Plaquemines Parish President Billy Nungesser convened a Gulf Oil Crisis Summit July 21 to reach accord on long term strategy for the BP oil spill cleanup and more efficient communications to promote the recovery of the people of coastal Louisiana from the April 20 oil disaster.

Nungesser invited Governor Bobby Jindal and coastal parish presidents Steve Theriot (Jefferson), Kevin Davis (St. Tammany), Craig Taffaro (St. Bernard), Charlotte Randolph (Lafourche), Michel Claudet (Terrebonne), and Kirk Burleigh (Cameron Parish Police Jury President), along with Mayors Mitch Landrieu (New Orleans), Tim Kerner (Lafitte), and David Camardelle (Grand Isle) to meet with leaders of the U.S. Coast Guard and BP at English Turn Country Club in New Orleans.

Nungesser and other government leaders were greatly disappointed that Doug Suttles, BP Chief Operating Officer, and Bob Dudley, BP President and Chief Executive Officer for Gulf Coast Restoration, declined to attend at the last minute, the parish reported. The leaders expressed their concerns to BP’s disaster consultants James Lee Witt and Mark Merritt, both of James Lee Witt Associates.

During the more than two hour closed-door meeting, Witt and Merritt promised to voice the concerns from local and state government leaders to BP executives and get answers, Plaquemines government officials reported. They also committed to help BP respond more quickly to local and state needs.