Gulf Coast Residents are NOT the Problem. So What is?

( – promoted by buhdydharma )

Even though many of us have Disaster Fatigue, for scores of hundreds of local Gulf Residents, this BP Crisis is very much their recurring daily Nightmare.

BP Oil Spill Compensation Fund Not Living Up to Promise

NewsInferno.com, News that matters! — Sep 10, 2010

In an interview with USA Today, Feinberg promised a better response times as his staff weeds through old claims. “I’ve inherited a huge number of claims that have never been processed that need to be processed, especially business claims,” he said. Such claims, he said, were placed on a “side track” by BP when it was handling the process.

According to USA Today, more than 46,000 people have filed claims since Feinberg took charge. By September 8, his staff had paid 10,252 claims for nearly $80 million. Most claims paid are small, with payouts of $5,000 or less, USA Today said.

So Ken Feinberg has inherited an extensive paper trail of bureaucratic procrastination;

While the Gulf Coast Residents, simply keep reaping the BP whirlwind …

The Gulf Coast Residents are NOT the Problem. So What is?

Perhaps, it’s their unrealistic expectations, for BP to keep its word.

[Continuing from the previous report …]

But it appears reality is falling short of that promise [to process claims faster than BP was handling claims]. One restaurant owner whose business lost $45,000 this summer, and only got $15,000 when BP was taking care of claims, told NPR that the process is still bogged down. The diner filed for $120,000 to stay afloat through January, but has only received $4,500 since the August takeover.

The new claims process does not allow appeals for the emergency payment, so the diner’s options are limited.

“We can file the final claim, give up all right to sue,” the business owner said. “Or we can retain an attorney. Or we can file bankruptcy and walk away from it all.”

The Gulf Coast Residents are NOT the Problem. So What is?

Perhaps it’s all the paper work, in triplicate …

Feinberg Releases Emergency Guidelines for BP Claims

by Lauren Styler, wkrg.com — August 20, 2010

Feinberg has said the goal for the new fund will be to get emergency six-month payment checks out the door, within 24 hours for individuals and no more than seven days for businesses.

Emergency Advance Payment applications may be submitted during the period August 23 – November 23, 2010. After that date, applications for Final Claims, and in some circumstances applications for interim claims, will continue to be accepted. Protocols for the Final Claims will be issued in the near future.

All current individual and business claims have been transferred from BP to the GCCF (Gulf Coast Claims Facility). Claims previously filed with the BP Claims Process have been transitioned to the new GCCF Claims Facility for review, evaluation and determination; however claimants will be required to file new forms with the GCCF to receive payments.

Gulf Coast Claims Facility — Protocol for Emergency Advance Payments (pdf)

as of August 23, 2010

Take a number.  Get in line.  Hope.  Wish.  Pray.

Don’t forget your Documentation!

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The Gulf Coast Residents are NOT the Problem. So What is?

Perhaps it’s they weren’t lucky enough, to “take a direct hit” from all that “dispersed” Oil …

The Gulf Oil-Fund Czar’s Biggest Challenge

Who qualifies for BP money? Ken Feinberg, America’s top mediator, enters another minefield.

By Kate Sheppard, MotherJones.com — Sep 9 2010

Feinberg counters that the facility has 200 people working around the clock in shifts, 24-7, just “to get rid of the backlog that just came in on day one.”

While the center paid out nearly $40 million in the first two weeks, there are still stories like the one about a shrimper who received a check for $300 that was supposed to last her six months.

Some hotel and restaurant owners in Florida fear that applications that have been pending for weeks now will be rejected, since the oil never reached their shores. Feinberg has said that proximity to the spill will be a key factor in determining who should be compensated, even though Florida businesses insist fear of oil has kept tourists at bay.

[…]

Those people [shrimpers and fishermen who work on a cash basis] will need to find some other way to make their case. “Will your ship captain vouch that you were paid so much per month? Will your priest sign a letter that says he knows you were paid so much?” Feinberg asks claimants. “I’ll bend over backwards to help the individual wage earners in the Gulf who are threatened by the spill; their livelihood was threatened, but I must have something — and everybody understands that.”

[…]

After his 9/11 work was complete, Feinberg cautioned the government against putting so much responsibility on the shoulders of a single mediator. “Don’t ask one person to act like Solomon and try to calculate the value of lives,” he told the Washingtonian in 2008.”To be judge, jury, accountant, lawyer, rabbi, etcetera, is very, very difficult.”

Restoring Peoples lives IS Hard Work;

It’s not nearly as easy, as it was to wreck those lives, now is it?

King Solomon had a tough job too, or so the story goes …

Judgment of Solomon

From Wikipedia

The expressions “splitting the baby” or “cutting the baby in half” are sometimes used in the legal profession for a form of simple compromise solutions which “split the difference” in terms of damage awards or other remedies (e.g. a judge dividing fault between the two parties in a comparative negligence case).[2][3]

[…] “splitting the baby” properly refers to a split that cannot be made because it is difficult, impractical, or futile.

Restoring Peoples lives IS Hard Work;  some might say even “impractical, or futile.”

“Splinting the difference”, between what they once had, and what they are now facing — hardly seems “just” now does it?

Especially when you consider the collateral damage, waiting to be detected …

The Gulf Coast Residents are NOT the Problem. So What is?

Perhaps it’s the scourge of “Fraud” that taints everything, in this modern day world?

Oil claims center finds BP’s records lacking

By Donna Leinwand, USA TODAY  Sep 11, 2010

Feinberg says claims will be considered case by case. Property “need not be touching the water. We will go inland,” he says. “Proximity is only one variable of three.”

For independent shrimpers, oystermen and others without paystubs or tax receipts, Feinberg says he’ll take letters from clergy or local officials attesting to an individual’s employment.

“I’ll accept individual claims with minimal proof, but there’s got to be some proof,” he says. “I can’t accept fraudulent claims.”

BP is transferring documents it does have “in bits and pieces,” he says. “They had a very decentralized system. When they find something, they send it over.“

The Gulf Coast Residents are NOT the Problem. So What is?

Perhaps, Paymaster Feinberg is looking for all that “Fraud” —

at the “Wrong end of the Food Chain”, eh?

Of course, that would take “splitting the difference” to a whole other level —

Who in the Kingdom of Humans, could actually prove, THAT BP has Defrauded us ???

Maybe the good folks of the Gulf Coast, could actually serve as “eye witnesses”, if such a legal case is ever brought?

Of course, that’s assuming we actually live in a just, and equitable world, doesn’t it …

Or so the story goes …