When State Fire Marshal Butch Browning isn’t busy defending his wearing of unauthorized military decorations and ribbons or trying to shift blame for a carnival ride that malfunctioned only seven hours after his office inspected it, injuring two children in the process, he apparently can play the political game as well as any state appointed official.
Remember the New Living Word School in Ruston? That’s the facility that had only 122 students in 2012, yet was approved for more than 300 vouchers by the Louisiana Department of Education (DOE) even though the school lacked teachers, classrooms, desks or other supporting facilities to handle the increased numbers.
In fact, construction was started on New Living Word’s school without anyone bothering to obtain the requisite building permits or to hire a licensed contractor. In fact, no zoning variance was even obtained to operate the school on property that was zoned for a church.
Moreover, the building itself had so many deficiencies that Ruston building inspector Bill Sanderson refused to approve the structure. Those shortcomings included partitions made of flammable materials and multiple electrical cords lying on the floor between wall outlets and computer equipment.
New Living Word, looking to lose tuition of $6,300 per student (an amount later determined by auditors to be excessive and all the vouchers for the school were pulled), could not afford to wait until all the requirements had been met.
Enter State Sen. Rick Gallot.
It certainly didn’t hurt that Gallot is a member of New Living Word Church and sits on the school’s governing board.
Suddenly, all those deficiencies and procedural violations went away after State Fire Marshal Butch Browning became involved.
Browning subsequently issued an amended approval letter, giving the school the green light to proceed with constructing classrooms in the upper floor of the church gymnasium. He said the school had not requested approval to build the classrooms but that “after further review and as a point of clarification, the upper floor…is included in the scope of the review and is acceptable.”
http://archive.thenewsstar.com/article/20120810/NEWS01/130110033/Fire-marshal-gives-school-go-ahead
The late John Hays, then-publisher of the Ruston weekly newspaper the Morning Paper, wrote on Aug. 27, 2012:
“Lobbying never fails, especially when Louisiana’s controversial school voucher program is the issue. After the state fire marshal fell I line, so, to, did the City of Ruston, approving a jury-rigged private school after a quickie inspection.
“Inspections were scheduled for Monday morning. But with 167 state vouchers (the number by then had been reduced from more than 300—before those, too, were yanked) at $6,300 each, New Living Word wasn’t willing to wait—just as it was not willing to apply for a zoning permit or a building permit or to hire a licensed contractor.”
Hays, holding both Browning and Sanderson responsible for bending the rules, went on to say that Neither Sanderson nor Browning had bothered to explain “why they didn’t pull the plug after New Living Word started construction without the required building permit and without a licensed contractor. Under Ruston 21 master plan, New Living Word was also required to obtain a zoning variance to operate a school on property presently zoned for a church,” Hays wrote.
“What Sanderson cannot change to anyone’s satisfaction is the fact that (church minister Jerry) Baldwin renovated two buildings without the benefit of a land use variance or a building permit, with a complete set of plans by a licensed architect or engineer, and without the use of a licensed general contractor and a licensed trade contractors,” the acerbic Hays said.
“Contrast this treatment of a politically-connected entity to that of a business that dared to ask that it be allowed to put up a sign slightly larger than the rules allowed,” said Ruston’s Walter Abbott on his Lincoln Parish Online blog.
Abbott, also writing about the New Living Word building permit controversy, then attached a link to an earlier story about a local realtor named Brandon Crume who wished to install a 32-square-foot sign in a location where such signs are limited to 16 square feet.
Bound by the rules, since there were no state politicians or appointees to intervene, the Ruston Planning and Zoning Commission denied Crume’s request outright, prompting Abbott to observe that a new business recently announced for Ruston “is showered with incentives, grants and glowing press coverage” and the press conference announcing its coming was attended “by numerous political dignitaries” while an “established Ruston business is encumbered with endless red tape just to remodel a building and put up a sign.”
“Maybe Brandon Crume needed a state senator on his payroll instead of facts and logic in his argument,” Abbott concluded.
The immediate question is why did Browning become involved when the local building inspector had already moved to halt work on the building? The obvious answer is that his intervention was on behalf of Baldwin and the school and not to support the local building inspector. It is equally evident that political pressure was brought to bear upon Sanderson to get him to ease up on the school which at the time, was held in high favor by DOE and by extension, Gov. Bobby Jindal.
And just what did Gallot promise Jindal in return for support from Baton Rouge via Browning’s involvement?
Shortcuts with safety regulations and procedures often can come back to bite you.
We can only hope there will not be a New Living Word incident reminiscent of the horrific school tragedy from the Robert Penn Warren’s All the King’s Men, the thinly-disguised Pulitzer-Prize winning novel about Huey Long which became the basis of two movies of the same name.
Or of the very real 2011 accident with the carnival ride in Greensburg that injured two siblings only hours after a State Fire Marshal’s inspection failed to shut the ride down because of the removal of an emergency brake on the ride.
Shouldn’t this be seven “hours?”
…carnival ride that malfunctioned only seven years after his office inspected it.
Ron White
Yep. No matter how many times I proof something, you can always go back and find an error. Thanks.
This is the same Jerry Baldwin who was hired in 1999 by ULL, becoming the first black football coach at a major LA university. Unfortunately he had a terrible loss/win record and was fired, following which he sued ULL for “racial discrimination”, collecting approximately $2M. Now he continues to scam the taxpayers, with the support of BJ and White and their cronies. WHEN, WHEN will the Feds step in and stop this?
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=3070227
Reblogged this on The Daily Kingfish and commented:
Rules need not apply.
As a physician and cancer survivor, I can’t help but notice the similarities between Bobby Jindal and a malignancy. Cancer kills us by quietly spreading throughout our bodies. It does this by masquerading as something that is non threatening to our well being. Then, after infiltrating our vital organs, the cancer finally shows itself. Jindal, through his appointees on the many State Boards and in his own Administration, has spread corruption throughout Louisiana’s Government. Individuals like Tom are the “chemotherapy” needed to fight this corruption and I am immensely thankful for his dedication to this cause!
Your analogy is perfect and right on target!
A similar analogy was made by John Dean with reference to the Nixon Administration and the Watergate Scandal. Jindal, no doubt, would consider Nixon a hero and the Watergate Scandal a “political myth” conjured up by the Democrats to get rid of Nixon. After all, if he, Jindal, believes in exorcisms.
There are two stories about butch Browning that have never ever made the news that need investigating.
The first one has to do when he “retired”. Supposedly Bobby Jindal got a letter signed by Butch Browning admitting to multiple past mistakes and misdeeds and asked for another chance. This letter is supposed to be the instrument that got him “retired”. Within a few days it was discovered that the letter was probably a forgery so Butch got rehired.The state police launched an investigation spending hundreds of hours trying to find the writer of the letter and forger for Butch’s signature. It is open even today but nobody has ever been found that did it.
The second story occurred earlier this year and involves an employee of Butch’s office. The employee found out that Butch was having an affair with the employee’s estranged wife. Said employee got highly upset and initiated an effort to kill Mr Browning. A coworker finally talked him out of doing it. The state police got involved and helped cover everything up. The employee reconciled with his wife and was allowed to keep his job. Somehow this all got real quiet real quick.
I really wish a good investigative reporter would dig into both of these stories but so far the state has done an excellent job of covering everything up.