[FoCHAT] CHATNews: Sen. subcomm. hearing in DC at 2:30 PM May 20; public records request legal case

Tue May 19 18:27:19 CDT 2009

 Dear FoCHAT Members,

Here is news that speaks for itself about a Senate Subcommitte hearing where I testify tomorrow and my public records request case.

Please don't forget to do the following (we have 70 emails or faxes so far and they are so eloquent and convincing!). Keep them coming. I will continue to send them to the Congressmen.

Please send an email to:

 chatlra at yahoo.com 

Insist that there be no more delays in a fair investigation of the Road Home Program by the HUD Office of the Inspector General. Our complaint was accepted for investigation but suddenly put on the back burner.

CHAT recommends you write your email like this:

Dear Sens. Landrieu, Vitter, and Lieberman and Rep. Olver, 

Use your own words to urge that the HUD OIG conduct a fair investigation of the Louisiana Road Home Program without delays. Please tell why this is important. Give a personal example if you like. 

Yours truly,

YOUR NAME AND ADDRESS 

________________________________________________________ 
 (5 min per speaker and then questions by the Senators. I have deposited 8 files of data for the Congressional website)

Ad Hoc Subcommittee on Disaster Recovery 
of the U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs 
The Role of the Community Development Block Grant Program in Disaster Recovery 
Wednesday, May 20, 2009 
2:30 p.m. 
Dirksen Senate Office Building, Room 342 
WITNESS LIST 
Panel I 

DOMINIQUE DUVOL-DIOP 
Senior Associate 
PolicyLink 

DR. MELANIE EHRLICH 
Founder 
Citizens’ Road Home Action Team 

KAREN PAUP 
Co-Director 
Texas Low Income Housing Information Services 

REILLY MORSE 
Senior Attorney 
Mississippi Center for Justice 
Panel II 

FRED TOMBAR III 
Senior Advisor to the Secretary for Disaster and Recovery Programs 
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development 

GOVERNOR HALEY BARBOUR 
Mississippi Governor 

PAUL RAINWATER 
Executive Director Louisiana Recovery Authority 

CHARLIE STONE 
Executive Director 
Office of Rural Community Affairs 

________________________________________________________

http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/metro/index.ssf?/base/news-34/1242624008109530.xml&coll=1

http://www.nola. com/news/ index.ssf/ 2009/05/watchdog _suing_lra_ for_road_ ho.html#comments

LRA is sued for its records
Watchdog seeking Road Home data 
Monday, May 18, 2009 
By David Hammer 
Staff writer 
A leading advocate for Road Home applicants is suing the Louisiana Recovery Authority for public records, some of which she requested nearly 11 months ago. 
Melanie Ehrlich, co-founder of the Citizens Road Home Action Team, or CHAT, first sought information from the state on July 1, 2008, about key Road Home policy changes. 
Ehrlich, who is scheduled to testify about continuing Road Home problems before a U.S. Senate committee in Washington on Wednesday, followed the July request with two more in October and December, seeking more information about appeals processes and applicant rights. 

Last month, she filed suit in East Baton Rouge Parish, demanding the state comply fully with her requests. But a hearing scheduled before Judge Kay Bates on April 24 was canceled, and now each side blames further delays on difficulties contacting the other's lawyers. 
The state is paying outside lawyers $175 an hour to represent LRA Executive Director Paul Rainwater in the case, agency spokesman Christina Stephens said. 
Bates could not be reached this week to explain the delays, and no further hearings have been set. 
The Road Home is a state-run, federally financed program designed to compensate Louisianans whose property was damaged by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. 
In court filings, Ehrlich cites e-mails from state officials promising to address her requests right away, but she alleges months passed with limited or no response. 
State law gives the LRA three business days to turn over documents or to give a reasonable explanation for why the request can't be fulfilled. 
Stephens said the state needed more time to address some of Ehrlich's far-reaching and occasionally vague requests, adding that since July, Ehrlich has expanded and complicated her requests.
 "Had we had to take (LRA attorney) Dan Rees off what he was working on, such as insurance settlements for Road Home applicants and this contract transition (from one program administrator to another), key functions of the program would have stopped," Stephens said. 

Rainwater has often said Gov. Bobby Jindal's administration is trying to streamline the convoluted Road Home processes it inherited from former Gov. Kathleen Blanco's administration. 

But Ehrlich's lawsuit challenges Rainwater's leadership, naming him both in his official capacity and personally. It also demands specifics about his promised reforms and written proof for policy explanations. 

In July, Ehrlich asked for all rules, communications and other written documents concerning the Road Home's new appeals process and the new state appeals panel, including a list of who sits on it. She said she received just one name, Lara Robertson, and minimal information about the timing of appeals. 

In October, she asked for several documents and received some of them. But the LRA didn't turn over written criteria for deciding state appeals cases, she said. 

The December request, which focused on documents the state is supposed to produce whenever it changes Road Home policies in the middle of the process, went completely unfulfilled, the lawsuit says. Such changes have been common, often to applicants' detriment. 

Ehrlich, a biochemist whose highly technical familiarity with the Road Home's fine print can make her lines of questioning hard to follow, has been one of the most consistent and strident critics of the program over the years. As a citizen member of the LRA's housing task force, she has been a constant thorn in Rainwater's side. 

But with the once-laggard program finally managing to pay most of its money, Ehrlich has gone from leading a choir of thousands of disaffected homeowners to being largely ignored. She remains convinced that the state is trying to low-ball applicants. 

Her watchdog efforts were on display when she got Rainwater in February to agree to offer certain applicants a new chance to appeal if they had not done so in 30 days because they were stuck in a discarded process known as "dispute resolution." 

As promised, the LRA posted this on its Web site: "For many months we have heard of people who . . . were never able to exercise their right to appeal because their case was stuck in the 'resolutions' process, which ended earlier this year." 

The post promised further review of such cases. But the state was overrun with telephone calls and e-mails, and Ehrlich's initial victory came to naught. 

Ehrlich produced an e-mail from the LRA's Ty Larkins that seemed to revise history: "Unfortunately, there are no exceptions to the 30-day rule, as Mr. Rainwater did not say he was opening appeals to applicants who have gone pass (sic) the deadline. His comments were directed at serving persons who were in appeals who 'fell through the cracks' and therefore, never had their matters resolved." 

. . . . . . .

David Hammer can be reached at dhammer at timespicayune.com or 504.826.3322.

______________________________________

Thank you for your support,

Melanie Ehrlich
Founder, Citizens' Road Home Action Team (CHAT)
http://chatushome.com

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