Linn County flood consultant’s fees near $900,000

The tab for Linn County's flood-recovery consultant is nearing $900,000, but county staff and elected officials say it's been worth it.

"They have been a godsend to Linn County,” said Supervisor Ben Rogers, expressing the board consensus. "They are one of the reasons we are so far along in our recovery.”

The county signed a contract with Utica, N.Y.-based Adjusters International within days of the Cedar River's June 13, 2008 crest. Through June 18, the county has paid the company$895,019.37.

The contracts provide unlimited calls from the county to AI as staff work through planning and budgets for flood recovery, and the company sends a representative for a quarterly meeting to review progress, said Steve Estenson, the county's risk manager.

“If I have questions, they'll avail themselves to answer,” Estenson said. “I talk with Adjusters probably once or twice a week and none of those calls are logged or charged.”

AI had a staffer in Cedar Rapids until about a year ago, Estenson said. The county has since signed new six-week contracts with the company at the same $285-an-hour rate.

Cedar Rapids' contract with the same firm came under election-year criticism – the city paid AI $2.78 million under a contract that ended last September.

Estenson and the supervisors say it wouldn't pay to keep staff with AI's specialized expertise on the payroll for a once-in-a-lifetime (so far) disaster like the 2008 flood.

“They know the best person to talk to, the best path to take,” said Estenson. “We are getting an incredible amount of assistance for what they charge.”

“There is no way we had the staff, capacity, and the knowledge to do this,” Supervisor Lu Barron said.

Estenson noted the payments to AI amount to about 1.5 percent of the $58 million in claims the county has filed with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).  He said the state and FEMA typically allow 5 to 10 percent for administrative costs post-disaster.

“I don't think we would've done as well as we did without their assistance,” Supervisor Jim Houser said.

Rogers said FEMA initially wanted to calculate its payments on the square footage of flood-damaged buildings, but AI advised the county hire architects and engineers for a more detailed accounting.

“I'm usually the first person to be suspicious of outside consultants,” said Supervisor Brent Oleson. “I researched that right when I got on the board, and they have saved us oodles of money and time. We'd still be flooded with paperwork if we didn't have them. They navigated us through a lot of that.”