No More Negotiations; Sue Us!

Below is the text of a December 22 letter from District Attorney Cam Morvant to Council Chairman Brent Callais regarding Mr. Morvant's efforts to negotiate a settlement of U.S. Flood Controls's bill for our use of their "water weenies" after Rita:


"As you are aware, the Lafourche Parish Council on October 30, 2006, requested that the District Attorney negotiate with the owner of US Flood Control the amount of an invoice submitted for the alleged rental of portable levee bladders after Hurricane Rita. We have been in contact with members of Louisiana's congressional delegation, FEMA representatives and Mr. Paul Vickers, through his attorney Mr. Bobby Raymond.

US Flood Control's Position
In my recent conversations with Mr. Raymond, it has been his contention that Lafourche should approve payment of the invoice for 500 tubes. He also contends that Lafourche used more than 102 tubes and probably used over 300 tubes.
Based on this contention, we re-interviewed Chris Boudreaux and Ray Cheramie. Mr. Boudreaux tells us that he counted 167 tubes that were filled and/or laid out on Sunday, September 25, 2005. After that date, he never returned to the Edna site. Mr. Cheramie says that he just estimated the use of 102 tubes for his September 27, 2005 report based on what he saw on Sunday, but did not count tubes. We have spoken to other parish employees who helped place the tubes. It is their recollection that they filled and/or laid out more tubes on Monday, September 26, Tuesday, September 27, and Wednesday, September 28, 2005. We are in the process of conducting further interviews with these employees to try and ascertain a number.

Meetings
On Tuesday, December 9, I drove out to Senator David Vitter's Metairie office to meet with him regarding this matter. He and his office staff have been very helpful in the last six weeks of our working to negotiate this invoice. He has assured me that he will continue to help us as we work toward a settlement.
Late on the afternoon of Tuesday, December 19, I received a call from Mr. Raymond requesting that I drive out to his office in Destrehan to meet with Mr. Raymond and Mr. Paul Vickers. We met from 7:00 p.m. until 8:30 p.m. and decided that we would meet again on Wednesday at my office to attempt to determine exactly how many tubes or bladders were used during the 28 day rental period back in 2005.
On Wednesday, December 20, 2006, a meeting was held at the district attorney's office. The meeting lasted approximately three and one half hours. We looked at photos of the Edna area and listened as a US Flood Control employee (former parish employee Toby Champagne) tried to reconstruct where bladders were placed. According to their calculations, Lafourche had at least 286 bladders or tubes on the ground either filled or laying beside filled tubes or sandbags on stand by. They also claim that Lafourche had at least 36 tubes placed either in parish trucks or at the Lockport field office. Our employees have stated that eleven boxes of tubes were placed in Ray Cheramie's Durango on Sunday, but were returned unused to the US Flood Control trailer that same day. At this time we do not have a definitive count from either side of how many tubes were actually deployed or taken out of the boxes. However, through interviews with parish employees we have determined that the number of tubes used is substantially more than 102 and may be in the neighborhood of 300.
At the conclusion of the meeting, Mr. Vickers stated that he would be willing to accept payment of 75% of the original invoice. This equals $3,687,600.00 which would equal rental of 375 tubes plus trailer and pump rental. "

Sounds to me like any further negotiation is futile. If U.S. Flood Control wants more than $5.30, then they should sue us. Conducting the depositions in this case would be fun!

Chauvin: Mr. Vickers, what is your company's normal procedure for accounting for how many portable levees are used by one of your clients?

Vickers: URR! If its in the truck, you owe us for it.

Chauvin: Mr. Vickers, do you have a price schedule for the rental of portable levees on your companies Web site?

Vickers: Yes.

Chauvin: Mr. Vickers, have you changed the schedule within the last three months?

Vickers: Yes.

Chauvin: Why?

Vickers: URR! I dunno.

Chauvin: Well, Mr. Vickers, isn't it true that prior to the change to your Web site, your schedule provided that a customer would only owe for bags actually used?

Chauvin: And Mr. Vickers, isn't that the schedule that was effective during the period of time in question here - Sept., Oct., 2005?

Chauvin: How many times did you communicate with any representative or employee of Lafourche Parish Government before September 23, 2005?

Chauvin: With whom specifically?

Chauvin: By what means was the communication, in person, by phone, by letter, by email?

Chauvin: What was the subject of the conversation(s)?

Chauvin: Was the event in St. Charles Parish the first time you met President Charlotte Randolph?

Chauvin: What was the nature of your conversation with Ms. Randolph at the St. Charles Parish event?

Chauvin: When was the first communication between you or a representative of your company with Mr. Toby Champagne, a former employee of Lafourche Parish Government presently employed by your company?

Chauvin: What communications was there between your company and Ray Cheramie, Lafourche DPW chief?

Chauvin: When did you offer Mr. Champagne a job?

Chauvin: Why did you offer to pre-place your product in Lafourche Parish?

Chauvin: Where did you store your product in Lafourche Parish?

Chauvin: Did you, or any representative of your company, at any time, offer anything of value, or a future promise of anything of value, to any representative or employee of Lafourche Parish Government in return for use of your portable levees?

Chauvin: What assistance did your company provide Lafourche Parish Government in its efforts to have FEMA reimburse the Parish for use of your portable levees?

I think ya'll see why we should break-off negotiations.