[StBernard] St. Bernard battling FEMA over overtime for sheriff's deputies after Katrina

[Westley Annis]

$3.4 million ?  Jack should have that in his back pocket shouldn't he?  ;-)



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	St. Bernard battling FEMA over overtime for sheriff's deputies after
Katrina
	By Chris Kirkham, The Times-Picayune
	January 24, 2010, 4:21AM
	
	
	A three-judge panel in Washington will hear testimony in the coming
months
	about an ongoing dispute between the federal government and the St.
Bernard
	Parish Sheriff's Office regarding $3.4 million in overtime costs
paid to
	deputies in the year after Hurricane Katrina.
	
	The Sheriff's Office has argued that the overtime expenses, from
August
	through December 2006, were necessary because of a reduced
post-Katrina
	police force and "an increasing number of arrests in St. Bernard
Parish
	which were directly related to conditions created by Hurricane
Katrina."
	
	The Federal Emergency Management Agency denied the $3.4 million in
	reimbursement in 2007, as well as two subsequent appeals by St.
Bernard
	during the past two years. The agency argued that many of the
overtime
	expenses did not qualify as "emergency costs" that could be directly
tied to
	the hurricane.
	
	The Sheriff's Office requested arbitration in October, a new court
hearing
	process that several local government agencies across the Gulf Coast
are
	using to settle conflicts with FEMA over the costs of large
hurricane
	recovery projects and other reimbursement. The case could be heard
as early
	as March, but a hearing date has not been finalized.
	
	At issue are overtime costs for a wide swath of departments in the
Sheriff's
	Office, including the detective bureau, the jail and the community
relations
	department.
	
	Sal Gutierrez, an attorney representing the Sheriff's Office, argued
in a
	letter that the department was at half staff in the year after
Hurricane
	Katrina. Detectives were often filling in to cover normal street
patrols,
	according to the letter, and the jail staff was spread thin.
	
	Gutierrez also argued that FEMA had paid more than $9 million in
overtime
	costs for those same departments from August 2005 through July 2006.
From
	August through December 2006, FEMA paid only $720,000 of $4.1
million that
	was requested.
	
	"The situation facing law enforcement in St. Bernard Parish remained
	fundamentally unchanged throughout 2006," Gutierrez wrote in
requesting the
	arbitration hearing. "It seems very arbitrary for FEMA to suddenly
deny
	reimbursement for the very same items which it found eligible"
earlier.
	
	St. Bernard Parish was almost entirely flooded by Hurricane Katrina,
which
	caused heavy wind damage and obliterated the levee system in August
2005.
	
	Gutierrez said FEMA officials had told the Sheriff's Office
beforehand that
	the costs would be eligible.
	
	In a response letter from FEMA's Office of Chief Counsel, the agency
noted
	that the Sheriff's Office had been unable to provide specific
documentation
	of the expenses for much of 2005 and 2006. In addition, the agency
said the
	federal government is not responsible for all costs related to
staffing
	changes made by the Sheriff's Office after Katrina.
	
	"Costs resulting from internal operational changes made to execute
the
	agency's day-to-day mission after a disaster should not be confused
with
	eligible costs related to work performed to protect lives and
property in
	direct response to the disaster," the FEMA letter stated.
	
	Increased patrols and measures to "generally provide safety and
public
	order" would not be justified expenses, FEMA argued, "because such
work is
	already required of the Sheriff Department and cannot be directly
attributed
	to the disaster."