San Fernando : City Could Lose Quake Reimbursement Funds

Due to an apparent change in Federal Emergency Management Agency rules, the city of San Fernando could lose as much as $500,000 in reimbursement for repairs and construction costs related to the January 1994 Northridge earthquake, city officials said.

“There is really no way to tell what’s going through [FEMA’s] minds,” said James Eldridge, a civil engineer in the city’s building department.

After the Northridge quake, Eldridge said, FEMA approved San Fernando’s entry into an 18-month federal program that would reimburse the city for costs associated with processing construction permits, plan checks and inspections related to earthquake repairs, city officials said.

At the end of 18 months, the city would have the option of applying for two separate, six-month extensions for the program, Eldridge noted.

But when the city applied for its first extension, FEMA turned down the request--and then informed city officials that San Fernando had been placed in the wrong reimbursement category, and should only have been approved for one six-month term with the option for one six-month extension, city officials said.

“We go from the potential for 30 months” of reimbursement “to only 12 potential months,” Eldridge said.

“They [FEMA] chose the category to put us in, approved us for 18 months of funding, and then they’re saying, ‘We changed our minds.’ ”

Eldridge said the city filed an appeal to FEMA this week.

If denied, the city would have two more opportunities to appeal.

Officials with the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services, a state agency that coordinates distribution of federal earthquake relief funds, said they were not familiar with San Fernando’s situation.

A regional FEMA field officer also said she was unfamiliar with the case.