Louisiana City Council Pays Hurricane Consultant

The Slidell City Council has approved a $200,000 payment to Stuart Consulting Group, a company hired to oversee Hurricane Katrina rebuilding projects.

The amount was only half of what the company had requested, but city officials said Tuesday the remaining amount will be paid when more FEMA funds become available.

The Times-Picayune reports Metairie-based Stuart Consulting Group was hired to finalize the city’s post-Katrina projects to meet all of FEMA’s requirements, leaving a complete and detailed file for each of the 157 projects. For that work, the company gets paid what is known as “direct administrative costs” of up to 3 percent of the grant funding. In addition, the company was contracted to go after more funding for infrastructure improvements.

The vote was 9-0 with no discussion.