 I'm Lori Foley and I'm Vice President of Emergency Programs at Heritage Preservation. Ably assisting me in all matters and especially in producing today's webinar is Jessica Unger, some of whom you met if you tuned in earlier. We're delighted to have so many of you joining us today. We have a number of people registered and it looks like right now we're up to almost 40 people and I think we're going to see more people roll in as time goes on. We realize that for those of us on the east coast, the webinar is going to take us up to 5pm but we intentionally scheduled the webinar to accommodate participants from across the country's time zones from the east coast to the west, up to Alaska, and all the way west and south to Hawaii. So welcome and aloha to all. Please do continue to say hello in the chat box to the right. Throughout today's session, feel free to post questions in the chat box. We'll hold on to those questions and pose them for our speaker during breaks in the presentation. We hope to get to them all by the end of today's session. And if we don't, I'm sure our speaker will be happy to follow up. We'll post those questions and of course the answers on our state heritage emergency partnership webinar page. This series of four webinars has been made possible by a Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian Program grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services. Our partner in this project, the chief officers of state library agencies. Information about this and the other three webinars will be posted under webinars on the partnership website. Here, our instructors will share some great resources and readings that they recommend. Here too, you'll find a PDF handout of the PowerPoint presentation for each webinar. Because many of these presentations will have slides, we think you might want to see up close. You'll find available both a black and white handout for note taking, as well as a copy of the PowerPoints in color with one slide per page. As you might recall, we specified that our target audience consists of interested members of state cultural heritage emergency networks. Although the information is relevant to all cultural institutions, we're hoping to keep participation in the live webinar down to a manageable number so our instructor can field questions that apply primarily to state cultural and emergency management agencies and networks. Our aims to provide information that's most useful to you as a network member to better prepare you to help your constituents. Soon after the webinar has concluded, we'll post a link to the webinar recording. Please feel free to share that link with your constituents. I know many of you represent states that have already accomplished a lot of great things in emergency preparedness. Please, please consider sharing your achievements and even your challenges with your colleagues in other states via the partnership blog. Send us a description, around 500 words would be ideal, as well as photos, if you have any, and we'll post your case study on the blog. For those of you who attended one of the state heritage emergency partnership forums, do you remember R&D? Rip off and duplicate? Let's share as much as we can to move emergency preparedness forward in all states. Not receiving the blog posts? That's probably because you haven't signed up yet, so go to the blog at the URL noted there. In the right hand column, scroll down to the heading, follow blog via email. Enter your email address and click on the follow button, then look for the confirmation email in your inbox. New posts will appear automatically in your inbox, and we promise not to flood you with irrelevant information. Here we go. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact either Jess or me. Today's instructor, I'm pleased now to introduce Angela Huddleston. I know you were probably expecting Christie Barbier, but Christie was unable to join us at the last minute, so Angela has graciously agreed to step in. Angela Huddleston is an emergency management program specialist with FEMA Region 6 Public Assistance based in Denton, Texas. She's been with FEMA since 2008, first as a reservist, then full-time starting in 2010. She served as an appeals analyst in the policy group, researching regulation and policy, and preparing appeal responses on behalf of the regional administrator. Prior to joining FEMA, Angela served as deputy director at William King Regional Arts Center in Abingdon, Virginia, following a four-year teaching career at National College in Bristol, Tennessee. You can read more about Angela's achievements on the Public Assistance Webinar page. Angela, thank you so much for joining us today. I'm going to hand the controls over to you, and perhaps it's not going to be as much fun as your 2006 Harley soft-tails deuce, but you'll have an appreciative audience. So over to you, Angela. Thank you so much. It's a pleasure to be here, and I am honored by the opportunity to get to speak, albeit a last-minute invitation. I will do my best to get us through this and answer any questions along the way at our breaking points. So thank you again, Maury. I appreciate this opportunity. Real quick, I'd like to ask Jess to pull over the poll so we can find out a little bit of information about our attendees. So our first question is, what is your profession? So if everyone who is participating could click and let us start seeing whether you're a member of the cultural heritage community or a member of the emergency management community, that would be very helpful. And if anyone is not able to see what I'm referring to, please type your question or notify Lori and Jessica in the chat box. Is everyone ready? Okay, next question. We have the last question. Have you ever responded to a presidentially declared disaster within your professional capacity, meaning as a person within a cultural heritage community? Okay, thank you so much for everyone participating in that. We appreciate that very, very much. So I am here to speak with you today about the public assistance program. Again, thank you to the Heritage Preservation for asking FEMA to participate in a series of webinars. There is my contact information. Feel free to take that down. And if you have questions, I'd be happy to address those anytime in the future. Also, once we finish with the webinar, if there are any questions that we don't get answered during this, then I think that the Heritage Preservation Office would like to collect those and post all of the results to everyone. So the public assistance grant program, it is part of the overall FEMA mission to provide assistance to communities following a disaster. The purpose is to provide the supplemental financial assistance to state, local, and travel governments in certain private nonprofit organizations on some recovery activities required as a result of a declared disaster. And we can define some of this right now. A private nonprofit organization would be what most of you are members of the cultural heritage community. And a declared disaster is a federally declared disaster where the president actually signs off and agrees to a governor's request that the state is unable to manage the financial burden on its own. Funding is cost shared at a federal share of no less than 75% of eligible costs, meaning that the state or the travel government or the private nonprofit will have a 25% cost share. The cost share can be adjusted however when the magnitude of the disaster is so great that a second threshold is met, and at that point the cost share will increase to 90%. And the 44 CFR does provide for this. What we use in public assistance is a variety of publications and policy. We have the 321, which is our policy digest. It is the most user friendly document that we have. It has