It was bad enough Friday when Gov. John Bel Edwards announced that career politician and former national chairman of the American Legislative Exchange Council Noble Ellington as his legislative director.
But at the same time, he announced the appointment of Marketa Garner Walters as secretary of the Louisiana Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) at $129,000 per year.
Ellington, besides serving as national chairman of ALEC, was twice named Legislator of the Year. He left the legislature to take a cozy $150,000-a-year job as Chief Deputy Commissioner of the Department of Insurance in 2012 even though he had no background in the insurance industry.
And it was during his tenure as ALEC’s national chairman that Bobby Jindal was presented the organization’s Thomas Jefferson Freedom Award (you may want to check with the descendants of Sally Heming on that freedom part). http://www.alec.org/press-release/hundreds-of-state-legislators/
It’s beginning to look a lot like business as usual for the new administration. Like pro football and major league baseball, Louisiana’s elected leaders seem to keep recycling the same old familiar faces in and out of various state offices. The problem is, they are the ones who helped create the problems. So what makes anyone think they have the solutions now?
Take Garner Walters, for example, who served as Assistant Secretary for the Office of Community Services within DSS (DCFS) from January 2004 until November 2008, when she went by the name Marketa Garner Gautreau.
“A national leader in the field of children and family services, Marketa Garner Walters has worked for more than 20 years to improve the lives of children,” the governor’s announcement said. “As a public servant, a national consultant, and an advocate with deep roots in her home state of Louisiana, Walters has been able to create meaningful change in the lives of family and children over the years.”
So what’s so wrong with that?
Well, not much. Unless one considers her explanation for an incident in which a 17-year-old mentally challenged boy raped a 12-year-old boy in a group home during the time she served as assistant secretary for the Office of Community Services.
“Retarded people have sex—it’s what they do,” she said, sounding more like a GEICO commercial than someone responsible for children’s welfare. That bit of wisdom was imparted during her testimony before the Juvenile Justice Implementation Commission in 2008.
The Office of Community Services is a sub-office of the Department of Children and Family Services, formerly the Department of Social Services (DSS).
A former employee of the Office of Juvenile Justice (OJJ), then the Office of Youth Development, witnessed Gautreau’s testimony.
“In late 2008, DSS and OJJ were called before the Juvenile Justice Implementation Commission about a situation at a Baton Rouge group home housing both OJJ and DSS youth (and) where a 17-year-old mentally challenged boy raped a 12-year-old boy,” the former OJJ employee said.
“OJJ removed our youth from the group home at once and put a moratorium on placement there. DSS, the licensing agency for group homes, left their kids there,” she said.
When questioned by JJIC members, including (then) Lt. Gov. Mitch Landrieu and (then) Louisiana Supreme Court Chief Justice Kitty Kimball, Garner Gautreau offered a bizarre explanation. She said it was really not rape because the youths were of similar mental capacity.
When asked why there was not better staff security to keep the children from roaming around and molesting others, she replied, “Retarded people have sex. It’s what they do.”
The former OJJ employee was aghast. “I told my colleagues I’d wring their necks if they ever made statements like that in public hearings.
“We figured that (Gautreau’s testimony) was a career-limiting speech and we were not surprised when Ms. Garner Gautreau was shortly looking for another job,” the former OJJ employee said.
She added that OJJ stopped placing children in the same facilities as DCFS children.
There was “a consistent pattern of DSS failing to properly monitor and supervise group home operations and looking the other way when deficiencies were noted,” the former OJJ employee said. “Group homes were even re-licensed when still deficient and corrective actions plans were not being followed.
“The DSS review committee was a joke – the agency’s monitors looked the other way and ignored problems at the group homes, even when OJJ removed kids and notified DSS of deficiencies,” she said.
The intent is for private group homes to provide a safe, homelike setting for abused and neglected children who have been removed from their families. But the safety factor appears to have come up far short. Four rapes were reported over a 15-month period at two Baton Rouge group homes.
