BAY ST. LOUIS, Miss. – Ostensible allies in the effort to remove the still-huge piles of debris left behind by Hurricane Katrina are engaged in an increasingly bitter conflict over the progress of the cleanup and the way it is being run.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and its politically connected prime contractor AshBritt, which is overseeing the federal cleanup in most of Mississippi and parts of Louisiana, are in the middle of the fracas. In the wake of the Aug. 29 hurricane – the most destructive in U.S. history -- they have been fending off angry attacks as varied as the wreckage itself – a thick blanket of toppled trees, boards, bricks, shards of glass, wire, clothing and household items that still covers large parts of hard-hit communities along the Gulf Coast.
Maddest are local governments and citizens chafing over what they consider the lackluster pace of debris removal; critics of the process by which the federal contract expected to ultimately be worth $1 billion was awarded; and subcontractors who say their crews and equipment are standing idle even though they were promised abundant work.
Such criticism can be heard in virtually every coastal community between Alabama and Texas, but nowhere is it louder than in Bay St. Louis and Waveland, neighboring towns in Hancock County, Miss., that sustained some of the heaviest damage when Katrina’s 30-plus-foot storm surge crashed ashore.
One of the most outspoken critics is Waveland Mayor Tommy Longo, who charges that a combination of federal bureaucracy and private-sector dithering has substantially set back his city’s recovery.
“With the military, a lieutenant on the ground can make a decision,” he told MSNBC.com. “With FEMA and the Corps, the lieutenant has to run it up the chain of command and wait for someone else to decide what to do.”
'I don't think they're capable of doing the job'
He expresses equal disdain for AshBritt, noting that the Pompano Beach, Fla., environmental services firm is still bringing new subcontractors to Hancock County five months after the storm.
“A contractor like that should be able to get geared up in 30 days,” he said. “If they can’t get geared up in 90 days, I don’t think they’re capable of doing the job.”
The Corps and AshBritt also have been taking it on the chin from subcontractors alleging everything from incompetence in administering the contract to favoritism in handing out the cleanup assignments.
“I would just like to know how many contractors from Mississippi and from other states have gone home bankrupt because the Corps has jerked them around so much,” said Luke Theis, a contractor from Finley, Ohio, who rushed heavy equipment to the Gulf Coast only to see it stand idle for long periods waiting for it to be “placarded” – tagged with tracking numbers – and assigned to specific job sites.
Many locals say they haven’t fared much better.
Debbie Woodcock, a Hancock County landscaping contractor who lost $100,000 in heavy equipment to Katrina and then used her $30,000 insurance settlement to lease a tractor-hoe, a front-end loader and two trucks with 60-cubic-yard dump trailers, said AshBritt has given plum assignments in the most easily accessible debris fields to favored out-of-state contractors while her crew has been underutilized clearing rural roads.
“I do not fault (AshBritt) for bringing them in,” she said of the out-of-state competition. “There’s no way we could have handled this in the beginning ... but now we deserve a chance to make a living and keep the money in-house.”
Click 'Play' to see and hear Debbie Woodcock describe her experience as a subcontractor for AshBritt
Another local subcontractor, who spoke with MSNBC.com on the condition of anonymity because he said he feared retribution, said he was receiving good jobs from AshBritt, but was being hampered by “utterly incompetent” execution by the Corps.
“Our crews move around constantly .. .but often when they get to a new site, the supervisor doesn’t show up. So we end up sitting around, burning money,” he said.
Corps, contractor cite scope of job
Officials with the Corps and AshBritt say they understand the frustration, given that they and their grumbling partners are faced with the biggest disaster cleanup in U.S. history.
In Hancock County alone, the Corps and its contractors already have collected more than 3 million cubic yards of debris from public right of ways. That is less than half the estimated total of 7 million cubic yards of debris in the county, and reflects the fact that work is just beginning work on several vast debris fields – including a 2.5 acre wetland at Bayou La Croix estimated to contain 35,000 cubic yards of debris -- and its program to remove Katrina’s detritus from private properties is just hitting stride.
