"I'm not going to engage," Fire Victim Trust disregards supervisor's letter in voicemail

OROVILLE, Calif. — For over a year now, survivors of the 2018 Camp Fire and other fires across the state have expressed grievances with the Fire Victim Trust (FVT) for a lack of transparent operations and delayed payments to financially compensate fire survivors. Butte County recently took those concerns to the FVT trustee himself, who, in turn, disregarded the questions asked.

Following last week’s board of supervisors meeting, Chair Bill Connely signed a letter asking FVT Trustee John Trotter about lagging payments to claimants, excessive employee payroll and, the ultimate question, when fire survivors would be made whole. The trust was created as part of PG&E’s 2019 bankruptcy settlement to compensate nearly 70,000 fire victims with $13.5 billion.

“Lack of communication, minimal payments, and disregard for those individuals most affected by wildfire are the current trademarks of the Fire Victims Fund,” reads the letter in part.

It goes on to ask:

• What dollar amount has been distributed to each fire? Please include individual breakdown.
• How many claims have been filed by fire?
• What is the total monthly expense to administer the trust, inclusive of all staff?
• How much have all the attorneys received as of now?
• Why has only $3.4 billion dollars been distributed out of $13.5 billion?
• How long before the trust distributes all funds?

The letter was also written in “advocacy” for fire survivors like Teri Lindsay. She escaped the 2018 blaze with her family and the clothes on her back and recently lost the shelter she’s had for 14 months. A KRCR feature on Lindsay detailed communication between FVT and her attorney that shows payments continuously were delayed within a two-month period, resulting in her ultimate inability to pay rent on her trailer.

“I don't know what's going to happen,” says Lindsay through tears while sitting on the steps of her trailer the day after being told her FVT payment was delayed for a third time. “They're going to take my trailer. I'm not going to have a place to live. I can live in my truck?"

She’s resulted to a GoFundMe campaign to evade homelessness, but it's unclear how long the donations will suffice. Her attorney alone represents three parties who had similar situations with FVT payments.

The letter additionally asks why not even $4 billion of the $13.5 billion have been delivered over a year and a half after it started paying out. Further, it details concerns about the trustee’s monthly salary of $125,000 from the trust. Overhead costs and employee payroll has also chipped away nearly $100 million from the trust.

Trotter's response came in the form of a voicemail to Butte County Chief Administrative Officer Brian Ring. Supervisor Doug Teeter provided the audio recording to KRCR, which says:

Mr. Ring, this is Justice Trotter, the trustee of the Fire Victims Trust. I’m calling in response to that offensive, uninformed political statement that you people sent to me. I’m not interested in dealing with you based on what you’ve put out. If you really want to know anything about the trust, I would assume, like everybody else, you would call and ask rather than coming to uninformed, slanderous conclusions. I have 400 people that work on this trust that are working very, very hard to accomplish a very difficult and (pause) and so when and if you get to that point, I’ll talk to you. But I’m not going to engage based on that nonsense that’s in your letter. Thank you.

This message did not detail what parts of the supervisor’s letter he believed to be “offensive, uninformed” and “slanderous.”

That voicemail was shared with Chico Enterprise Records soon after, with its editorial board writing an editorial piece about the response on May 28. Trotter, compared to a voicemail, chose to respond to the piece with a letter that was posted on the trust’s official website.

Trotter noted that the editorial misstated the amount of money he was being paid for his work and listed the amount of claims evaluated and authorized, backed by an “emergency payment program” that’s delivered “$870 million” to “34,000 fire victims.” It goes on to respond to claims of arrogance, unprofessionalism and “unfounded” references to “well-paying jobs for massive legal teams.”

It ends by referring to the supervisors as “politicians late to the party but looking to be relevant” as a reason not to respond by letter to their questions. He claims that he “regularly” talks to county and state legislature officials about the trust’s operations.

“I answered the letter in question by telephoning the appropriate person to tell them why I did not think their request was appropriate. They did not call back to discuss the matter. They went to the media,” says Trotter in the letter. “I see little reason to take my staff’s time away from advancing payments to the victims in order to help politicians make a statement.”

Paradise Town Mayor Steve Crowder says he’s been attempting to secure a meeting with Trotter to ask similar questions that the supervisors detailed in their letter. After hearing the voicemail, he says that the continued delay in payments makes the suffering of his town prolong that much longer.

“I'm sickened by the response,” says Crowder during a phone interview Thursday morning. “Our people are tired of waiting and I get it's complicated. But we have people living in $2,000 travel trailers that aren't meant to be lived in full-time on properties for four years. And he's making $125,000 'minuscular' dollars a month. I personally have a problem with that."

KRCR reached out multiple times to the FVT for comment. A representative declined to comment on the supervisor’s letter when it was approved and never returned a response to concerns about employees being paid while promises made to claimants remain unfilled.