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Archive for July, 2013

Ex-DPS employee says supervisor gave order not to use LSP transmitter following Katrina in quest for FEMA funding

Posted in State Police on July 22, 2013| 10 Comments »

A former Department of Public Safety radio technician has claimed that DPS Director of Information Technology Jeya Selvaratnam ordered that an emergency radio transmitter not be placed into operation in the hours following Hurricane Katrina’s landfall in New Orleans despite the loss of normal radio communications by State Police.

Rusty Whittington, who subsequently resigned following Selvaratnam’s order, now works in the private sector. He is not related to W.R. “Rut” Whittington, who served as State Police Superintendent from 1996 to 2000.

He said Louisiana State Police (LSP) communications were knocked out by Katrina and he was ordered to transport a 100-foot portable tower designed specifically for such emergencies into the New Orleans area so that there might be communications in the immediate vicinity of Troop B.

He said the transmitter had a maximum range of “perhaps 12 miles, probably better at 10 miles,” which is why he erected the tower on the Clearview Boulevard overpass over I-10. “It was in close proximity to Troop B and would have given us some communication capability at a time when it was desperately needed,” he said.

He said the equipment is manufactured in Oklahoma for just such events. He said the system cost about $125,000. “It was designed to keep working in conditions like Katrina. He said that he was dispatched to New Orleans “within 24 hours” of Katrina’s devastation of New Orleans.

“I was the fourth person in line to get the word to set the system up,” he said. “First, the word came down from the governor (Gov. Kathleen Blanco), then to (State Police Superintendent Terry) Landry, then to Jeya (Selvaratnam) and then me. I was the one who rolled with it.”

Selvaratnam was in charge of the State Police radio and communications section at the time, Whittington said.

“I got the tower and the transmitter set up and then I was told not to flip the switch,” he said. “This was within 24 hours of the storm when people’s lives were at stake. They (State Police administrators) knew the main system was down.”

Whittington said he believes the reason Selvaratnam gave the order to not power up the system was because the number one priority of DPS at the time, rather than saving lives, was to make DPS appear helpless so that the department could apply for funds from the Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA) to upgrade the entire DPS communications system.

“The (portable) system sat there for three days while State Police were unable to get communications moved to Bridge City.”

He said Selvaratnam was a difficult person with whom to work. “Jeya told me on one occasion that the way to control people was to divide and conquer,” he said.

He said DPS did eventually receive FEMA money but that it would be difficult to account for how it was spent. “They (DPS) replaced equipment and upgraded other equipment, but tracking how the money was actually spent would be next to impossible,” he said.

He said he became disgusted with the manner in which Selvaratnam handled the emergency communication system incident and resigned from DPS shortly afterward to enter the private sector.

He said he could only speculate as to whether or not Selvaratnam received orders not to put the emergency system into service from higher up the LSP chain of command.

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Sexual harassment in DPS rewarded by promotion of guilty party, reprisals against employee who witnessed, reported it

Posted in Ethics, Public Records, State Agencies, State Police on July 21, 2013| 13 Comments »

A state employee who witnesses any incident of sexual harassment is required to report what he sees or hears immediately.

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 made sexual harassment illegal in the workplace and today, in theory at least, federal laws regarding sexual harassment protect virtually all private and public employees in the U.S.

The Louisiana Department of Culture, Recreation and Tourism (DCRT), for example, has a complaint procedure clearly defined in writing which says, “Any employee experiencing or witnessing sexual harassment by anyone in the Office of the Lieutenant Governor and DCRT, including any manager, supervisor, administrator, co-worker, vendor, client or visitor shall immediately report the inappropriate conduct.”

The departmental regulation further says that under most circumstances, complaints should be made to the employee’s supervisor but “if the complaint involves the employee’s supervisor or someone within the direct line of supervision, or if the employee for any reason, is uncomfortable in reporting to his/her supervisor, he/she may contact any other supervisor” or contact the agency’s human resources director.

But if an employee who witnesses sexual misconduct and dutifully reports it he may find himself with a target on his back and he may well end up as the one who finds himself the subject of investigation, punishment and possibly even termination.

