On March 31, 2020, the Board of Supervisors adopted Resolution No. 2020/112, which, among other things, designated the County Administrator, Chief Assistant County Administrator(s), and the County Finance Director to serve as agents of the County for purposes of obtaining certain federal finance assistance as part of disaster response protocols. This included authorization to process reimbursement claims from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), pursuant to Public Law 93-288 as amended by the Robert T. Stafford Act. The Board's authorization resulted in filing CalOES Form 130 "Designation of Applicant's Agent Resolution for Non-State Agencies" with the Governor's Office of Emergency Services. In addition to identifying agents of the County, CalOES Form 130 allows jurisdictions can indicate whether the authority delegated to agents is universal for a period of three years, or specific to a particular disaster declaration (such as COVID-19, storms, etc.). The Board authorized universal authority because that provided the most flexibility to the County during the COVID-19 response and subsequent responses.  
  
The three-year period of universal authority expired on March 31, 2023, and it is now necessary to renew that authority to continue processing current and future federal financial assistance claims. In addition, since March 2020, the County has mobilized response to the 2023 Winter Storm disaster declared by FEMA, which has resulted in certain unplanned expenditures of the County being eligible for federal financial assistance. The County Administrator, acting in the capacity of Administrator of Emergency Services, directed that 2023 Winter Storm disaster cost recovery operations be conducted by the Public Works Department, since that department is almost exclusively responsible for the emergency response and repair of critical public infrastructure. In addition, the Public Works Department provided the same function in response to the 2017 storms, which resulted in successfully obtaining partial FEMA reimbursement for emergency response expenditures. For these reasons, today's action recommends that the Board of Supervisors renews the delegation of authority for another three-year period, since both COVID-19 and 2023 Winter Storm cost recovery operations are still ongoing, and add the Public Works Director as an authorized agent to make certain filings in addition to County Administrator's Office staff, given the specific role that the Public Works Department is playing in the 2023 Winter Storm cost recovery.

The County will be unable to process documents required by CalOES related to certain federal financial assistance cost recovery claims for current and future disaster declarations.