Louisiana Voice

While some observers might correctly point out that the re-hashing of stories about State Fire Marshal Butch Browning is old news, we feel there is relevance in demonstrating the Jindal administration’s general acceptance of and a high tolerance for questionable and inappropriate behavior on the part of his appointees and their subordinates.

The flagrant abuse of power has become so rampant in the offices of the State Fire Marshal, State Police Superintendent and the Louisiana Office of Alcohol and Tobacco Control that even if the governor’s office feels it can afford to ignore the brewing problems, we cannot.

Besides the FEMA billings in connection to work his subordinates performed in the 2011 tornado cleanup in Alabama—more than $11,000 in overpayments to 13 employees was eventually refunded—and his wearing of unauthorized military medals from two wars and a third military engagement, State Fire Marshal Butch Browning also came under investigation by State Police and the Louisiana Office of Inspector General (OIG) for another matter involving injuries to two teenagers in St. Helena Parish.

Browning managed to emerge from the three-pronged probe virtually unscathed, “retiring” in April of 2012 in the middle of the investigations only to be reinstated 12 days later in his same positon but with a raise in pay of $8,000 per year, state Civil Service records show.

Despite the allegations of fraud and mismanagement leveled against Browning, his boss, State Police Superintendent and Deputy Secretary of the Department of Public Safety (DPS) Mike Edmonson, gave him a clean bill of health and the Louisiana Legislature, acting as surrogate for the Jindal administration, acted quickly. The House Appropriations Committee aimed its retaliatory guns on the second investigative agency, the Office of Inspector General and its Director Stephen Street, placing them squarely in the administration’s crosshairs.

Even as his boss, State Police Superintendent and Deputy Secretary of the Department of Public Safety (DPS) Mike Edmonson, was praising Browning on the occasion of what turned out to be a 12-day “retirement,” saying citizens of Louisiana were “fortunate” to have him as State Fire Marshal and that his commitment to fire safety and prevention was “unparalleled,” a state trooper had been assigned in April of 2012 to work alongside OIG to investigate “several complaints.”

We touched on the allegations of payroll fraud and of his wearing unauthorized military combat medals from wars that ended before he was born. Among the decorations worn by Browning were the Army Occupation Medal, the Meritorious Service Medal, the Air Force Good Conduct Medal, the Defense Meritorious Service Medal, the Kosovo Campaign Medal, the Legion of Merit, the Korean Service Medal, the Army Reserves Overseas Training Ribbon, the Marine Security Guard Ribbon, the National Defense Service Medal, and the Navy Expeditionary Medal. Apparently, the only military branch in which he did not distinguish himself was the U.S. Coast Guard.

But there were other, more serious incidents almost a year before which the OIG was also investigating—obstruction of information about a carnival ride accident and Browning’s improperly selling used weapons to employees—which would ultimately lead to attempts to strip OIG of its legislative appropriation, in effect abolishing the office.

We prefer to simply call it teaguing after Gov. Bobby Jindal’s infamous practice of fire and demoting dissidents as he did Tommy and Melody Teague, the husband and wife team he fired six months apart, beginning first with Melody Teague.

On May 14, 2011, a ride called the “Zipper” malfunctioned at a Greensburg carnival in St. Helena Parish northwest of Hammond and injured two teenage siblings as they were getting off the ride only seven hours after deficiencies were ignored by a State Fire Marshal’s Office inspector only seven hours earlier. The ride’s emergency brake should also have been checked during the inspection, but it was not, the OIG investigation revealed. http://oig.louisiana.gov/assets/docs/reports/CID-12-035.pdf

Carter and a second Fire Marshal investigator, Joseph LeSage, both told investigators that the accident would not have occurred had a properly installed parking brake and control switches been installed according to manufacturer’s specifications, the report said.

Failure to check emergency brakes is in violation of National Association of Amusement Ride Safety Officers guidelines.

Browning, however, suppressed the report by insisting that the accident was caused by operator error, the report said.

Even more serious, Fire Marshal Investigator Donald Carter told Browning “several times at the accident scene” that the inspector’s allowing the ride to operate with improper equipment may expose the Fire Marshal’s office to legal liability, the OIG report said. That statement is important because of the blanket defense of Browning subsequently thrown over the entire investigation by Edmonson in a letter to Street.

The OIG report also said Browning authorized the sale of guns in violation of regulations. While law enforcement officers may purchase weapons being retired from service, non-law enforcement personnel are ineligible to purchase the weapons. Browning nevertheless authorized their sale to employees who were not commissioned law enforcement officers.

It was in the middle of the two concurrent investigations that Browning announced his “retirement” to accept a superintendent at an unnamed petrochemical plant in Ascension Parish only to return 12 days later with an $8,000 per year pay raise and complete exoneration from Edmonson even though the OIG’s report accusing Browning of suppressing the carnival ride investigative report would not be released for another six months.

But even though the OIG report would not be released until Nov. 13, 2012, someone must have had an inkling of what it would say for the wheels were put in motion by the administration mere days after Browning’s pay raise and return to work.

Joe Harrison (R-Napoleonville), State President of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), offered an amendment to House Bill 1, the state’s operating budget, to pull the $1.7 million appropriation for Street’s office, a move that would have effectively shut down its operations for the first time since it was created in 1988.

Wow, talk about reprisals! Harrison said the OIG was “pretty much redundant” and that its functions overlapped those of the State Police and the Attorney General’s office. The House Appropriations Committee apparently agreed, approving the amendment by an 11-4 vote.

But invoking the name of the State Police and the Attorney General as a justification for abolishing the OIG is hardly a sound argument given the performance of the State Police in its investigation of Browning and Edmonson’s thinly disguised attempt to pad his retirement benefits and the Attorney General’s oft-demonstrated reluctance to get involved in any investigation of wrongdoing on the part of state agencies other than jumping on board the FBI investigation of former Department of Health and Hospital (DHH) Secretary Bruce Greenstein.

While newspaper editorials and columnists and the Public Affairs Research Council came to the defense of OIG, Browning’s boss, Col. Mike Edmonson fired off a scathing, eight-page letter in which he vehemently attacked the OIG report and defended Browning unconditionally.

In our next installment, we will examine the political fallout from the OIG investigation initiated by a Jindal legislative ally as well as Edmonson’s response to that investigation which was hand-delivered to Street’s office and media comments supportive of OIG.

All in all, it’s just another behind-the-scenes look at how the administration attempts to shape and mold the legislative process to the benefit of Jindal and his appointees and to the detriment of anyone who happens to get in his way.