From mehrlich8 at yahoo.com Sun Jan 1 23:19:46 2012 From: mehrlich8 at yahoo.com (Melanie Ehrlich) Date: Sun, 1 Jan 2012 21:19:46 -0800 (PST) Subject: [FoCHAT] CHATNews For Dec. 2011: HMGP Money-Flow Secrets; Homeowner Return To NOLA Message-ID: <1325481586.70939.YahooMailNeo@web39708.mail.mud.yahoo.com> HMGP Money-Flow Secrets; Homeowner Return To NOLA?????????????????????????????????? Dec. 30, 2011 ? ?Dear CHAT Members, This letter is being sent late because we were having some problems with our electronic distribution system, which were kindly fixed by my scientist colleague Dr. Xueqing Xu. Here are three items for our end-of-the-year newsletter. 1. . Where did the federal money go for HMGP? The public has the right to know and the right to timely information. ? Among the important documents that I requested under the Louisiana public records request law were documents showing how much money was spent from Hurricane Katrina/Rita Mitigation Grant Program (HMGP) funds for Louisiana and where in the state they were spent. ? This money came automatically to the State of Louisiana automatically as a percentage (7%) of the money spent by FEMA on clean-up after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005, in accord with federal law. This funding is intended to mitigate (reduce) the damage in future disasters by better building or other measures. ? My request for these documents was made to Paul Rainwater, then head of the Office of Community Development (OCD) and the Louisiana Recovery Authority (LRA), and currently Commissioner of Administration under Gov. Jindal. ? ?My formal request for these documents was sent to him on July 1, 2008 ? Below is the text of the request about federal (FEMA) HMGP expenditures by the state government: ? Provide an explanation and documentation regarding the spending and appropriations to date of the $1.4 billion from FEMA Hazard Mitigation Funds that came to Louisiana State government as a result of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.? Include the location within the state where the money was allocated to be spent or has been spent and the projected expenses for HMGP elevation grants for Road Home applicants from these funds. ? According to the Louisiana Public Records Request law, a citizen can only request documents that are already available. ? Here is some of the background about these HMGP expenditures documents that I was requesting.? ? In the minutes of the Oct. 11, 2007 Louisiana Recovery Authority (LRA) Board Meeting: Executive Director's Report [the LRA director was then Andy Kopplin]. ? Dr. Francis [Dr. Norman Francis, who was Chairman of the LRA Board] asked if the $1.2 billion funding will cover those who have already elevated as well as those who are just starting the process. ? Mr. Kopplin replied that we would like to use FEMA funding to pay for the elevations; however, FEMA said they would only pay for those who have not started the process. We have asked that they waive this requirement. Mr. Kopplin thanked the Times Picayune for its article, which pointed out the absurdity of the policy. Dr. Francis asked if the $1.2 billion in HMGP funding is still on the table. ? ? Later on, I was s told by a Road Home official that the amount of HMGP funds increased from $1.2 billion to $1.4 billion as a result of recalculation of the cost of post-Katrina cleanup by FEMA. ? In early 2008, Mr. Rainwater, who became Executive Director of the LRA in Jan. 2008, told me during a conference between him and me in New Orleans that this money was unequivocally going to be spent only in South Louisiana. ? He said this in answer to my question as to why LRA was not spending it predominantly on Road Home applicants, as Mr. Kopplin had said it would (see above LRA minutes). ? I told him that I had heard that much of this money was going to Northern Louisiana for electric generators. ? In Northern Louisiana there was no hurricane or flooding in 2005 but Gov. Jindal, who appointed Mr. Rainwater to succeed Andy Kopplin, has his political base there. ? Therefore, I included in my request for documents about how much money was spent on the HMGP documents describing the locations in the state of Louisiana in which this HMGP money was spent. ? In addition, when I made that public records request, it was common knowledge that the HMGP fund distribution for RH applicants was going extremely slowly even though it made obvious sense for people to elevate their houses before finishing repairs or rebuilding. ? It was already 3 years after Hurricane Katrina when I made this request for public documents (summer of 2008). ? Moreover, there had to be regular, detailed accounting statements and reports from the state officials to FEMA officials on the spending of these federal funds. ? So it should have been an easy matter to let me see those documents. ? But it was not made easy for me at all.? ? Moreover, no document with this information was ever given to me in response to my request. ? ?In the process of the state dodging its responsibility to provide documents about this spending of federal funds and other documents I requested, state tax dollars were wasted, as I will describe in later newsletters. ? ? 