Flood consultant Levy gets backing from Prosser, top city staff

City Manager Jim Prosser and his staff on Monday beat back questions from two new City Council members and, in the process, apparently kept disaster consultant John Levy's contract with the city in place.

The city's latest contract with Levy - the first one began in the first days after the June 2008 flood and initially had Levy portrayed in headlines as “Mr. $475-an-hour” - will conclude at the end of June and won't be extended, Prosser noted Monday.

Prosser, Dave Elgin, the city's public works director, and Rob Davis, the city's public works engineering manager, on Monday all told the City Council's Procurement Committee that Levy and his firm, Base Tactical Disaster Recovery, had performed adequately in contracts with the city.

Greg Eyerly, the city's flood-recovery director, also complimented Levy, but, at the same time, Eyerly noted that Levy's charges on his most recent contract with the city are higher than the Federal Emergency Management Agency guideline.

Specifically, FEMA's standards say the agency will pay between 3 and 6 of project cost for construction management services and, perhaps, 6 to 9 percent if some of that work involves architectural work. To date, the Levy firm's charges stand at 15 percent of the project cost. However, that percentage may drop if the construction costs that his firm is overseeing climb, Eyerly noted.

Levy's role at City Hall long has been portrayed as the consultant with Hurricane Katrina experience who would push FEMA to make sure that the city got all that it deserved in disaster funding.

Levy apparently did push - so much so, that Eyerly noted that Levy had come to sometimes “rub” FEMA representatives the wrong way.

“I can be pretty collaborative (when working with FEMA),” Eyerly said of himself. “John, less so.”

He said the city now “scrubs” Levy's input and then presents it to FEMA.

City Council member Chuck Swore, chairman of the council's Procurement Committee, questioned Prosser, Elgin and Davis about why a local company hadn't been hired last July to oversee some of the smaller reconstruction projects of the city rather than giving Levy a new contract to do that work. Davis noted that the contract called for someone with flood and FEMA experience so the city could be sure that all the damage would be fixed in accordance with FEMA requirements.

Levy's first year of work with the city centered on his experience in filing claims with FEMA to pay for damages to the city's public buildings and infrastructure. Since July 2009, his contract has centered on construction management.

Swore was satisfied to learn that Levy will play no role in large construction projects yet to come, including the library, Paramount Theatre, the Veterans Memorial Building and Central Fire Station.

Council member Don Karr, one of four council members on the Procurement Committee, wasn't at all satisfied with what he heard Monday, though Swore said the committee will accede to Prosser's recommendation and keep Levy's contract in place.

Karr checked off the hourly rates that Levy's firm charges the city: $235 an hour for Levy and per-hour charges of $200, $195, $150, $125, $93 and $55 for other staff. Most of the costs will be reimbursed by FEMA, city staff said.

Karr noted that Levy's contract calls for periodic flights back home for Levy and his staff as well as car rental charges. Levy is renting a Dodge Charger, Karr said.

“This is obnoxious,” Karr said of the costs.

The city has paid firms associated with Levy an estimated $2.3 million since the July 2008 flood, according to past and new figures provided to date by the city.