SANTA CRUZ — The Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors had a packed agenda at its meeting this week with items ranging from lagging disaster relief from federal authorities to a resolution commenting on conflict in the Middle East.
County officials are continuing to sound the alarm about millions in unpaid reimbursements it has been promised by the Federal Emergency Management Agency in response to numerous overlapping natural disasters that have torn through the community in recent years.
According to the staff report, the county has experienced seven federally declared disasters since 2017, equating to more than $250 million in eligible FEMA claims. But, County Administrative Officer Carlos Palacios explained at the board’s meeting Tuesday, about $159 million of that has not been repaid, leaving the county with a growing cash flow problem.
“Because of the pace at which we are being reimbursed, we are facing a very severe budget problem that is mainly due to cash flow,” said Palacios, adding that it takes the county about three to six years to secure FEMA reimbursements. “The good news is that we will be reimbursed. The problem is that we are spending money at such a pace that we are putting pressure on our cash flow and ability to respond to these emergencies.”
As a temporary solution, Palacios said county staff plans to return to the board in February with a detailed debt financing plan to help fill the gap and ensure services stay up and running. Still, he explained, the FEMA reimbursement model “is broken” due to the quickening pace of climate change-fueled disasters across the country.
There were 25 $1 billion or more natural disasters across the nation in 2023 – a total that took about five to 10 years to reach in the 1980s and 1990s. On top of that, the county was recently ranked the most vulnerable in the state to landslides and No. 15 of the more than 3,000 counties nationwide, according to data compiled by FEMA.
“This is the biggest financial challenge we’ve faced since I’ve been on the board for the last 11 years,” said Supervisor Bruce McPherson. “Very depressing in some respects, but realistic and so we have to do the best we can and I think our county staff has done that.”
Cease-fire resolution
In a rare display of discord with regard to the typically little-debated consent agenda, the board struck down a resolution in support of a permanent cease-fire “in the war between Israel and Palestine” by way of a 3-2 vote Tuesday.
Supervisors McPherson, Manu Koenig and Zach Friend came out against the proposal while Felipe Hernandez and Justin Cummings, who sponsored the item, voted in favor.
“(The intent) is not to pick a side one or the other,” explained Cummings, who said the board received close to 1,000 letters asking a cease-fire resolution be considered. “It’s really to advocate for having this conflict end in a way that will result in people being able to live their lives and stop seeing so much loss in what is a growing humanitarian crisis.”
In addition to demanding an immediate and permanent cease-fire, the resolution also called for humanitarian aid to Palestine, an end to more than 75 years of conflict between Israel and Palestine and the “return of all hostages held by both sides.” It also directed the chair of the board to send copies to President Joe Biden and the county’s state and federal legislative delegation.
The Associated Press reported Dec. 9 that the Palestinian death toll in Gaza from the Israel-Hamas war had surpassed 17,700 with around two-thirds of them women and children, according to the Health Ministry in the Hamas-controlled territory. Despite a growing number of calls for a cease-fire from the international community, with the United States being a notable exception, Israel has continued with air strikes across Gaza and an offensive that could go on for weeks or months, according to the AP.
These totals come more than two months after about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed Oct. 7 during a raid in southern Israel by Hamas, which also took about 240 hostages of whom about half remain in captivity. At least 105 Israeli soldiers have died in the Gaza ground offensive, the Israel army said.
In a White House Hanukkah celebration on Monday, Biden vowed to stand with Israel in the face of a “surge of antisemitism” around the globe.
Koenig agreed with calls for compassion and peace, but voiced concern about a lack of clarity around how a cease-fire would be operationalized and feared the resolution would drive division in the community “over something that ultimately we don’t have a lot of control over.”
“If we want to prevent the collateral damage here in our own community, the right thing to do is not try to suppose what the right answer is, to be kind to one another right here in this room and within this community, send your resources and donations to those impacted by this war,” said Koenig to a packed board chambers.
Board resolutions condemning international conflicts aren’t without precedent. Last March, the board unanimously approved a resolution condemning Russia’s “unprovoked invasion of Ukraine.” The motion also directed the chair to send a copy to Biden and the county’s federal legislative representatives.
Dozens of members of the public attended the meeting to hear the item discussed, with many passionately advocating for and against the resolution during the roughly hour-long public testimony period.
Friend, the board’s chair, echoed Koenig’s concerns about unintended public fallout and division amid a historically fraught issue.
“What we need to do, in good conscience, is work on efforts that aren’t performative,” said Friend, acknowledging the good intentions of Cummings. “When the county is going to take an official stance on something, we need to be abundantly clear that we’re not doing something that would alienate or divide members of our community.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
