[FoCHAT] CHATNews: Stifling Complaints about Road Home. Part 2

Thu Jun 10 00:07:57 CDT 2010

Road Home Program: Trying to Stifle Complaints, Part 2

CHATNews                         June 9, 2010
Dear CHAT Members,
1. Stifling Complaints about the Road Home Program. Part 2
I recently learned about another form of covering up complaints about the Road Home Program (RH).  Someone (whose identity I need to protect, as you will see) who is in charge of a non-profit organization that is helping applicants with funding to do this from the state (Louisiana Recovery Authority, LRA, or the Office of Community Development, OCD) told me the following. 
His organization gets a grant from LRA /OCD to hire staff to assist low-income RH applicants. However, a condition of this grant is that the organizational representative has to sign a contract stating that their staff will not publicly criticize RH. If they do so, their funding will be withdrawn.
Therefore, federal money overseen by the state has this string attached by the state to hush up complaints from staff of a charitable organization assisting beleaguered RH applicants. 
The inevitable conclusion is that the state knows that non-profit staff working with RH applicants in distress will have many well-grounded complaints, and that is why the state puts this silence clause in a contract releasing this money.
Fortunately, CHAT is a zero-fund organization totally independent of state largesse or any ulterior motives. We only want to see fairness for RH applicants and to expose unfair, inconsistent, rule-violating and aggrandizing (unjustified contractor-enriching) practices that we were unable to get corrected. 
2. Speaking of Contractors and Stifling Dissent about Road Home
Quadel                 was one of the main subcontractors of ICF (ICF Emergency Management Services, LLC) for the RH. 
An ICF/Quadel employee sent me a copy of the termination agreement that he was asked to sign as a condition of getting his severance pay.
The Quadel agreement (and I was told ICF severance agreements) have a hush clause.
Specifically this Quadel agreement states the following.
“Employee agrees that Employee will at no time make any disparaging remarks about or otherwise defame, impugn, or otherwise damage the reputation or integrity of Quadel or any other Releasee”
Now there is something inconsistent, not to mention unfair, here.
 If a former staffer tells his friend that Quadel had some practice that he did not agree with and Quadel finds out, this could damage Quadel’s reputation. 
The consequence would be that Quadel would take back the staffer’s severance pay but then it would be Quadel damaging its integrity by such a practice, not the staffer.

3. Webcast of Sunday Edition interview of me by Dennis Woltering on WWL TV. 
http://www.wwltv.com/video/featured-videos/Sunday-Edition-Whats-going-to-be-done-with-leftover-Road-Home-funds-95231744.html
Sunday Edition: What's going to be done with leftover Road Home funds?
by WWLTV.com    Posted on May 30, 2010 at 6:27 PM
Louisiana's Road Home goes out of business in the coming month with a huge surplus in funding. What happens to the millions of dollars that are left over? And what happens to an estimated 15,000 families who took part in the program who did not fulfill their requirement to move back into their homes?

4. Covenants
Some applicants have been writing to me about the responsibilities of the Road Home rebuilding or elevation covenants. If you want to review them and have misplaced your copy, here is the link to the copies on the web at the RH website road2la.org:
http://road2la.org/homeowner/resources.htm 
                                Scroll down for closing documents and for a faq sheet on covenant requirements.
See the April 15, 2010 version of the Road Home Policy document for information about elevation grant and rebuilding grant covenant extensions and deadline extensions. The elevation grants referred to here are the ones from Road Home HUD (not FEMA mitigation) funds that are for up to $30,000 and for which no receipts have to be saved.

5. The Senate Finance Committee has not yet considered House Bill 1175 (which passed unanimously!) to divert “surplus” Road Home funds away from needy and short-changed applicants and to the parishes for “blight reduction” or whatever. 
Even if the State Senate passes the bill that the House passed, HUD and Congressional approval would be needed too.
However, amendments can be slipped into diverse bills by members of Congress. 
Moreover, HUD too has stifled RH dissent with inconsistent practices that routinely ignore HUD CDBG rules.
The is the link to our complaint (39 pages and 88 footnotes) to the HUD Office of the Inspector General (OIG): 
http://chatushome.com/chatusfiles/HUD_OIG_Complaint_ForPublicRelease_final__2_2_09.pdf

See http://chatushome.com for a description of the outcome of this complaint 

So HUD might be glad to steer the last of the money away from redressing RH mistake that had been ratified during ICF/Quadel RH appeals and state/RH appeals conducted unfairly and by interested (as opposed to disinterested) persons without set rules.
If you would like to follow the fate of this bill go to:
www.legis.state.la.us
Scroll down and type in 1175 after HB and then click View.
If you would like to contact one or more members of the Senate Finance Committee, here is their contact information.

Finance Committee 

Committee Members

Senator Michael J. "Mike" Michot (Chairman)
P.O. Box 80372
Lafayette, LA 70598 

(337) 262-1332
lasen23 at legis.state.la.us 

Senator Lydia P. Jackson (Vice-Chairman)
330 Marshall Street
Suite 706
Shreveport, LA 71101 

(318) 676-7029
jacksonl at legis.state.la.us 

Senator John A. Alario, Jr.
1063 Muller Parkway
Westwego, LA 70094 

(504) 340-2221
alarioj at legis.state.la.us 

Senator Sharon Weston Broome
P. O. Box 52783
Baton Rouge, LA 70892 

(225) 359-9352
lasen15 at legis.state.la.us 

Senator Sherri Smith Cheek
9973 Mansfield Road
Keithville, LA 71047 

(318) 687-4820
smithcheek at legis.state.la.us 

Senator Jack Donahue
3030 East Causeway Approach
Mandeville, LA 70448 

(985) 727-7949
donahuej at legis.state.la.us 

Senator Eric LaFleur
P.O. Box 617
Ville Platte, LA 70586 

(337) 363-5019
lafleure at legis.state.la.us 

Senator Gerald Long
P.O. Box 151
Winnfield, LA 71483 

(318) 628-5799
longg at legis.state.la.us 

Senator Edwin R. Murray
1540 N. Broad St.
New Orleans, LA 70119 

(504) 945-0042
murraye at legis.state.la.us 

Senator John R. Smith
611-B South 5th Street
Leesville, LA 71446 

(800) 259-2709
smithj at legis.state.la.us 

Senator Mike Walsworth
4007 White's Ferry Rd
Suite A
West Monroe, LA 71291 

(318) 396-5499
walsworthm at legis.state.la.us 

Senator Dan Claitor (Interim Member)
7520 Perkins Road
Suite 170
Baton Rouge, LA 70808 

(225) 765-0206
claitord at legis.state.la.us 

Senator Willie L. Mount (Interim Member)
P.O. Box 3004
Lake Charles, LA 70602 

(337) 491-2016
lasen27 at legis.state.la.us 

Senator Francis Thompson (Interim Member)
P.O. Box 68
Delhi, LA 71232 

(318) 878-9408
thompsof at legis.state.la.

lasen23 at legis.state.la.us, jacksonl at legis.state.la.us, lasen27 at legis.state.la.us, murraye at legis.state.la.us, lasen15 at legis.state.la.us 

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