And Hancock County’s mounds account for a small slice of the total of 100 million cubic yards the Corps estimates was strewn around the Gulf Coast.
“I don’t know that anybody could have been prepared to respond to a storm of this magnitude,” said Jasper Lummus, the Corps’ mission manager for debris in Hancock County.
Lummus said the record number of hurricanes this season and foreign conflicts that taxed the Corps’ resources -- especially its ability to adequate numbers of on-site quality assurance inspectors -- added to the difficulties.
“We had to compete with Texas, Louisiana and Florida, not to mention Iraq and Afghanistan,” he said.<
AshBritt President Randal Perkins denies the company is being unfair in doling out assignments, adding that some out-of-state contractors have been given the biggest jobs because they have resources that the locals lack.
Complaints about fairness called inevitable
He also told MSNBC.com that such complaints are inevitable in such a chaotic situation.
“Seventy-two percent of every dollar we’ve spent has gone to Mississippi contractors,” he said. “… But you can’t make everyone happy. There’s always going to be somebody critical of what you’re doing.”
He also said the massive effort is making good headway and predicted the cleanup will be “significantly completed by the end of April (or) mid-May.”
In Hancock County, criticism of the pace of the cleanup has been fueled by data regarding the execution of Rights of Entry – the removal of debris on private property.
As of Jan. 26, the Corps had received 8,594 ROE forms from the county, but AshBritt’s subcontractors had completed debris removal on 1,073 properties – or 12 percent of the total -- over a seven-week period, according to figures provided by the county’s Emergency Operations Center.
In just four weeks, Beck Disaster and Recovery Services, a private contractor hired by the city of Waveland to clean debris north of the railroad tracks, completed 75 percent of the 705 ROE requests it has received from residents, according to data the firm provided to the city.
“Those numbers should be flip-flopped,” said Longo, Waveland’s frustrated mayor. “With the resources of the Corps and AshBritt, the numbers should be the opposite of what they are.”
AshBritt’s Perkins rejected the comparison, noting that the city’s southern sector sustained much heavier damage than the area north of the railroad tracks.
“The mayor’s entitled to his opinion,” he said. “But the cleanup now is relegated to private property and includes … demolishing houses. There’s a process involved and it’s far more time consuming than picking up wreckage on right of ways.”
But Waveland’s mayor isn’t the only one questioning the efficiency of the Corps-AshBritt effort.
Aldermen in Pass Christian, Miss., in neighboring Harrison County, voted in January to give the Corps and AshBritt two weeks to address complaints that work is progressing at a snail’s pace and that AshBritt isn’t hiring local subcontractors. The remainder of Harrison County and at least three other communities in Mississippi also have hired private contractors rather than go with the Corps and AshBritt.
That indicates a substantial level of distrust, since local governments must pay 10 percent of the total cost to outside contractors if they decide to shun the federal program, then seek federal reimbursement later.
Communities negotiate better deals
One reason for the break-away is that those communities have been able to negotiate cheaper deals than the rate called for in the debris cleanup contract the Corps awarded to AshBritt after an expedited open-bid process that lasted just three days, instead of the usual month or more.
The exact savings are hard to pin down, but Longo said that a Corps official told local officials at a meeting in October that AshBritt was being paid about $6 a cubic yard more than the $16.95 that Waveland is paying its prime contractor to remove and dump debris.
Alicia Embrey, a Corps spokeswoman, would not confirm that, saying only that AshBritt receives $17 per cubic yard hauled as well as “additional line items in the contract.”
“The prices paid per item are proprietary information (under the terms of the contract) and are not releasable,” she said.
