Deadline Day For Ground Zero Workers Compensation Plan

Yesterday was the deadline day for thousands of Ground Zero workers who are part of a class action to approve a settlement deal that would be administered by Kenneth Feinberg. It will be several more days before we know whether at least 95% of the nearly 10,000 participants approved the plan.

As the deadline for more than 10,000 ground zero workers to opt into a multimillion-dollar settlement with the city and its contractors approached, the federal judge overseeing the cases said on Monday that it would take several more days to tally and verify “the huge influx” of responses.

Until then, Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein of United States District Court in Manhattan ordered the lawyers in the cases not to discuss the status of claims with the news media, “to avoid confusion and speculation.”

The settlement would officially end the lawsuits filed by firefighters, police officers and others who took part in rescue and cleanup operations after the 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center. The plaintiffs claimed respiratory and other illnesses that they attributed to inadequate protective equipment and supervision by the city at the disaster site.

The plaintiffs have until 11:59 Monday night to file their papers and reach the required threshold of 95 percent approval for the settlement, which would pay up to $712.5 million, to go into effect. The Associated Press reported over the weekend that a leading plaintiffs’ lawyer, Paul J. Napoli, said that 90 percent of those eligible had accepted the deal by last Friday.

This is a totally separate compensation package than the one that has been winding its way through Congress, the James Zadroga Compensation program, which would provide several billion dollars towards medical coverage and additional study of those who worked at Ground Zero following the attacks.

Maybe Kenneth Feinberg Should Look At Compensation Packages For Public Officials

While Kenneth Feinberg has settled into one of his many jobs of administering pay scales for companies that received TARP funds, maybe he ought to be directed to look at the pay packages for public officials that are out of whack with the average pay for their constituents and job descriptions.

Municipalities around the country face bloated budgets and deficits, and one such California town was so outraged by revelations that their city managers and officials were raking in salaries that three officials resigned and the City Council was forced to take action.

The city council voted to reduce its pay to that of what one councilman, Lorenzo Veles, was being paid: $8,076 a year.

Most of the other council members made nearly 10 times as much.

The Bell salaries have provoked statewide anger at a time when California is grappling with a near $20 billion budget deficit.

The median annual income of Bell -- which counted about 36,000 residents in the 2000 census -- is less than $35,000.

Like Mayor Oscar Hernandez, another councilman George Mirabal said he will not seek reelection.

Said the mayor in a statement: "We must restore Bell's pride in our city and that requires a full, transparent, and deliberate review of the city's actions."

Last week, the city council accepted the resignations of City Manager Robert Rizzo, Assistant City Manager Angela Spaccia, and Police Chief Randy Adams, who reportedly had a combined salary of more than $1.6 million.

While getting administrative salaries in line with job responsibilities is a start, one has to wonder why no one was paying attention when these municipalities were flush with cash. The job didn't change, but the lack of fiscal responsibility began when there was plenty of money to go around (or so these people thought). Did no one notice what these three officials were getting paid?

Fiscal responsibility means looking at waste, graft, corruption, and compensation in good times and in bad. It means maintaining conservative fiscal outlooks such that you aren't hit with massive deficits when revenues fall well below forecasts and that surpluses are devoted to infrastructure and rainy day funds to tide through tougher times.

Some municipalities are starting to understand this, but many more are hoping to slide through this crisis and hope for a resumption of spending as before.

BP Sets Aside $20 Billion For Spill Compensation

British Petroleum is putting aside $20 billion for spill compensation. This is a down payment on the damage, and will in no way be sufficient to compensate all those damaged by the oil spill. A 3d party administrator will probably be along the lines of the victim compensation fund set up in the aftermath of 9/11 to handle claims by victims of the attacks and run by Kenneth Feinberg.

I'm not surprised that Feinberg's name is showing up here.

Not only did he handle the victim compensation fund for the 9/11 attack, but he was again called on to administer the sick workers fund (once that gets approved by the members of the class). He also got called on to handle executive compensation following the Wall Street meltdown and ensuing hot air from Congress over executive pay.

He's real good at what he does and is generally seen as reasonable and fair in determining awards.

But to put the $20 billion in perspective, $20 billion is the amount that was thrown around in the days after 9/11 to pay for the rebuilding efforts. That severely underestimated the costs there too.

In fact, the costs for Louisiana alone may top $100 billion although it is unlikely that they will ever recoup those losses. Florida, Alabama and Mississippi would similarly see serious losses - and if the spill reaches out into the Atlantic, other states could see massive losses.

And that doesn't touch on the international liabilities if the oil damages coastlines of other countries along the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean.