ICF Makes An Easy Target
by Stephanie Grace - Times-Picayune (excerpt)

Shortly before she left state government, former Gov. Kathleen Blanco slipped a lovely parting gift to ICF International, the Virginia-based company she hired to administer the Road Home, in the form of a little-noticed raise of up to $156 million.

In the process, Blanco unintentionally awarded the state government officials she left behind what amounts to a gift of their own: a big, juicy political target.

The beneficiaries include: Gov. Bobby Jindal, who has called it "outrageous that ICF couldn't do the job for more than $750 million and that they were given a pay raise after their history of disappointing service;" legislative auditor Steve Theriot; newly empowered state inspector general Stephen Street; House Speaker Jim Tucker; Senate President Joel Chaisson and the rest of the Legislature, which gave ICF a unanimous vote of "no confidence" in 2006; as well as new Louisiana Recovery Authority executive director Paul Rainwater.

News of the raise, which the Blanco administration didn't announce, has caused such a stir that everyone's getting in on the investigating.

And why not? If any of the above find a way to recoup some of the money, they'll be hailed as valiant defenders of long-suffering Road Home applicants and responsible guardians of the public's purse.

Even if they just vent widespread frustration and bewilderment, they can't help looking good by comparison.

It's hard to imagine what Blanco was thinking when she negotiated a lucrative contract extension for a company whose inept and insulting treatment of Road Home applicants, more than any other single factor, helped end her career.