CERES Environmental (Federal Emergency Management Agency) (U.S. Army Corps of Engineers)

Dear Ms. Schreiter,

Thank you for your FOIA request dated February 18, 2020. We will be back in touch soon with a formal acknowledgement, and will provide you with a FOIA tracking number at that time.

Best regards,

Mary Alice Smith
Paralegal Specialist
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
HECSA - Office of Counsel
7701 Telegraph Road
Alexandria, VA 22315
703-428-8160 (office)
703-428-7221 (fax)
Mary.A.Smith@usace.army.mil

THIS IS A PRIVILEGED COMMUNICATION -ATTORNEY-CLIENT/ATTORNEY WORK-PRODUCT.
DO NOT RELEASE UNDER FOIA.

NOTICE: This email and any attachments constitute non-public information and may contain legally privileged and confidential information intended solely for the use of the addressee(s). If you are not the intended recipient, any reading, dissemination, distribution, copying or other use of this email, including attachments, is prohibited and may be unlawful. If you have received this message in error, please delete it, including all copies and backups, and notify me immediately by telephone at (703) 428-8160 or by email at Mary.A.Smith@usace.army.mil. Thank you.

Ms. Schreiter:

This message references your request for records submitted through muckrock.com (see below). While it was submitted to US Army Corps of Engineers Headquarters, it was subsequently transferred to my office for processing. Please be advised that I do need some significant clarification about the records you are seeking before I can begin processing your request.

If you could please contact me directly at Keri.Schenter@usace.army.mil, and provide me a telephone number where I can reach you, I'd like to discuss your reqeust in a bit more detail to ensure we can locate records we may have that may meet your needs.

Please be advised that I can only keep your request in a pending status for a short time. Therefore, if I do not receive a response to this message within 10 days, I will close the file and take no further action.

Thank you.

______________________________________________
KERI SCHENTER
Paralegal│FOIA Specialist
USACE, Mobile District
P: 251-690-3289
F: 251-694-4378
E: Keri.Schenter@usace.army.mil
http://www.sam.usace.army.mil/BusinessWithUs/FOIA.aspx
FOIA-SAM@usace.army.mil

Good Morning, Ma'am,

I did leave a voice mail for you, I will appreciate your contacting me so that we can discuss your request.

Thank you.

______________________________________________
KERI SCHENTER
Paralegal│FOIA Specialist
USACE, Mobile District
P: 251-690-3289
F: 251-694-4378
E: Keri.Schenter@usace.army.mil
http://www.sam.usace.army.mil/BusinessWithUs/FOIA.aspx
FOIA-SAM@usace.army.mil

Ms. Schreiter:

As promised, here are my findings as relates to your FOIA request.

I've been working with a number of different offices and persons within USACE to attempt to define and/or locate any records that might be responsive to your request. However, given the circumstances surrounding the reports about the storage facility, I'm not sure we have anything to provide. Rather than "deny" your request outright, I want share the information provided to me thus far, to see if we can't either eliminate or lessen your concerns and/or further pinpoint any records that might be relevant to your request.

First, a bit of logistical clarification - current recovery operations related to Hurricane Maria are centralized in a field office being overseen by the Corps' Jacksonville District, and the matter in question appears to be most related to the blue roof mission - an Advance Contracting Initiative (ACI) contract awarded by the Mobile District; but in fact the blue roof mission itself was run by a project manager who works out of our Kansas City District. I'm letting you know this so that you understand that the process we are working becomes a bit more complex than an average FOIA request because of the coordination with so many different personnel at different locations. I'm trying to simplify that for your sake by inserting myself as the central point of contact person so we can fully address your request.

After reviewing your request and speaking with you about the specifics surrounding the warehouse and reports you mentioned, we reached out to USACE personnel currently in Puerto Rico for more information, as our blue roofing project manager was unaware of the issue being reported. Staff in Puerto Rico advised the following:

"

Jennifer,

Thanks again for taking the time to talk with me today about your FOIA request, and allowing me to explain much of the basics about contracting and disaster recovery across the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE). Please remember that I did tell you I'm not a subject matter expert in contracting or emergency operations, I was simply trying to identify the many different layers involved in disaster recovery. That explanation is based solely on knowledge I've gained through the years working for USACE and at the post-Katrina Recovery Field Office. If you wish to obtain more expert detail, please let me know and I can put you in touch with the actual experts.

