The Knucklehead of the Day award

Today's winner is Broward County Emergency management Director Tony Carper. He gets the award for the following.

Counties that combined to spend millions of dollars preparing for a wallop from Ernesto that never happened are banding together to ask state officials to flex their muscles getting the federal government to pay for their troubles.

Tony Carper, emergency management director for Broward County, sent e-mails Thursday to emergency directors in Collier, Miami-Dade, Martin and other counties that prepared for Tropical Storm Ernesto, asking them to send letters to Gov. Jeb Bush and their legislative delegation.

Carper wants the governor to ask President Bush for a special declaration that would make the counties eligible to apply to the Federal Emergency Management Agency for reimbursement, even though Ernesto left little damage. He said several counties have told him they would lobby their legislative delegations and send letters to the governor.

Carper estimated Broward's preparations cost $2.5 million and all of South Florida's preparations cost $10 million to $15 million.

"If you don't ask, you can't get it," Carper said. "There's plenty of precedent for it. Plus, many counties are still recovering from last year's storms and have spent so much on storm preparation."

FEMA reimbursed several counties in 1999 for preparations they made for Hurricane Floyd before it veered and hit farther north, Carper said.

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He doesn't want Florida's expenses to get lost in the shuffle if FEMA officials start getting reimbursement requests from the Carolinas.

"We want to go ahead and get this in the queue," he said.

Sheesh. Carper is little better than one of those people seen looting after Katrina went through New Orleans. He wants his piece of the action before those who truly deserve it receive help.

For attempting bureaucratic thievery, Broward County Emergency management Director Tony Carper is today's knucklehead of the day.

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