BP buys Gulf Coast millions in gear

In the year since the Gulf oil spill, officials along the coast have gone on a spending spree with BP money, dropping tens of millions of dollars on gadgets, vehicles and gear, much of which had little to do with the cleanup, an Associated Press investigation shows.

Among the items purchased were a new top-of-the-line iPad for Lafourche Parish’s president and a $3,100 laptop for its spokesman.

Lafourche Parish President Charlotte Randolph billed BP for the iPad, saying she needed it in addition to her parish-paid Blackberry to communicate with staff and other officials during the crisis. But she didn’t buy the iPad until Aug. 26, a month and a half after the well was capped and several weeks after the federal government said much of the oil had been skimmed, burned off, dispersed or dissolved.

“Just because it wasn’t streaming from the well any longer doesn’t mean it wasn’t approaching our shore,” Randolph said. “My work is very important. Perhaps one day you could follow me somewhere and learn what my work involves. I must be in contact at all times.”

Lafourche Parish spokesman Brennan Matherne, who bought a new Dell laptop and accessories for $3,165, said working on the spill had worn out the $2,700 computer he got a year earlier.

The April 20 explosion on the Deepwater Horizon rig in the Gulf of Mexico killed 11 workers and spawned the nation’s worst offshore oil spill. As BP spent months trying to cap the well and contain the spill, cities and towns along the coast worried about the toll on their economies, primarily tourism and the fishing industry, as well as the environmental impact.

In response, the oil giant opened its checkbook while the crisis was still unfolding, pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into Gulf Coast communities with few strings attached.

In Ocean Springs, Miss., reserve police officers got Tasers. The sewer department in nearby Gulfport bought a $300,000 vacuum truck that never sucked a drop of oil. And a county in Florida spent $560,000 on rock concerts to promote its oil-free beaches.

In every case, communities said the new equipment was needed to deal at least indirectly with the spill.

All told, BP says it had paid state and local governments more than $754 million as of March 31, and reimbursed the federal government for another $694 million.

BP set few conditions on how states could use the money, stating only that it should go to repair effects of the spill. The contracts require states to provide the company with at least an annual report on how the money has been used, BP spokeswoman Hejdi Feick said.

In February, BP asked Louisiana parishes that got up to $1 million in advance payments in May for a detailed spending summary. Parishes were warned they must exhaust the advance money before they can make any new claims.

But some parishes, including Terrebonne, didn’t follow those instructions.

Terrebonne Parish says it hasn’t spent any of its $1 million advance, yet BP has paid it an additional $927,842, mostly for contractors and payroll costs.

Parish President Michel Claudet said he isn’t concerned that BP will try to recover unspent advance money.

“The agreement from the beginning was that it was nonrefundable,” he said.

It is unclear what consequences, if any, states could face if they didn’t comply.

Though some of the BP money remains unspent, the AP’s review accounts for more than $550 million. More than $400 million went to clear needs like corralling the oil, propping up tourism and covering overtime.

Much of the remaining chunk consists of justifiable expenses, but it’s also riddled with millions of dollars’ worth of contracts and purchases with no clear connection to the spill, the AP found.

Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama each got an initial $25 million from BP, followed by payments for tourism marketing, seafood monitoring and cleanup programs.

More than $300,000 of BP money went to Kenny Loggins, the Doobie Brothers and Lynyrd Skynyrd for a pair of rock shows to promote Florida’s oil-free beaches; BP shelled out another $260,000 in concert-related costs.

In Alabama, the state Emergency Management Agency distributed $30 million to local governments without rejecting a single request.

Mississippi gave money to 14 counties and cities along the coast, which was dotted with tar balls but never saw the heavy bands of oil that choked south Louisiana’s marshlands.

Louisiana doled out its initial $25 million to state agencies, including $10 million for the Attorney General’s office to devise its legal case against BP and the companies involved in the spill. State agencies spent nearly $9 million more on equipment, including boats, air-monitoring units, mobile radios and life vests.

Local-government leaders in Louisiana had to request money directly from BP. Gov. Bobby Jindal’s top budget adviser, Paul Rainwater, said the state’s deal with BP specified that the money Louisiana got wasn’t meant to replace anything that was supposed to go to the parishes.

Plaquemines Parish, which absorbed some of the spill’s worst environmental damage, got slightly more than $1 million in BP money, of which $998,405 went to cover oil-related overtime and other payroll expenses.

“I didn’t run up bills. I treated their money like I treated our own,” said Plaquemines Parish President Billy Nungesser, an outspoken critic of BP and the federal government’s response to the spill. “Maybe down the road I’ll look and say we should have stockpiled.”

When BP was heavily under attack for its response to the rapidly growing environmental disaster, the company started throwing huge sums of money at the problems. Cutting checks to governments along the coast addressed the issue, even if it meant waiting until later to figure out details like how officials would have to account for the cash.

“We recognized the importance of getting funding to the states, parishes and counties quickly, and therefore provided advance funding to help kick start their emergency response,” Feick, the BP spokeswoman, said in an email.

The payments to governments gave BP the kind of good PR it desperately needed, said Daniel Keeney, president of a Dallas-based public relations firm. By giving money to communities and allowing them to spend it as they saw fit, BP also put a buffer between itself and any questionable spending.

“Whether the funds could be perceived as being wasted or not really reflects on the organization accepting the money rather than BP,” Keeney said.

The oil spill drove away tourists and sapped tax revenues, but it was a boon for private contractors and consultants. Governments spent more than $19 million of BP’s money to hire contractors, according to the AP’s review.

The Louisiana Attorney General’s Office has spent $4 million and counting of BP’s money to hire outside lawyers and accountants to help piece together lawsuits against the company. Five of the seven law firms hired poured more than $80,000 total into Attorney General Buddy Caldwell’s campaign coffers in recent years.

Although BP footed the bill for pricey acquisitions, some officials concede they may have to use taxpayer money to maintain them.

The Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries spent $5 million for 22 boats and the accompanying trawls, nets and hauling vehicles.

“Nobody asked me for a space shuttle or anything,” Wildlife and Fisheries Secretary Robert Barham said.

BP money will cover the costs of maintaining the vessels, leasing dock space and buying fuel for at least three years, he said. Whether taxpayers will be forced to pick up these costs after that hasn’t been decided.

“They don’t run for free,” Barham said.