To follow our conversation then, I wanted to document that we discussed how to move forward with your request, since you seem to be primarily concerned with federal monies awarded to Ceres Environmental, and perhaps how Ceres has used those funds, which differs enough from your original request that we still have not identified a perfected FOIA request (terminology/formality required by FOIA). I have provided you the link to the 2015 Advanced Contract Initiative (award) to Ceres, and have indicated that I will provide you a copy of the 2009 award I located in our contracting database. Further, I've initiated a search across USACE to see if other Districts and/or Divisions might be able to provide a list of contracts awarded to Ceres since 2009. As I indicated, I may not be able to provide a wholly comprehensive list, but will get you as much data as I can. I've calendared my file to provide you an update on this endeavor by next Friday, March 20.

As I indicated, our continuity of operations may experience some delays in the coming days/weeks as a result of the Coronavirus pandemic, but I will do my best to keep you advised of our progress.

Thank you, and I understand that you will also be reaching out to Ceres to see what/if any contracting lists/awards/business processes it may be willing to provide to you. Please don't hesitate to let me know if I've misstated anything in this recap and/or what you are expecting next from our office.

-- Keri

______________________________________________
KERI SCHENTER
Paralegal│FOIA Specialist
USACE, Mobile District
P: 251-690-3289
F: 251-694-4378
E: Keri.Schenter@usace.army.mil
http://www.sam.usace.army.mil/BusinessWithUs/FOIA.aspx
FOIA-SAM@usace.army.mil

Jennifer,

When I sent out my query about Ceres Environmental contracts I was advised of an online resource that may be the "answer" to your search, or at least provide a more comprehensive list of awards to Ceres than USACE can generate:

http://USASpending.gov

Click on Award Search and then choose Keyword. Enter Ceres and hit search. The results are extensive. If you click on each contract award number it will tell you which government entity made the award and basics of what it was for. Once you know which contracts you might be interested in getting copies of, you can submit FOIA requests to each agency.

With that said, does this give you enough to work with for now -- I'll still send you a copy of the 2009 ACI contract, but my recommendation would be to explore this data, but does this give you enough information whereby I can close your current request and when/if you want copies of other USACE contracts you can submit a new request?

Please let me know - in the meantime I'll see if I can't get that contract for you now.

Thanks.

______________________________________________
KERI SCHENTER
Paralegal│FOIA Specialist
USACE, Mobile District
P: 251-690-3289
F: 251-694-4378
E: Keri.Schenter@usace.army.mil
http://www.sam.usace.army.mil/BusinessWithUs/FOIA.aspx
FOIA-SAM@usace.army.mil

Good Morning, Jennifer:

I apologize for not touching base with you sooner - I wanted to follow up where we are in terms of our current position with regard to your FOIA request with the Mobile District. The pandemic and subsequent orders to work remotely severely compromised my communication ability, but things have been improving slowly.

Please let me know if there is anything more you wish for me to pursue at this time with reference to your request. Otherwise, I would like to close the current request and if you wish to pursue other details at a later date I'm more than happy to review the matter at that time.

I'll look forward to hearing back from you.

______________________________________________
KERI SCHENTER
Paralegal│FOIA Specialist
USACE, Mobile District
P: 251-690-3289
F: 251-694-4378
E: Keri.Schenter@usace.army.mil
http://www.sam.usace.army.mil/BusinessWithUs/FOIA.aspx
FOIA-SAM@usace.army.mil

** Teleworking until 1 June 2020 or until further notice..**

Please excuse any delay in response as our network access
may be limited at any given time. I will get back to you as soon
as possible.

Jennifer,

Because I had not heard back following my inquiry in March, I have not taken any further action with this matter. Is there something more I can search for for you? The web link I provided on March 31, 2020 was in lieu of any further reports or lists from USACE, in that it provides you the ability to search Ceres contracting awards on your own without FOIA.

Please let me know if there is anything else I can assist with.

______________________________________________
KERI SCHENTER
Paralegal│FOIA Specialist
USACE, Mobile District
P: 251-690-3289
F: 251-694-4378
E: Keri.Schenter@usace.army.mil
http://www.sam.usace.army.mil/BusinessWithUs/FOIA.aspx
FOIA-SAM@usace.army.mil

* As of 19 March 2020 our office is teleworking as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Please excuse any delay in response as our network accessibility may be problematic at times. Stay safe.