I am certain that I will not agree with every move John Bel Edwards makes as governor. The re-appointment of Mike Edmonson as Superintendent of State Police comes immediately to mind. Such is the nature of politics. No man alive can please everyone every time.
And when I do disagree, as in the Edmonson re-appointment, I will say so. I believe Edwards understands and respects that.
In the meantime, I am willing give him a chance. He has a monumental task before him in his efforts to help the state overcome eight years of Bobby Jindal’s reign of error. He must form coalitions with Republicans in the legislature in order to even approach a successful administration. But I certainly don’t expect legislators to be the whipped puppies they were during Jindal’s misrule.
I gave Jindal that same benefit of the doubt. If I am to be honest, I have to admit that I voted for Jindal not once, but twice. I voted for him in 2003 when he lost to Kathleen Blanco and again in 2007 when he won. I honestly thought he meant it when he said he supported state employees and that he stood for transparency and a high ethical bar. I believed him when he said his appointments would be based on “what you know, not who you know.”
Well, we all know how that went down. He tried to gut state retirement, he destroyed the Office of Group Benefits, gave away the state charity hospital system, drove higher education to the brink of exigency (bankruptcy), and worse, he set a new low in the areas of transparency and ethics. And one only has to examine his appointments to the myriad state boards and commissions. They are dominated (and that’s putting it lightly) with major donors to his various political campaigns. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/bobby-jindals-biggest-donors-benefited-from-his-administration_55e9e976e4b002d5c075fb17
https://louisianavoice.com/category/campaign-contributions/
Moreover, “what you know” didn’t go too far in other areas, either. The number of state employees and legislators he teagued for daring to disagree with him is a very long list. And his “deliberative process” catch-all denial of public records threw a heavy blanket on any hopes of transparency.
So, it was with some surprise that I read Rolfe McCollister’s diatribe in his Baton Rouge Business Report this week. https://www.businessreport.com/article/publisher-whats-big-secret
Of all the ones to whine about any lack of transparency on the part of the governor-elect who has yet to even take office, Rolfe stands alone as the singular standard-bearer of double standards.
He contributed $17,000 to Jindal’s campaigns in 2003, 2006, and 2008. He was treasurer of Jindal’s 2007 gubernatorial campaign and served as chairman of Jindal’s transition team after his 2007 election. He served as director of Jindal’s first fundraising organization, super PAC Believe in Louisiana, and most recently served as treasurer of Believe in Louisiana as it raised funds for Jindal’s presidential campaign.
His Louisiana Business, Inc. partner, Julio Melara also was a player. Melara and his wife contributed an additional $8,500 to Jindal campaigns
And what did Rolfe and Julio get in return for all that?
Well Julio wound up with a pretty nice appointment to the Louisiana Stadium and Exposition District (Superdome Board), complete with all the perks that go with the appointment.
McCollister was named to the LSU Board of Supervisors and that’s where the hypocrisy really boils to the surface. Board members get choice tickets to LSU sporting events (including a private suite in Tiger Stadium). http://forgotston.com/2013/07/16/need-a-lsu-tuition-break/
And until the quota was reduced earlier this year, each member could award up to 20 tuition-free scholarships to LSU. Even after the reduction, they still get 15 scholarships each. http://theadvocate.com/news/11898955-123/lsu-board-revamps-number-of
Those perks could mean more than $100,000 per year per board member. In 2012 alone, the board handed out $1.3 million in scholarships to their friends—even as college tuition was skyrocketing for the average student with no contacts on the board. http://thelensnola.org/2013/07/11/lsu-board-of-supervisors-awards-1-3-million-through-little-known-scholarship-program/
Rolfe didn’t invent the perks and though he tied with two other members for the fewest scholarships awarded—five. But you never heard him raise a single objection to their abuse.
Rolfe, as publisher of the Business Report, purports to be an objective chronicler of political news. You would think that as such, he would champion all efforts to obtain records of a public body.
You would think wrong. He, along with four other members, did not respond to an email from reporter Tyler Bridges, then writing for The Lens of New Orleans, seeking comment. How’s that for transparency?
He certainly came off as a bit petulant this week when he went on a rampage about Edwards’s education transition team’s meeting in private “at least four times.”
There’s more. “McCollister notes it was Edwards who proclaimed at a Public Affairs Research Council forum in April that his administration would be more transparent than previous administrations, saying ‘a scope of secrecy’ has been allowed to exist,” his staff wrote today (Wednesday, Dec. 23). https://www.businessreport.com/article/publisher-gov-elect-edwards-transition-committees-discussing-public-education-big-issues-behind-closed-doors?utm_campaign=dr_pm-2015_Dec_23-15_05&utm_medium=email&utm_source=dr_pm
“But what does conducting all of the discussions of the transition committees behind closed doors in secret do for the citizens? What I haven’t seen yet is an editorial from The Advocate or The Times-Picayune objecting to the discussion of ‘public’ education in private. Why not? I thought transparency was their big issue.