The Advocacy Center, a nonprofit organization, released a 41-page REPORT ON GROUP HOMES in early 2008 that described filthy conditions and neglect of children’s education and medical needs at many facilities. Additionally, a 2007 report by the legislative auditor found that 90 percent of the group homes had deficiencies when their licenses were renewed.
Garner Gautreau, however, told the Baton Rouge Advocate that she had “a high level of comfort” in the knowledge that 80 percent of homes scored at an acceptable level.
Its report included problems that staff members observed themselves but also cited violations found in previous inspection reports filed by the state from 2004 to August 2007. Those include failure to assure proper medical care at 53 percent of the facilities and failure to assure proper physical environment in 69 percent of homes.
State inspectors cited 18 facilities for failing to have sufficient staff and found cases where homes failed to provide criminal background checks and in some cases knowingly hired people with criminal records, the Advocacy Center report noted.
“In some cases, we found evidence that the Bureau of Licensing had identified the same problems and cited the same facility over and over again. However, nothing changed,” said Stephanie Patrick, who oversees visits to homes for the Advocacy Center.
“I started following DSS failures when our staff consistently documented problems that DSS ignored,” the former OJJ employee said.
“Louisiana’s licensing statute for these facilities fails to provide an adequate framework for assuring the health, safety, and welfare of children in these facilities,” the Advocate Center report said.
What?!!
The state doesn’t assure the safety and welfare of children it is charged with protecting?
Among the deficiencies of the statute, the report said were:
- That it grants final authority over residential facility licensing regulations and standards to two committees, none of whose members is required to be an expert in child residential care and treatment, and many of whose members are providers.
- That it allows the issuance of licenses without full regulatory compliance.
- That it requires the Department to seek the approval of the relevant committee before denying or revoking a facility’s license, and gives the committee veto power over such action.
- That it does not permit DSS to assess civil fines and penalties when facilities violate minimum standards.
The Advocacy Center requested DSS’s Bureau of Licensing reports for the years 2004-2006 and up to August 2007. “A review of these reports shows that a shocking number of the facilities had serious violations of minimum licensing standards, including:
- 38% of the facilities had violations relating to staff criminal background checks;
- 62% of the facilities were found to violate minimum standards regarding children’s medications;
- 53% of the facilities failed to assure that children received proper medical and/or dental care;
- 33% of the facilities were cited for not following proper procedures or violating procedures pertaining to abuse/neglect;
- 62% of the facilities were cited for not assuring their staff received all required annual training;
- 69% of the facilities were cited for not assuring that children were living in a proper physical environment;
- 36% of the facilities were cited for not having appropriate treatment plans or for inappropriate execution of children’s treatment plans;
- 33% of the facilities were cited for not assuring that sufficient qualified direct service staff was present with the children as necessary to ensure the health, safety and well- being of children.
“Many facilities were found to be in violation of minimum standards on inspection after inspection,” the report added.
LouisianaVoice has been receiving unsettling reports of inadequate inspections of foster homes by unqualified DCFS employees. Those reports are currently being investigated by us and will be reported in future posts should they be substantiated.
Meanwhile, we can take comfort in the knowledge that Marketa Garner Walters nee Gautreau will be watching out for the children as the new secretary of DCFS.
Louisiana Voice 
I’m a mandated reporter who has experienced DCFS at its worse. This article explains the multitude of problems in the agency charged with the protection of our vulnerable citizens.
I was hoping to see changes in this vital organization.
I, too, was a mandated reporter, and had a poor experience with a child protection employee who was indifferent to a child’s situation – until my professional capacity was made known and then they pulled out the stops. This young person is now being victimized by DCFS in a case that is winding its way through the courts, I’m waiting for the agency to get it right but all I’m hearing is that staff are poorly trained or incompetent, and those who truly care about the welfare of children have little support and resources to do their jobs.
Earthmother:
Same experience that I have had. It takes a tragic and unnecessary death of a child to motivate them.
The newly found motivation is always short lived.