2. Some recent news articles about the Hazard Mitigation Program ? ???????? Many Road Home grant recipients haven't rebuilt Published: Tuesday, December 27, 2011, 8:00 AM ??? Updated: Tuesday, December 27, 2011, 1:24 PM ?State has no plans to recoup the money?? subtitle of article ? http://www.nola.com/katrina/index.ssf/2011/12/many_road_home_grant_recipient.html ? By David Hammer, The Times-Picayune NOLA.com Most homeowners who got Road Home grants in 2006, 2007 and 2008 have now passed a three-year deadline to rebuild their homes, but even though many of them admit they haven't complied with the legal promises they signed, the state has no plans to take any of the federal taxpayer money back? The successful rebuilding of the remaining Road Home Option 1 properties represents the single greatest possibility to further reduce blightin New Orleans in the short term," said Jeff Hebert, the city's director of blight policy and neighborhood revitalization. "The failure of grant recipients to fulfill their obligations will significantly contribute to blight in our neighborhoods." .. 1.???? This statement reveals a lack of understanding of the pervasive underfunding of RH applicants which has prevented very many low-to-middle income applicants from rebuilding their homes who very much wanted to do so.? 2.???? For example, it is highly unlikely that the 78% decrease in occupied homeowner-owned homes in the Lower Ninth Ward (L9) from 2000 to 2010(despite much help from non-governmental sources) is mostly due to a lack of desire to return to homes that were often mortgage-free. 3.???? In comparison to L9, there was a 41% decrease in occupied homeowner-owned homes in Lakeview during the same period although those in Lakeview received far less non-governmental help from non-profits. ?http://www.gnocdc.org/NeighborhoodData/5/Lakeview/index.html http://www.gnocdc.org/NeighborhoodData/8/LowerNinthWard/index.html ? 4.???? The difference between these neighborhoods is likely due to the lower appraisal values of the L9 land decreasing grants for low-income RH applicants and fewer financial resources for the L9 occupants than those in Lakeview to compensate from inadequate and often unfairly calculated RH grants. 5.???? Our CHAT surveys and contacts from applicants of all income groups showed that low-income applicants were no less desirous of returning and rebuilding than high-income applicants but the difference in their return rate was largely due to inadequate funds for rebuilding. 6.???? The state often touts its compensatory programs for low-income applicants were devised by the state and administered in a way that missed many financially needy applicants, as CHAT and other organizations advocating for hurricane victims repeatedly advised RH officials. 7.???? In fact, CHAT had to advise low-income applicants to protest being excluded from eligibility for Additional Compensation Grants by the contractor ICF International sometimes taking one high paycheck in a year to calculate annual income instead of taking at least three paychecks, and thereby violating RH?s own rules.? ? ? ???????? Consultant indicted in home elevation case By The Associated Press http://theadvocate.com/home/1579097-125/consultant-indicted-in-home-elevation.html#.Tus9PbwHVdY.email ? December 16, 2011 A consultant to several shoring contractors has been indicted by a state grand jury in Baton Rouge in connection with the state?s troubled home elevation grant program?. ? ???????? Elevation consultant indicted on charge of paying off grant program officials Published: Thursday, December 15, 2011, 8:05 PM ? ? http://www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/2011/12/elevation_consultant_indicted.html ? ? By David Hammer, The Times-picayune ?Prosecutors from the state attorney general's office allege that from 2009 to October 2011, Davis paid thousands of dollars to Courage Idusuyi, one of the state's top managers in the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program, in exchange for private homeowner information that Davis could then sell to contractors to help them solicit house-raising work from homeowners who were assured of getting state grants of up to $100,000. The state responded by firing Idusuyi on Thursday afternoon. The indictment also charges Davis with paying three program employees who worked for Shaw Group, which has a $66 million state contract to provide staff to the program. Assistant Attorney General David Caldwell said Davis paid former program employees Michael Tucker, Tanya Kenner and Wanda Acker so they would help Davis' clients. There was also an understanding that they would in turn use some of the money to pay Idusuyi, the state's production team leader, for more of the protected homeowner information, Caldwell said. "For months, our office has been cooperating with investigators on this and other inquiries," said state spokeswoman Christina Stephens. "We take any allegation of wrongdoing very seriously and, in fact, had alerted the authorities to allegations that one of those mentioned in today's indictment, Tanya Kenner, was reportedly involved in fraudulent activities."