Fort Myers Beach finance director outlines staffing change, FEMA reimbursements and grants outlook

At a Fort Myers Beach Town Council meeting, the finance director reported that the town’s recently hired senior accountant will move to part-time status while the grants accountant is out for about three months, and provided a detailed financial update that highlighted ongoing FEMA reimbursements, grant balances and implementation of a new utility billing system.

The finance director told council members the town is still awaiting roughly $7.7 million from FEMA and FDEM and expects about $1 million in insurance reimbursement related to temporary town-hall expenses and trailers. She said the town has spent about $32 million on emergency expenditures since Hurricane Ian and has received about $18 million from FEMA and nearly $15 million in insurance proceeds to date.

The accounting office is also working through conversion to a new billing and accounting system and resolving complex, multi-year FEMA project accounting, which the finance director said has lengthened the month-end process. “It’s been taking more and more time to create the financial statements,” she said, adding that project reassignments and closed fiscal years force much of the reconciliation to be done in spreadsheets rather than by running system reports.

Why it matters: delays in reimbursements and complex grant accounting affect the town’s cash flow and the timing for repaying a bridge loan and for implementing planned capital projects.

Key details

- Staffing:…