But a line-item sheet for ROEs distributed by AshBritt to its subcontractors, a copy of which was provided to MSNBC.com, makes clear just how lucrative those extras can be. Among the prices paid to the subcontractors:
· $79 for each “hanger” – a limb 2 inches in diameter or larger removed because it poses a safety hazard.
· Payments of between $100 and $700 for “leaners” – dead or damaged trees angled more than 30 degrees.
· Up to $395 for the removal of stumps, with additional payments if dirt is brought in to fill the hole.
Such add-ons can add up, as one ROE job site that the Corps showed MSNBC.com demonstrated.
At the lot on Waveland’s Sandy Street, a subcontractor, Billy Joe’s Excavating from Owensboro, Ky., was in the process of removing what the Corps quality assurance specialist Dennis Murchison estimated “upwards of 400 cubic yards of debris” and 25 damaged trees from a lot on Waveland’s Sandy Street.
At the rate of $9 per cubic yard that AshBritt is paying subcontractors, that works out to an overall price of at least $11,100 for a three-day job, assuming the median rate for the trees. At a rate of $17 per cubic yard, and assuming the same rate for trees, AshBritt and other contractors higher up on the construction food chain would split another $10,700.
Firm connected to GOP, hired former Corps official
AshBritt's political connections and use of lobbyists led to some raised eyebrows when the company received the Katrina contract – worth an initial $500 million and another $500 million if the Corps triggers an option, which Perkins said he expects will occur in late February.
The Corps said at the time that AshBritt, and three other companies awarded cleanup contracts on an expedited basis, were selected from 22 bidders based on “past performance, technical capability, ability to provide sub-contracting goals for small and disadvantaged businesses, ability to respond, and price.”
But the company’s political connections have prompted congressional investigators to look into the contract and payments to its subcontractors, the New York Times reported in September.
Among the links presumably being scrutinized are the company’s $40,000 contract with the former lobbying firm of Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, a Republican stalwart who was Ronald Reagan’s White House political director and a former chairman of the Republican National Committee.
The Hill newspaper also has reported that AshBritt also hired the former head of the Corps, Mike Thompson, as its lobbyist shortly before it won the contract.
In addition, campaign records compiled by the nonpartisan group Political Money Line and reported by the Associated Press show Perkins, AshBritt’s president, and his wife, Saily, have given $50,000 to the Republican National Committee, $10,000 to the Florida Senate campaign of Mel Martinez, former secretary of housing and urban development in the Bush administration, and thousands more to the Florida GOP since 2000.
Also attracting attention was the insertion in the contract of language preventing the Corps from releasing information that AshBritt identifies as “proprietary,” such as the line-item payments.
Alex Knott, political editor for the Center for Public Integrity, said such that such language could be used to dodge public accountability.
“A lot of times companies don’t want to give out details of how they do business ... arguing that giving out this information would put them at a competitive disadvantage,” he said. “But it’s difficult to know whether that’s a legitimate concern without seeing the information that they’re withholding.”
AshBritt’s Perkins said his company won the contract on the merits of its bid and played down the importance of the non-disclosure clause, describing it as standard legal language.
“We’re not really worried about it getting in the hands of the competitors,” he said. “It will eventually become public.”
Conspiracy theories abound
The secrecy surrounding contract specifics has helped fuel conspiracy theories among those trying to make a living on the spoils of destruction.
Several Hancock County contractors interviewed by MSNBC.com, all of who spoke on condition of anonymity, said they have been quietly been told by AshBritt representatives to take their loads to a specific debris dump in the county.
“If you don’t, you don’t get any work the next time,” said one.
Others speculate that the company is handing out the best cleanup assignments to companies in which AshBritt has an investment, allowing it to “double dip” in the federal financial trough.
Perkins acknowledged that his company has “ownership interests in several companies around the United States that are involved in disaster related services,” but denied allegations of favoritism.
“We have no ownership stake in any dumps in Hancock County … (and) we don’t have any interest that would be considered in conflict with our contract,” he said.
