By Dale Jones

It was not a greeting card that Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange sent to Gulf Coast Claims Facility administrator Kenneth Feinberg on Monday, it something close to an ultimatum.

Strange, along with Orange Beach Mayor Tony Kennon, Gulf Shores Mayor Robert Craft, Dr. Richard Powers, Director of the Alabama Department of Mental Health and Baldwin County Sheriff Hoss Mack addressed members of the media from the "war room" at Meyer Real Estate on Monday to discuss Strange¹s letter and their future plan of action. Strange and local officials continue to express serious concerns for Gulf Coast residents and businesses that are struggling to survive the aftermath of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill and the very difficult claims process.

"It is probably still smoking in his hands," said Strange of the two-page letter. "It is not a Christmas-card type of letter, it is a serious review of the deficiencies in the process we are experiencing in Alabama."

Strange said that what drove him to write the letter was statistics that were given to him last week while meeting with Baldwin County law enforcement officials.

"You know, we talk about the environment impact of the spill and the economic damages. But there is a third component that really stunned me what I heard about it. Domestic violence has doubled, drug use and illegal drug manufacturing is up, subsidised meals for our kids in school are up. I want Mr. Feinberg to understand that it is not businesses and anonymous people, it is human beings hurting because of this oil spill and it is essential that he take action now and pay the people of Alabama what he should."

In his letter, Strange said wrote the he had been assured by the Department of Mental Health that "the worst is yet to come, and that today¹s stress and frustration will turn into long-term physical problems if the problems with the GCCF are not abated."

Strange noted that the GCCF appeared proud in its recent announcement that it has managed to process 54 percent of final claims (140,338 out of 256,319), and he emphasized some major concerns that he and local officials have in response to the report. This includes how the GCCF omits from its reports the number of claimants denied through the Emergency Advanced Payment, that of the claims paid, almost all are the quick-pay option that requires no processing by the GCCF, and that while Feinberg continues to have concerns over fraud and lack of documentation, only 14.6 percent of the processed claims were reported to require further documentation.

"It is unacceptable for the GCCF and Mr. Feinberg to continue to operate in this manner," said Strange. "A multimillion dollar public relations campaign has been used to distort the truth, which is that people in Alabama are hurting and struggling to survive a situation over which they had no control and that was caused by BP and others."

Baldwin County Sheriff Hoss Mack called the crisis "the tragedy that keeps on giving."

"We are used to hurricanes in Baldwin County. If we would have had a hurricane in April of last year, we would have already cleaned up, rebuilt and been back into another year," Mack said. "While the oil well may have been capped, and a majority of the oil may have been cleaned, we are still dealing with this."

Mack said that his biggest concern was that we may not yet know that community impact the oil spill will have in the future.

"As Attorney General Strange mentioned, we have seen a drastic increase in domestic violence, we have seen an increase in drug usage, particularly in methamphetamine usage, and these drugs have a direct impact, not only on our adult community, but even in our teenagers and children. We are very concerned from a law enforcement perspective."

Following the press conference on Monday, Strange, who has been appointed the coordinating counsel for all of the Gulf States, proceeded to New Orleans for a legal hearing in the BP oil spill case.