Inaugural Gulf Consortium Meeting

Commissioners to Attend  Inaugural Gulf Consortium Meeting Monday, Oct 22

District 4 Commissioner Jim Melvin and District 5 Commissioner Lane Lynchard will represent Santa Rosa County at the first meeting of the Gulf Consortium at 1 p.m. EST on Monday, Oct. 22 at the City of Tallahassee Commission Chambers, 300 South Adams Street in Tallahassee. Lynchard will serve as the county’s appointed director and Melvin as alternate director. The Gulf Consortium is being organized by the Florida Association of Counties and would be responsible for developing a plan for accepting and processing project proposals for the state portion of RESTORE Act funds. The meeting is open to the public.

 The Gulf Consortium will be a joint public entity and is a requirement of the RESTORE Act. The consortium is created by each of the 23 impacted costal Florida counties adopting an interlocal agreement. Santa Rosa County became a member of the consortium when commissioners adopted the agreement at the Oct. 11 commission meeting. 

 The RESTORE Act allocates 80 percent of any Clean Water Act fines to the Gulf Coast. A significant portion will come directly to the eight disproportionally impacted counties, which includes Santa Rosa County. The consortium would not oversee any county direct RESTORE funding, but the state’s allocation of funds.  The Santa Rosa County Local RESTORE Council, made up of 11 local representatives, will be tasked with creating a framework and reviewing projects to determine eligibly for a portion of the county’s direct RESTORE funding.