Oil spill claims chief Kenneth Feinberg got something less than rave reviews Thursday and Friday when he met with Florida lawmakers.
Gov. Rick Scott, Attorney General Pam Bondi and members of the House Economic Affairs Committee expressed frustration with Feinberg over delays, lack of transparency and lack of local accountability in the claims process.
The perception is that the current process is broken, said Rep. Gary Aubuchon, R-Cape Coral.
Feinberg acknowledged problems with transparency and informing people of the status of their claims and reasons behind rejections or payment amounts, and pledged to send more local claims processors to cities throughout Florida within 10 days.
The appeals process for Feinbergs Gulf Coast Claims Facility, financed at $20 billion by BP, the company at fault for the oil spill last year in the Gulf of Mexico, also came under harsh criticism.
Claimants who wish to appeal a rejection or a deficient payment can now appeal to the U.S. Coast Guard, but so far no appeals have gotten a favorable response.
Feinberg wants to create an additional appeal for those claims asking for $250,000 or more, but House members said that figure takes into account many of their constituents who were impacted financially by the spill.
Im limiting it to $250,000. The reason Ive done that is, Ive already been criticized for slowing down the process, Feinberg said.
The swiftness of payments, or the lack thereof, has also tripped up Feinberg. His attempts to process claims faster has come under blistering criticism from claimants as simply a measure to force them to accept lower payments.
In December Feinberg instituted a system to process interim, final and quick payments. Quick payments are limited to $5,000 for individuals and $25,000 for businesses, and are only available to those who previously received emergency payments. But in order to get a quick payment, claimants must waive their right to seek further payments. Meanwhile, the GCCF has been slow to process interim and final payments.
Youre forcing someone to take a settlement because of time constraints, said Rep. Frank Artiles, R-Miami.
But Feinberg said the process was set up to more swiftly process payments and cut down on costly future litigation.
It is incorrect to state that I have deliberately refused to accept interim payments to use economic compulsion to use the quick payments, Feinberg said.
Feinbergs testimony also upset a group of about 30 Asian-American hoteliers, who walked out on the hearing.
Art Rocker of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference led the group in a rendition of We Shall Overcome outside the hearing, with lyrics denouncing Feinberg replacing the traditional lyrics. He cited 480 claims that Asian-American business owners along the Gulf Coast have filed, of which he said only about $100,000 in payments have been received, but stopped short of alleging outright racism in processing claims.
Im alleging the fact that he is not paying the claims. The only people (sic)that has received $850,000 a month is Feinberg. No one else receives anything, Rocker said.
Reach Gray Rohrer at grohrer@sunshinestatenews.com or at (850) 727-0859.
