County funds emergency Family Reunification Center proposal

Pinellas County Commissioners recently approved a $1.8 million budget amendment to create a mobile Family Reunification Center staffed by hundreds of local first responders and emergency management officials.

The facility would provide a venue for authorities to coordinate support services, inform victims and collect documentation to identify and reunite families separated by a catastrophe. Sheriff Bob Gualtieri initially requested the funding in his proposed fiscal year 2025 budget.

Gualtieri noted the project’s importance during a presentation in June. “If we had a mass casualty incident today, whether through a natural disaster, intentional act or an accident, we would muddle through, but we are not where we need to be,” he said.

“That’s not how we should be, and as far as I’m concerned, not how Pinellas County does business,” Gualtieri told the commission. “We take care of our people … and we do the right thing by the community.”

County officials agreed. However, Commissioner Charlie Justice felt the initiative should not wait another year.

After the June 5 meeting, he asked Administrator Barry Burton to push the project forward through an FY 2024 budget amendment. The commission unanimously approved the measure July 16.

Justice told the Catalyst he considered Gualtieri’s presentation on his drive home. It followed an update from Cathie Perkins, emergency management director, on hurricane season preparations.

Justice noted that the county has “healthy” funding reserves, and FY 2025 begins Oct. 1. “Why don’t we just do it this year,” he thought.

Justice suggested using $1.8 million from this year’s reserves and replacing it in the upcoming budget cycle. He noted that Gualtieri said he could procure the necessary equipment “sooner rather than later.”

“Sometimes, some of these things line up,” Justice added. “A common-sense idea comes out, everyone jumps on board and here we are.”

Sheriff Bob Gualtieri (second from right) received a ceremonial $150,000 check from the Speer Dream Foundation on July 10 to support the Family Reunification Taskforce.

Gualtieri has chaired the Marjory Stoneman Doughlas School Safety Commission since the Feb. 14, 2018, mass shooting in Parkland left 17 people dead and 17 more wounded in under four minutes. He said the foremost request following any national catastrophe is for local leaders to provide better reunification services.

“The top of the list for the families of Parkland was how atrocious and inadequate the reunification process was, and how they were treated and not treated,” Gualtieri said June 5. “Those family members were ticked off and adversely affected by the lack of preparedness and how they were notified of their kids’ deaths.”

He began establishing the framework for a Family Reunification Center with Perkins in 2023. He said they have enlisted police, fire and school district officials and now have a 250-person countywide task force that would staff the facility.

Gualtieri said it would consist of tents with medical and communications equipment. The sheriff’s office is creating specialized software in-house to save money.

The goal is to have a mobile command and intake center that officials could erect within three hours. Gualtieri used Tropicana Field and Ruth Eckerd Hall as example locations.

He said the self-contained facility must also include investigative areas for interviews and offer myriad wraparound services. The sheriff’s office will store equipment, including generators, on pallets at its special operations warehouse.

Deputies would close roads surrounding the center to traffic. While county officials previously explored a static location, Gualtieri said they “never know where the incident is going to happen.”

The office will conduct a mass casualty exercise with local partners at the University of South Florida St. Petersburg next summer. Gualtieri hoped to include the family reunification center component in the drill.

“You got to have trained people, you got to have the equipment, you got to have the infrastructure and you hope you never need it,” he said. “But if you don’t have it and something bad happens, I’m telling you, we will not be where we need to be.”

County officials can now begin those preparations ahead of schedule. Justice credited the commission’s conservative budget approach Monday for increasing reserves and enabling flexible decision-making.

“When that kind of emergency happens, all you’re doing is scrambling around trying to figure out what happened,” Justice said. “That’s one less thing that folks will have to worry about should the worst ever happen.”

Burton also presented the $4.3 billion proposed FY 2025 budget July 16. It lowers the property tax rate for the third time in four years.

Justice noted the budget prioritizes public safety and infrastructure improvement efforts that will continue expanding due to increased property values. County officials also have enough money in tourist development tax coffers to self-fund beach renourishment projects in 2025 and “all future years,” according to a subsequent announcement.