continued crapola...

The Sun Herald reported on Friday, March 4,  

"BP claims administrator Ken Feinberg has just announced that 2,500 casino claims will be processed beginning next week."


Here is my letter of today responding to the Sun Herald:

Here we are, 2 1/2 weeks later.  There has been no apparent processing of casino claims, or very few others for that matter.  We are keeping our ear to the ground from Biloxi to Bay St. Louis, and no casino claims have been paid that we know of.  When we call the gccf 800#, no one knows of any casino claims processing.  gccf has loosely tossed around the word "processing" since last October.  The word has absolutely no relation to "Paid".  When we ask about "Paid", and point out that at the current rate of payment, it will take four years to wade through all the Mississippi claims, nobody knows anything.  The various gccf representatives I have talked to can tell me only that we might get paid sometime up to four years from now.

 

You would think that any business or law firm would have very definite plans and time-lines for taking care of business.  These people can't really be this incompetent, can they?  Surely they do have definite time-lines here.  For some reason, they prefer to hide behind smokescreens and total lack of transparency.  Hidden agendas?

 

These numbers are from the gccf website today.  In Mississippi, there have been 19,050 total Interim and Full Review claims filed.  In the thirty-two days since the "Final Rules" were published, only 434 have been paid.  That's 2.3% or 13.6/day.  Any talk of pay percentages including "Quick Pays" are meaningless.  Any talk of "processing" is smokescreen.

 

For months now, Mr.Feinberg has said just whatever pops into his head to keep the public quiet.  None of it has turned out to be accurate, and no calls him on it.

 

The gccf promised in November to pay all Interim and Final Claims within 90 days of being filed.  We personally are past 90 days with still no concrete time-line being offered.  All we want is, for once, the truth.

letter to the editor...

Gentlemen,

 

The Gulf Coast Claims Facility, on behalf of BP, and as directed by Mr. Ken Feinberg, ended the Emergency Assistance Payment program on November 23, and began the Interim and Final (Full Review) Program on November 24, 2010.  According to published GCCF statistics, 18,970 Interim and Full Review Claims have been filed in Mississippi since then.  Only 372 have been paid.  LESS THAN 2%!  After much delay, the GCCF published their "Final Rules" governing Interim and Full Review Claims on Friday, February 18.  In the four weeks since, the GCCF has paid on average only thirteen Interim and Full Review Claims a day in Mississippi.  At the current rate, we are looking at a four year process.  The time element is central to a potentially great economic impact for our entire Mississippi Gulf Coast.  We must wonder why our legislators and local media continue to dodge this very key issue.

 

 

Hope this gets printed.  Is anybody listening?

Does this sound familiar?

From the Sun Herald, Wednesday, March 16:

Mr. Feinberg, March 15:

“I think the casino workers wanted some assurances from me and the Gulf Coast Claims Facility that if they filed a claim now as part of Phase 2, the final payment and interim payment phase, that they would be eligible and if they can document their lost tips in the casino and their damage as a result of the spill, we would pay the claims. And we have every reason to consider those claims and pay them where documented,” he said.


Read more: http://www.sunherald.com/2011/03/15/2945766/casino-worker-claims-under-review.html#ixzz1Gkzn5qaR

Mr. Feinberg, November 9:

   

 On Nov 9, Mr. Feinberg met with local casino and other business representatives, and, according to a WLOX interview, "The goal, according to Feinberg, is to make sure casino workers are considered just as fairly as others in the seafood and tourism industry.  "What we have to make sure of is that individuals are treated fairly, consistently," Feinberg said. "I'm here to pay claims, not to deny claims."

Sounds eerily similar...

Within the next week and a half, ALL casino claims were denied.

You make the call... 

Are You Kidding Me ? ! ?

We respect our esteemed opponent Amy Weiss for creating such an outrageous spin.  We are disappointed in our own Sun Herald for reporting this as fact.  Sun Herald, Tuesday, March 15, page 5A.

Feinberg: 54 percent of claims paid

By KAREN NELSON - klnelson@sunherald.com

GULFPORT -- Those who handle claims against BP for the oil rig explosion and spill announced a milestone Monday -- 54 percent of all claims submitted since November have been paid.
The claims of casino workers are not included in these figures.
November marked the end of the emergency payment period for people injured by the Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf.