all of your topics in alphabetical order and it makes it very easy for an applicant or a state, which would also be called a subgrantee or a grantee respectively, to work through how to find information. It's directly linked to the public assistance guide, which is a much thicker book and has more detailed information on a lot of the things we're going to discuss today. There's the applicant handbook, which is very informative and it speaks specifically to the applicant on frequently asked questions that they may encounter while trying to recover. There's also the 9,500 series and the 9,500 policy that most of you will be most interested in is the 9,524.6, which is an attachment, I believe, to your invitation. And that is our collection and individual object eligibility policy. We'll talk about that a little bit later as well. We used a couple of forms that are very important following an event. The RPA, the Request for Public Assistance, is where an applicant, a nonprofit, a government entity, what have you, makes requests for financial assistance following the declared event. And the PW or the project worksheet is how we document the damages and come up with an itemization for the scope of work necessary to return an applicant's loss to pre-disaster condition. So this is the public assistance. This slide is commonly called This Make and it goes through step by step what happens. And I'm going to go through this kind of slope. It's going to seem a bit painstaking. But it's very important information because when disaster occurs, specific steps that must be made in order to go through this program and to get funding. And the first, obviously, is the disaster occurs. Once that happens, the state is in charge and the state has to request FEMA's help. And the first way that they can get help from FEMA is to do what's called a PDA or preliminary damage assessment. And that is in conjunction with the state and the local applicants who feel they have lost significant enough to warrant the governor's request to the president for financial assistance. Once the governor makes the request, then the president can make the declaration. It's at that point that the FEMA programs are initiated and that is a very important date because many things must occur at certain time frames from that date. So, the first thing that occurs is the applicant's briefing. And this is a state's responsibility. And this is where all applicants are gathered that may have lost, whether they're a private nonprofit, city, a fire department, a county, a school district. Anyone who could potentially be an eligible applicant is invited to be briefed on the FEMA process and to submit their request for public assistance. After the submission of the RPA, the FEMA and the state come to the applicant and have a kickoff meeting. And the kickoff meeting is another important milestone because from the date of the kickoff meeting, the applicant has 60 days to identify eligible damages. It doesn't mean that all projects have to be written, evaluated, and the bow tied. It just means that they have 60 days to notify FEMA of potential damages. And that's where FEMA is going to work from in order to help the applicant. So once FEMA is aware of the damages that are identified after the kickoff meeting, then the formulation of projects occurs. This is how the project worksheet is written. Damages are viewed, they're measured, they're photographed, they're documented. And that's done actually in the field. The project is then brought in-house and it is reviewed and it's reviewed by a variety of technical experts for appropriate scope, appropriate costs. Was it disaster related? There's a variety of microscopes that the project goes under. And at that point, the state and FEMA agreed to approve the applicant's request and then it goes into a funding process. So the project has been approved and awarded. Funding occurs and the grantee, which would be this day for the tribe if the tribe is the requester. And this is a new thing for FEMA. It used to be that tribes had to be a sub-applicant or a sub-grantee under the grantee, but now tribes can be grantee in their own right. Either way, the funding goes to the grantee and then the grantee must distribute it to the sub-grantee, which would again be the applicants. So I know that's a lot of information there and I'm going to take just a quick moment to break. And Lori, has anyone offered any questions up to this point? Yes. Can you hear me? Yes, here I am. Good. So I think you'll be answering this question a little bit farther down the line. Gregor Chincus Randall, hi Gregor, asked which private nonprofits are eligible? So that's a question to hold right now. I had a question. Where should we look for the dates of the applicant briefing? What websites? Who do we seek out? Where can we find information about applicant briefings? Once the event has occurred, chances are good you're in the PDA process that people who have damages are going to be notifying the state emergency management office. And they have different names depending on which state, but it's generally the emergency management office. And if they will have a contact name or they will be given a contact name, or for that matter the local emergency manager will be reaching out to local private nonprofits or vice versa. A museum manager can certainly reach out to the local emergency manager. But if the information is going to filter down from the state, most definitely the state is going to have all sorts of information on their website talking about this. They're going to upload copies of the request for public information. They're going to have calendars of when damage assessments may occur. They're probably going to publish the information on who has losses because this is all a lot of open information. So I would recommend that any private nonprofit who is not familiar with their local emergency manager, be it the city or the county, that they take the opportunity to go and introduce themselves. Because a lot of times during disaster people are concerned about schools and fire departments and hospitals. They're not thinking about local museums. And that is a very important part of the community. So it would behoove any museum director to take the time to meet that local emergency manager. But to answer your question, the state is definitely going to have all of these things on their website. Great. And I think a little further along you'll be talking more about eligibility. So I'll hold Gregor's question about PNP's eligibility for you to address a little later on. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, moving right along as I'm clicking the button to get to the next slide. I think I want to save a little too many. Sorry. Okay, responsibilities here. So I talked about the activities that occur along the line of the snake. And I mentioned that FEMA does certain things and the state does these things with them. And I kind of ran through that quickly. But this slide tells you who has responsibility for what happens. And there is a lot of background activity going on while everyone else is concerned about their losses following a major event. So FEMA comes at the request of the governor, like I said, with permission from the president, and they coordinate with all federal, state, and local agencies. And there are so many of these agencies that come together to respond to the event, as well as immediately begin the recovery process. And they do that in a place called the JFO, the Joint Field Office. And a lot of times the Joint Field Office is located at the state capital area just because that's where most state offices are and that's where the state emergency management office is going to be. But that's not to say that it's always there. Sometimes the JFO