Take the case of Dean Vicknair, a former information technology employee of the Department of Public Safety and Corrections (State Police), who was responsible in part for the five-day suspension of his supervisor for sexual harassment of a female co-worker in 2005 but who ended up paying for his actions with his career.

One would think DPS would be the last place where sexual harassment would be tolerated.

Think again.

Even though DPS has an online State Sex Offender and Child Predator Registry site, it appears to have learned nothing from the 2004 incident involving Jeya Selvaratnam, then a supervisor but since promoted to Director of Information Technology and Communications.

In February of 2012, the State Probation and Parole Office, part of the Department of Corrections (DOC), settled a federal sexual harassment lawsuit involving a supervisor and a female employee of the Probation and Parole district office in Thibodaux in which the female victim was awarded $50,000 and the agency was ordered to initiate a sexual harassment training policy for its employees.

DOC spokesperson Pam Laborde said after the suit was settled that agency officials were “very quick and very swift to act” once the woman’s claims were reported to them. “If the (Probation and Parole) director didn’t know about the incident, how can you take action?” she asked. “We do have good policies in place. We’ll just brush them up where we need to.”

Despite her claim that the agency director was unaware of the supervisor’s actions, the Justice Department said at least four other department employees, including a part-time internal affairs investigator, knew about her harassment, which progressed from inappropriate comments to sexual assault,  but said nothing.

Perhaps that was because, even though that case involved a different agency, the DOC employees were aware of Vicknair’s experience at DPS which culminated in his forced retirement nearly six years after first reporting the incident by his supervisor.

In the end, an unblemished career spanning nearly 21 years meant nothing as he was forced out—while Selvaratnam was promoted.

In a seven-page letter of suspension to Selvaratnam dated April 26, 2005, State Police Col. Henry Whitehorn cited “overwhelming” evidence that Selvaratnam pursued the female subordinate over a six-year period, dating back to Nov. 16, 1998 and in December of 2002, while standing outside the State Police building with Vicknair, the female employee walked past and Selvaratnam told Vicknair he wanted to have sex with her (in the interest of decency, we paraphrased the exact quote provided in Whitehorn’s letter). Whitehorn is currently a U.S. marshal in Shreveport.

Soon after that conversation, Vicknair left DPS for the Department of Transportation and Development “because of problems he had with you,” Whitehorn wrote in his letter to Selvaratnam.

Vicknair did not report the conversation to the woman until more than a year later, in January of 2004, at which time the woman lodged a complaint against Selvaratnam, Whitehorn said. The following day, the woman attempted call out to Selvaratnam in a hallway and he turned and berated her verbally, reminding her, “You are my subordinate.”

Whitehorn also noted that until she filed her complaint against him, Selvaratnam repeatedly called the woman into his office for lengthy conversations and outside for frequent smoke breaks—all of which Whitehorn said forced other employees to take up the slack for the work the woman was unable to perform because she felt she had to acquiesce to Selvaratnam’s demands.

Both Selvaratnam and the female employee were married.

“Mr. Selvaratnam, the evidence is overwhelming that you did, over the course of several years, commencing on or about Nov. 16, 1998, repeatedly and for extended periods of time, keep (the woman) away from her duties as an IT Technical Support Specialist. Your behavior created a hostile work environment for (her) by increasingly interfering with her duties. You took (her) away from her duties to such a great extent that other employees had to perform (her) work for her. Your behavior created a gender-based hostile work environment for (her) and was particularly egregious in view of the fact that you were (her) second tier supervisor at the time. Your behavior was in violation of the Department’s Discrimination and Harassment Complaint Procedure…

“…Behavior which is offensive, inappropriate or in any way creates an unpleasant working environment for your co-workers will not be tolerated. Nor will any form of reprisal for retaliation against (the woman) or anyone involved in the investigative process be tolerated.

“Pursuant to Civil Service Commission Rules…you are hereby suspended for five eight-hour days without pay and allowances. Your suspension will begin at 8 a.m. on Monday May 9, 2005, and end at 4:30 p.m. on Friday, May 13, 2005.”

