Locals react to Ken Feinberg's firing

PENSACOLA, Fla. (WALA) - It’s official, Kenneth Feinberg has overseen his last BP claim.

He was relieved of his position after a federal judge in New Orleans appointed a new administrator to the Gulf Coast Claims Facility.

It’s part of a proposed multibillion-dollar settlement between BP and attorneys representing more than 100,000 people and businesses.

So, we wanted to know the reactions of local business owners.

“The oil spill just wrecked this beach, and it wrecked all the local business on the island,” said Tom Carmichael, co-owner of Capt’n Fun Beach Bar on Pensacola Beach.

At the time of the spill, Carmichael said he wondered if his business, which has stood true for 26 years, would go under.

He mailed more than 300 letters to the GCCF, because he said calling them did nothing.

“With the exception of the last month of dealing with them, it was the most frustrating thing I’ve ever dealt with in my life,” Carmichael said.

But with the help of a forensic accountant Carmichael settled, nearly two years later.

He said he’s just thankful his dealings with Feinberg and company are over, and isn’t surprised Feinberg has been replaced.

“You have to be more compassionate when you’re dealing with people that are losing their livelihoods,” Carmichael said. “In public meetings, he would say that they were there and there to help us. They weren’t, not for a long time, not for a year and a half for us.”

Feelings are the same in downtown Pensacola at Seville Quarter. Co-owner Buck Mitchell said Feinberg and company were good to his employees, but there was one problem.

“BP kind of forgot about the job creators, and they have turned us down,” Mitchell said. “Still to this day, we haven’t received anything from BP or Mr. Feinberg.”

But despite that, Mitchell’s take on Feinberg’s firing might surprise you.

“He’s probably relieved from being relieved,” Mitchell said. “He’s probably happy to be out of the position, as far as they’ll be somebody following in his footsteps that we will still be talking to, to make things right not just for Seville Quarter but for everybody on the Gulf Coast.”