will be located at a more remote location, which is closer to the event. It just varies from state to state. And if you have a very large state, then you're probably going to have the JFO set up near the event versus a small state where it's just there at the state capital area. FEMA collects project and costs data, and FEMA approves the grants and obligates the fund. The state, also known as the grantee, their job is to educate the applicants. FEMA certainly helps with this process because it's very daunting. Applicants who have never been through the process before have a lot of questions. Applicants who are savvy and who have been through the process have a lot of questions. It's a very detailed process because it is occurring simultaneously with the recovery. So the applicants are also survivors of whatever the event is. And FEMA has to take that into consideration that we're helping everyone as survivors. There aren't survivors and applicants. There's survivors who happen to be applicants. The state also works to collect project and cost data. The state is responsible for dispersing the grants to the applicants, and the state must monitor and manage the grant funds. This is very important because the state has reporting responsibilities quarterly with regard to the money that has been granted to them. The applicant or the subgrantee, it is their responsibility to request assistance. FEMA can't come out to an area and say, your bridge is washed out. We need to give you money to repair this. The applicant has to take FEMA to the washed out bridge and say, this is a result of the event, and we would like to have financial assistance. They identify the damaged facilities, and they explain what the damages are. Obviously anyone can walk up to a washed out bridge and say, oh, there's a washed out bridge. The applicant is going to know what kind of bridge was there, when it was built, what its size was, all of those things. The applicant also provides information to support their request. They maintain all of their documentation. And let me just point out at this moment, the applicant maintains all of his documentation. This is very, very, very important. Because if originals are given to the state or are given to FEMA, the potential for them to become lost exists because there's so much activity with grant management. And the applicant is subject to audit once the funds have been dispersed. And if their original documentation has been passed off to the state or FEMA, then the applicant could be in jeopardy of losing their funding because they no longer have the supporting documentation. So always remember, copies go to the state and FEMA, originals stay with the applicant. And the applicant must perform the necessary work. Whatever requests they have for funding, they have to do the work if they get the funds for it. That kind of seems like it goes without saying, but it has to be said. So there are time limits, like I said before, applying for the public assistance grant. The public assistance request must be to the state within 30 days of the designation of the declared disaster area. What is a declared disaster area? There is a declaration that comes for the grantee. And then there are designated counties or parishes or areas within the disaster area. So if you hear people saying we have a declaration and then we have designated areas, that's the difference. Formulating small projects, like I said, the applicant has to have all of their damages identified within 60 days, and if the applicant chooses to formulate their own projects, they have to be made within 60 days of the kickoff meeting so that FEMA can perform a 20% validation. And this is because when FEMA comes into town, FEMA is also going to be leaving fairly quickly. And if a validation process is required, then FEMA needs to be able to do that quickly. A lot of times applicants allow FEMA to form small projects on their behalf because at that point the 20% validation process is no longer necessary. If at any point a field determination is made that the applicant is not satisfied with or the grantee is not satisfied with, then they have the right by regulation to appeal that decision. And the appeal must be submitted to the grantee within 60 days of the receipt of notice for the action which is being appealed. And that's what I do. Once someone feels that the field determination is inaccurate, then I get the letter from the state with the applicant's documentation explaining why the determination was inappropriate and I research it and review it. So we have the pyramid for eligibility, and it's very important that we talk about this because it may seem at work or a facility that's obviously damaged by a storm sheet. But we have to look at all four of the building blocks and we have to look at them in a specific order. So the first thing that we look at is who is an eligible applicant? Native American tribal governments and tribal organizations, state governments, county governments, city, town, and villages, any other political subdivision of the state and certain private nonprofit organizations. Now the question came in as to who is an eligible private nonprofit. The 44 CFR has definitions of who qualifies and provides essential government services in a private nonprofit organization. And obviously educational facilities, emergency services, hospitals, things like that are critical private nonprofits, but there are also non-critical nonprofit nonprofits. And that list is quite extensive. I don't have that citation with me immediately, but I will get it so that it can be posted on the webpage. But there's a very specific list of how to be defined as a non-critical private nonprofit that is eligible for financial assistance from FEMA. The grantee again is the state or tribal government responsible for administering the grant and the sub-grantee is the applicant who receives the grant funding for performing eligible disaster work. Oh, here we go, private nonprofits. I don't think the CFR citation is in here, but like I was saying, there are critical services, and these are essential services that every community must have. Volunteer electric co-ops, sewer utility lines, some areas call them muds or suds, municipal utility districts, special utility districts, public utility districts. All of those things are going to be considered critical services. And it's important, one of the important things about the critical versus the non-critical is the critical services have immediate access to moving through the process of applying for FEMA just as if they were a government entity. The non-critical private nonprofits must first apply to the Small Business Administration for a disaster loan for any permanent repair before they apply to FEMA. And this is because since they aren't providing an essential service and there is another federal agency that provides assistance, then FEMA can only provide assistance as a last resort by law. It is a supplemental program. It is not a first-level program. So if an applicant applies or when they apply to the Small Business Administration, sometimes they're approved for less than what they need in order to be returned to pre-disaster conditions. Sometimes they aren't approved for anything. Either way, FEMA takes that decision into consideration. And if the applicant receives no funding from Small Business Administration, usually lack of ability to pay, then at that point they're eligible to be reviewed by FEMA for potential reimbursement. If they have partial eligibility, then whether they choose to accept the loan or not, FEMA will not provide funding to that extent. So for example, if an applicant feels that they have $50,000 worth of damages and they apply to the SBA and the SBA approves them for $10,000, then when FEMA writes