The female employee won a federal lawsuit against DPS, the details of which were ordered confidential by the court and she also received assurances that she would no longer be under the supervision of Selvaratnam. When he was subsequently promoted, he was once again supervising her and she filed a second suit in state court for breach of contract.

Vicknair, meanwhile, was called back to DPS following Hurricane Katrina to assist in Lotus Notes administration (email administration and trouble shooting) because of a lack of skilled employees in that section. He was assured that there was “no way in hell” Selvaratnam would ever be director of the section.

But Selvaratnam was indeed promoted to director at the insistence of State Police Superintendent Col. Mike Edmonson, Vicknair says, and the woman subsequently transferred to another section.

Vicknair said soon after his promotion Selvaratnam called him into his office and said he had read Vicknair’s transcript and that he “knew who his friends were and who his enemies were,” according to a federal lawsuit filed by Vicknair.

As pressure mounted on Vicknair, he filed grievances against Selvaratnam. When the DPS Grievance Committee investigated his complaints, Vicknair said, the committee interviewed Selvaratnam but none of Vicknair’s witnesses who he said could back up his allegations were called to testify.

Edmonson, who was best man at Selvaratnam’s wedding, was a member of the grievance committee that declined to interview any of Vicknair’s witnesses.

It should be noted here that LouisianaVoice recently received a comment on its June 28 post about the consolidation of 20 Executive Department IT operations from Selvaratnam’s state email address which said, “I don’t see the problem here. Why does everyone hate Governor Jindal? Is this a racial issue?”

When we pointed out that normally a state employee who uses his state email account to respond to political blogs would be reprimanded, Selvaratnam quickly fired off another email—again, from his state email address—denying that he was the author of the original comment. “I did not write to you,” he wrote. “I am not sure how you received this e-mail or who did it or their motive. I would appreciate it if you would remove this from your blog.”

Vicknair, who attempted to comply with requirements to report sexual harassment, only to subsequently find himself the subject of an investigation that left him jobless and which nearly cost him his home, was left disillusioned and more than a little jaded by his experience.

In a letter to DPS Internal Affairs, Vicknair said, “You stated that I failed to cooperate with the investigation” and was accused of inappropriate conduct. “Please explain to me how an attempt to protect a career of 20 years and (to) expose the internal corrupt actions of the current DPS administration warrants a charge of conduct unbecoming.

“My recent experiences have proven that integrity is not a foundation for the internal grievance process and is merely an established ‘feel good policy’ for the perception of adhering to state and federal requirements.

“I should never have been suspended and forced into early retirement after 20 years of impeccable, dedicated state service, but I went down swinging,” he said. “I continue to fight the good fight against corruption in an effort to prevent another person from facing a similar travesty.”

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Oops, DOE is onto us: probe of IT emails seeks to plug leaks, plant bogus stories; Ixnay noay tatesay omputerscay ipstay

Posted in ATC, Education, Governor's Office, Layoffs, Public Records on July 16, 2013| 26 Comments »

John White just doesn’t get it. A few months ago he went ballistic over information leaked to LouisianaVoice and sources inside the Department of Education (DOE) told us he launched an in-house investigation, including employee emails, in an effort to learn the source of the leaks.

We responded to that report by sending an email to White informing him that none of his employees were as careless with emails as he (remember the “Dude, you are my recharge” email he sent to Pete Gorman, senior vice president of News Corporation’s education division Amplify when Gorman asked White to dinner?).

We informed White that the information we received had been downloaded on a flash drive and passed along to us. We even offered to supply White with a blank flash drive in case he had any information he would like to provide. He never responded to our offer.

Then there was that mysterious email accidentally copied to us from DOE legal counsel Joan Hunt to Troy Hebert, director of the Office of Alcohol and Tobacco Control (ATC) as a result of one of our many requests for public records that DOE loves to ignore until they’re hauled into court and hit with fines, court costs and attorney fees. The message to Hebert, who apparently has wormed his way into Gov. Jindal’s inner circle, said, “Troy, we need to reply and say that.”

