Oldsmar council advises against reallocating FEMA hazard-mitigation funds to staterun Elevate Florida program

The Oldsmar City Council on April 1 advised its voting representative to the Pinellas County Local Mitigation Strategy (LMS) work group to recommend retaining the county'allocated Hazard Mitigation Grant Program (HMGP) funds for local infrastructure projects rather than reallocating a portion to the state-run Elevate Florida residential mitigation program.

Council consensus came after a lengthy staff presentation and more than an hour of council discussion about trade-offs between funding homeowner elevation projects through Elevate Florida and preserving federally eligible infrastructure mitigation projects in Oldsmar.

City Manager (unnamed) told the council that Pinellas County is expected to receive about $416 million in HMGP funds allocated for long-term mitigation after the recent hurricanes and that the state asked counties whether some of those funds should be reallocated to Elevate Florida. The manager said Elevate Florida is a 75/25 cost-share program (75% federal, 25% homeowner) covering elevation, reconstruction, acquisition, demolition and related activities, and that as of the previous week 2,300 Elevate Florida applications had been submitted from Pinellas County, including 37 from Oldsmar.

"It's a toss-up. It's all about prioritization," Council member Knapp said while weighing the limited federal dollars against the city's infrastructure needs. Knapp urged caution about shifting money away from neighborhood-scale projects that could protect many households.

Council member Swager said the Elevate Florida application deadline (April 11) and the likelihood that not all applications would be funded argued for weighing both options; he said he was inclined toward splitting funds but did not present a final allocation. "The former engineer in me thinks that the Elevate Florida deadline coming up, April 11, should take place," Swager said, arguing the LMS should have the full application pool to assess.

Vice Mayor Graber and Council member Chodorowsky said the decision was difficult because federal funds are scarce and the countywide project demand far exceeds available money. Chodorowsky emphasized that the projects Oldsmar had submitted through the LMS were selected to deliver broad community benefit, noting the city's submittals totaled roughly $40 million in project requests for infrastructure mitigation.

Mayor Katie Gannon then sought a guided consensus. "So consensus to leave the HMGP as already allocated?" she asked; council members agreed and the mayor confirmed the council's recommendation would be communicated to the city's voting member of the LMS work group. City staff and multiple council members stressed that this was guidance for the county working group and not a binding countywide decision.

Council members also noted uncertainties about how Elevate Florida would prioritize applications; staff said FDIM (Florida Division of Emergency Management) would use risk-based factors such as repetitive loss and substantial-damage history, so an Oldsmar applicant would not be guaranteed an award even if funds were reallocated.

The council asked staff to monitor developments and said it would be prepared to reconvene or amend direction if new information emerged before the LMS vote.

Ending

City staff will relay the council's consensus to Oldsmar's representative on the LMS work group; the council directed staff to report back if the county process or the state guidance changes before the LMS final recommendation.