Sinking feeling

Technically, the board has no contractual agreement with Marine Recovery and Salvage LLC, which was formed by Michael G. Mayer and Scott Carmouche on Sept. 8, about a week after Katrina struck.

Hearn said he authorized Marine Recovery to oversee the salvage operation by letter on Sept. 12. Citing a provision in state law that allows agencies to award no-bid contracts, Hearn wrote that he was authorizing Marine Recovery to "conduct this emergency project due to their availability, expertise and location."

Scott Carmouche said his company recruited and then signed a contract with Resolve Marine Group of Port Everglades, Fla., to actually do the salvage work. Under the agreement, Marine Recovery acts as the Levee Board's liaison with boat owners, government agencies and insurers and has been responsible for keeping an inventory of the recovered vessels at a storage site on Levee Board property west of the Industrial Canal.

Scott Carmouche said he was introduced to Mayer, the owner of a local yacht repair and sales company that leases land from the board, by Huey a few days after Katrina wreaked havoc at the board's South Shore Harbor in eastern New Orleans and its Orleans Marina near West End.

Many of the boats docked at the marinas had been tossed ashore into parking lots while others were partially submerged or sunk.

Aware that hundreds of tenants leasing slips were represented by dozens of insurance companies, Huey said he feared that unless he brought order to the process, chaos and potential injuries might occur on board property, opening the door for liability.

With no local businesses to turn to, Huey said he drafted Mayer and Carmouche to oversee the effort to locate a single recovery firm.

Carmouche, who said he has eight years of law enforcement experience as a police officer in Florida and a deputy sheriff in California, said he and Mayer located Resolve Marine and negotiated what he described as a "fair market price" for recovery of vessels.

Under the deal, Resolve Marine was authorized to collect fees ranging from $350 to $150 per foot, depending on the size of the boat and whether the boat was on land or in the water. Carmouche said this week that his company will receive 10 percent of the fees collected, though he said he and his partner have not received "a dime yet."