BP Reimburses Meriden More than 20K For Gulf Cleanup Help

Almost two years after Meriden Police Officer David Buck was deployed as a Coast Guard Reservist to the Gulf Coast to help clean up a massive BP oil spill there, the oil company has reimbursed the city for overtime and salary costs the city picks up for Buck – to the tune of $20,323.

"BP took responsibility for their error and they realized that not only people in the gulf area were affected," Police Chief Jeffry Cossette said.

Cossette submitted a claim back in July of 2010 to the $20 billion fund the company had set up to deal with those affected by the disaster. The spill was caused by an oil drilling accident in the Gulf of Mexico in April of 2010 and is considered the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history.

Though the department had never, in his memory, been reimbursed for reservist work, Cossette got the idea after seeing a BP commercial about how the fund was helping local fisherman and small businesses who had lost income because of the spill.

"I monitor overtime on a weekly basis – and (I was seeing) it's costing us $1,500-$2,000 a week in replacement, and I said you know what, they caused it, they should pay for it," Cossette said.

At that point, Buck – became the first of the city's two K-9 officers – had been deployed for a few weeks with the Coast Guard cleaning up the disaster. In all, Buck was deployed for 60 days, from June through August, During that time, the department incurred $11,681 in overtime costs to replace the officer on his patrol. In the 60 days, about 29 officers took over Buck's shifts, according to Police records.

Department costs also included another $8,641 in gap pay the city gives its reservists who are activated to make up the difference between their normal pay and the government's active duty pay. It's a program the city has been lauded by veterans and active officers for, and the chief was given a "Patriot Award" by the Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve for it in January.

The full process required a host of follow-up paperwork to substantiate the claim, Cossette said, and included letters from now-senator Dick Blumenthal when he was Attorney General, and Congressman Chris Murphy.

Once complete, payment was relatively quick, and the city received a letter from BP and an electronic payment last week. Meriden is one of about 221,000 claimants who have been reimbursed by the fund, which has paid out aout $6.1 bill thus far, according to a March 8 Reuters article.

After word got out about Cossette's application, the towns of Southington and Montville also talked with the chief and applied themselves.

Southington's Police Chief Jack Daly said the town had requested about $24,000 and had received just about half of it so far.

The $20,323 Meriden received will go into the city's current general fund, according to City Manager Lawrence Kendzior.

"It'll help offset some of the overtime costs this year - it's good that the department was so proactive in recovering that money," Kendzior said. "I'm not sure if many departments took those steps."