Give the folks at the Division of Administration (DOA) credit: they obviously had a mole infiltrate our operations who then successfully foiled one of our more brilliant schemes.
A second memorandum was sent out on Wednesday by the patricians of paranoia, otherwise known as those in the Division of Administration who remain convinced they are above the law and who see no need to respond to public records request by such lowly creatures as reporters.
That’s right, reporter, Michael Diresto’s volunteered opinion notwithstanding. I’m also a blogger, of course, but in addition to my blog, I cover state government for a couple dozen newspapers throughout Louisiana.
A little over a year ago I attempted to obtain a copy of Gov. Bobby Jindal’s executive budget from Diresto, Assistant Commissioner for Policy and Communications, who was handing out copies of the budget to the media. He informed me I was not getting one. He first said it was because I didn’t have an office on press row in the basement of the Capitol. When I pointed out that he had just given a copy to a reporter who did not have office space in the Capitol, he said, “You’re not getting a copy because you’re not legitimate press.”
For Mr. Diresto’s enlightenment, I hold a bachelor’s degree in journalism. I spent some 30 years as a full time reporter for newspapers in this state as a reporter and editor. My career has included reporting jobs for the Shreveport Times, the Monroe News Star and the Baton Rouge Advocate and I also served as managing editor of the Ruston Daily Leader. I even managed to pick up an occasional award for news reporting (two), feature writing (two) and investigative reporting (three) along the way. Given those facts, I would be most interested in hearing Mr. Diresto provide his definition of “legitimate.”
But back to the issue at hand.
On Wednesday, a second email went out that addressed the issue of visitors to state buildings—buildings you the taxpayer paid for and which are filled with overpaid executives who share one thing in common: an over-inflated sense of their own importance by virtue of their being appointed to jobs for which they possess few, if any qualifications. (I’m not talking about the rank and file employees who perform the grunt work that keeps the state running. They are the most unappreciated, underpaid, most dedicated people I have ever had the pleasure of knowing.)
The first email, sent out on Tuesday, referenced an “incident” and directed that visitors were not to be allowed on the seventh floor of the Claiborne Building where DOA’s hallowed offices are located. The incident, of course, was the sudden, unexpected and unwelcome appearance of yours truly to request copies of public records I had first requested more than a month before. https://louisianavoice.com/2013/04/17/unexpected-visit-in-search-of-public-records-causes-panic-doa-ordered-into-virtual-louisianavoice-lockdown-mode/
The second email was sent out a day later by Ronnie Gilbert, Operations Division Manager, Office of State Buildings, and expanded the crackdown. It read thusly:
• Please inform your employees that all food deliveries for any events, meetings, conferences, etc., are to be picked up at the security desk in your facility. Upon receipt of the food the security desk will contact the agency for their representative to come and retrieve the food items from the security desk. At no time will security desk personnel allow the food vendor delivery personnel on the floors of the building.
So there you have. They’re onto us.
Our ingenious plan to wear a Domino’s Pizza shirt, slip a recorder into the pizza box and eavesdrop on top secret conversations while waiting for our tip is thwarted, nipped in the bud. Alas, what will we do now for a story?
There’s no official word, but the strong rumor is that additional emails will be forthcoming in short order that will further tighten lax security at state buildings.
For example:
• If a state employee should suffer a coronary or go into a diabetic coma on one of the upper floors, first responder personnel will be required to check in at the security desk and the guard will call the appropriate office on the phone. Someone from the victim’s office will then ride down the elevator, retrieve the defibrillator or insulin from EMS personnel and take it back upstairs. EMS personnel will be required to wait on the main floor in full sight of the security desk.
• If there is a fire on an upper floor of any state building, fire fighters will be allowed to pull a hose into the building’s foyer and then wait while the guard calls upstairs for someone to come down and get the hose. That person would then pull the hose up the stairwell to the affected floor while firefighters wait—in full view of the security desk.
• Visitors to the State Capitol will no longer be allowed to take the elevator to the observation deck some 24 floors up. The elevator, after all, necessarily goes right by the fourth floor, and that’s where Jindal is—sometimes—and where Timmy Teepell runs his Southern headquarters of OnMessage. We simply cannot have the great unwashed, the despised riffraff, common citizens, passing this close to an office of such prestige and towering intellect.