Rolfe has a very short memory. I can’t recall the Jindal transition team over which Rolfe presided ever holding a public meeting prior to Jindal’s taking office. And when The Advocate, the Times-Picayune and the LSU Reveille were demanding the release of the names of all the candidates for the LSU presidency, where was he?
It’s hard to tell because the very one who should have been front and center in championing the right of the public to know who those candidates were, was strangely mute.
Not a peep out of Rolfe who was in a unique position to reason with the boy blunder to release the names.
Likewise, when the LSU Board agreed to that hospital privatization contract with the 50 blank pages, he should have been the first one on his feet shouting that a blank contract was not just questionable, but also not a legal document. Instead, he sat quietly as the contract was approved, laying the groundwork for the litigation over state hospitals in Shreveport and Monroe now winding its way through the courts.
Likewise, not one word of protest when the contract was awarded to a foundation in Shreveport whose CEO was…(wait for it)…a fellow member of the LSU Board.
“The public knows very little in specifics about what Gov.-elect John Bel Edwards will propose and how far he will take some issues,” McCollister wrote. “Transition teams are made up of a majority of his friends, advisers and supporters—or those who think like he does (and Jindal’s wasn’t, Rolfe?). While this exercise is often ceremonial, it can reflect the views and direction of the new governor—and his closest friends and allies who will be whispering in his ear for the next four years (and of course, you never once “whispered in Jindal’s ear, right?). The public education committee has had five meetings in secrecy. What did they talk about, and who said what? We won’t read or hear about it in the media because they weren’t allowed inside—and the press never uttered a peep (Perhaps they learned from your example on the LSU Board, Rolfe.).
To those who don’t know your history, you sound like a champion of pure, open government.
Unfortunately, your words fall far short of matching your actions. Those indignant protests would carry a lot more weight if you had the track record to back them up.
That’s called hypocrisy, Rolfe. And that’s unfortunate, though not necessarily unexpected.
Louisiana Voice 
Here’s what I posted when this column appeared online late this afternoon:
For the second time in as many weeks, I have to quote John Boehner,, “Are you kidding me?”
When have meetings of any transition team been open to the press and public? Why should they be? The transition is funded by private funds, not government funds and the new governor has not taken office and won’t until January – and you already know all of this.
How about if you, Mr. McCollister, open all your GBRBR meetings to the public so we can all know what, in advance, you plan to publish – and, better yet, what your business plan is before you have even come close to finalizing it?
Let’s face it, this is just another smokescreen attempt at a preemptive strike on the Governor-elect and it is shameful. Do you want our state to sink into the mire even further and will you claim bragging rights if it does?
Touché.
No en garde intended, Tom..
I sent him an e-mail. F**k you. Offensive letter to follow. What a pile of hypocritical nonsense.
I truly hope that Edwards and his teams give this screed all the attention it deserves, which is to either line a birdcage with it or else to cover the table when they have some boiled seafood.
The Business Report lost me as a reader the instant McCollister hitched his wagon to jindal’s star. Now that it has gone nova Rolfe has to find a new reason for living, and that is going to be an attempt to prevent our new governor from achieving any success at all, all the while plotting a jindal comeback and ascribing all evil things to John Bel Edwards and President Obama. Rolfe is a shining example of an oligarch whose goal is to further enrich the wealthy while relegating the rest of us to the ash heap.
Gritsngumbo sent McCollister the perfect message. Mr. Winham pointed out a fact of which McCollister is surely aware: the transition (and inauguration festivities and events, I might add) are not taxpayer funded. All this is privately funded by donors, the same as jindal’s were.
McCollister’s sour grape missives have wider reach and impact because he owns a news medium – one which may have lost a bit of its influence and luster after two decades of licking the boots of someone who is now the most disliked man Louisiana. You don’t win many points by continuing to support a pariah, or trying to tear down those who work to rebuild, and who exhibit compassion and, most important, common sense.
I hope you will, as I have, send your comments to the GBRBR. In addition to posting mine online I also sent comments I sent a longer version to the email address they give for commenting to the editors directly – hopefully the publisher reads those. It is important that he, Mr. McCollister, understands the gravity of what he is trying to do.
Stephen, I read Rolfe’s column and then posted a comment calling him out concerning the secretive actions of the LSU Board of Supervisors. Hope he doesn’t edit it out.
It’s there, but at the link for his full column. I copied mine over to that one and you might want to do the reverse with yours so it shows up in both places. Great comment.