Many Hancock County subcontractors interviewed in preparing this article also charged that AshBritt and the Corps have zero tolerance for complainers.
“I’m working with these people,” said one local subcontractor. “Maybe in a few months I can talk about my issues.”
One local offered up an example to back up the charge: Gerald Charles, owner of a Bay St. Louis construction company with heavy equipment at the ready.
Charles, he said, antagonized AshBritt and the Corps by complaining at a Board of Supervisors meeting that he had been given no cleanup work despite an assurance from company officials that he would be among the first hired.
“Gerald pushed too hard and made a lot of people mad,” the contractor said.
Charles, interviewed outside the FEMA trailer he is sharing with his family, said the only work he has been able to land since Katrina was a grading job from the county, and has received not a single job from AshBritt despite many visits to the firm’s local office.
He reiterated the complaint he made at the supervisors meeting, saying the shutout was doubly painful since he is effectively being prevented from working for neighbors who would have hired him if they weren’t waiting for Corps contractors to come in and clean their lots for free.
“I told them, ‘Look, not only didn’t you allow me to work, you took work away from me,’” he said.
A beacon of hope in Waveland
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I'm sure every administration since this country was born has played favorites when it comes to contracts with the government. What brings more attention to the Bush administration in awarding contracts is it seems the companies getting the business this time around seem to be more concerned about getting the jobs (and the money) and less concerned about doing the jobs and hence, helping people.
Rob Gilliam, Katy, Texas (Sent Jan 30, 2006 3:51:03 PM)
Why don't you get off your lazy b-hinds and help clean up the mess instead of constantly complaining!! Now it is time for all to work, like it or not!!!! I'm tired of shelling out thousands yearly just so you can sit back and bad mouth the government, city and state officials! GET OVER YOURSELVES!!!!!!!!! REMEMBER.... God help's those that help themselves!!
TGP (Sent Jan 30, 2006 4:21:39 PM)
PLAIN AND SIMPLE..BUSH AND THE REPUBLICAN CONGRESS PUT CRONIES IN THESE POSITIONS AND THEY ARE TO BLAME!!!look at the cronies who are over the timber and mining industries...and now they want to investigate mining accidents. Give me a brake. We have the worst government in American History. They will have silly hearing on steriods in baseball but NOT ONE HEARING ON THE AFFECT OF GLOBAL WARMING and what needs to be done to correct the already 1 percent rise of the earths temperature..Oh thats right , I forgot. Bush is too busy spying on Americans and ofcourse Fear Mungering to stay in office..Never mind!!
Brett, Dallas Texas (Sent Jan 30, 2006 4:33:27 PM)
Wow, this is yet another example of the GOP corruption. You know, the strange thing is, I hear people in the US complaining that we should not be spending so much money to clean up Katrina and Rita. After all, they chose to live in that region. So, how about this, why are we paying to clean up Iraq, not our own people. We can't even have enough deceny to take care of our own, yet those who complain are the same ones who support the Iraq war, claiming we cannot leave.
Michelle, Portland, OR (Sent Jan 30, 2006 4:33:49 PM)
To Victoria Erickson and RA Platt: I know it gets quite exhausting listening to these people "complain" but from someone who grew up in Bay Saint Louis and has been back four times since the storm - it is a miserable situation. Please, please take me up on this...I will pay your flight to Mississippi - don't pack any clothes - we can stop at any one of the many mounds of donated clothes that have been soaked by rain and covered in dust and who knows what else - then we can eat all of our meals at the "food tent" after cleaning all day or waiting in a line somewhere or maybe we can go sit with my cousin and his wife, four small children and three dogs in their FEMA trailor. You want people to pick themselves up by the boot straps?? Most everyone there, including all of my family lost everything - including those boot straps. If you are tired of it - stop reading about it. I will pray that you never encounter anything as devastating. Email me if you want that free vacation to BSL...
