Commissioners again question disaster relief pace
By Steve Herring
Published in News on July 19, 2018 5:50 AM
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News-Argus/STEVE HERRING
Wayne County Commissioner Ray Mayo, left, questions David Harris about the pace of Hurricane Matthew disaster recovery in the county.
As far as Wayne County Commissioner Ed Cromartie is concerned, North Carolina might as well be waiting for the next major hurricane to hit before victims of Hurricane Matthew receive the help they need.
After all, they have been waiting for nearly two years -- something that the people and agencies charged with getting help to storm victims need to be reminded of, Cromartie said.
Cromartie made his comments at the board's Tuesday morning session during an update on the county's Community Development Block Grant-Disaster Recovery and Hazard Mitigation Grant Program.
The presentation was made by David Harris of RMS Harris Associates, the company the county has contracted to manage the program.
Cromartie asked County Manager Craig Honeycutt what office he thinks is holding up the process.
The county needs to write a strong letter to that office saying "let's move along," he said.
Resolutions are ineffective, Harris said. Rather, a letter from the board chairman or county manager saying what they specifically need to be done would be better, he said.
The program is through N.C. Emergency Management, Harris said.
Commissioner Bill Pate said that is why he thinks the letter needs to go to N.C Emergency Management Director Mike Sprayberry.
It needs to go to Gov. Roy Cooper as well, Commissioner Joe Gurley said.
Commissioner Wayne Aycock said that Sprayberry is only the messenger who can only exercise the authority that has been given to him.
"It is either the House, the Senate or the governor, and in my opinion, it is the governor," he said.
"I hear Mr. Sprayberry and the governor, but it sounds like the legislators in Raleigh control everything else, I mean pretty much, and I have not heard them mentioned at all," Cromartie said. "It sounds like we are excusing the most powerful group of people in North Carolina.
"I believe if there was an interest at that level we would get something done because they control everything else ... they have the majority that can't be overruled."
The federal government needs to streamline the process, Commissioner Ray Mayo said.
"We are over 19 months into this process," Mayo said. "Everybody, including you (Harris), are frustrated. This is totally unacceptable, and I understand it comes from not the state particularly, but HUD is part of the issue.
"I want to push our legislators and congressmen to try to look at it all the way from HUD all the way down, to see if we can streamline this process. There's no way it should take 19 months, and now we are looking at three or four more months."
One thing the state needs to do is to make a decision on its relocation gap assistance for the buyout program -- something the victims should be entitled to, Harris said.
That is something that people have been singing this song about since last July and August, he said.
The state has more than enough money to provide gap assistance to every single buyout in the state, he said.
But there is no process in place to provide that assistance, he said.
Gap money would enable victims to shop for a replacement house, Harris said.
"Right now, we make an offer at the end of September -- here's the buyout amount. Take it or leave it because we do not have the gap money, and it is sitting there in all of those sources of funding," Harris said.
"So, yeah, I'd love for somebody to promote that need, get that problem fixed. Let us make offers that include pre-disaster fair market value and gap assistance."
That would be more of a process letter that probably should be sent to Sprayberry since his office is in charge of that fund, Honeycutt said.
Honeycutt said he thinks commissioners should send a letter to Cooper expressing their overall displeasure and concerns with the delays, the bureaucracy, the changes and the lack of impact the funding has had after 19 months.
Harris said he thinks that a lot of times the shotgun approach works well.
"Yeah, spray it and get everybody," Cromartie said.