Bay County Superintendent Husfelt: 'I was shocked' by hurricane corruption allegations

PANAMA CITY — Bay County officials stepped up to defend themselves Friday following the release of a court document that alleged rampant corruption in the aftermath of Hurricane Michael.

Bay School District's Superintendent Bill Husfelt called a press conference just hours after the Panama City News Herald reported GAC Contractors, a company headed by the now deceased Derwin White and former Speaker of the Florida House Allan Bense, had removed debris from Hurricane Michael from his house at no charge.

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Husfelt insisted that no one from GAC had set foot on his property to do debris removal work. The only people who did work at his home, he said, were himself, his brother and a group of workers from Louisiana.

Husfelt said he was "shocked" by the information reported in an affidavit seeking a search warrant at GAC headquarters that was filed in August of 2021 by FBI agent Lawrence Borghini. The warrant was served two days after the affidavit was filed and Borghini's report was released last week.

"No one is more shocked or surprised by this than me," Husfelt said. "It did not happen ... Nobody did any work at my house from any local companies at any time."

The allegation against Husfelt was related to Borghini by a former GAC employee who told the FBI agent he did not have first hand knowledge that work was done at the superintendent's home but "had been informed" by others that it had.

The affidavit did state that Doug Lee, the executive director of operations for the school district, had sent a text message to Derwin White requesting debris removal help. That help was granted, the affidavit stated.

At his press conference Friday, Husfelt spoke primarily of the allegation made that he had debris removal work done at his home. He touched only briefly on the school district itself and its relationship with GAC Contractors.

The school district "did not encounter billing discrepancies in our association with GAC," School District spokeswoman Sharon Michalik said in a text message.

After the story broke, Bay County Manager Bob Majka also requested to clarify the county's status as it pertained to GAC Contractors and debris removal. GAC, according to the affidavit, bilked millions of dollars from the school district and local governments throughout Bay County.

Majka said the county largely avoided doing business with GAC Contractors following the 2018 Category 5 storm, but when officials did detect discrepancies in billing by debris removal companies it ran a "parallel audit" to "validate the work we were paying for what was being done."

CDR Maguire was brought in as the third-party disaster management consultant to conduct the audit, which Bay County termed "an ongoing detailed, real-time analysis."

CDR looked at 597 invoices and 600,000 load tickets from debris contractors submitted for review. The county, which ultimately removed more than 10 million cubic yards of debris at the cost of $209 million, disputed more than $7 million in invoices or load tickets, Majka said.

The disputed items were not paid by the county nor submitted to FEMA for reimbursement to the county Majka said.

CDR identified another $254,621 in unauthorized work that had been completed by Ashbritt, one of the two national companies it worked with. Bay County demanded and received a refund.

Majka confirmed that Borghini's affidavit identifies the work the county was billed for and later reimbursed for by Ashbritt was work done at "residences of local government employees."

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When Hurricane Michael hit Bay County on Oct. 10, 2018, the county had contracts in place with both Ashbritt and CrowderGulf for debris removal, Majka said. Those contracts had been finalized in 2016.

Approximately 80% of the cost to a county, school district or municipality following a hurricane is that of debris removal, Majka said. For this reason county officials were determined to keep a close eye on those it had contracted for work with in the aftermath of Hurricane Michael.

As early as November 2018, one month after the storm, evidence of billing discrepancies appeared, Majka said. The county has been monitoring billing data ever since and will continue to do so.

"The audit process continues and will for three years beyond when the project is eventually closed out," the county's email said. "Should it produce any additional findings, the county will seek refunds as necessary."

Also issuing a statement late last week was CrowderGulf, whose director of operations determined after being approached by GAC's Derwin White following Hurricane Michael, that GAC "wanted to get paid to do nothing."

“CrowderGulf has enjoyed a decades-long working relationship with local governments in Northwest Florida and has the utmost respect for the vast majority of local government staff and elected officials who are hardworking, dedicated public servants. It’s clear that this egregious breach of public trust was limited to a small number of bad actors who chose to enrich themselves in the aftermath of a heartbreaking disaster," CrowderGulf President Ashley Ramsay-Naile said in a statement.

In the affidavit, Borghini quoted the CrowderGulf director of operations as judging Bay County to be more corrupt than New Orleans or New Jersey, two locations where CrowderGulf had previously done hurricane debris removal work.

“As the affidavit makes clear from the moment our team sensed there was anything amiss, we refused to deal with those pushing inappropriate business dealings,"  Ramsay-Naile said in the Friday statement. "We are a family-owned company that was founded on the overarching principle of doing business with honesty, accountability and integrity – as reflected in our proud record of work with Bay County and the communities within. While others may cross the line, we won’t even go near it.”

This article originally appeared on The News Herald: Bay County officials oppose hurricane cleanup corruption allegations