Kenneth Feinberg, administrator of claims, said they have received approximately 256,000 individual and business claims of all types since November, that includes those asking for final, interim or quick payments.
Feinberg said they have processed 138,874, leaving 117,889 yet to be processed.
Hundreds of claims continue to be filed every day.
Of the quick payments of $5,000 for individuals or $25,000 for a business, 100,000 have been paid for a total of approximately $1 billion.
The final rules for claims were announced less than a month ago and Feinberg and his staff have made final payment offers to 18,562 people and businesses totaling $174 million. About 6,600 of those have accepted for $66.6 million. The others have 90 days to make a decision.
More than 2,700 interim payments have been made for a total of $37 million. And 19,400 claimants have received a letter asking for more information and documentation before their claim can be paid.
About 2,300 were notified that they would receive nothing for their claim. And 3,100 claims were officially denied.
“We are determined to continue to accelerate the processing of all individual and business claims,” Feinberg said.

Read more: http://www.sunherald.com/2011/03/14/2942145/feinberg-54-percent-of-claims.html#ixzz1GgYYX4Mh

 

Enclosed is our email to the Sun Herald:

 

Gentlemen,

 

I must respectfully ask for a retraction or correction of your story "Feinberg: 54 percent of claims paid" on page 5A of the Sun Herald, Tuesday, March 14.  This is a very sensitive issue to many who are hurting on the Mississippi Gulf Coast.  The issue is central to major economic impact for the entire Gulf Coast.  Whether it will remain the current negative impact, or perhaps turn out more positive remains to be seen.

 

The facts are these, as published on the gccf website this morning:  Since November, 256,621 claims have been filed.  100,252 claims have been paid.  39%, not 54%.  The headline is repeated as fact in the first paragraph as well.  Buried in the article are numbers showing that 54% have been "processed".  But those of us who have been struggling since the blow-out will tell you that there is a big difference between "processed" and "paid". 

 

The headline and the first paragraph are outright untruths.  The rest of the article is simply deception, misdirection, and smokescreen.  Almost all of the 100,000 paid are the Quick Claim sign-offs only for those who have already received emergency claim help.  They are rubber-stamp approved and require no additional paperwork or adjusting.  The very serious business of Interim and Final Claims is a whole different story.  Since November, there have been 157,143 Interim and Final Claims filed.  Only 3835 have been paid, about 2 1/2 %.  There is your real headline as it impacts the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

 

I speak for many when I say that we would very much appreciate active investigative digging into the gccf-Feinberg mess.  The gccf-Feinberg-Amy Weiss Public Affairs group has a history of publishing deception and misdirection disguised as press release.  Please try not to print anything from them without checking the facts.

 

We would certainly hope for an accurate rebuttal from the Sun Herald with at least as big a headline, "ONLY TWO PERCENT PAID", and at least as many inches.

 

 

eight more...

Wow, since yesterday, EIGHT more Interim Claims have been paid.  Still eight a day, with over 6000 having been filed.  There are many conspiracy theories surrounding the gccf-Feinberg process.  Generally, we do not subscribe.  But this is looking worse and worse. 

Perhaps Feinberg IS getting kickbacks based on amount of money returned to bp.  Too bad he's not getting paid based on a percentage of claims paid.  Bet we would see some money flowing then.

Perhaps Feinberg IS stalling until the April 20 deadline for filing suit is passed.  We are confident in the accuracy and efficacy of personal claims with gccf having been filed.  At this point, there is a lot of talk about getting involved in the Haliburton-TransOcean suits in Federal court in New Orleans.  We will personally be checking with the Rusty Gill office in Biloxi regarding that.    

stonewall...

Feels like back to Square One.  The gccf continues to move at a snail's pace.  There is no hard or reliable information forthcoming at all.  Nobody seems to know anything, and no one is talking.  Calls to the 800# are worse than useless.  Conflicting "we don't know's" are the norm.  The Sun Herald reported last week that Ken Feinberg said that they would "begin processing" 2500 casino claims "next week".  A week later, no casino employee that we know of has been paid.  No gccf employee that we speak with has any idea about any casino claims being processed. 

