County, FEMA Tangle Over Millions in Disaster Relief

Federal and county officials are fighting over nearly $10 million in federal disaster aid stemming from the severe flooding suffered statewide in 1995.

Officials with the Federal Emergency Management Agency contend they sent Orange County $9.15 million to cope with flood damage, nearly half of which the agency now claims was an overpayment. The agency is seeking the return of an estimated $4.15 million from the county.

But county officials say they only received a total of $4.15 million in aid and add that they can’t immediately return the money anyway.

“We’ve already spent that money,” said William L. Zaun, the county’s director of public works. “So we are going to try to avoid having to pay them back.”

Zaun said the agency’s funds went to rebuilding and repairing flood control basins damaged in 1995. In fact, Zaun added, the county has an estimated $27 million in damage claims still pending with the agency.

Meanwhile, Rep. Jay C. Kim (R-Diamond Bar) has stepped into the dispute and is urging his colleagues to pressure the agency to make good on Orange County’s $27 million in flood damage claims. Kim said the agency’s delay in dispersing disaster aid to Orange County could endanger public safety since damaged flood control basins cannot accommodate another flood.

“I am very disappointed with FEMA,” Kim said. “This is the kind of bureaucratic mismanagement that rightly makes the taxpayer upset.”

Agency officials say that Orange County has received all the funding it’s eligible for and should be seeking any extra disaster funding from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. If the corps rejects the claim, then Orange County will have to pick up the tab for flood damages itself, the agency contends.

Officials with the emergency management agency add that confusion about the alleged overpayment to the county probably started in February 1995. That month, the agency took the rather unusual step of distributing $4.15 million in aid before final flood damage figures were obtained. But agency officials said they sent the money because, at that time, Orange County was in bankruptcy.

Then, in mid-1995, agency officials say, they sent Orange County $5 million more based upon final flood damage reports.

“Basically, they got paid twice for the same thing,” agency spokesman Scott Whitsett said.