TREASURE ISLAND, Fla (WFLA) — Treasure Island residents are fighting the city commission, blaming them for delays in the permitting process. Without those permits, residents can’t repair their homes which were damaged months ago in back-to-back hurricanes.

The commission decided to have substantial damage letters sent out to people if they don’t have a permit in. And they will use all the available data they have for the permitting process.

Residents pointed out how there are people already making repairs to their homes, not waiting on the commission, and they feel those who are trying to go about this the right way are being punished by a lack of urgency from the commission.

Treasure Island neighborhoods look empty, with lots of “for sale” signs up in yards. Dozens of the residents were at city hall Tuesday night.

“Our building department failed our community,” said one woman.

Many of them accused the commission of slowing the permitting process down. Even Mayor John Doctor accused the staff of leading FEMA on during their meeting on Jan. 10, which in turn, has been keeping people from starting to repair their homes. The staff made a recommendation based off of FEMA concerns on the permitting process.

“This motion is more for FEMA than it is for the residents,” said one resident. “We’re going back over the same stuff, it’s unacceptable.”

Corey Evans spoke during the meeting and said how he got his permit in the last week.

“We’re ready go to do the rebuild, but the permitting process was really, really terrible,” Evans said.

Substantial damage letters, which determine the level of damage homes sustained haven’t made the process easier either. Commissioner Arden Dickey found data showing how the Pinellas County Property Appraiser’s values of a piece of property had skewed the amount of damage sustained, showing lots of inconsistencies.

City Manager Chuck Anderson wants to implement team processing models to issue permits faster.

“To be best prepared for this change, we need to focus on the 463 permits we currently have in review,” Anderson said. “That’s in our backlog, and we need to get that backlog taken care of.”

The model would be available on Tuesdays and Thursdays at city hall, and the goal is to issue a permit before the customer leaves.

Some residents were very critical of Anderson and wanted the leaders to hear their concerns clearly.

“We’re almost four months since the storm, and the permitting process is collapsing under its own weight,” said one woman. “The number one priority is issuing permits, nothing else matters.”

They also expressed how after this experience, they will be voting to make changes to the council in the upcoming election.