Traffic moves through Foley's downtown retail area. The city will receive an $875,000 settlement from BP for losses due to the 2010 oil spill. (file photo)FOLEY, Alabama — Foley officials expect to receive $875,000 within the next week after agreeing to a settlement with BP over the 2010 oil spill, Mike Thompson, city administrator, said Thursday.
After going into executive session to discuss the offer, the Foley City Council voted unanimously Monday night to accept the money from the oil company as compensation for sales taxes and other municipal revenue already lost and potential future losses as a result of the Deepwater Horizon explosion, Thompson said.
Mayor John Koniar said the agreement came after a negotiation between city and BP representatives last week.
“It’s like most negotiations. They started out low and we got them to what we felt like was a reasonable number,” Koniar said Thursday. “We countered and they met the counter and we got them up to $875,000. We got a little above what we felt like their top number was going to be.”
Koniar, Thompson and Britton Bonner, a lawyer representing Foley, met three BP officials for about an hour.
The $875,000 is in addition to $582,000 that BP already paid to Foley for money lost in 2010 following the spill, Koniar said. The mayor said the settlement still requires BP to clean any tarballs that wash up from the 2010 spill and leaves the company responsible for damage from other spills.
“We feel like we’re covered,” Koniar said. “You never know. It could all blow up again tomorrow, but, they’ve got to clean up anything that’s spilled. Any new spill, they’re not immune from, so we all felt like it was fair.”
Thompson said the city should receive the settlement money in about a week.
Koniar said city officials have not made plans to spend any of the settlement money.
“That will be up to the council, but we’re going to wait and see for now,” he said.
In March, Gulf Shores settled that city’s claims with BP for $6.5 million.