He is on the cover of Gov. Bobby Jindal’s ghost-written book Leadership and Crisis. In case you don’t remember that very forgettable book, it’s the one purportedly written by Jindal but in reality, hastily slapped together by Hoover Institute flak Peter Schweizer.
You’ve seen him standing solemnly (never smiling) in the background at virtually each of those rare Jindal press conferences as well as during the governor’s staccato briefings whenever he pretended to exhibit leadership, usually during a hurricane or oil spill.
One of those events may have even been when the governor pitched his ill-fated state pension reform legislation a couple of years ago that, had it succeeded, would have slashed retirement income for thousands of state employees—by as much as 85 percent for some.
But the next time you see Louisiana State Police Commander Mike Edmonson, you may see a trace of a smile crack that grim veneer.
That’s because a special amendment to an obscure Senate bill, passed on the last day of the recent legislative session, will put an additional $30,000 per year in Edmonson’s pocket upon retirement.
Talk about irony.
SB 294, signed into law by Jindal as Act 859, was authored by Sen. Jean-Paul J. Morrell (D-New Orleans) and appeared to deal with procedures for formal, written complaints made against police officers.
There was nothing in the wording of the original bill that would attract undue attention.
Until, that is, the bill turned up in Conference Committee at the end of the session so that an agreement between the different versions adopted in the House and Senate could be worked out. At least that was the way it appeared.
Conference Committee members included Sens. Morrell, Neil Riser (R-Columbia) and Mike Walsworth (R-West Monroe), and Rep. Jeff Arnold (D-New Orleans), Walt Leger, III (D-New Orleans) and Bryan Adams (R-Gretna).
That’s when Amendment No. 4 popped up—for which Edmonson should be eternally grateful:
http://www.legis.la.gov/legis/ViewDocument.aspx?d=911551&n=Conference
Basically, in layman’s language, the amendment simply means that Edmonson may revoke his “irrevocable” decision to enter DROP, thus allowing his retirement to be calculated on his higher salary and at the same time allow him to add years of service and longevity pay.
The end result will be an increase in his annual retirement benefit of about $30,000—at the expense of the Louisiana State Police Retirement System and Louisiana taxpayers.
The higher benefit will be paid each month over his lifetime and to any beneficiary that he may name.
Edmonson makes $134,000 per year and has some 34 years of service with the Department of Public Safety.
The Actuarial Services Department of the Office of the Legislative Auditor calculated in its fiscal notes that the amendment would cost the state an additional $300,000 as a result of the increased retirement benefits.
In the Senate, only Karen Carter Peterson (D-New Orleans) voted against the bill while Sen. Jody Amedee (R-Gonzales) did not vote.
Over on the House side, there were a few more dissenting votes: Reps. Stuart Bishop (R-Lafayette), Raymond Garofalo, Jr. (R-Chalmette), Brett Geymann (R-Lake Charles), Hunter Greene (R-Baton Rouge), John Guinn (R-Jennings), Dalton Honoré (D-Baton Rouge), Katrina Jackson (D-Monroe), Barbara Norton (D-Shreveport), Kevin Pearson (R-Slidell), Eric Ponti (R-Baton Rouge), Jerome Richard (I-Thibodaux), Joel Robideaux (R-Lafayette), John Schroder (R-Covington), and Jeff Thompson (R-Bossier City).
The remaining 127 (37 senators and 90 representatives) can probably be forgiven for voting in favor of what, on the surface, appeared to be a completely routine bill, particularly if they did not read Conference Committee amendments carefully—and with the session grinding down to its final hours, there was the usual mad scramble to wrap up all the loose ends.
Here’s what the bill looked like when originally submitted by Morrell and before the Conference Committee members slipped in the special favor for Edmonson:
http://www.legis.la.gov/legis/ViewDocument.aspx?d=878045&n=SB294 Original
But while the sneaky manner in which this matter was rammed through at the 11th hour is bad enough, it is especially so given the fact that numerous bills have been brought before the House and Senate retirement committees in the past few years which would have allowed a revocation of a DROP decision and without exception, each request has been rejected.
“This was done in Conference Committee and was done on an obscure bill with obscure references to old acts in hopes that the conferees would never have to answer any questions about why this was done,” said one observer.
Horrible but no surprise. When he’s not grandstanding against some easy target and praying on public paranoia or giving out awards our state’s top cop basically leads the Gov’s personal guard-and for his wife Supriya who travels everywhere including schools with multiple state cop bodyguards-gimme a break.
It’s possible somebody could file suit on the basis the amendment was not germane to the subject matter of the bill, but who is going to do that? A ruling from the Speaker of the House or Senate President on whether the amendment was germane could have been sought prior to adoption of the conference committee report, but nobody did. It could also be argued that this is illegal on the basis that it increases the Unfunded Accrued Liability of the retirement system, but who is going to make that argument? Backdoor deals are alive and well and It seems greed knows no bounds in either the private or the public sector. Our retirement systems are in trouble. This kind of thing will be helpful to those attempting to make the retirees the scapegoats for retirement system funding problems caused by legislative irresponsibility. It is shameful no matter how you look at it.
L’i booby purposely screwed tens of thousands of state workers with their retirement but rewards one of his lackies on his way out the door. This despicable lack of class tells the true story of this little weasel.
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[…] blogger Tom Aswell published what is likely his biggest blockbuster post of his career when he shocked taxpayers across Louisiana with this blog post focusing on a stealth attempt by former LSP Col. Mike Edmonson to boost his retirement pay by […]