St. Pete creates ‘Emergency Fiscal Response’ framework

The City of St. Petersburg incurred over $250 million in costs associated with Hurricanes Helene and Milton, highlighting the need for officials to update financial policies.

A city council committee approved the new Emergency Fiscal Response framework Aug. 14. The changes promote economic stability, resilience and sustainability, and support disaster mitigation, response and recovery efforts.

Council members realized the need to organize scattered emergency fiscal policies in a centralized location following the unprecedented 2024 storm season. Anne Fritz, debt financing director, said it “would have been helpful to have those additional details” outlined in one place.

“Let’s make it one-stop shopping so everybody can read everything in one spot,” Fritz said. “We added some new language, which basically puts in the policies, the methodologies that we utilized.”

The Budget, Finance and Taxation Committee suggested the modifications. Assistant City Administrator Tom Greene said lessons learned in Helene and Milton’s aftermath informed the changes.

He also credited Councilmember Lisset Hanewicz for requesting the discussion. “It makes a lot of sense,” Greene said.

Documents state that administrators will activate the Emergency Fiscal Response (EFR) framework and team during a declared state of emergency, “where the effects have resulted in significant damage to city property and facilities.”

The ERF team includes the city administrator, assistant city administrator, chief financial officer, director of debt financing, director of budget and management and the city auditor. They will coordinate citywide fiscal response efforts.

Fritz said the team will review funding requirements for disaster response efforts and, after receiving required approvals, prioritize expenditures. They will first use current departmental operation budgets to complete emergency protective measures and fund an initial response.

The ERF team will then utilize excess fund balances to support recovery efforts. For example, administrators identified $78.4 million in available departmental resources, including workers’ compensation, to offset storm costs in January.

Documents note that resources typically reserved for unrelated operations, including the Equipment Replacement, Self-Insurance and Technology/Infrastructure Funds, can aid the city’s emergency response. The ERF team will rely on the Economic Stability Fund as a last resort.

Officials can use the Economic Stability Fund to mitigate a financial shortfall that surpasses 2% of the most recently adopted budget. The money can also offset declared emergency costs and pay for commercial insurance deductibles.

Councilmember Brandi Gabbard asked if the sequence mirrored “what happened, or what you would have desired to have happened” amid the 2024 hurricane season.

“This does mirror kind of what we looked at when we were going through all our storm expenses,” said Liz Makofske, budget and management director. “So, it kind of outlines and solidifies it so we have a plan moving forward. We always want to look at the Economic Stability Fund as our last resort.”

She said administrators first discern if departments have “any room in their current budgets,” and if they can delay other purchases to cover storm expenses. They can also issue recovery-related debt.

Makofske also noted that the city could issue interfund loans. For example, officials used $10 million from the Parking Revenue Fund to complete Tropicana Field’s emergency roof repairs.

“It kind of mirrors what happened in real life and puts it down in writing for future years,” Makofske said of the policies. “We also wanted to talk about the debt that we did to help fund some of those (repairs) as well. So, we wanted to put that in there as an option.”

Gabbard said she and her colleagues are creating guidelines for future councils and administrations and should be “super clear on what we’re voting on.” The city’s legal team believes the new policies offer clear guidance.

Hanewicz called the new framework a “fantastic start to memorializing what should happen while we’re in recovery mode.” Council Chair Copley Gerdes said officials “had to put the railroad together from hurricane to recovery, and the numbers were on the bottom of the railroad pieces.”

“We didn’t know which number was one and which number was 10,” Gerdes elaborated. “And now we get to flip them over and tell people … I think that makes it significantly easier.”

Committee members approved the modifications. Administrators will present the new fiscal policies to the full council for approval at a Sept. 11 budget hearing.