? There will be a related discussion of privacy breeches & ICF in a subsequent newsletter ? ? ? 3. Too late but of some use in helping to protect applicants against contractor fraud. ? I would like to share with you a recent letter that I obtained from the internet. ? https://www.mitigatela.org/doc753/30%20-%20standards%20of%20conduct%20for%20contractors_rev%200_11.1.11.pdf ? This letter states applicants? rights and contractors? responsibilities under the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program (HMGP) for RH applicants. ? The above linked letter which was dated Nov. 1, 2011 is clearly in response to the recent whistle-blower lawsuits alleging state and house-contractor fraud in administration of the HMGP in Louisiana. ? ??????????? Applicants? complaints and entreaties did not suffice but a lawsuit from whistleblowers did manage to turn the state officials? gaze to contractor fraud in the HMGP. ? The letter appears to have some useful features to help applicants but is, unfortunately, years late for protecting countless numbers of RH applicants from housing-contractor fraud when applicants were trying to rebuild, renovate, or raise their hurricane/flood-damaged homes. ? In a future newsletter, I will discuss CHAT?s unsuccessful attempts early in the RH program to convince RH officials to protect applicants from contractor fraud. ? ? ? ? Best wishes for a very Happy New Year, ? Melanie Ehrlich Co-Chairman, Citizens? Road Home Action Team (CHAT) ? http://chatushome.com Email: chatlra at yahoo.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From mehrlich8 at yahoo.com Thu Jan 26 08:34:34 2012 From: mehrlich8 at yahoo.com (Melanie Ehrlich) Date: Thu, 26 Jan 2012 06:34:34 -0800 (PST) Subject: [FoCHAT] CHATNews- State Withheld HMGP $ Records: State Gives Shaw More $:Despite Shaw Contractor Certifying a Criminal As Mitigation Analyst Message-ID: <1327588474.29360.YahooMailNeo@web39701.mail.mud.yahoo.com> CHATNews- State Withheld HMGP $ Records: State Gives Shaw More $: Shaw Subcontractor GCR & Sub-subcontractor Kroll Clear Criminal As HMGP Mitigation Analyst ? ? January 26, 2012 ? Dear CHAT Members, ? ??????? First I will give the next installment of in the series about my attempts to get public documents about the funds that the State of Louisiana spent from the federal Hazard Mitigation Grant Program (HMGP) for house-elevation funds for Road Home Program (RH) applicants. ??????? The Public Records Request law mandates that such documents be given within days of the request. ??????? However, my formal request for this information from Paul Rainwater, head of the state Office of Community Development (OCD) and, therefore, in the employ of Louisiana taxpayers, went unanswered during one year of repeated requests. ? ??????? CONNECT THE DOTS from evasion by state officials about releasing documents showing how HMGP funds were spent to: ? o?? reports about the Shaw group getting a new ultra-generous new contract for HMGP work for Louisiana despite troubling past performance, ? o?? and a criminal who after ?background checks? was certified as a handler of HMGP applications ? ?? ?by a subcontractor called GCR & Associates for Shaw and a sub-subcontractor called Kroll and the Louisiana Office of Community Development (see below & next CHATNews), ? o?? and the GCR website touting its ?Election? services (next CHATNews). ? 1. Attempts from July 1, 2008 ? July 16, 2009 to Obtain Data about How Much Katrina/Rita-Based HMGP Money Was Spent by the State of Louisiana and Where ? a)????? July 1, 2008 request for HMGP spending data to Paul Rainwater, then the Custodian of Records for the RH and HMGP as well as head of OCD and the Louisiana Recovery Authority (LRA). My request was as follows: ? Provide ? documentation regarding the spending and appropriations to date of the $1.4 billion from FEMA Hazard Mitigation Funds that came to Louisiana State government as a result of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.? Include the location within the state where the money was allocated to be spent or has been spent and the projected expenses for HMGP elevation grants for Road Home applicants from these funds. ? b)????? Among multiple reminders sent to the state that these documents were not being made available to me was a list that I sent to Mr. Rainwater on April 17, 2009 detailing the requested documents that I had not received. ? c)????? Finally on May 27, 2009, I got an explicit response to this request From Alan Usry, lawyer hired by OCD to help Mr. Rainwater evade providing me and the public with documents about the RH and HMGP. He wrote the following delay-tactic statement to me in a letter. ? The request for documentation ?regarding? the spending and appropriations