Hayden Larroux, Washington, DC (Sent Jan 30, 2006 4:37:17 PM)
Clean up your own yards! Get on with your life! Please, you have no idea of the amount of destruction and debris in this area. I just drove down the recently opened Highway 90 from Pass Christian to Gulfport and still five months after the storm, it looks like it happened just yesterday. I'm afraid that when your house is leaning at a 45 degree angle and your 200 year old oak trees are uprooted it is not a task that a home-owner can get out and just do themselves. If you haven't witnessed in person what has happened to the Gulf Coast, then your comments have no merrit. Direct your attention elsewhere.
Lisa D., Gulfport, Mississippi (Sent Jan 30, 2006 4:40:20 PM)
It's a terrible thing, a hurricane. But a more terrible thing is for people affected by it to continually whine. While the majority of the whining is done by New Orleans and its do nothing leadership, it's about time people take it upon themselves and get with it. The gov't is only supposed to protect you, not cover every aspect of your life, (unless you're a Democrat). So give the rest of us a break from your complaining and start getting busy cleaning up!
C. Warren, Laurinburg, NC (Sent Jan 30, 2006 4:44:36 PM)
As far as the ROE's, shouldn't we start with homeowners that need debris cleared from their property so they can start to rebuild? Instead we are clearing the side of the road and removing trees. Why are there so many workers sitting in their cars? Why do they just get the "big stuff" and leave? Why don't they deal with the whole street at one time so they don't have to keep coming back tearing up what's left of our roads(not to mention the cost of the crews loading and unloading)? Why don't they hire more workers? Just wondering.
Kelyn, Bay St. Louis, MS (Sent Jan 30, 2006 4:46:53 PM)
Being from the South I am infuriated and imbarassed and the assumption that when something tragic happens the government of these Great United States is totally held responsible for the failings of locals. These locals expect too much in a world where children are hungry, AIDS is rampant, tsunamis and earthquakes are killing hundreds of thousands.
Stand up, pull up your boot straps, and dig in. Have honor and dignity!!!
Christy Orosco Reno, NV (Sent Jan 30, 2006 4:51:18 PM)
I know several people that went to South Louisiana to get a piece of the action. Hoping to help with the clean up and get paid while doing so. This in turn would help New Orleans and some of the contractors - because of the slow economy, they could use a financial boost. But no, no one wants to share the wealth any more. It is controlled by the rich and distributed by the rich. Sounds like a republican to me.
The bad thing is, the top dogs do their stealing right in front of your face, eveyone just sits back and complains. What happen to the morals and standards this Country was founded on. I guess it offened someone!!!
I was always taught to help people less fortunate than yourself, (if you have the means) and God will bless you for it.
And if they are a Christian they will do this!
Several people have told us, they went down to the disaster areas, and did the work, but had to come back broke, because no one would pay them. This put alot of people further in debit. Not to say - What happend with the Trust issue!
Smith, Natchitoches, Louisana (Sent Jan 30, 2006 5:08:17 PM)
For another view of the waste, check out what is happening with the survivors that were relocated to Oklahoma.
http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread167902/pg1
Larry Denman, Tulsa, OK (Sent Jan 30, 2006 5:09:49 PM)
I know first hand and have seen some of the favortism that this article speaks of. Before Katrina, there was Ivan and Dennis. Both of which destroyed my part of the country.
It's too bad that most of the money the goverment is throwing at this problem will not stay in the area that needs it. Randall Perkins is rich and getting richer by the truckload. Both Harrison and Hancock counties would be doing themselves a favor if they could get rid of Ashbritt and Beck.
Independent contractors, locals, who want to work and want to help are being stiffled by the "Big Guy's" ability to capitalize on and withstand the beauracratic paper shuffle.
Randall Perkins, you're rich enough, retire.