Some might call this paranoia and perhaps it is. But one can’t be too careful with crotchety old illegitimate reporters snooping about, sneaking around and writing the truth.
After all, no less an obsessive distrust authority than Nixon Secretary of State Henry Kissinger said, “Even paranoid people have real enemies.”
yuuuup
Funny. Be careful, Tom.
..”overpaid executives who share one thing in common: an over-inflated sense of their own importance by virtue of their being appointed to jobs for which they possess few, if any qualifications.”
That so perfectly describes Jindal’s appointees!
Well done Tom and I’ll take a large pepperoni.
I love your commentaries! Please keep doing what you’re doing!
c
Can vouch for Tom’s creds as a reporter; I sent him many a news release when he was a reporter back in the day. He was legit then and is a vital defender of press freedom today. But wait: there’s nothing in the rulebook restricting the release of public documents to journalists (that means reporters, DiResto), legitmate or otherwise. Any member of the public has a right to any public document. No reasons why or credentials required. Is there any end to these people’s arrogance AND ignorance? BTW, Tom, make mine a large all-the-way…..all the way to the just desserts the jitleristas so richly deserve. Keep the faith,Tom. A thousand thanks from those of us whose voices cannot be raised.
I’m waiting for the lawsuit I hope you file against them for not being in compliance with the appropriate Revised Statutes.
Mr. Aswell, I cannot put into words how upset I am that this administration is allowed to bypass the law. I cannot thank you enough for your relentless efforts to get the truth out.
Keep up the great work. In time, You will overcome this lawless group of SOBs.
I can shed some light on the email sent out by Ronnie Gilbert. I’m a lowly state worker and we have had a breach in security in our office building where an employee’s boyfriend gained access to come visit her during regular working hours through the back door. Once he got in, he had access to go anywhere in the building that he wanted. There was no screening for guns at the back door. Since many different agencies are housed together in one building, you have no idea what friends of your neighbors might do. You have no idea what enemies of your agency might do.
We are housed with an agency that had a shootem up by a disgruntled spouse when they resided on Wooddale. Several state workers were killed and injured. We are housed with state agencies that have to tell folks bad news like they won’t be getting any benefits for whatever program they have made application.
With the perversion and insanity carried out in other parts of the country, I’d like some measure of safety where I do the grunt work.
Tom, do the work that you do best…..research sources that produce these amazing revelations that you feature. I’d vote for you if you ran for most any public office in this state. At least I’d know that discussions and decisions that impacted my life would be conducted in a transparent manner and didn’t involve carpetbaggers from parts of the underside of rocks little cared for by “real” Louisianians. The people of this state know how to fix what is wrong. It’s insulting not to be invited to the table for the discussion. As a former colleague once said, if you’re not at the table, you’re on the menu.
I can certain appreciate the points you make. I remember the Wooddale shooting and there was an incident when I worked at Risk Management (in the Claiborne Building, no less) where a co-worker’s estranged husband suddenly showed up and created a scene before being asked to leave.
That said, I find it incredibly coincidental that these two directives came down so quickly after my visit for legitimate purposes.
The only state worker shot in that incident was the man’s spouse.
I don’t say that to diminish what Lowly State Worker said, but let’s stick to the facts and not embellish.
Neither of the directives noted by Tom above would prevent the security hole in the backdoor of buildings. All people have to do is wait until someone comes in or out of the back. In addition, in Claiborne, if you wait around for someone to come down the stairwell, there’s about a 15-30 second delay before the stairwell door on the first floor locks behind them, so anyone with the energy can still get up the stairwell, bypassing the front security desk. These directives are idiotic, as they do nothing to prevent anyone out to do harm from doing harm. They simply make doing legitimate business more difficult.
What happens when a member of the legislature requests documents such as the ones you’ve requested? Do they receive the runaround too or is that reserved for ordinary citizens?
That’s an excellent question.
…depends on the legislator. 😉
https://louisianavoice.com/2013/04/17/unexpected-visit-in-search-of-public-records-causes-panic-doa-ordered-into-virtual-louisianavoice-lockdown-mode/
Two more articles about the inaccessibility of public records under this Governor, and how the law is being flagrantly disregarded.
Tom,
You take care! We could not do without you!!
I see a nail, and guess the coffin is not far behind:)
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