of FEMA Hazard Mitigation Funds is vague and ambiguous. Please clarify the scope of your request for records. ??????????? What was ambiguous about my request for how much taxpayer money was spent and where? ? d)????? So I wrote back: ? As further clarification of this request, please provide documents showing the dollar expenditures of the $1.4 billion as groups of expenditures for specified types of items or services in specified geographic locations.? ? There must be a document with a breakdown of how in 2008 and 2009 the state has used HMGP funds obtained in response to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.?? This is referenced in the minutes of the Oct. 11, 2007 LRA Board Meeting.? ? e)????? I never did get a single document about this spending and will tell about my HMGP funds request during my day with Mr. Usry and other OCD lawyers in front of a judge in a later newsletter. ? ?? In a subsequent CHATNews, I will highlight the LRA letter that I found on the web showing that I was correct about the withheld data on HMGP spending in Louisiana. ? f)?????? One issue that I was trying to elucidate with the requested documents was that State officials had made public statements in 2007 about how the $1.2 ? 1.4 billion of HMGP funding that came to Louisiana as a result of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita was to be spent on RH applicants. ? ?? However, there were reports that much of that money was being diverted to other purposes and to areas of the state not affected by those hurricanes. ? g)????? Another issue is how well the money for HMGP was being allocated by the state. ?? ?Note that when there is a contractor (like Shaw in the article below), ?? a subcontractor (like GCR mentioned below), ?? and a sub-subcontractor (like Kroll, see below), ? ??????????????????????????????????????????????????? i.???? the first and second contractor generally gets a nice cut of the government money ? ?????????????????????????????????????????????????? ii.???? even if the work was done by the third contractor ? ????????????????????????????????????????????????? iii.???? ?because the first & second contractors are supposed to be taking responsibility for the quality of the work even if it was done by the sub-sub-contractor. ? h)????? When this subcontracting is unnecessary, it is a great method to waste taxpayer money and to enrich the contractors. ? ? 2. ?Shaw GroupWhich Played Major Roles As the Contractor for RHP (a mismanaged program) and HMGP (a mismanaged program) Gets A Very Generous New Contract To Further Manage HMGP http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2012/01/shaw_group_will_helm_troubled.html Shaw Group will help manage troubled Louisiana home elevation effort Published: Monday, January 23, 2012, 9:44 PM ??? Updated: Monday, January 23, 2012, 10:59 PM By David Hammer, The Times-Picayune Despite the controversy that has surrounded the state's home-elevation grant program for the past year, the Shaw Group, the Baton Rouge company that has staffed and helped manage the program, is part of a team selected to manage it and the Road Home program going forward, the state confirmed Monday. Asked about an internal Shaw email message obtained by The Times-Picayune, state spokeswoman Christina Stephens acknowledged the award of a new contract for managing both the elevation grant program, a $750 million effort paid for by FEMA, and the Road Home, the massive home-rebuilding program that is winding down after having paid homeowners $9 billion in grants. That combined management contract will start in March and goes to the company that has been running the Road Home since 2009, Hammerman & Gainer's Lutcher-based HGI Catastrophe Services. Shaw would be a subcontractor to HGI. Other terms of the deal were unavailable late Monday. CHAT Comment: A previous CHATNews described how HGI had a profound lack of experience for its contract taking over the RH from ICF International. This inexperience showed in its management of the RH. See next CHATNews for more about HGI. Shaw was previously a key subcontractor on the Road Home program under controversial prime management contractor ICF International? For the past two years, Shaw held a $66 million contract to provide staff for the elevation program, supplementing the state's in-house staff, and it will continue to do so through October, Stephens said. .. ?In 2010, a top Shaw manager in the program, Bill Croft, was hired by the state as an independent contractor to oversee the work of his former employer. And the children of top state managers, Spring Garcia and David Knight, worked for Shaw in the program. Shaw stands to be paid 10 percent of all grant payouts in the program, a rate in line with what the state paid ICF. CHAT Comment: 10% may be ?in line with what the state paid the first RH contractor, ICF, but it is a very high rate of payment for government contractors in a program like this. Suzy Elkins, the first head of OCD after the hurricanes, told me in 2007 that 5% of the project?s cost was the norm in HUD programs. 