Feinberg in FL admitting mistakes in Gulf payouts. Too busy with plan to expedite teacher firings...

[madfloridian]

to tend to the deadly serious business of his job as oil spill claims administrator.

Well, he did not say that, I did. I am only partly joking.

He was at the same time working for AFT union head Randi Weingarten to work up a way to fire tenured teachers more quickly and efficiently. His report appears to have just been released. Now he can find time to work on the oil spill claims. Yes, a lot of bitterness in my tone...sorry about that.

In case you are interested in the report on firing tenured teachers more effectively, you can read about it here at Education Week.

The process for removing tenured teachers accused of crimes or malfeasance should be expedited, taking no longer than 100 days from start to finish, concludes a memorandumRequires Adobe Acrobat Reader commissioned by the American Federation of Teachers.

Prepared by Kenneth R. Feinberg, a lawyer well known for overseeing aspects of damage payments for the 2010 BP oil spill, the proposal calls for a better screening mechanism at the district level to weed out allegations without merit. Impartial hearing examiners would hear legitimate cases and issue a binding ruling.

Also just to be clear, he was hired by the union because people kept claiming how hard it was to get rid of bad teachers...which is a lie.

Weingarten hires Ken Feinberg to help overhaul the teacher evaluation system.

Facing criticism that her union makes it too hard to get rid of bad teachers, Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, on Tuesday announced a union-backed effort to develop a new model for how public school teachers should be evaluated, promoted and removed.

The effort will be run by Kenneth R. Feinberg, the federal government’s special master for executive compensation.

In a speech at the National Press Club, Ms. Weingarten sought to present a more flexible, cooperative face for her union as she announced Mr. Feinberg’s new role and called for sweeping changes in how school districts evaluate teachers and work with teachers’ unions.

Well, anyway, after there has been so much anger about the unfair compensation going on about the BP spill in the Gulf of Mexico...Feinberg returns.

Feinberg acknowledges ‘mistakes,’ says fund will ‘take another look’ at denied oil spill claims

Oil spill claims administrator Kenneth Feinberg told a room full of representatives of Florida’s tourism industry that the Gulf Coast Claims Facility would “take another look” at denied claims when claimants file for final or quarterly “interim” payments. Speaking at a Florida Restaurant and Lodging Association meeting in Tampa, Feinberg said some claimants have been reporting inconsistencies — that their neighbors and co-wokers got paid, but they didn’t, or that they got less than they felt they deserved.

“We’ve made some mistakes,” he said, and the facility will “take another look” at those issues when those claimants seek final and interim payments.

Feinberg stopped short of offering a formal appeals process, which some Florida officials, including former Attorney General Bill McCollum and outgoing Department of Children and Families Secretary George Sheldon, had been calling for. Right now, only claimants receiving more than $250,000 can appeal the fund’s decisions.

Feinberg said it has taken him longer than expected to get a handle on the long-term outlook for the Gulf Coast, but that the claims fund he oversees will begin making quarterly “interim” and final payments in February.

Taken him longer than expected? The Gulf of Mexico and the people who made their living from it deserve better than being told that it has taken longer than expected.

[HockeyMom]

1. It's going to get a lot worse with Rick Scott

In fact, any young person I know, I tell them NOT to major in Education, or at the very least, get out of Florida. My husband at the beginning of the IT outsourcing said the same to young people in his field.

[madfloridian]

2. I am really afraid for our state with the leadership we now have.

Every day when I read the paper I find it disturbing what they are planning next.

[madfloridian]

3. Angry town hall with Feinberg in Ft. Walton..

Feinberg sounds ineffective in his efforts.

http://www.wjhg.com/news/headlines/BP_Claims_Town_Hall_Meeting_Feinberg_in_Fort_Walton_114231384.html?ref=384

"Early Wednesday morning, Ken Feinberg was at the Emerald Coast Conference Center in Okaloosa County where more than 500 people packed the room eager to grill the claims Czar, and things were getting ugly over there too.

A packed house-- People spilling out into the hallways wanting answers from Ken Feinberg.

"I understand the inconsistencies, that's one reason I’m here. It's wrong. It's got to be corrected, but it's not like we're not paying out the money, we're paying out the money--the problem is, there are too many inconsistencies, there's not enough transparency and we're gonna deal with those problems" said Feinberg.

But for many, time has not been on their side and those problems are quickly turning into bigger ones. You could hear it in their voices with the mounting frustration rattling the room.

"My name is 1034444" says one angry resident."

[madfloridian]

4. Much anger in Louisiana

This has been handled badly.

http://www.themadisontimes.com/news_details.php?news_id=728

"NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (IPS/GIN) - In an emotionally charged meeting this week sponsored by the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill, fishermen, Gulf residents and community leaders vented their increasingly grave concerns about the widespread health issues brought on by the three-month-long disaster.
"Today I'm talking to you about my life," Cherri Foytlin told the two commissioners present at the Jan. 12 meeting. "My ethylbenzene levels are 2.5 times the 95th percentile, and there's a very good chance now that I won't get to see my grandbabies…What I'm asking you to do now, if possible, is to amend . Because we have got to get some health care."
Ethylbenzene is a form of benzene present in the body when it begins to break down. It is also present in BP's crude oil.
"I have seen small children with lesions all over their bodies," Foytlin, co-founder of Gulf Change, a community organization based in Grand Isle, Louisiana, continued.
"We are very, very ill. And dead is dead. So it really doesn't matter if the media comes back… or the president hears us, or… if the oil workers and the fishermen and the crabbers get to feed their babies and maybe have a good Christmas next year… Dead is dead…I know your job is probably already done, but I'd like to hire you if you don't mind. And God knows I can't pay you. But I need your heart. And I need your voice."
Commissioner Frances Beinecke, president of the National Resources Defense Council, vowed to convey her concerns to the White House.
"We hear what you are saying," said Beinecke. "We will take these health issues and concerns back to the president."

[sulphurdunn]

5. Isn't malfeasance a criminal act?

"Malfeasance in office, or official misconduct, is the commission of an unlawful act, done in an official capacity, which affects the performance of official duties." This a generic definition, but all definitions I've researched read about the same. There is also a distinction between civil and criminal malfeasance.

Are Mr. Feinberg and the AFT proposing that teachers who receive poor evaluations be charged with malfeasance? Surely, that cannot be the case. Can it?

[madfloridian]

6. All I can wrap my mind around is that while he failed Florida so badly...

he was figuring out how to fire teachers more effectively and quickly...hired by the teachers' union head.

The whole thing is so outrageous it's hard to see the whole picture.

[saras]

7. Accused of?

"The process for removing tenured teachers accused of crimes or malfeasance should be expedited, taking no longer than 100 days from start to finish"

Shouldn't they have to be convicted first?

Or have we switched to "innocent until targeted by wild accusations?"