[StBernard] St. Bernard Parish's spending of BP oil spill money detailed

[Westley Annis]

>"The shirts were bought in order to identify who was operating, because

>there are so many organizations functioning in the command area," Taffaro

>said. "The shirts were bought to identify who was part of the parish

>operations."


Couldn't a simple photo ID badge on a lanyard have accomplished the same
thing?


>Parish CAO has 497 hours of overtime so far


Sorry...that's a salaried, executive position (acting CAO) and head of DHS.
Give him comp time (if anything) for the extra hours.
What was the name of that book?  Oh yes, Pigs at the Trough.

I guess this is "free"  BP money so, like the Mafia when they get a payoff,
everyone deserves a little "taste" of it.





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	St. Bernard Parish's spending of BP oil spill money detailed
	Chris Kirkham, The Times-Picayune
	
	St. Bernard Parish has paid its chief administrative officer nearly
$23,000
	in overtime costs out of a $1 million BP-funded parish account to
offset
	Gulf oil spill response costs, records show.
	
	In all, since shortly after the April 20 Deepwater Horizon oil rig
explosion
	and spill, the parish has spent more than $73,000 from its BP
account to pay
	overtime expenses for parish employees connected to the oil spill,
the
	records show.
	
	The parish has also used money from the account to buy $2,500 worth
of Nikon
	cameras, nearly $4,000 in polo shirts and T-shirts to identify
parish
	employees, and has spent more than $12,000 to pay for helicopter use
by
	Parish President Craig Taffaro and other parish officials.
	
	Parish CAO has 497 hours of overtime so far
	
	
	Financial information the parish provided in response to a public
records
	request shows that Col. David Dysart, the parish's interim chief
	administrative officer and director of homeland security, has logged
497
	hours of overtime since the beginning of the oil spill, which would
equate
	to an average workday of 14 to 15 hours, seven days a week, in the
eight
	weeks since the spill.
	
	The records show 43 parish employees have received overtime based on
oil
	spill work, ranging from Dysart's $22,702 to an employee who
received
	$22.50.
	
	Taffaro agreed that the overtime hours are high, but said, "We're
putting in
	an awful lot of hours." As parish president, Taffaro said he
ultimately
	decides who receives overtime, and how much.
	
	The two top recipients of BP-paid overtime, Dysart and parish
Recreation
	Director John Rahaim, are both salaried employees who would normally
not be
	eligible for overtime. However, Taffaro said salaried employees are
eligible
	to receive overtime during a state of emergency, but that it is paid
at the
	employees' regular pay rate, as opposed to time-and-a-half.
	
	Other expenses incurred by the parish, such as the near-daily
helicopter use
	by Taffaro and other parish officials, have been noted by some in
the parish
	who have seen Taffaro arrive via helicopter at church and at Val
Riess Park
	in Chalmette, where he threw out the first pitch at a recent Little
League
	baseball game.
	
	Taking helicopter from command center to church
	
	Taffaro noted the distance between the various events and the parish
oil
	spill command posts in explaining the helicopter use. "For the
record, it
	was a matter of having to be in two places at one time, because of
our
	command operations at Breton Sound Marina," he said, referring to
the marina
	in rural Hopedale where much of the parish's oil spill response
activities
	are based.
	
	When he arrived at church a few weeks ago in the helicopter, Taffaro
said he
	was stopping there on the way to two other meetings. It didn't make
sense to
	go from church to New Orleans, for the meeting, and then back down
to
	Hopedale, he said.
	
	"It wasn't that I left to go to church, and just out of convenience
I flew,"
	Taffaro said. "They didn't pick me up in Meraux at my house, in my
	backyard."
	
	Overall, Taffaro said the parish has been "pretty judicious" in
using BP's
	$1 million initial outlay, noting that other coastal parishes have
already
	drawn down the initial $1 million and have needed to replenish the
sum.
	
	"If all we were doing was paying salaries, and overtime, we'd
probably have
	a pretty good amount of time before we ran out of that million
dollars," he
	said.
	
	Dysart did not respond to a phone call seeking comment about the
amount of
	overtime he has logged since the beginning of the spill. His
position as
	interim CAO pays an annual salary of $80,000. Other top recipients
included
	Rahaim, who logged $8,652 and more than 300 hours of overtime; and
John
	Frank, the assistant director of finance, who received $6,210 and
logged 197
	hours.
	
	BP advances the money
	
	Unlike a natural disaster such as a hurricane, where the federal
government
	would eventually reimburse overtime and administrative costs --
often after
	negotiations -- the setup BP has with local governments is a
real-time
	payment that is processed within days or weeks.
	
	Taffaro said that any money that is advanced to the parish, for
	administrative costs or other uses related to the spill, "will
certainly be
	tracked" by BP and its lawyers. He likened the parish government
advances to
	claims being paid: As the disaster unfolds, the parish may tack on
more
	claims based on damage and expenses its incurs.
	
	"They're not 'giving' as much as they're advancing what they're
going to get
	as a claim anyway," Taffaro said. "At some point in the settlement
process,
	BP will certainly say, 'We advanced this money because this is
certainly
	part of a legitimate claim.'"
	
	
	Cameras and ink cartridges
	
	Other major costs incurred by the parish include more than $4,000
worth of
	printers, ink cartridges and toner that were described as "office
supplies
	for oil spill workers in Breton Sound." Also, the parish spent
$2,415 in BP
	money for 15 Nikon digital cameras to "verify oil intrusion during
oil
	recovery process caused by BP." And another large payment went to
buy 112
	St. Bernard Parish-emblazoned golf shirts and 600 T-shirts with
parish
	logos.
	
	"The shirts were bought in order to identify who was operating,
because
	there are so many organizations functioning in the command area,"
Taffaro
	said. "The shirts were bought to identify who was part of the parish
	operations."
	
	Even though the office equipment, cameras and shirts were purchased
with BP
	money, Taffaro said he does not expect the company to want them
back.
	
	"I guess technically BP could say, 'Give me the camera back,' or 'I
want to
	collect all those T-shirts or office shirts,' but that's not what
they're
	trying to do."