Right now DHH is blocking the construction of a village for intellectually disabled adults proposed in Abita Springs. They haven’t released standards, yet if future construction doesn’t meet their yet to be published standards it will be torn down to begin again.
Neither agency seems to be fulfilling their stated responsibilities. Crisis response is not good management.
Sadly, the old adage “you get what you pay for” is biting the State in the rump in some really bad areas. With all of the layoffs, unjustified terminations, privatization, withholding of merit increases, etc., that have flogged State employees relentlessly over the past several years, indifference and apathy amongst employees is going to be the norm. Who is going to suffer? Wards of the State such as these juveniles and the general public. The “taxpayers” just thought they had problems in the past. Unless something positive happens to lessen the workloads on the remaining employees and bolster their paychecks a little, things will only get worse. However, from the looks of things thus far, it’s just going to be a continuation of the same stuff.
I am only slightly concerned about the staff appointments and salaries, but the Republican legislators were MISLED by Jindal!! I suggest they will continue to do what the National GOP tells them, JBE has to kiss their ass to an extent, but will convince them to correct their evil ways. ron thompson
You mean like he kiss Dardenne’s ass in adding to what we owe for his big retirement checks here that is http://www.soundoffla.com/?p=252. Tom is doing a great job. People get no raise for years and lose they jobs and scrape by when they retire but JBE kiss Dardenne’s ass with a big monthly retirement check so he can get Dardenne’s votes after he lost. He will get more in a month than many state people get in a year after they work they ass off like these ladies with the other comments. Like Tom say it is just more business as usual.
Tom, I first had a problem with the reappointment of Edmonson. I now also have a problem with the appointment of Ieyoub and Ellington. I was unaware of the baggage Ms. Walters brings with her appointment. With the election of JBE, I was also looking for fresh new faces. I hope this all does not come back to haunt him.
Yep. In the furor over Ellington and Walters, I managed to overlook Ieyoub. Just another political retread. In pro sports, especially baseball, if a player went from team to team he was called a “journeyman” or a “utility player.” In politics, I just refer to them as retreads or recycled problems.
Marketa Garner Gautreau Walters .. ANOTHER DISAPPOINTMENT!!
“Retarded people have sex. It’s what they do.”
Sounds oh so Palinesque, doesn’t it?!
Tom, do you think it was JBE’s staff weighing in on those appointments, or should this be attributed to JBE himself? Of course there will be those who say it doesn’t matter, but….
It’s so hard taking away people’s hopium.
As Molly Ivins wrote, “You got to dance with them what brung you”.
http://www.booknotes.org/Watch/102566-1/Molly+Ivins.aspx
I would say most of us voted for John Bel. If we have buyer’s remorse we’ll just have to wait the four years until we can fix it.
We won’t be the first nor the last to be taken in by a smooth talker. Yet given the choice we had between Vitter/Edwards I don’t think there was much choice.
Not unlike the possible choice between Hillary and Trump.
Oh Tom I won’t even begin to think about that one yet. I’m not sure who the nominees are even going to be.
How about Cruz and Sanders? How about pretty much the whole field?
The first step in recovery is admitting you were wrong.
Riiiight because Vitter was soooo much better 😕
lindsey,
Fredster does have an excellent point. There’s a dearth of choice in candidates when both major parties are bought and paid for. Recognition of this should be rule #1. But hopioids do create the additional side effects of myopic vision and induced euphoria. One of the first big red flags I had that JBE was more than he appeared was the large donation from Capital One, a major regional bank. Too few here picked that up. My view was only hardened by the Transition Committee Report due to the effect of it’s proposal’s shifting the tax base to the lower income classes. All signs of conservative activity. I hope everyone now sees the reason for my early cautions, but indeed we really had no choice with Vitter in the mix. We need a liberal insurgency in the Democratic Party because it’s moved to far to the right providing no effective counterpoint to conservative ideology..
What does this tell you? –
Oops Tom. Didn’t intend for the graphic to appear. Please convert to a link if you find it inappropriate.
Thanks.