the project worksheet for the $50,000 worth of damages, FEMA will reduce the eligible funding opportunity by that $10,000 again whether the applicant chooses to take the loan or not. So here's a list of potential applicants, services, museums, community centers, educational institutions, libraries, homeless shelters, rehabilitation facilities, senior citizen daycare centers, zoos, and other facilities that provide health and safety service of the governmental nature. And that's kind of a large bucket, but there are a lot of things in there. So once we establish that we have an eligible applicant, then we have to look at the facility and several questions come along with the facility. To be eligible, it has to be the legal responsibility of an eligible applicant. It has to have been in use at the time of the event. It has to have been damaged as a result of the event, and it must be located in the designated disaster area. Now remember before us that we have a declaration and we have designated areas. That's because maybe the state of Texas received a declaration, but only seven of the counties were designated. So if the damaged facility is located outside of the seven counties, then it's not eligible. So we have to have these definitions in place. Next we have work. And we have to determine that the work that the applicant chooses to do is disaster related. Again, the work must be located in the designated disaster area. The work must be the applicant's responsibility, and it cannot be fundable by another federal agency. So to look at these a little bit closer, if the work, if the facility is in the designated disaster area, but the damage is because the applicant has not properly maintained its facility. Maybe the roof was sketchy and the roof blew off. The damages there at that point are not disaster related because an intact appropriately maintained roof may have withstood whatever the event was. It must be the applicant's responsibility. So if the applicant is leasing a building and they have a lease in place, that lease is going to define who is responsible in the event of an act of God, in the event of arson, in the event of whatever who is responsible for regular maintenance, etc. If it turns out that the applicant is not responsible for damages relating to whatever the disaster declaration is, then we can't fund the damages to that facility. And it can't be funded by another federal agency. In this case, a lot of times we fund ourselves in conflict with the Corps of Engineers for facilities that are on the coast, where their funding, the applicant's funding for that facility comes from the Corps. So in this particular case, maybe the Corps would have to fund the repairs. So there's a lot of things that go into consideration of whether or not this facility is going to be eligible. And by facility, I have to say a facility is a broad term, and a lot of times we think of a facility as actually being maybe four walls with a roof. The 44 CFR gives us a definition of what a facility is, and that includes non-buildings. So a facility could be a bridge, a facility could be actually equipment, it could be contents, and contents is what probably most of you care about, aside from your buildings and equipment. So what are the tops in work before we talk any more about that? There is emergency work and permanent work. And as cultural heritage community members, you're probably going to be most interested in debris removal because if you're in a hurricane tornado flood situation, then there's going to be mucking and cleaning and things like that. Emergency protective measures are anything that is done to prepare or protect either immediately before or immediately after. Permanent work for the museum professional, just saying you're probably not going to worry too much about roads and bridges or water control facilities, but definitely buildings and equipment. Probably not utilities, but possibly other where there's parks or creation. Other literally can include just about anything. So these terms here, emergency work, category A, permanent work, category E, these are important designations for several reasons. There are funding tiers in pilot programs right now that pertain specifically to emergency work. There are also some programs right now where there is a way for funds to be aggregated for permanent work repairs. So it's very important that the work is defined within its appropriate category. And I think this is probably a good spot for any additional questions that have popped up since the snake slide. So I'm going to ask Lori if she has any that she needs to ask real quick. Yes, thanks, Angela. Chelsea Klein and Ken Sessa from FEMA had a question regarding the snake slide. Please verify, RPAs are due in 30 days after the applicant briefing, not 30 days after the presidential declaration. Could you repeat that? Sure. RPAs, so true or false, RPAs are due in 30 days after the applicant briefing, not 30 days after the presidential declaration. No, they are due 30 days after the presidential declaration. The applicant's briefings occur within that period. Somebody is moving the slides, by the way. I don't know how we got so far on the slides, but if someone can move them backwards, I can't seem to get them to go backwards. But no, the third day is from the date of the declaration. Great. And then there was a question from Kathy Thurman. You raised your hand, so I am going to unmute you. And you've been waiting patiently. I hope your hand hasn't fallen asleep. And if you have the ability, if you're using headsets, I'm going to unmute you and then you feel free to pose your question. Kathy? Kathy Thurman, are you here? Okay, so we don't have Kathy on the line right now. So Kathy, if you want to send your question via chat, we would be happy to entertain your question. Okay, those are the only two questions we have so far, Angela. Okay, good. Jess, if you can't, I'm having trouble getting back to, wait, I seem to be able to move backward now. I apologize to the folks out there who are having to watch these slides flip, flip, flip, flip, flip. Okay, so cost eligibility. To be eligible for the reimbursement, oh, we're moving in. Here we are. Thank you. I have to be reasonable and necessary to accomplish the eligible work. So if you've heard, and it's true, a lot of times after an event, contractors will come in and charge very high rates for work that they would do at another time, not quite so high. And at that point, the rates become unreasonable. Now, while there are logical reasons for costs to be escalated following an event such as access, fuel costs, materials costs, due to shortages, things like that, those can be taken into consideration. But just raising the cost because it's an event alone is not justification for what could be considered an outrageous cost. So it has to be reasonable and necessary. And reasonable is always a debatable term because what may be reasonable to one may not be reasonable to another. But the way that we evaluate this is historically, what's the cost of similar work? What is the average cost for similar work in the area? What are the published unit costs from national cost estimating databases? And if anyone is familiar with RS means, that is the national cost estimating database that FEMA relies on for cost data. There's also FEMA cost codes and equipment rates and engineering and design services curves. And people who are way smarter than me have evaluated these things and determined what can be reasonable for certain services at certain times and have published those. And generally, FEMA cost codes are a little bit under national average. We are the government. We are running behind. So it's best if the applicant can provide solid documentation to support the request. Costs must also