Kelly Hammer Levy, Pinellas County public works director, told commissioners on Aug. 14 that lessons learned from three 2024 storms prompted contract changes, more drop-off sites, and better municipal coordination but that a backlog of stormwater maintenance and private pond issues remains.

Levy said the county expanded debris contracts procured in 2023 and placed five debris contractors on the county contract; work last year showed the county needed more debris-management sites and more citizen drop-off locations. The county now has 51 debris-management locations and four additional citizen drop-off sites beyond the two used previously, she said. County procurement has also opened an Invitation-to-Qualify for vendors for emergency disaster response to pre-identify services.

Reimbursements and auditability remain central concerns: Levy said FEMA and the state conducted robust inspections of municipal and county operations and that mixed piles (construction/demolition, white goods, and vegetation combined) risk disallowance for federal reimbursement. Staff noted new contract language and municipal interlocal agreements were added to clarify FEMA compliance.

On stormwater and private ponds, commissioners pressed for greater progress. Levy and staff said the county has thousands of privately owned ponds and two staff who inspect them; many ponds are owned in subdivided shares by small numbers of homeowners, which complicates maintenance and financing. Several commissioners pointed to examples of ponds that have filled with sediment and implied regional interdependence — private facilities, municipal systems and county-maintained channels all contribute to neighborhood flooding.

Levy said the county has been increasing in-house capacity and contracting out additional crews for pipe cleaning, pipe repair and channel maintenance; she described a triage approach that prioritizes the most problematic sites. The county also added eight new stream gauges and plans to add five more, and work with the South Florida Water Management District and the U.S. Geological Survey on real-time flood forecasting.

On logistics, Levy described a new traffic-priority response plan for traffic signals, and an inverter program (vehicle-powered inverters) as an interim solution to get intersections working more quickly after outages. She also said the county has expanded shelter logistics training and created a shelter task force after the storms.

Commissioners requested more transparency by area and follow-up with cities: they want clearer maps of where service problems are concentrated and stronger municipal coordination so contractors are not duplicated across neighboring jurisdictions. Commissioners also asked for cost estimates for privately owned pond clean-outs and asked staff to develop options for addressing repetitive flooding.

Ending: Staff said they will share maps and data with municipalities, continue to expand prequalified contractor rosters and citizen drop-off sites, and return with proposals and potential funding options for high-priority stormwater fixes; no board vote was taken Aug. 14.