Pensacola, Fl. (Sent Jan 30, 2006 5:15:24 PM)
Thank God someone is actually talking about the mess that is going on down in the gulf coast. I work in the debris removal business from both the contracting and consultant side. What is happening with Ashbritt is unexcusable. They say they are hiring locals. This just isn't true. Ask them about the W912EE-06-R-0005 contract that the corp is about to award. Ashbritt protested and actually got the bid closing moved from 1/18 to 1/31 because of a preference given to Mississippi contractors. Ask Randy about him denying a good contractor simply because he had a past relationships to his sisters ex husband. If someone wanted I can give easily over 25 names and numbers of contractors that were either not paid, or promised something before they left only to have the terms changed when they arrived on site. Explain why the guys actually doing the work (third tier subs) are getting less than half of the money that the government is actually expending. I know because I negotiated the contracts! Someone please ask Randy about the accuracy and eligibility of the small business development loans that he and Sally took out in the 80's. I've worked in this business for 15 years and I have never seen anything this bad. Randy, along with Byrd Brothers, is getting rich while the local people suffer. I know one contractor that made $1,000,000 in 20 days last year and it was all from the number of sub contractors he had signed up underneath them, Not because of the amount of equipment that they had. Isn't it time that we started to do something to make sure our money is being spent appropriately?
John Doe, Winterhaven, FL (Sent Jan 30, 2006 5:21:30 PM)
My husbnd driving one of those debris removal trucks in the gulf coast region right now. And I don't know where the free meals are? But I can assure you that we are not making a the big bucks people say they are. And many of the contractors are paying their crews out of pocket with no real assurance of when their money is coming. I have also watched as people drove around flagmen and cussed at crews for being on their roads.When I first arrived in the area my first reaction was to cry because i thought all of these poor people both the wealthy and poor they have lost everything. My reaction now is there are some nice people there, but for the most part they are people who are rude and are just like the contractors and workers they complain about out for themselves and what they can get for nothing from the government. It seems to be becoming the American way.
Brenda (Sent Jan 30, 2006 5:25:34 PM)
Looks like more business-as-usual for Bush and his GOP team...if there's a way for him to reward the giant corporations that put him in office, he'll find it, and then when Americans figure out what's going on, he'll appear on TV with his "why is everybody picking on me?" expression and act genuinely confused as to why anyone would question his honesty and ability to lead in a time of crisis. I can just imagine him, Rove, and Cheney yukking it up back at the White House at how easy it is for them to do whatever they want and not have to worry about accountability.
Steve, Inkster, Mich. (Sent Jan 30, 2006 8:20:01 PM)
Okay, I read the article as well as a dozen or so comments. The theme is greed and this is correct. Politics and greed are causing extreme grief to residents of this county. I know, first hand. I own a small company and we have been working in Waveland for three weeks. First, let me explain something. Ashbritt according to the article is paid 17.00 per cubic yard, plus the tree incentives. Want to know what the ground crews, the ones actually doing the work are making? $6.00 a yard and approximately 60% of the tree incentives as described in the article. Why? Ashbritt is lazy. The passed work on to subcontractors, who then took a couple bucks off the top, then passed it on to subcontractors who took a couple bucks off the top and then based it on...well you get the idea. We are currently a 5th tier contractor doing all the ground work while 4 contractors above us make money on our work. We have three large trucks, a large exavator, a bobcat, 6 man crew, liability insurance, work comp insurance, fuel expense and to top it off, while Corp employess and volunteers are provided food and lodging, we have to fend for ourselves. Six men living in a 30 foot trailer with no electricity or potable water. We average 400 cubic yards a day. You do the math. The work is not being done because ground crews cannot earn the "fat payday" one commentator posted. Folks, yes, we are here to earn a living, but we also are deeply concerned about the well being of these people. The live in tents and fema trailers. They have lost everything. Many are poor and now poorer. Most did not carry flood insurance. The community has limited commercial outlets. I will never eat a Wendy's burger again when I get home. Wallmart has turned into a Cosco and its the only grocery store in the county. You can see the despair in the peoples faces. At this point, we are loosing money. A truck breaks down, $3,000 grand, a rainy day, no work is done, a QC doesn't show up, no work for the day. Please don't blame the ground crew contractors for this messs and yes it is a mess. FEMA needs to pay appropriate wages and the work will get done. As long as the compensation remains the way it is, scab crews will be cleaning up this mess, and believe me, the work is less than poor. Like I said, been there three weeks, we have yet to be paid. Nearly 20k in the whole at this point because our employess need a paycheck, fuel needs to be bought daily, maintenance on the CAT and trucks is required and of course our insurance carriers are not waiting until we get paid. You can blame the government all you want, I am with you 100%. this is the most unorganized storm I have ever worked. The problem lies with Ashbritt's greed and the inability of a leader, somewhere in our government to rectify the problem. Our hearts go out to you folks in Waveland and all the homes and properties we have cleaned were met with high praise and gratitude from the homeowners. Kudos to you folks for staying the course in the face of adversity, our hats go off to you. We are here to help regardless of our bottom line. You can count on us.