comply with federal, state, and local laws and regulations. So again, no cost overages because the disaster is in town. A lot of states have price fixing laws. So include and complete deductions for insurance proceeds, salvage value, and for just discounts. Salvage value is very important because a lot of times equipment that has been damaged such as vehicles, we'll say police cars, school buses, there's going to be a salvage value associated with that. And FEMA will reduce that salvage value from the grant because it's expected that the applicant will take the volume. The same with insurance proceeds. An applicant is expected to be insured and FEMA will supplement the loss to the insurance proceeds. So if for some reason the applicant doesn't take all of an insurance settlement for whatever reason, but could have taken those insurance proceeds, FEMA will reduce that insurance proceed. And if an applicant doesn't have insurance, the applicant may be penalized for a reduction in insurance, particularly for national flood insurance program in special flood hazard areas. So when there is significant damage, a lot of times applicants find themselves in a position where they cannot conduct recovery on their own and they must contract the work. And the procurement is very important. And part 1336 of the CFR, I do know that citation very well, explains the importance of appropriate procurement. And the short of it is as long as an applicant follows their regular procurement process, that is a state or federal guidelines, then they're probably going to be okay. But small purchase procedures, a lot of times an informal method is appropriate when there's not greater than $100,000 in services being sought. Maybe an informal process for taking quotes, maybe by email or by telephone, as opposed to a larger procurement that requires sealed bids where there's a formal notification bid request. Competitive proposals similar to the sealed bid process where contracts are based on the contractor qualifications instead of on price. And then there's not competitive proposals where a proposal is received by only one source. If ever a person finds themselves in this situation and it could very well be true in the cultural heritage community because a lot of times cultural preservation and restoration is a niche. So there's not going to be a lot of people who know how to do historic restoration of a particular area. And at that point a sole source contract or a non-competitive proposal still is going to have some guidelines attached to it, but it's not going to be the same as having bricklaid or having drywall hum. So all of those things are taken into consideration as part of the cost eligibility. Now there are a variety of contracts that FEMA looks for or looks for an applicant to not have. Lump sum contracts, these are for the work within a period of time with a clearly defined scope and a total price. There's a unit price contract where the work is done on an item-by-item basis with a cost determined for a unit. Cost plus fixed fee, it can be either lump sum or unit price with the fixed contractor be added into the price, and there's time in materials contracts. These should be avoided. They can be allowed for work that's necessary immediately after this disaster, but the work can't exceed the $70 mark. So if there is some sort of seeming exception to this then the applicant needs to be in contact with it to stay for an exception's request. Cost plus is also frowned upon and it's best to have a good solid contract in place. And if ever there's a question regarding the contracts then you definitely want to be in contact with your state counterpart from the Emergency Management Office. So project completion guidelines. Once disaster has occurred and the state has evaluated its situation and FEMA has been approved to come in to assist with financial reimbursement. By the way, that's a term that you may hear, financial reimbursement. FEMA's program is a reimbursement grant. So a lot of times the grants, particularly for large projects are not paid to the state and dispersed to the applicant until after the work is completed. And there are cases where advances can be done but overall it should be remembered that the FEMA grant is specifically designed to reimburse the applicant. If you have a small project, the small project a lot of times is written on estimate and it will be paid upfront. The downside to that is if the small project is written on estimate and there is less than enough funds available for what the applicant needed for the restoration, then the applicant is left with that's what the grant was written for and any overage could be the applicant's responsibility. The safety net for that is something called a small project net overrun request and that is actually an appeal where all the small projects are combined for a cumulative amount and all costs are combined and then compared. So if there's a significant underage, then FEMA may fund the rest of it. However, if there's a significant overage in that netting, then the applicant could have to pay that overage back. So it's up to the applicant to completely manage its grant and see where the overage underage cancels each other out on small projects. Large projects are paid on actual costs and that's because at that point you have a true reimbursement situation unless there are advances and then there's accounting and all that, but that's a whole other topic. So timelines, any emergency work, it's necessary that it be completed within six months of the declaration date. There is a time extension opportunity available where the applicant can ask the state for an additional six months and permanent work must be completed within 18 months following that 18 months, the state can grant an additional 30 months, meaning that the applicant has four years between its 18 months and the state's authority to grant extension. After that, the applicant has to come to FEMA with extenuating circumstances to explain why they have not completed the work. And that's where it says that FEMA may extend the deadlines upon appropriate justification. So, small projects versus large projects. I was kind of danced around this a little bit, but small projects are paid on estimate and are less than the threshold. The threshold for fiscal year 2014 is $120,000. Any project request over $120,000 would be a large project paid on actuals. Cost estimating format may be required on a large project. And this is to the applicant's advantage because it provides a reasonable analysis for what the applicant's cost may be and also provides factors that wouldn't necessarily go into a small project, which would mean materials only or labor only. There's generally the larger the project, the more complex the design and engineering fees may come into it and the cost estimating format assists with explaining those costs and helping the applicant cover those. That threshold is updated annually, by the way. Now, projects where an applicant has damaged facilities but they wish to make improvements to the facility while restoring it to its pre-disaster condition is a perfectly reasonable thing for the applicant to wish to do. And an example would be if a local fire department has a two-bay building and a tornado comes through and tear the whole firehouse down and the firehouse was built in 1980 and since then that area population has grown and the fire department could actually use a three-bay facility. They must allow them the funding to reimburse them to restore what would cost to rebuild a two-bay facility. The improvement on that would be the third day and the cost associated with it. And the applicant can request permission to find the repair or restoration of the loss and they will evaluate it, determine if it meets all