I too do not like increasing the taxes on those who are most likely unable to afford such increase. However, JBE will have to convince a republican controlled House to repeal some of the large number of tax credits and tax exemptions that the state doles out to business and industry. Granted, these credits and exemptions were not created by republicans alone, as it normally takes a 2/3 votes to pass some of this stuff. Thus, considering the fact that many of these credits and exemptions have been in place for a long time, long before the republicans gained a majority in both houses, democrats have also played a big part in enacting these credits and exemptions. So we can’t blame it all on republicans. As for incentives, I realize that incentives are needed to attract industry, therefore, the state needs to take a close look at what we are giving up. Did anybody read that the state is giving out more in refunds to corporations, than the state collects in corporate taxes?
clifford,
Yes, I read that article. For those interested, see here: http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2016/01/bobby_jindal_frustrations.html
The statement was by Greg Albrecht, the Legislature’s chief economist who, as chief would be the Repubs economist, I would think. I don’t think that he would feel free to make that statement if there weren’t rumblings within the majority that something has to be done. After all, failure would give notice of their failure and thus possible future losses of Repub seats.
True, the implementation of the corporate welfare legislation was just as much the fault of bought and paid for Dems as well as Repubs. But, given the the Repubs are now in majority, they would be blamed for not doing something about it. I would ask that you keep in mind that the battle isn’t between Dems and Repubs, but that of the people against an entrenched money power where the parties represent, in one way or the other, that interest. They are also not unaware of the rise in progressivism and their ability to disregard it. Put the heat on them.
And also, make sure they understand that minimum wage/equal pay is expected to be addressed, which will actually help revenues. JBE will use the increased sales tax to arm-twist the public into accepting elimination of the federal tax credit and increased income taxes. This will be a state-wide election and so I don’t know how that will go. In my view, the tax structure isn’t progressive enough. But those increased income taxes, if passed, will be diluted by reduced corporate taxes that are listed in the Transition Team Report and is exactly one of the elements of shifting of tax burden that I mentioned. JBE is holding this out as a carrot to the Repubs as well as the reduced corporate tax.
…”as well as the reduced corporate tax.”
er, elimination of the property tax exemption.
Workers at the Alexandria Dcfs office are horribly incompetent. Casa is no better. This is very disappointing.
Let me give you something to research…if it was found, but not disclosed in a way that the public recognized, that there were things that occured unconstitutionally and not in compliance with state and federal law, Jay Dardenne would remain in control until the said crisis was corrected, then and only then, would he relinquish control over to the newly elected governor. RS 42:1134 — Powers, duties, and responsibilities of the board…somebody better start asking questions before we all end up in the poor house.
With all due respect, WTF are you saying here?
MT, what are you talking about?
Dardenne is governor Edwards just has the title. Dardenne has goods on Edwards but took big pay and big time retirement check to ignore. Everybody talk about trackers Vitter had and Edwards had. Who is stupid enough to to think Dardenne have no trackers and opposition research. That’s why Edwards gave away the farm with Dardenne as commish.. If nobody ever researches look for more big time pay to whoever Dardenne say need to be paid.
Seems like a pretty big stretch to me, but I have learned to never say never about anything. I will say I can personally think of no one with a greater capacity to be an effective commissioner of administration than Dardenne.
A pretty big stretch? Do you recall the infamous “silly coffee shop incident?” Vitter wanted that meeting recorded for SOME reason! Let’s review two key players at that meeting:
John Cummings, the biggest and most widely known name supporting Edwards. Backs him heavily financially. Has breakfast weekly with Edwards. Was widely believed to have orchestrated the PI efforts to locate Wendy Cortez, after which she makes a video by a blogger exposing the election-changing charge that, “He got me pregnant, said it wasn’t his baby, and told me to have an abortion.”
Newell Normand, who was very vocal and outspoken in his support for DARDENNE.
Now this meeting is going on the day before the primary at a time when DARDENNE is theoretically still capable of becoming Governor.
