money to add permanent emergency power at critical shelters.
At a cost of about $100,000 each, Wilson said Lee County can afford to do two to three school shelters per year.
Not Funny..
Paul