That’s it. Nothing else. And when we tried to obtain a copy of that email, we were informed that it was subject to attorney-client privilege despite the fact that Hebert, as head of ATC, is not affiliated with DOE, is not an attorney, and certainly is not a client of Hunt.

But now, a new twist has surfaced that may be (or maybe not) related to that exchange between Hunt and Hebert.

Were they laying the groundwork to set up a couple of internet bloggers who have been an ongoing nuisance to White and DOE? If current reports are accurate, it could well be.

Word out of DOE is that administrative types (we have their names but we are not prepared to release them at this time) are leaning hard on DOE employees in the Information Technology (IT) section, even to reviewing all their emails and harassing them in attempts to learn who is leaking information to Jason France of the Crazy Crawfish blog and to Tom Aswell of LouisianaVoice.

Also part of the alleged game plan is to plant tantalizing—but bogus—stories in an effort to get our sources to leak the information to us and to get us to publish them so that we can be discredited publicly and revealed as hacks—and so the leakers can be nailed to the wall.

Silly rabbits, you can’t even devise a plan to plug leaks without the plan itself being leaked. You couldn’t plant petunias without growing a crop of ragweed. I’ve known mayonnaise farmers in Missoula, Montana, who were better at planting things.

As we said earlier, we know the identities of three of the administrative types at the center of this little high school stunt but we’ll keep them confidential for now with the option of releasing them down the road.

Finally, we would be remiss if we did not remind White that our sources are not stupid, nor are they careless. Anything they reveal to us will never be through a state computer—unlike the state employee (Department of Public Safety) who used his state email account to log a commit on our blog today (Tuesday)—at the bottom of our June 28 IT consolidation story—asking us if racism was at the root of our criticism of Jindal. (First of all, we’re anything but racist. Secondly, Lord knows we don’t need racism as grounds for offering legitimate criticism of this administration.)

Finally, Mr. White, we have already been investigated by the best (in Gov. Jindal’s eyes, apparently, and of course, in his own mind). Mr. Hebert ordered an investigation of us some months ago and that came up empty.

Seems we’re actually pretty boring but you’d never know it by the amateur sting operation being concocted by DFA (Detectives for America, the investigative arm of TFA— Teach for America).

Wonder if we should submit a public records request for interoffice emails dealing with planting fake news stories with a couple of pesky blogs?

ESSAGEMAY OTAY OURCESSAY: IXNAY NOAY HETAY TATESAY OMPUTERSCAY.

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Jindal made sure nursing homes got their share of Medicaid Trust Fund; $380,000 in campaign cash buys lots of loyalty

Posted in Campaign Contributions, Governor's Office, Health Care, Transparency on July 14, 2013| 15 Comments »

Louisiana Secretary of State Tom Schedler and former Secretary of the Department of Health and Hospitals (DHH) David Hood recently expressed their surprise that the Medicaid Trust Fund for the Elderly has shrunk from $830 million to $410 million under the administration of Gov. Bobby Jindal.

The fund balance is expected to drop to $250 million or less by the end of the current fiscal year (June 30, 2014) and at the present rate of depletion, could be gone in its entirety by the end of Jindal’s term of office, leaving the next governor with having to close a huge health care financing gap.

Schedler and Hood shouldn’t be surprised. In fact, by now they should expect no less from Jindal who, despite his 2003 campaign promises to the contrary, has consistently dipped into one-time money to pay recurring expenses in an effort to plug gaping deficit holes in the state budget.
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The original intent of the fund was to use only the interest and investment earnings to provide a stream of funding to pay for nursing home care and other health care services.

Revenue in the fund was to be used as a source of state matching funds for Medicaid funds to make enhanced payments to local government-owned health care facilities.

In fact, a 2012 constitutional amendment to “prohibit monies in the Medicaid Trust Fund for the Elderly from being used or appropriated for other purposes when adjustments are made to eliminate a state deficit” was approved by voters by a 71 percent to 29 percent margin (1.3 million to 527,000).

The amendment specifically prohibits dollars in the trust fund from being used for anything other than the intended purposes and “not (for) helping to balance the state budget” and “to constitutionally protect a specific fund from being raided to help make up for shortfalls in state revenue,” according to the Council for a Better Louisiana (CABL).