Joseph, melbourne florida (Sent Jan 30, 2006 9:23:52 PM)
After working hurricaine cleanup last year in central florida with my trucks I would only do it again if it was the last job to be had. The truckers were paid 2.50 per cu yard hauled. no reimbersment for damages to equipment (tires, holes in beds,broken sideboards,etc.) forced to clean up the same areas three to four times. All the time while 4 to 5 people try to decide how full your truck is. WAKE UP AMERICA. There are contracters who can repair damaged bridges with speed and quality (IE I 40 Webbers Falls,OK and I 10 Pensacola, Fl) faster than your cleanup contractors. FEMA is only breakneck speed at renting hotel rooms and rental cars for way to many inexpirenced people to vacation rather than work.
Dave, Winter Haver, Florida (Sent Jan 31, 2006 8:49:23 AM)
LET THE PEOPLE THAT LIVE THERE HAVE THE WORK, SOMETIMES YOU GOT TO TAKE THE PENCIL PUSHERS OUT OF THE PICTURE, AND LET THE REAL WORKING PEOPLE OF THE REGION FIX THE PROBLEM. IF IT HAD BEEN HANDLED PROPERLY AN EXISTING COMPANY WOULD BE HANDLING IT AND NOT SOME DUDE THAT THINKS HE MIGHT BE SICK BECAUSE HE'S BREAKING SWEET.LIKE THE OLD SAYING MORE MONEY STOLEN FROM GUYS IN SUITS AND TIES THAN ANY ONE CARRYING A GUN. THIS PROVES IT AGAIN.
RICK STEWART (Sent Jan 31, 2006 9:26:37 AM)
It seems that in times like this,huricane Katrina, the Devil comes out to gather his flock. I don't understand why in such devastation there has to be so much mud slinging. God put us here to love and help one another. We have 2 choices, do his work or do the devils. The blame must go somewhere. Not only does it belong to the Federal Govt. but to the State and Local Govts. as well. The majority of the American people put Bush in office, not once but twice. We have no one but our selves to blame for a lot of what goes on.
When I read the comments by the lady whose husband is driving a debris removal truck I was taken aback. Being treated shabbily by the people you are are trying to help must be a big bite to swallow. I doubt that I would work very hard to help someone that couldn't show some appreciation.
Cherry Ky. (Sent Jan 31, 2006 9:54:33 AM)
I know its going to sound a bit corny, but if you read the paragraph below.... I think its about time we do what it says and "abolish" this government. It's become "destructive", and I want a "new government for my future security."
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,–That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security."