Because Vitter’s PI botched the whole assignment and it garnered such fanfare for the botching, little attention was drawn to the fact that a KEY DARDENNE operative, Normand, just MAY have dirt on Edwards’ role in the Cortez incident. Even less attention is paid to the fact that Vitter turned over sworn affidavits to the FBI for the whole matter to be investigated: http://www.soundoffla.com/?p=199.
You are living in a dream world, Stephen, if you cavalierly dismiss the notion that Dardenne may have dirt on Edwards and could thus extract the Commissioner of Administration job, the lucrative salary, and the generous retirement benefit he obtained from Edwards. Doesn’t logical sense dictate that Edwards had the person he wanted for that job long before Dardenne approached him about it? I may be wrong, but I think that is likely the “crisis” M T references.
Unless and until you hear the FBI state it has closed any investigation on the material Vitter supplied and found no evidence of wrongdoing, as you say, “Never say never.”
Do tell M T do tell. Talk is cheap and we’re all ears. BTW, we’ve been in the poor house since Stelly was repealed and the Katrina money ran dry so we’re aware of life in the gutter. Thanks Bobby.
AsYouLikeIt, I only have one problem with your comment. Greg works for the Legislative Fiscal Office. He is not majority staff. Just as the House and Senate staffs are, the LFO staff are nonpartisan. I worked for House Legislative Services and the fact that we were nonpartisan was stressed to each set of new members every four years. Just before I left employment there, there was talk of moving to a partisan staff. Which makes no sense. Enough already. I just wanted to clear that up about Greg.
Ok, thanks for broadening my understanding of the structure here.
AsYouLikeIt: As a supplement to clifford55’s comment, I know Greg Albrecht and know him to be above reproach. If he says something, he says it because he believes it and has a basis in fact for saying it. He is not a shill or flack for anybody.
Thanks Stephen for sharing your personal experience on that subject, I’m further enlightened.
clifford,
Something I neglected to address-
“…incentives are needed to attract industry, therefore, the state needs to take a close look at what we are giving up.”
I don’t think there’s much to give up at present nor has there been for a while. We’ve had years of a dis-inflationary economic environment. We will be quite lucky if we escape actual deflation (depression). Economic activity is collapsing in front of our very noses. Except for the FIRE sector, there’s been nothing but retrenchment so industry isn’t looking to expand or move. The legislature has failed to take into account these events where they could have alleviated some of the current budget woes by taxing the huge capital movements provided by QE, a lot of that going into blowing bubbles in the real estate market. Somewhat understandable because no one knew what QE would actually do, but suspect in a ‘no business tax’ environment. You can imagine what that will mean for incomes and revenue via income taxes. You can’t tax income that doesn’t exist, so this portion of JBE’s plan may well fail. For more on the current economic picture see – http://www.wolfstreet.com/
After reading Tom’s post and these comments, I realize, more than ever, that we can not pin our hopes on a single individual. Instead, we need to be relentlessly calling and emailing our local legislators and expressing our concerns to them. It is a lot of work, but I believe that is the only way we are going to see change. Most importantly, we need to pray for our leaders, whether we personally like them or not!
Patrick, fantastic comment. You hit the nail on the head.
Oh, listen to the little people? Laf! What a joke. I once thought like that. Let me save you some grief. Take a look at Jindal’s wikipedia page. The only thing that got his attention was the threat of a recall election. You’ll have better odds of some influence if you call them out in public on their Twitter/Facebook pages by the thousands. That way they don’t get to hide their little equivocation responses to you by email.
http://www.slate.com/blogs/weigel/2014/04/24/gilens_and_page_find_that_rich_americans_rule_politics_but_despair_the_fact.html
Great point Mr. Robinson. I’m trying to give Mr. Edwards the benefit of the doubt, but appointing Charlie Melancon and Jay Dardenne make me think things are not going to change. Especially with John Alario still head of the senate.
Why the vast differences in pay among the cabinet appointees? It appears that women and minorities tend to get lower salaries.
