As the Federal Emergency Management Agency moves its inventory of mobile homes and travel trailers off most of the Hope Municipal Airport property, the controversy over the thousands of units continues to roil both Washington, D.C., and Hope.
Hearings conducted last week before the U. S. House Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade, and Consumer Protection of the Committee on Energy and Commerce regarding the single lot sale of some 15,000 of those units have left U. S. Representative Mike Ross, D-Ar., unsatisfied.
“Last week's hearing was a good first step,” Ross noted in a statement. “It forced FEMA and GSA to explain on-the-record why they made certain decisions and what measures they are taking to protect unsuspecting consumers from buying harmful trailers.
“But, it didn't go far enough,” he said. “I hope we have more Congressional hearings until all safety and economic concerns with these auctions are addressed. Particularly, I hope Congress will further examine this 'one-buyer-takes-all' public approach as I believe it is inherently flawed and wasteful and denied individuals the opportunity to buy a single trailer or mobile home.”
While the primary focus of the hearings dealt with safety concerns raised in 2006 over formaldehyde levels in the structure of the travel trailer units, and FEMA's corrective actions to warn purchasers that the units were not to be used as permanent housing because of that, Ross' point about the single-lot sale was briefly addressed in remarks by FEMA and GSA officials.
David Garratt, FEMA associate administrator, told the panel that the agency has warehoused some 144,000 units nationwide since 2005 at a cost of about $130 million per year. Figures released by the committee show that FEMA sold 102,300 of those units since 2007 for about $300 million, or “...roughly 10 percent of what FEMA spent to procure and store emergency housing for (Hurricane) Katrina and (Hurricane) Rita victims.”
In that cost, FEMA has spent about $983,000 warehousing some 22,000 units at the Hope Municipal Airport, and sold slightly more than 15,000 of them in a single lot sale earlier this year for about $27.4 million.
“FEMA chose large-lot GSA auctions to both accelerate the disposition process and save additional taxpayer funds,” Garratt told the committee in his testimony last week. “As of April 26, we have completed sales for 81,422 units through the large-lot auctions. As of that date 22,635 units remain to be sold through large-lot auctions.”
However, a note to Garratt's testimony explains that FEMA has also disposed of units through a public donations program operated by GSA which benefitted native American tribes.
GSA Acting Commissioner of the Federal Acquisition Service Steven Kempf told the committee that there are not specific provisions in federal law or regulations which require GSA or FEMA to sell surplus properties in a particular manner as it does certain items.
“FEMA did not identify the THUs (Temporary Housing Units) as falling under any of these identified categories, such as being a hazardous material, a munitions list item, or an item containing asbestos, so no special requirements were applicable,” Kempf said. “GSA agreed that the THUs did not fall within the parameters for any of these special commodities and the corresponding special requirements.”
He said some 101,802 units of the total inventory have been sold in 11 single-lot sales since January.
Meanwhile, the Hope City Board of Directors learned Tuesday night that the City of Hope must submit a compliance plan to the Federal Aviation Administration which deals, in part, with the City's lease of airport acreage to FEMA as a non-aeronautical use.
In an April 21 letter to the City, FAA Compliance Manager Ed Chambers said non-aeronautical uses are not entirely at the City's discretion.
“Non-aeronautical users at the airport are conducting activities whose operational needs do not require them to be located at an airport,” Chambers wrote. “We are aware that the airport has vacant land. However, the availability of vacant airport land does not justify a non-aeronautical use, nor does it override the city's obligation to operate the airport for airport purposes. Without proper planning and approval, non-aeronautical uses are not justified.”
Specifically, where the FEMA lease at the airport is concerned, Chambers said that, while it was limited to three years, it and others, “....should have been reviewed by the FAA prior to execution.”
Hope City Manager Catherine Cook told the board Tuesday night that the City had, in fact, submitted the lease to FAA.
“The FEMA lease was submitted to FAA and we don't know whether they ever approved it,” Cook said. “We think we can justify the non-aeronautical leases and we're getting fair market value for these leases.”
Meanwhile, FEMA recently responded to a lawsuit filed by a Hope-area landowner in federal court from a complaint of damage to his property by excessive rainwater runoff created when FEMA contracted to have crushed rock and special material put down at the airport prior to storing the THUs there.
Answering a revised complaint by landowner Ronald Buck, FEMA said it was not responsible for the actions of its contractor, and that Buck lacked jurisdiction to sue the federal agency under the Federal Tort Claims Act. FEMA is asking U. S. District Court Judge Harry F. Barnes to dismiss Buck's lawsuit for lack of jurisdictional standing.
