On September 2, 2010, we met with Kenneth Feinberg in Slidell, LA along with 20 ministers from the Gulf Coast Region under the leadership of Dr. Harry Blake (Shreveport, LA). At this meeting, Feinberg, the BP Fund CZAR, commissioned all the ministers under my leadership to go out and take claims for the underserved, underrepresented and low income people of the Gulf Coast Region because he determine these people always slip through the cracks when disasters occur. He also requested that once the claims were gathered to send them to his Washington, DC office and he would pay them.
One of Feinberg’s many promises to this group regarding paying their claims came before 200 ministers, at the Windsor Court Hotel in New Orleans, LA on Dec. 1, 2010. At that time Feinberg said “All claims will be paid to the underserved and underrepresented by Christmas 2010.”
We held many meetings, protests and rallies, including meeting at Governor Bobby Jindal’s office, on Dec. 17, 2010. At this meeting Jindal’s staff released a statement on his behalf demanding that Mr. Feinberg pay the claimants without discriminating against the people we represent.