the environmental and historic laws necessary and can say, yes, we give you permission because we're putting federal dollars into this facility. You are welcome to make the improvements that you've described and we will cap our funding for you for what it would cost to build the two-bay facility back and then any amount above and beyond that the applicant would be responsible for. And it's really a good opportunity for applicants if it's always cheaper to do more while you're at it and many applicants do take advantage of the improved project option. There's also an alternate project opportunity where the restoration of a damaged facility does not serve the public welfare any longer. So if this facility that was in active use in the applicant's responsibility, et cetera, they don't wish to return it to pre-disaster condition or function, then they can request an alternate project and then they can say, that's good, but it has to be done prior to construction. So in this particular case, it could be that the firehouse is located in an area where the population has moved away for whatever reason and there's no longer a need for a firehouse in that area. However, 25 miles down the road, the population has migrated to and they could use a firehouse. So the applicant requests to rebuild the firehouse in a more necessary location. And it also requires an environmental assessment because at that point, something totally different is being done and all the environmental historic preservation laws have to be followed. When the applicant does this, they receive only 90% of the federal share of the original project estimate and private nonprofits will receive only 75% of the federal share. So remember back in the beginning, we said that there is a cost share for all projects. And it's usually 75-25. So in this case, a municipality would get 90% of the 75% and a private nonprofit would receive 75% of the 75%. So there is a financial hit taken when the applicant chooses the alternate project route. There is a pilot program in place right now where if an applicant chooses an alternate project, that 10% and 25% alternate project hits can be waived. But again, it's a pilot project. I don't know how long it's going to be around and hopefully everyone listening will not be part of a declared event and even have to worry about such things. So whenever a project has met the four building blocks, it is an eligible applicant with an eligible facility that requires eligible work and the costs are eligible, then the project worksheet is written. And I said that it would get through a variety of reviews and before it is approved. Remember on this tank, we mentioned that. Special considerations is where there are a variety of eyes. Some of them are sitting at the JFO. Some of them are sitting at the region office. Some of them may be even sitting at headquarters and they evaluate the project. We mentioned insurance. This would be where the applicant has insurance or should have insurance and their costs will be adjusted appropriately on what they have or what they should have. Hazard mitigation will evaluate the project to determine if there's an opportunity for the program to provide additional funding to help the applicant not experience similar loss in a future event. This is an excellent opportunity for basically free money. If the applicant has lost, then there's no reason other than them choosing not to do so. To not do so. Because like I said, it is free money. It is subject to the same cost share requirement defined for the event. So if there's a 75-25 share or a 90-10 share, then the applicant would be responsible for 25 or 10% of that additional funding that goes for the hazard mitigation proposal. Environmental compliance is essential. Any work that is completed must adhere to both NEPA and NHPA, and the Environmental Historic Preservation Officer on the disaster will assist as will any EHP specialists that are there. Floodplain management is also essential. We cannot violate Executive Order 11988. We have to have all of those things in order to put federal dollars into a restoration project. So after all of this, what happens if an applicant goes through the process but does not comply with the terms of the grant? Well, obviously they could lose their funding. That is a terrible thing for an applicant to fund themselves in a position where the funds have to be returned to the state who in turn have to return them to FEMA. There could be just delays in project approval, so an instance of this would be where the applicant has requested an improved project, but they're not compliant on their environmental assessment requirements. They haven't put out public notices during the environmental assessment process, whatever. It will delay the project approval, and obviously the applicant wants to get back to normal as soon as they possibly can. There's also the potential for legal action. I think that there have been enough cases in the news where someone has fraud at a FEMA program that we've all heard about it. There could also be legal action from external sources. Environmental groups can sue FEMA. They can sue the applicants for not following NEPA or the other necessary laws that go into federal funding. There's a loss of opportunity. An applicant who does not comply can fund themselves ineligible for future funding opportunities. This happens with insurance. If an applicant doesn't carry insurance when they're required to, FEMA may fund them the first time, but they won't fund them after that. So it's very important that compliance in the insurance arena is adhered to. And then there's negative publicity. And we all know that no one wants that. So, special considerations. I think I covered these before with the insurance. Actual and anticipated insurance proceeds are deducted from the project. If the project is being projected as an estimate, then anticipated proceeds will be deducted. If the project goes to close out, then the actual adjustment will occur. Maybe the anticipated proceeds was in excess of actuals and the Delta will be funded back to the applicant or vice versa. All applicants are required to obtain and maintain coverage on any insurable facility as a condition of their public assistance funding. And that's what I mentioned in the previous slide. If the applicant does not have insurance, then they have to get it. And not only do they have to get it, they have to keep it. And if they do not, then they will not be eligible in the future. For fledged damage to facilities located in a special flood hazard area, if they are not covered by flood insurance, the project will be reduced the first time by the maximum amount of flood insurance proceeds that could have been payable, had that applicant or the facility had insurance, had insurance on that facility at the time of the event. This is extremely, extremely important. There's no room for wiggle on the NFIP. Again, environmental and historic preservation, all executive orders, all state laws and regulations, all federal laws, any time any federal dollars go into a project, all of these have to be adhered to. And these are some main ones that are listed here, but there could be well over 100 of these things reviewed for a project. So we have NEPA, the Any Environmental Assessment, the Endangered Species Act, the Historic Preservation Act, Clean Water Act, Clean Air Act, Coastal Barrier Resources Act, Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, Coastal Zone Management. Now some of those obviously are not going to apply. The hands this aren't going to have an issue with the Coastal Zone Management or the Coastal Barrier Resources Act, but they certainly are going to be concerned with endangered species and any requirements for clean air or clean water. So documentation, probably