10% is twice as much!? In his email message to Shaw's program staff Monday, David Odom, a Shaw director and deputy district manager for Shaw Environmental & Infrastructure's Gulf Central District, notes that Shaw "will be required to better align our program assignment criteria with those of the State. This includes providing the same background checks that are utilized by the State for its employees on the (elevation) project." Earlier this month, Tanya Kenner, an employee of Shaw subcontractor GCR & Associates, was cleared in a criminal background check and hired to handle elevation grant files even though she was still serving probation on a federal bank theft conviction at the time.She was named in a state indictment in December for allegedly taking bribes to help specific elevation contractors get paid. ? CHAT Comment about those background checks for GCR, which was a subcontractor for Shaw: ?Read the next article.??????????????? ? http://www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/2012/01/state_elevation_grant_program.html State elevation grant program employee who allegedly took bribes was already a crook ? Published: Wednesday, January 11, 2012, 4:50 By David Hammer, The Times-Picayune ? Tanya Kenner, 46, of Marrero?was named in the indictment of a man accused of bribing her and other program officials and remains under investigation. Kenner was hired as a Hazard Mitigation Grant Program mitigation analyst at the program's New Orleans lakefront offices in December 2009, according to program records. She worked for GCR & Associates, which provided her and other employees at its lakefront offices as a part of Shaw Group's $66 million staffing contract with the state. GCR owner Greg Rigamer said his firm hired Tennessee-based Kroll to run criminal background checks and drug screenings on all program employees and that Kenner came up clean on both. CHAT Comment: The Tennessee company Kroll praises itself at its website as follows: Kroll is extending its contributions to the public good through its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiative.? http://www.krollbackgroundscreening.com/about/corporate-social-responsibility/ But it isn't hard to find record of her bank theft conviction. She had been indicted under the same name less than three years earlier and even under the same home street address in Marrero that she provided to GCR when she was hired. According to federal court records, Kenner pleaded guilty to stealing about $326,000 from Hibernia National Bank during and after her employment as an account administrator and secretary in Hibernia's recovery and collection department and in its business banking department. She admitted directing co-workers to take money from customers' accounts and deposit it into accounts she controlled. Kroll did not respond to messages Wednesday seeking comment about its background checks. Shaw spokeswoman Gentry Brann said Shaw's contract with the state required criminal background checks on all employees and that GCR reported the results on its employees. "GCR certified to us that a criminal background record was completed on Ms. Kenner and that the background check was clear," Brann said. But when notified about Kenner's criminal record by The Times-Picayune, a state spokeswoman expressed outrage and said the responsibility falls on Shaw. "Job number one is to protect homeowners and it is absolutely absurd that this former contract employee was hired by a subcontractor to work for the program," said the spokeswoman, Christina Stephens. "All contractors and subcontractors are required to conduct background checks, and in the event that this former employee is convicted of any crime related to the program or in the event that this former employee stole any funds from the program, we absolutely will hold the Shaw Group responsible." ?Last summer, some homeowners who hired Celebrity Contractors to raise their homes said their grant files were handled by Kenner, and that Kenner and another key program employee, Michael Tucker, fought them or threatened to hold up their grant when they complained about Celebrity's shoddy work. One such homeowner, Lillian Ross, said she initially had a mitigation analyst who tried to help her in her effort to dump Celebrity. But Ross said her file was suddenly transferred to Tanya Kenner to handle and she refused to let Ross switch contractors. Ross even said Kenner pressured her to make payments to Celebrity during the dispute. Last month, a consultant for Celebrity, Ricky Davis, was indicted by the state attorney general for paying off a top state official and three program employees, including Kenner and Tucker. Davis, who was also charged with contractor fraud over the summer,?remains in jail awaiting trial on four counts of corrupt influencing? ? ? ? Best wishes, ? Melanie Ehrlich Founder, Citizens? Road Home Action Team (CHAT) http://chatushome.com? Email: chatlra at yahoo.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: