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Seminole County emergency managers urge $75,000 to replace state-funded WebEOC accounts and outline $33.9M radio replacement plan
Summary
After the state informed counties it will stop paying for WebEOC accounts, Seminole County emergency management requested about $75,000 to purchase access and described a multi‑year $33.9 million plan to replace end‑of‑life portable and mobile radios by fiscal 2030.
Alan Harris, director of Seminole County emergency management, told the Board of County Commissioners that the department was recently informed by the State of Florida it will stop covering WebEOC accounts used for hurricane requests and other incident coordination. "We were notified by the state of Florida on Memorial Day weekend that they would not be paying for WebEOC," Harris said, adding that counties would likely need to purchase accounts for the state system in order to request mutual‑aid resources during an incident.
Harris said the county has identified a mid‑year need of roughly $75,000 to provide accounts for staff and mutual‑aid partners, and he asked the board to approve adding the amount to the FY27 budget even though it was not in the packet. He emphasized the timing: "They did find some residual funds to pay for WebEOC until October," Harris said, "but we will be asked to pay after that." Commissioners pressed for clarity on the per‑account cost and the total impact; Harris estimated per‑account fees and said counties typically need several accounts to support incident partners.
Separately, Harris walked the board through communications capital investments, including a proposed communications tower near Oviedo and short‑term fixes such as mobile trailer repeaters and interference‑triangulation equipment. He said the county is also assembling funding strategies for a larger radio replacement program: "We are putting together a plan for that $33.9 million project," Harris said, noting the program would need to be completed by fiscal 2030 because existing radios are reaching end of life and manufacturers and vendors will stop supporting older models.
Harris told commissioners that much of the planned work will be funded from dedicated E‑911 and penny‑sales‑tax funds and that staff are seeking federal appropriations and state surplus dollars as well as chargeback arrangements with some partner agencies where appropriate. He said the immediate WebEOC requirement does not affect the county general fund materially, but it underscores a growing set of mid‑year, state‑driven cost shifts that county staff must absorb or reassign.
Next steps: county staff will add the WebEOC funding request to the budget work plan for board consideration and continue refining the multi‑year radio replacement financing plan.