as cultural heritage professionals, you have a complete and total love for documentation because what it does for perpetuity, FEMA loves for all applicants to have documentation. And before I said, keep originals yourselves. Do not let FEMA, do not let the state have any originals. They can have all the copies in the world, but they can lose it and you want them to lose a copy. And your documentation should always answer what, when, where, why, and how much. It is the record of events and expenditures related to the recovery and it can't be recreated in full. Even in our modern technology age, it's not possible to recreate everything. There should always be a person or a point of contact designated to coordinate the compilation and the filing of the records. And when the time comes, the project specialist who works on the project worksheets with an applicant will assist them on a way to create documentation, whether or not they are registered for each of the projects. And each project should have a file established for it. These files should correspond to the specific PWs. There can be a myriad of ways to create the file system, but each file has to be established because that file can and likely will be revisited over a period of time. One of the things that has to happen is after an applicant finishes their projects, they may finish one project three months after the event, but they may not finish the final project until four years after the event. All documentation has to be maintained for at least three years from the final project completion. That project that was completed at the end of four years is the marker. So the project that was completed months after the declaration will have to, all of its documentation will have to live as long as the project that was completed four years later. Documentation related to force account labor, which is in-house labor, force account equipment, applicant owned equipment, any rented equipment, any materials in stock or purchased. Photographs of damage, work underway, or work completed should be included in that file. Records of donated goods and services are essential because an applicant can actually get credit toward their cost share for donated goods and services and any contract services. And with contracts, the procurement process, all of the information related to that procurement, the bid review, the choices, the contracts, the invoices, everything related to contract services must be maintained for future review. And that future review will come. On a large project, the federal share is obligated as the work is completed, like I said. It's paid on a reimbursement basis. It's paid quarterly because the state will do a quarterly review with the applicant and request funding from FEMA on a quarterly basis. Once the project is completed, the close-out will be initiated. And this is where the project can be inspected by state and or the FEMA. They'll review the completed work and determine that all of the records and documentation are in order before final payment is issued. Small projects are considered 100% closed at the time the project is obligated. Some states prefer to still do side inspections and individual close-out of a small project. But in general, it's a good rule of thumb to go ahead and consider the project closed when the money is obligated. However, always be aware that on small projects, FEMA and the state can and will conduct random sampling of those projects to validate completion. And if there's random sampling occurring for project completion validation, if there's any question as to how the progress is moving along for the applicant, the validation process can grow and it usually starts as a spot check. If there's questions and concerns, then as you would expect, the spot check becomes a percentage of say 25% randomly selected until FEMA is either satisfied or has evaluated 100%. So the program is out there and available to assist in the restoration of the community infrastructure, and that does include the private non-profits. It is supplemental cost reimbursement program with specific eligibility requirements. I'm sure your head is swimming and you're even still awake at this point with all of the specific eligibility requirements. And the famous share of eligible costs will be awarded to the grantee for disbursement to the subgrantees. And this is kind of hard to remember and hard to understand when all you can think of is just need to get back to normal. Where is the money? Why did this person not show up with a checkbook? And it's because the state has the event and the applicants are subgrantees to the state. So FEMA deals directly with the grantee, whether it's the state or the tribe. The municipalities, the private non-profits, the local governments, they will always be subgrantees to the state. And that is our presentation on the public assistance program. At this point, I would love to see if anyone has any questions and answer them the best that I can. We do. Angela, that was terrific. We do have a number of questions. And Jess, I'm wondering whether it's possible for you to share the questions box. I'm not sure whether that's even possible. But is it possible for you to show the questions in a large pane? And if not, I'll read them. But it would just be easier for comprehension on everyone's part to be able to see those questions under the dashboard, clicking on the questions box. I don't know that I see a questions box. I have a chat box. Do you have a dashboard box? This is the first time we've done this, folks, though. Bear with us. On the dashboard, do you have a questions box? It says questions. And then it says, hands raised. No, I haven't been able to see that. I have the chat box. And I have one audience question. Can we post this PowerPoint on our websites or a link to it? And you said you were going to post it on your website with the link to it. That's the only thing I say. I'm sorry. That's fine. I have it here. So I'm going to scroll back through some of these questions that were received a while ago. So this is from Jim in Rhode Island, an emergency manager at Rhode Island Emergency Management Agency. Hi, Jim. Hi, Jim. Here's the question. Under category B, what is an example of a cost incurred prior to the event that would be eligible? OK. If, I'm just going to say a museum. If a museum has, is in, we'll say, a coastal island area, say maybe Galveston, Texas, or Rhode Island or wherever, they know that the storm is coming. So they need to do sandbagging around the area because it's possible that flooding could occur and water could get into the museum and damage precious carpets or furniture or historic wood flooring. Something that is going to protect that so that it isn't damaged permanently. So the sandbagging in that case would be an eligible expense prior to the event or shuttering the windows in some way. If there's not shutters there, then putting plywood over the windows to protect the windows from breaking so that there's not wind driven rain getting inside the facility. Does that answer the question? I see Jim nodding. OK. No, I don't. We have a question from Alex, also in Rhode Island, about the SBA application process. Is it similar? And at what point does it get handed over to FEMA? And this question reminds me that perhaps we should vote an entire webinar to the SBA application process since most PNPs are going to have to go through the SBA application process before getting rejected and then applying to FEMA. So a quick answer to that because we have a lot of questions still. OK. The SBA is likely going to be there at the JFO in the beginning. I remember I said it would house a variety of government agencies. Well, the SBA would be one of them. And there's usually a FEMA SBA specialist who will