Not meaning to be negative, but the only thing that will sway McCollister is a decreasing bottom line. He only cares what his advertisers think and they are….one percenters, who don’t give a rodent’s rear what the rest of us think. Hmmm, maybe I’ll look up some of those advertisers and let them know why I’m taking my business elsewhere. Why support those who pay McCollister’s bills?
I have a pretty thick skin, so I was amused by an email stream with The Advocate a while back when I cancelled my 30-year subscription. The CSR I spoke with was rude and defensive when I said the reason was that the carrier seemed unable to throw a paper at my home any more and I was tired of fighting with the Dispatch people to get a paper. She was so discourteous that I followed with an email to customer service, adding that the content and editing quality had also declined. Bam! I received an email from editor Peter Kovacs – criticizing me. Hee hee. Still cancelled.
@earthmother
“Hmmm, maybe I’ll look up some of those advertisers …”
Expect to see a lot of financial and real estate ads. Any other businesses (main street) are foolishly supporting his political interests which are in direct opposition to their own. Main street businesses usually are attracted to the rhetoric of tax reduction which small businesses will never see. In fact, taxes are actually being shifted over onto them.
Saying Rolfe is a hypocrite is like me saying I think it’s going to be hot come Christmas Day. The obvious doesn’t need to be stated just experienced. But just because Rolfe is a professional hypocrite doesn’t mean those things he writes about, in his self serving, pretentious publications isn’t concerning. What we have seen, but not willing to call Edwards out on, is concerning. Unlike most who post to this blog I hold no pretense that Edwards is going to be anymore transparent, forthright, or hold to his West Point honor code (won’t cheat, steal, lie or tolerate anyone who does) for the next four years. Give me a break.
Oh we figured that out about you some time ago.
Any idea when Rolfe’s position on the LSU Board of Supervisors comes up for reappointment? Maybe another “Exit Party” should be in the planning!
He was last appointed in 2012, so his term won’t end until 2018,
Rolfee Boy and Piyush remind me of Lindsey Graham and John McCain, boxy twins. Rolfee has no credibility whatsoever and he just gets around in that circle of “good old boys and girls” downtown and along with the BRAF they just pass the money around to their pet projects with the assistance of Uncle Skip (not Kip) while other areas of our city keep going down!! Under these boys I remember reading about the so called “Mafia” transforming itself into a modern capitalist enterprise. Well, I think not, I believe that these group could have turned capitalism into a mafia!!
Great article and comments! Jindal, Rolfe, and their constituency are laughing all the way to the Bank. We will never change their arrogant persona, but we must never give up or destroy our government to please /profit them. Again, use the analysis, ALL communication is based upon our fears, ignorance, and prejudices. and education/learning is the key to limiting these attributes. ron thompson
“Rolfe, as publisher of the Business Report,
hepurports to be an objective chronicler of political news.”Perhaps it would be best, were he want to shake off the description of hypocrite, for McCollister to decide whether he actually is a publisher of news of interest to the overall business community or a megaphone for the interests of an elite, special interest, political constituency. If so he would probably need a statement such as this – http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/Special-Features/about-us. Which is it McCollister? A business rag or a political rag?
Certainly, from my perspective at least, his views aren’t even of passing interest to the business community as a whole, but for the special interests of the FIRE sector (Finance/Real Estate) who would place toll booths upon the whole of Louisiana commerce. His positive representation and support of Jindal’s irrational economic policies can only give credence to that argument. Such economic policies do nothing for Main Street businesses, but on the contrary drive up costs to their enterprises and the cost of government itself.
Oops, thanks for the grammatical correction. It’s been taken care of. (There I go again, ending a sentence with a preposition.)
Grin, much to do and so little time.
Which candidate did McCollister support in the election? No matter. Your candidate lost the election, Rolfe. Deal with it, and I’m sure you will, and there will not be much that is worth reading coming from you or your publication.
June, in a demonstration of his courage, he didn’t endorse either candidate for governor. I guess he wanted to leave the door open to attack Vitter if he was elected – Remember Rolfe’s hero and Sen. Vitter are not exactly pals, to say the least, and though all 3 wear the Republican jersey, Vitter had some pretty harsh things to say about The Big J during the campaign. Rolfe might have considered some of them as unforgivable as being a Democrat.
And if he had any courage and ethics he would resign from the LSU Board and allow the new governor to name whomever he deemed proper. But he will not, he lacks ethics and cojones!!
Tom,
I sent this captioned “Who are you?” to info@BelieveInLouisiana.com in March, 2008. I never received a reply. Maybe that was not a monitored address.
“Your Web site states “Believe In Louisiana knows that complete transparency is very important…” I agree. Thus the captioned question. Who is your leader? Who are your members? What is your mission? How are you funded?”
Gill
>
Steve Winham, I responded to your comment, but I see it’s not here. I did not ignore you, but I can’t remember what I said. I also left a comment for McCollister at his publication.
Thanks and Merry Christmas.
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