Council majority almost screws up disaster recovery funding

And Tom Gentz reveals he doesn’t like pets

By Will Collette

At a peculiar Special Meeting on April 3, the Town Council needed to act quickly to take advantage of $3 million in federal funds freed up and made available, mostly to South County, for disaster recovery and planning in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy.

Town staff only had a few days to draw up a preliminary application that was due to be filed with the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), the agency designated to manage the disbursements, on April 5. That left only one business day after the Special Meeting for the staff to finalize a $600,000 application letter after getting approval from the Council.

The good news is that the staff got that approval, but it came the hard way as CCA Councilors Tom Gentz, Dan Slattery and George Tremblay felt the need to micro-manage and debate every minute detail. Click here to listen to that debate.

The staff had come up with almost 20 items, ranging from $125,000 to buy a new boom truck for the Public Works Department to $76,784 to reimburse the town for its matching funds for FEMA’s earlier disaster relief funding to $2,000 to upgrade the phone system at the Senior Center. We also want two $70,000 generator systems, one each for Town Hall and the Senior Center.

Town Planner Ashley Hahn-Morris explained that though the money was disaster relief funding, because HUD would judge the applications, it was important to try to frame the request with HUD’s priorities in mind. Ashley noted that the two areas of funding were, first, for things that benefit low and moderate income people in the community, hereafter referred to by the Council members as “LMI.” No more poor, no more working families. Meet the “LMI.” 

The second funding category was "urgent need." 

Ashley said the urgent need category was going to be hotly competitive so the Charlestown staff recommended a focus on "LMI."

Ashley also noted that most concentrated damage in town occurred along the beach front, but there was no way to characterize that damage as affecting the "LMI."

With direct aid to repair beach front areas pretty much off the table, Ashley, and Charlestown Emergency Management chief Kevin Gallup, explained how they developed the list and how it matched up with what they hoped and believed were HUD’s funding priorities.

Ashley and Kevin tried as best they could to scope out the actual funder criteria so they could pick which items to include, how to describe those items to increase the odds of funding and which items probably would not be considered.

Ashley, Kevin, town administrator Mark Stankiewicz, Town Council Boss Tom Gentz and Councilor Slattery hashed out the list and their opinions on their priority position. Councilor Paula Andersen (D) pitched in.

Councilor George Tremblay didn’t have anything useful to add – he kept asking why one item or another couldn’t be located at the Police Station. He was told at least three times that the Police Station is used by first responders and the town as the Emergency Response Center and is not available as a public shelter. 

Each time, Tremblay would reply, “oh, yeah, that’s right” and then apparently went back to sleep.

Mostly, this conversation was quite a slog. Even though no one at the table really knew what HUD wants, everyone had an opinion on how to frame the application. 

After going around and around, a consensus emerged that the most important items the town needs are the generators for Town Hall – which is the communications hub for the whole town government – and the Senior Center so it can function as the key emergency center. Behind those key items came upgraded communications equipment.

But then the consensus unraveled when Kevin Gallup noted that past experience and studies show that unless there are emergency provisions for people’s pets, a lot of people will not leave their homes. This was dramatically demonstrated during Hurricane Katrina. After Katrina, Congress enacted the national PETS Act that requires local emergency plans to include provisions to take care of people’s pets.

If Boss Gentz had his way, screw 'em!

Boss Gentz thought Kevin was joking about the PETS Act. (Kevin wasn’t – click here for details about the PETS Act). 

Gentz also tried to pitch the idea that existing facilities in surrounding communities could accommodate pets from Charlestown so really didn't need to do anything. 

Gentz seemed determined to push recommended improvements to the Charlestown Animal Shelter either to the bottom (or even better, off) the priority list for the federal funds.

Gallup explained that federal law requires Charlestown to have its own provisions for companion animals. Even without that legal requirement, the alternatives Gentz proposed were not practical for Charlestown households with pets.

Throughout the entire discussion about upgrading the animal shelter, accommodating pets and recognizing how people feel about their companion animals, Boss Gentz just couldn’t stop yukking it up. To my ear, Gentz crossed the line from his usual sophomoric joking to open mockery of the idea that animals should be anyone's priority. 

He stopped, sort of, when Councilor Paula Andersen (D) weighed in to stress the value most people – Boss Gentz excluded, clearly – place on their pets. Gentz exclaimed, “Gee, there’s a bunch of animal lovers here.”

Callous attitudes about animals - is it a CCA Party policy?

Paula made the case that it wasn’t just love of animals, though that was important, but the role companion animals play in many people’s lives. Gallup repeated the lessons learned from other disasters that many people will not leave their pets behind. 

Plus, the federal government has acknowledged through statute, that emergency preparedness means including provisions to care for the animals, too.

Finally, Boss Gentz said “I give up” and then shut up. About ten minutes too late.

I have been told by a reliable source that the town staff succeeded in getting the disaster relief request letter into HUD on time. Not known - when the town will find out what items HUD wants to fund.