In Mississippi, there have now been 6133 Interim Claims filed by individuals, 171 paid.  There have been 9510 Full Review Claims filed by individuals, 67 paid.  We are three weeks out from the day the "Final Rules" were published.  These claims combined have now been paid at the rate of about 12 a day.  With almost 16,000 total filed SO FAR, and more being filed every day, we seriously wonder if gccf really intends to make this a three year process.  Do they plan to increase efficiency at all?  How?  When?  Does anyone really have a plan?  Is there any realistic estimate about when we might actually get paid?  Guess what?  Nobody knows, nobody's talking.  Stonewall...   

Happy Mardi Gras ! ! !

Special thanks to Anthony, Cliff, Jason, Dawn, Tim, Marla, and the whole Pitalo Tribe!  Very fine seeing so many people together.  Very heartening.  Life is obviously so much different and better here than up east in DC...

Diogenes of the gccf...

I really hate to be cynical, but the gccf has passed along so much information that has turned out to be wrong at best; deceptive; or, at worst, downright lies.  Does anybody really believe, as Ken Feinberg told ABC News, that he "can't remember" who got the single $10 million settlement from the gccf at the explicit direction of bp?   What a whopper.

The one honest man I have found in the gccf is Bill Mulvey, the Feinberg/Rozen-gccf-casino liaison.  At that, Bill has been reluctant to pass along any more than the most general information, and nothing recently.  Local representatives and 800# people accurately pass along the very limited information that they are given.  Sadly, that limited information never turns out to be true.  And I mean NEVER.  (please see blog "letter to Bobby Moak and Windy Swetman" of Wednesday, Feb 16.)

The news articles regarding Ken Feinberg's recent announcement about casino claims, rather than being hard news, are only more questions posed.  When Interim Claims were opened in December, the gccf website stated that Interim and Final Claims would be paid within 90 days of being "presented" and "filed".  On Dec 20, we presented our claims at the local gccf office, and they filed them.  We expect payment before Mar 20.  When we speak to ten different gccf representatives, we get ten different stories.  So, of course, we never know what to try to believe.  Some representatives have told us that when the gccf said "presented" and "filed", that they did not actually mean presented and filed.  They said they actually meant within 90 days of the beginning of processing.  We were told that "processing" would begin Nov 24, after the end of the Emergency program.  We were then told that "processing" would begin Dec 17, Jan 1, Feb 1, mid-February, and when the Final Rules were established on Feb 18.  Now, two weeks later, we are told that "processing" of casino claims will begin "next week".  Are we now looking at another 90 days?

Again, we must note that in 15 days of processing, 119 Interim Claims have been paid in Mississippi, an average of about 8/day.  With about 6000, Mississippi has a very small number of Interim Claims.  However, at the current rate, we are looking at about two years to get them all paid.

We have no idea why any particular "methodology" would be required to settle any claims.  Aren't all claims best decided on individual merit?  The gccf still has over $16 of $20 billion left in the bank.  The word from the top should be "Find a Way to Pay these Claims!"  The secrecy and continued total lack of transparency is appalling, and very scary.

We are very grateful to our elected representatives and to our news media for standing up for Mississippi and our local economy.  Now we are asking for their help in finding the real truth about how our claims will be evaluated and when claims will actually get paid, not "processed", but "Paid".  The gccf is very good at blowing smoke, but is totally avoiding answers to meaningful questions.                

more prouncements...

From the Sun Herald, Saturday, March 5, 2011:
 

The Gulf Coast Claims Facility will begin processing 2,500 claims filed by casino workers next week, claims administrator Kenneth Feinberg said Friday.

Feinberg’s Mississippi liaisons, attorneys from the law firm Watkins, Ludlam, Winter & Stennis, have been working with local officials and casino operators to clarify how the casino industry fits into Coast tourism and how casino-employee compensation works.

Feinberg declined to comment on the methodology developed to process the claims.

The 2,500 claims GCCF will re-examine are from casino workers who have filed under the current interim and final payment process. Casino workers who previously filed emergency claims that were denied must re-file interim or final claims applications before their claims will be considered.


