BP Claims – Promises Made to be Broken – BP Claims Czar Kenneth Feinberg

Watch the promises Feinberg made on this video, and then answer the question: What is the “Pledge” of Washingon, D.C. power broker Kenneth Feinber really worth? This video contains a bunch of promises (later broken), and a “pledge (later broken),” by Kenneth Feinberg to the people of Larose, La. (June 25, 2010). (We’ve got over 30 minutes of Feinberg on video on our BP Claims YouTube channel). In the video posted below, Feinberg said:

• A program like this cannot be designed or administered from Washington.
• You guys need certainty. Let me tell you the plan.
• I am not a government official. I am not a BP official.
• I will keep the people that are already working on this program. I will add additional people. But the additional people I add must come from the region. They’ve got to be people, they have to be people, local people that are trusted, that know their neighbors, that understand better than I ever could exactly what the needs and wants are of the people in the locale.
• I have to make sure that the people on the ground that are evaluating the claims are local, diverse, understand, and are sensitive to those needs. I pledge I will do that.

But these things aren’t true. In a September 16, 2010 article, Feinberg admitted he has hired no local employees. The only employees he has hired is 25 people in his Washington, D.C. office. These employees have final approval over all claims, which sounds a whole lot like a program being administered in Washington, D.C. Here’s what the interview with Feinberg revealed:

• “The last stop on the claims process is in Washington, D.C.,” Feinberg said. “All claims must go through this hub to ensure consistency. There are 25 employees in my office reviewing and finalizing claims.”
• If anything, Feinberg said that he would decrease the number of adjusters he has working in the Gulf as the volume of claims eases.

The above quotes from the video can be found beginning at the 40 second mark and ending at the 5:10 mark. Feinberg’s broken promises are one of the reasons I’ve concluded that the people of the Gulf Coast cannot afford to trust their business and family finances to Kenneth Feinberg. I’ll have more posts explaining other reasons for that conclusion in the near future.

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