Ironically, CABL took no position on the constitutional amendment prior to the election, calling it “unnecessary.”

But Jindal has consistently worked to cut mental health benefits through closure of Southeast Louisiana Hospital (SELH) in Mandeville, elimination of Early Childhood Supports and Services, vetoing funds for the developmentally disabled and even resorting to using personal email accounts to plot strategy on Medicaid cuts.

About $300 million of the money has been spent to stop cuts to the rates paid to private nursing homes for the care of Medicaid patients, according to DHH Undersecretary Jerry Phillips.

In the current budget year that began July 1, Louisiana nursing homes, which have some 29,000 residents, are slated to receive $893 million in state and federal Medicaid payments with $184 million to come from the elderly trust fund used to attract about $500 million in federal matching funds.

It should come as no surprise that with all the cuts to Medicaid, mental health treatment, early childhood support and funds for the developmentally disabled, Jindal would ensure uninterrupted funding for private nursing homes.

Jindal, after all, has received more than $380,000 in campaign contributions from nursing homes and nursing home owners.

Of that amount, $228,500 came from a single source—Elton Beebe of Ridgeland, Mississippi. Beebe, who owns several Louisiana nursing homes, funneled campaign contributions to Jindal through himself, family members, business associates and 21 nursing homes and corporations controlled by him.

The corporations list P.O. Box 6015 and 6016 or 763 Avery Blvd. North as their address. Beebe himself gave P.O. Box 6015 as the address on two of his contributions of $5,000 each and 763 Avery Blvd. North on another $5,000 contribution.
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Elton Beebe’s Ridgeland, MS Headquarters

One company, Magnolia Management, gave the Avery Boulevard address on three contributions totaling $10,000 and 3900 Lakeland Drive, Ste. 400 in Jackson, Mississippi, on two others totaling another $10,000.

The contributions date back to Jindal’s first unsuccessful gubernatorial campaign in 2003.

Each of the corporations shares either a physical address or a post office box in Ridgeland.

The remaining $155,000 in nursing home contributions were made by some three dozen Louisiana facilities besides those owned by Beebe. They were scattered throughout Louisiana.

Following are contributions by Beebe, his wife, a business associate and corporations which gave the same Ridgeland address, with the number of contributions and the years the money was given in parenthesis followed by the aggregate amount:

• E.G. (Elton) Beebe: (3 from 2007 to 2011) $15,000;

• Carol Beebe: (2 in 2010 and 2011);

• Lansing Kolb (1 in 2008) $1,000);

• Louisiana Extended Care Centers: (4 from 2003 to 2009) $17,000;

• Magnolia Properties, Inc.: (4 from 2003 to 2011) $14,500;

• Magnolia Manor Properties: (3 from 2009 to 2012) $7,500;

• Magnolia Management Services of Louisiana: (3 from 2003 to 2010) $12,500;

• Magnolia Management of Louisiana: (2 in 2008 and 2009) $5,000;

• Magnolia Management Corp.: (5 from 2003 to 2011) $20,000;

• Magnolia Health Service of Louisiana: (2 in 2007 and 2008) $7,000;

• Medico, Inc.: (4 from 2003 to 2009) $15,000;

• Administrative Systems, Inc.: (3 from 2007 to 2010) $10,000;

• Provider Professional Services: (3 from 2007 to 2010) $10,000;

• HR Property Investments, LLC: (3 from 2010 to 2012) $10,000;

• Southern Magnolia, LLC: (3 from 2010 to 2012) $10,000;

• Transmed, LLC: (2 in 2011 and 1012) $7,500;

• Lena Heritage, LLC: (3 from 2010 to 2012) $10,000;

• Lake Charles Properties: (1 in 2012) $5,000;

• Extended Care Associates: (4 from 2003 to 2009) $15,000;

• EGB, LLC: (3 in 2010 and 2011) $5,000;

• Account Management Services, Inc.: (1 in 2010) $2,500;

• AGF, LLC: (2 in 2010 and 2011) $5,000;

• Caddo Property, LLC: )2 in 2010 and 2011): $5,000;

• Alexandria Investments, LLC: (3 in 2008 and 2011).

