City Council defers vote on ending contract with 'Mr. $475-an-hour'

 The City Council last night deferred until next week a vote to end the city's post-flood relationship with John Levy - the disaster consultant who soon after the June 2008 flood found his way into the headlines as “Mr. $475-an-hour.”

Over most of the 20 months that the city has employed Levy on contract, he has earned less per hour than he initially cost the city. And during the 20 months, he has flown largely under the public radar screen while being portrayed by City Hall as the determined hand on the tiller, the disaster expert making sure the city positions itself to get all the disaster relief it deserves from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Mayor Ron Corbett on Wednesday said he and others on the council are looking to end Levy's current contract with the city, in part, because some of his duties have been taken over by Greg Eyerly, the city's flood-recovery director, and some by the city's Code Enforcement staff. Levy's contract is slated to end in June.

At the same time, Corbett said he and others on the council aren't satisfied that the city, with Levy's help, has moved fast enough to get its flood-damaged facilities rebuilt.

In part, too, the mayor said the move to end the contract with Levy - who now does business as Base Tactical Disaster Recovery - is a standard move that comes when a new administration arrives and reviews the city's operations.

“So for us to question some of the previous decisions and to propose some changes is not out of the ordinary or out of line,” Corbett said.

Some on the City Council also are taking a look at the city's contract with Family Environmental Services, which is helping the city assess the risks of flood-damaged properties before and during demolition.

As for Levy, he showed up at City Hall even as flood water was receding in June 2008. He came with disaster experience from Hurricane Katrina and a message: Experience makes all the difference for cities if they are to make sure they get all they deserve from FEMA.

Levy was then an executive with an entity called Globe Midwest, and after the city hired him, he achieved a measure of celebrity when it became noted that the city was paying the firm $475 an hour for Levy's services.

In the first three months after the flood, the city paid Globe Midwest $691,000.

The city had a parallel contract for other flood-recovery duties with a second disaster-services firm, Adjusters International, to which the city paid $645,000 in the first three months of recovery.

In September 2008, the city put the contracts up for new bids. Several firms competed, but Adjusters International won one contract, and Levy, who created his own company, Base Tactical Disaster Recovery, won the second contract. The new contract, at least at its inception, called for Levy's new firm to get paid $225 an hour for his services.