Andrea, MA (Sent Jan 31, 2006 11:00:09 AM)
i am just so sick of all the big dogs getting all the money for goodness sakes ashbritt, leave the job for the locals quit getting in big matches over money when you have enough of it already!!!! there are locals out there who want to work but you keep budding your noses in so they cant work and as for paying the third tier subs $6/cy come on they do all the work while you are out golfing or playing it up in vegas why not settle for less??? this is going to go on for ages if they dont step down and let us locals in for once. i am with all the lower end subs who work and work but dont reap the benefits. i applause msnbc for following up on this what i believe needs to be done is a followup on what ashbritt has done in the past and all the bribes they give out just so they can get a contract!!!!!
laurel gulfport (Sent Jan 31, 2006 12:31:16 PM)
One again I feel compelled to say something. I feel that my last comment was incomplete.
Reading over everyone's comments thus far, I see a lot of people saying that those from Mississippi that are dealing with this everyday are unjustified for being so upset.
Imagine if you came home from work today, and instead of finding your house, family, pets waiting for you, you walked up and the only thing you can recognize is the steps leading up to what used to be your porch. Imagine that after seeing your clothing and what used to be your home, scattered throughout your yard and your neighbors. Then imagine that before all of this has even had a chance to sink in, you get a phone call on your cell phone that you were just fired from your job. And, after all of this you are told by your friends, family, insurance company, and government to deal with it yourself. Kind of sucks, correct?!
The people from Mississippi are not complaining just to complain. All of this is justified. We didn't complain after the weak response of the federal and state agencies just after the storm. We were down here trying to figure out what to do next, and how to go about doing it.
We pay taxes the same as everyone else. So after paying the federal government for many years, we feel that we should receive some type of service from them. Many of the residents in South Mississippi would be more than willing to do the work themselves, if they had the funding to do it, and were physically able to do it.
It takes money to do everything in this country, and the problem with what is going on with this article, is that the Americans money is being wasted. Everyone should have something to say about this situation. The money belongs to us, the Americans. If you hired someone to do a job at your home, and after you gave them the check, they just sat in your front yard on lawn chairs and drank beer, wouldn't you be a bit upset? Same situation, just on a larger scale.
So before you go running your mouth about things you can't even begin to comprehend, remember that the money that is being MIS-USED here is YOUR MONEY TOO!!!!!
Stacie Skaggs Long Beach, MS (Sent Jan 31, 2006 12:54:36 PM)
How is the city going to rebuild it self if the money and jobs of this type don't stay in house ? This is the kind of goverment we asked for when we voted George Bush in. There shouldn't be any complaining now that we got exactly what we asked for. 4 more years. How can articles like this be written and nobody in the White House even flinch ?This is America, land of the free, where everybody but the poor and middle class (The rich) have the advantage. But we wanted this by asking for " 4 more years", incompitence from the Bush administration.
Manny Pineda (Sent Jan 31, 2006 1:42:53 PM)
i am not complaining about the gulf not wanting to do the job i know for a fact two companies from the gulf who want to work but ashbritt keeps butting their noses into the system to get the contracts i personally feel bad for the people that got hit by katrina and i know the feeling cause i was there once in my life. but the simple fact is i know that people do want to work that do have the funding and for some reason or another it just isnt happening cause the big dogs just want to keep coming in and getting the piece of the pie which i feel that they just need to step back and finish what they started which obviously isnt alot cause they are taking there good ole time at doing it! one thing that i do know is that all these contractors are just "milking" the system to keep the cleanup going on and on so they can make all the big loot i just say clean up the stuff so these people can get on with their lives and rebuild!!!!!
jim ms (Sent Jan 31, 2006 2:24:02 PM)
We are a New York based construction contractor who is registered with FEMA, GSA, CCR and everyone else. We had crews organized and ready to leave immediately after the storm. No calls, no contracts, nothing. With resources standing ready, in the area or miles away and the work still not being done, this was definitely mismanaged. The Government would be better off awardnig the contarcts directly. What a mess (no pun intended)
Ed Newman (Sent Jan 31, 2006 2:31:20 PM)
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