Contributions of $2,500 each were all made by 10 of the corporations and another contributed $3,000, all on the same day: Oct. 4, 2010.

Five corporations also made contributions of $5,000 each and another gave $2,500, all on Oct. 24, 2012, a year after Jindal won re-election to his second term. That $27,500 in contributions feeds speculation that Jindal is building up a campaign war chest for a run at a national office.

Here are the other nursing homes and the amounts contributed to Jindal campaigns:

• Alpine Guest Care of Ruston: $8,000;

• Courtyard Manor Nursing Care of Lafayette: $6,000;

• Golden Age of Welsh; $9,000;

• Golden Age Nursing Center of Jena: $2,000;

• St. Agnes Healthcare of Breaux Bridge: $5,000;

• Booker T. Washington Guest Care of Shreveport: $8,000;

• Ringgold Care Center: $2,000;

• Colonial Oaks Guest Care Center of Bossier City: $8,000;

• The Guest Care Center at Spring Lake, Shreveport: $7,000;

• Pilgrim Manor Guest Care of Bossier City: $8,000;

• St. Martin De Porres Multi-Care Center of Lake Charles: $3,000;

• Norhridge Care Center of Pineville: $2,850;

• Savoy Care Center of Mamou: $5,500;

• Morgan City Health Care Center: $2,500;

• The Woodlands Healthcare Center, Leesville: $3,000;

• Franklin Health Care Center: $2,500;

• Matthews Memorial Health Care Center, Alexandria: $1,000;

• Crescent City Health Care Center, Mandeville: $1,000;

• West Carroll Care Center, Oak Grove: $1,000;

• Pinecrest Healthcare Center, Bernice: $1,000;

• Riverview Care Center, Bossier City: $2,000;

• Basile Care Center: $700;

• Guest House Properties, Winnfield: $7,500;

• The Guest House, Shreveport: $8,000;

• Louisiana Guest House, Alexandria: $1,425;

• West Monroe Guest House: $6,800;

• Rayville Guest House: $500;

• Rosepine Retirement & Rehabilitation Center: $6,450;

• River Oaks Retirement Manor, Lafayette: $6,000;

• De Soto Retirement & Rehabilitation, Mansfield: $4,350;

• Kinder Retirement & Rehabilitation: $4,950;

• Sabine Retirement & Rehabilitation Center, Many: $4,700;

• DeRidder Retirement & Rehabilitation Center; $4,450;

• River Oaks Retirement Manor, Lafayette: $6,000;

• The Retirement Center, White Plains, N.Y.: $3,000;

• The Retirement Center, Baton Rouge: $1,000.

These contributions did not include and separate contributions that may have been made by owners of these nursing homes.

Let’s review:

The Medicaid Trust Fund for the Elderly has been reduced by half since Jindal took office.

Only interest and investment revenue from the Medicaid Trust Fund for the Elderly is supposed to be used to pay for nursing home care and other Medicaid expenses.

More than $300 million of the fund’s principal has been used to keep nursing home Medicaid rates afloat.

Nursing homes and their owners have contributed more than $380,000 to Jindal’s three gubernatorial campaigns.

With Jindal, it always seems to come down to a single precept: follow the money.

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Notable Quotables (in their own words)

Posted in Governor's Office, Health Care, Layoffs, Notable Quotables, Privatization on July 11, 2013| 1 Comment »

“We approached the state…about how we might be able to help solve the problem with Southeast closing.”

—Meridian Behavioral Health Systems CEO Wes Mason, discussing his company’s selection as the private firm to take over operations of the privatized Southeast Louisiana Hospital (SELH) last October.

“Meridian was the only company that met all of DHH’s requirements and expectations…”

—DHH Public Information Officer Ken Pastorick, on the selection of Meridian, which operates Northlake Behavioral Health System, formerly SELH. (Northlake has been notified by the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services that deficiencies at the facility have caused it to lose eligibility to participate in Medicare.)

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