review all of the applications. When a private nonprofit submits their request for public assistance, there is a questionnaire that goes along with it specifically for them that talks about their SBA process. And SBA will assign an agent to or agents to a declared event. And FEMA works hand in hand with them on that process. OK. So I think that's a great topic that we could certainly expand on. Dwayne from Maine asks, my version of 44 CFR, so Dwayne is an emergency manager, does not show the list of eligible nonprofits for public assistance. It refers the reader to a section that is labeled reserved. Where else can I find the list of eligible nonprofits that you mentioned earlier? Like I said, I can't remember that citation off the top of my head, but that's one that I will get to you so that you can post. Or if Dwayne would like to email me directly, I'll be happy to answer him as well as provide it to you. OK. What we'll do is have that as part of the questions answered following the webinar, because we are getting close to the final time. Let's see. Lynn from North Carolina asks, do costs include elevation of structure if designated by local authorities? Can costs include elevation of structure? They can. If a local authority requires that, then that would fall under what we call codes and standards. There are criteria that have to be met when it comes to codes and standards, and if all of those criteria are met, then that funding goes in automatically. If those criteria are not met, an elevation is still required and it could be possible that the Hatter-Zerg mitigation proposal funding that I mentioned could be a funding mechanism for that. So it's possible in one way, it's possible in another way, but it's not a guarantee. OK. Lynn also asks, what about insurance of special collections? I'm not sure what this is in the card. I understand that. OK, great. I understand that. Insurance of special collections. Obviously, most museums are going to ensure their special collections. I know at William Keen, we had regional special collections as it applied to the Appalachian region, and those were insured independent of our overall policy for the facility. So those insurance proceeds are the same as if it were brick and mortar. Whatever insurance proceeds come in, then that's what will be reduced from the applicant's request for reimbursement. If the applicant does not have special collections coverage and they have lost to their special collection, that is an insurable item and they would have to obtain that insurance in order to get the first grant, and they would have to maintain that insurance to be eligible for any future grant. OK. Joanne also from Maine states, should we distinguish between 406 for public assistance and 404 mitigation? That is a whole other topic, but really quick like, 406 is funded through public assistance. It is part of the recovery process and it is attached to the damaged elements. So in our building that needs to be elevated, that building has to be damaged as a result of the event, and it has to, the mitigation measure must be applied to the damaged. 404 funding is a cumulative grant that's administered by the state, provided by FEMA to the state related to how much the overall loss of the event is. And I'm not exactly sure what that percentage is, but the state chooses, the state receives applications for the 404 funding for a year following the event, and the state chooses which projects will be funded, and the projects submitted do not have to be damaged as a result of that event. They may not even have to have damage at all. The state can't, but they have to perform some mitigation measure. So they are completely separate pots of money, and they have totally different criteria. They can be used together, and FEMA very much encourages an applicant to maximize its funding opportunities both, within both programs. But 404 is the hazard mitigation grant program, 406 is the public assistance hazard mitigation proposal money. Great. We have about 10 more minutes before our time is up, and so I have two final items that I'd like to share. First, you'll receive an email that contains a link to a brief seven-question evaluation. Please click on that link and complete the survey for us. As I mentioned at the top of the program, this webinar series is brought to you by the support of the Institute of Museum and Library Services. Your response to the evaluation can demonstrate the value of the programming and help garner future support. Second, our next webinar on mitigation and mitigation planning, Nice Segue, will be held in October, and the November webinar will be on continuity of operations or COOP planning. Sign up for the blog and you'll be notified when those dates are set. So we have a few more questions, coming, we have a bit more time, and we'll try to get what we can do in the time that remains, and again Lucky Angela is going to be able to respond in writing to the others, and we'll post not just her, the questions and the answers, but we'll be posting this recorded webinar on that site as well. So Laura from Indianapolis has a question. Please talk about the $3,000 threshold and the categories that can and cannot make up the $3,000. We had a recent event where we had items in Category B and Category E, neither at $3,000, but together they were, but they couldn't be combined. Also be aware that the insurance requirement could cost you more than the 75% reimbursement. Make your cost comparisons. Hi Laura. That's a tough one, and unfortunately I am able to answer that in any reasonable amount of time. What I would point you to is the regulation that was published, I believe February 26 the notice that came out in the registry and it discussed that new threshold I believe. If not, it may have come out in April. I have not worked in an event since that guidance came out. I know that the combination of categories within a project worksheet is being evaluated and it's probably the wave of the future in terms of public assistance funding. I apologize but that is not something that I've had any experience with as of yet. I would certainly encourage if you can to get with your state counterpart and just really ask them I need to understand this because it is a shift in the way public assistance is being provided at this point. Okay, thank you. We'll do one more question from Gregor in Massachusetts. Is there a provision for cultural people to be involved through FEMA or State EMA in the preliminary damage assessment? Yes. The preliminary damage assessment is a survey of damages in the area. Any applicant that has the potential to be an eligible applicant in the declaration should step forward and identify their damages because one of the ways that the state gets its declaration is through a threshold based on for capita of loss. So the more damages that are identified during the preliminary damage assessment the more likely the state will receive its declaration. So I cannot imagine why a state would not want to include those during the preliminary damage assessment. Other than their damages are so significant and so concentrated in certain areas that they know they're going to easily exceed the threshold necessary to receive a presidential declaration that in the interest of expediency they don't go to areas where a lesser figure of loss exists. They focus on the greater figures of loss to move the process through as quickly as possible. Does that make sense? And with that I think that's probably a great place to end this webinar. So thank you, Angela, for stepping in at the last minute to make sure we could still deliver this webinar. Thank you. Thanks to Jess for being the wizard behind the curtain and thanks to all of you who logged in today. Look forward to seeing you online in the fall and