Anger lingers over Feinberg’s settlement decision

While many shrimpers have stayed with the Vessels of Opportunity program, it is not without issues. There has been controversy since the program started surrounding who is selected and the verification process behind it.

“It’s very difficult because you can’t ask for tax records,” Geoff Howse said. “We don’t ask for social security or anything like that, so it’s a limited amount of data we have, which we treat very confidentially.”

BP wants the applicants to make 51 percent or more of their income from commercial fishing and ask for a commercial fishing license, trip tickets and a vessel registered before March 31, but again, all they have is the applicant’s word that the information is legitimate.

Another concern for VoO members is that they might be working for nothing but advances in their settlement, with no extra payments for the oil clean up.

Kenneth Feinberg, a third-party attorney appointed by President Obama to handle the BP settlement fund, said at an Aug. 18 forum at the Houma-Terrebonne Civic Center that wages earned from the VoO program would be deducted from the worker’s final settlement.

“I’m offsetting other income that somebody received because they couldn’t fish,” said Feinberg, who was also appointed to handle the 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund. “I suppose they could stay home and get the full $5,000 in my hypothetical, but that doesn’t sound much like what people do around here. They get out there and work at it.

“I’ll take a look at your claim, but if you were offered a position to help defray the loss income that you suffered as a result of the spill, the amount of wages or compensation that you received will be deducted from the amount you lost,” Feinberg said.

This is a contradiction to what one of BP’s attorneys told James C. Klick, who represents several shrimpers in Plaquemines Parish, on May 3.

“Lastly, we confirm that BP will not offset payments to vessel owners or other volunteers against claims they might have,” said the letter written by A.T. Chenault of Fowler Rodriguez Valdes-Fauli.

One Lafourche Parish commercial fisherman said he would work for the VoO program if they called him despite Feinberg’s announcement, but he later admitted that is only because he thinks Feinberg will change his mind about the deductions. He requested to remain anonymous because he does not want his comments to deter BP from calling him.

“It’s totally wrong what they’re doing. It’s a bait-and-switch deal,” said Ricky Cheramie of Golden Meadow. “They assured the fisherman on May 3 that they weren’t going to deduct those wages. Many fishermen would have quit at that time if they would have said, ‘Well, yeah, we’re going to deduct it.'”

Cheramie said he is not a commercial fisherman, so the ruling has no direct effect on him, but he wants to protect his friends and family members.

“I have no dog in the hunt other than my concern that a big entity like BP or the federal government is coming in and screwing our people down here because south Louisiana is the toilet of the United States and we get treated like crap,” he said. “I see these people are trusting people and they pretty much believe anything government tells them and all that, and they’re being railroaded on this thing, and it’s wrong.”