St. Louis officials: $30M tornado relief fund largely committed but slow to reach residents; recovery office outlines housing and debris plans

St. Louis officials told the Board of Aldermen Budget and Public Employees Committee on Oct. 29 that the $30 million in Grama settlement interest designated for tornado recovery has been parceled into priority buckets but remains slow to arrive in residents' hands.

The recovery office said it has allocated roughly $12.5 million for resident supports, $10.5 million for housing, about $5.5 million for debris removal and roughly $1.07 million for recovery-office administration. Recovery staff reported that selection panels and contract awards have moved forward on about $23.65 million of that money, but the comptroller's accounting snapshot shows roughly $3.3 million has actually been paid to vendors.

Why it matters: Tens of thousands of residents were affected by the May tornado and city and recovery officials acknowledge the scale of need far exceeds the current funds. City and nonprofit leaders said contracting and invoice processing are the main bottlenecks slowing disbursement ahead of winter.

The recovery office's chief cost recovery officer, Jim Hill, told the committee the office has awarded contracts across several programs and "we have awarded contracts totaling 23,650,000.00" and that many awards are still in the execution phase. Hill said the recovery office expects a significant acceleration in the next 30 to 60 days as executed contracts move to invoice and payment stages. He added the office is "on track to have about $18,000,000 of reimbursement submitted by November," with about $13,000,000 submitted to date.

City accounting and procurement details. Deputy Comptroller Jason Fletcher said the comptroller's office's role centers on requisitions, purchase orders and invoice processing and that funds…