Read more: http://www.sunherald.com/2011/03/04/2916553/casino-worker-oil-spill-claims.html#ixzz1Fj7OucQu

We would very much like to feel good about this.  However, Mr. Feinberg and gccf have a strong track record of being wrong about projected time-lines.  There is apparently absolute lack of transparency regarding altered "methodology".  Very scary.  The gccf so far is processing and paying Interim and Final claims at a glacial pace.  How long might it take to move a claim from "begin processing" to "check delivered"?  If they start next week, how long might it take to process 2500 claims?  What is the methodology, and why is it secret?  Transparent?  No one is talking.  The gccf is answering none of these questions.

Please note that this is regarding Interim and Final Claims.  If you haven't already, please refile.  Most casinos' human resources departments should be able to help with appropriate infomation.

good news, bad news...

The Sun Herald of Wednesday, March 2 front-paged a story headlined "Claims rules for casino workers due Friday", by-lined Geoff Pender.  Good news:  the general feeling is that perhaps casino workers' claims will be handled in a positive way, though that is never actually stated in the article.  Bad news:  the process of paying claims will be postponed indefinitely yet again.  The story contains way more questions than answers.

The first paragraph alone raises at least nine questions.  gccf "Final Rules Governing Payment Options" were put in place a week and a half ago.  Are casino claims actually going to be decided under a new and different set of "Rules"?  If so, will the new rules be any better for us?  How?  Who is actually establishing the new rules?  What criteria are being considered?  Who, specifically, is advocating for casino workers?  How much research has been done to determine the best ways to get the most money pumped into our Gulf Coast economy through these claims?  If the new rules are actually finalized Friday, when and where will they be published?  When will payment of casino workers' claims actually begin?

We are approaching a year from the time of the catastrophic blow-out.  We have been fighting this claims fight since early October.  With so much potential economic impact for the Mississippi Gulf Coast, we must wonder where our concerned legislators have been for the last four months?  There was some noise about being in session and not being aware of the two-week comment period.  What?  The comment period was announced well in advance, and any seriously concerned legislator should have been apprised and prepared well in advance.  For those of us who have been suffering interminable delays for months, it was sad disappointment to see our elected officials delay the process yet again.

Are we "light years ahead of where we were 30 days ago"?  Have we "come a long way in 30 days"?  Perhaps.  We should have been light years ahead 90 days ago when Mr. Feinberg came to town and announced that casino workers would be treated the same as all others.  Only to have us all categorically denied within the next two weeks.  We do believe that with the appointment of Bill Mulvey as gccf-casino liaison, our claims became payable.  The "proposed methodology" stunk.  The "Final Rules" gave us a little more hope.  We made the "light years" leap 60 days ago.  The last 30 days have offered us only more postponements and delays.  We are very anxious to see the "final rules for casino workers" tomorrow to see if, perhaps, we will have made another giant leap, or if it is, again, just so much smoke.

There is very serious concern about the long-term health of our Gulf.  We heartily applaud our legislators for fighting this fight.  Obviously, final claims should be way beyond a "x 2" factor.  Every sane person locally knows that our Gulf and our economy cannot possibly be healed in the next year.  Who, specifically, is pushing for a much longer final claim factor?  Is there any hope of getting a realistic final claim factor from the monolithic gccf?  Who is pushing for a real bp clean-up of the Gulf floor?

Former Gov. William Winter "assured lawmakers that concerns and comments about the claims process would be evaluated every four months, and changes would be made regularly as a result".  How will this really help anyone?  Most of us need relief now.  Very few will be able to play the Interim Claim game quarterly.  gccf knows this and will continue to encourage final sign-offs in every way possible.  "They also assured lawmakers any scientific reports of prolonged damage to the Gulf would extend damages and claims..."  Again, like insurance companies, they are playing actuarial tables.  Extended damages and claims would be available only to those who have not signed off for Final Claims.  Most of us who have been damaged, desperately need money now.  Most of us will sign off now, and "prolonged damage" won't cost them anything.

"Winter also said his firm would work closely with Coast legislators on their constituents' concerns and pass them along to Feinberg and bp."  Has Feinberg ever changed anything based on concerns passed along?  Could we not hope for more serious advocacy from our local law firm?  "Watkins, Ludlam, Winter & Stennis, a Jackson-based law firm recently hired by bp claims administrator Kenneth Feinberg."  Really?  Why do we continue to even address and entertain co-opted counsel?