New information on where and who is determining claim payments was discovered Monday when Florida House Representative Doug Broxson was turned away from the Gulf Coast Claims Facility (GCCF) headquarters in Dublin, Ohio.
Broxson said he made arrangements to visit the GCCF headquarters, but when he arrived he wasn’t allowed inside. Not only was he told to leave the premises, he got a personal phone call from the claims administrator himself.
“It kind of went downhill from there. I mean we know that they have 800 people working there. They are not claims adjusters, they are intake and clerical people. We just had a pretty brutal discussion about if this is not the claims office then where is it? Who makes the decisions? Then Mr. Feinberg got on the phone and he said, ‘Well we make all the decisions in Washington DC,’ and I said on 500,000 claims five people make a decision? And he said, well indirectly, ‘We make all the decisions,'” Broxson said.
After finding out that 800 clerical jobs are being offered over a thousand miles away from the impact zone here on the Gulf Coast Broxson said it doesn’t make sense.
“I don’t understand why we don’t have those jobs here on the Gulf Coast, it makes no sense. These are not claims people, they are not adjusters, they are just regular citizens like you and I that are looking for income, and they chose to put it in Ohio 1,000 miles from where the impact zone is on the Gulf Coast. It makes no sense,” added Broxson.
Orange Beach Mayor Tony Kennon was supposed to go on the trip as well. He said he’s disappointed with the lack of transparency.
“They wonder why there is so much fraud and abuse and wondering why we are screaming. Why the individuals who deserve it are not getting paid,” Kennon said.
Kennon said he was disappointed in Feinberg.
“We assumed that there was a huge army of forensic accounts and CPA’s in Dublin just working through all of the claims as fast as they can and it’s not the case. Its really laughable what we are hearing and what we are seeing,” Kennon said.
Broxson says Feinberg did hint at at least one positive move for the future.
“He said he is going to make a decision this week to try to loosen up the process a little more and put more authority on the Gulf Coast,” Broxson said.
Representative Broxson also told FOX10 News they found out that the GCCF has offices located in Virgina, Seattle Washington, and Washington D.C.
Until Monday, Broxson said the location of these offices was not known to anyone in his state office.
See video here: http://www.fox10tv.com/dpp/news/gulf_oil_spill/house-rep-visits-central-claims-office