I hate that this new administration is recycling subpar individuals from previous regimes. There are a lot of HONEST, dependable, experienced people with good ethics and character who would provide a fresh outlook without any political IOU’s. No, they aren’t names most people would recognize unless you were actually familiar with the work they do….Gee, what a novel concept…. Sadly, I fear this is not the way of Louisiana politics…
Excellent point!!!!!
A fresh, new look to state government. Good point. I read your comment after reading Lanny Keller’s article in the Advocate this morning. Though Dardenne may be a retread, I think he was a much needed retread. I believe JBE needed someone, as his commissioner, who could hit the ground running. Not someone who would have to learn on the job. He knows and understands the budget process. Right now that’s a very important qualification. He will not be fooled by the existing bureaucrats or the legislature.
Wellll, I know you guys are chasing another rabbit on this thread, but since the health care aspect of Tom’s article is largely being bypassed, I feel the need to vent. You folks have been a tolerant audience, so I thank you in advance for letting me share….if at times I sound blistered, well, yes, indeed, I have been, but I’m feeling much better now. Thanks.
This will be long….sorry….hope you’ll hang with me.
Actually, in my original post, I was referring to Marketa Garner Gautreau Walter’s appointment as secretary of DCFS. Henry stated above that workers in the Alexandria DCFS office are “horribly incompetent.” With a moral and ethical giant like Walters stepping up to the DCFS helm, don’t look for things to get any better. I believe it was Newton’s Law of Physics #BR549 that clearly states “Dookie rolls downhill.”
I worked for DSS from 1981 until 2005, had a large case of snap, crackle and pop, and decided it was time for a change. I stepped over to DHH, or rather, out of the frying pan and into the fire, when our old buddy Bobbykins decided it was a good thing to rape and plunder public health systems.
Don’t believe the bulls..t his minions spouted about a broken addictions treatment system in Louisiana….For once, Louisiana was at the top of the national field in positive outcomes led by a wonderful DHH secretary named Michael Duffy. The outcomes were in place to support that claim as well as a solid relationship in Washington DC with the head of SAMHSA. Enter Bobbykins, and it’s (another) giant leap for mankind…backwards. That’s when the competent, insightful, compassionate, independent thinkers began to pass beyond the pale. I guessing that some of you reading this were among that number.
I can attest the non-leader our OBH region was assigned has only one valid qualification as a health care professional…his wife is one of Jindal’s lawyers. Most of the true professionals have long exited the former Office of Behavioral Health system in north Louisiana. Our treatment has been inexcusable…our rights violated…our accomplishments either hijacked or hidden…Pity the few remaining civil service employees who struggle to attain the years needed for retirement. Someone review the numbers and interview former staff…bet you a dime to a donut, most were targeted, bullied or harassed out of their jobs and replaced with cheaper, wet-behind-the-ears replacements….more priceless individuals pushed beyond the pale. We can write a book about employees who were run down like dogs for the unforgiveable sins of cancer, heart attacks, liver disease, hypertension, PTSD…all this, but wait! There’s more!
Suffice it to say, that with Jindal’s spineless DHH head (Kathy something or other…I believe Tom has written a few things about her), lack of DHH oversight into the newly created “health care districts”, appointed regional directors who brashly tell career civil servants they no longer answer to civil service but only to Him (kinda like GOD), punctuated with The Great Jindally’s neutered and labotomized civil service commission, here’s one facet of Louisiana healthcare that’s now down the toilet and festering somewhere in a forgotten political sewer. Without emergecy intervention, public healthcare will soon be dead and gone.
And now we (counselors and mental heath care staff) are commanded to forget established and proven best treatment practices to satisfy the whims of an arrogant and self-serving fool? ..to violate our licensure codes and ethics or find ourselves on the job market? We have lost so many experienced and effective employees who refused to swallow the Koolaid….at least some private, made for profit entities now reap the benefits of their experience, and those rare individuals continue to maintain their personal values and ethics.
Good grief! Who is paying attention to this travesty? Hellooooooooooooo…helloooooooooooooo…we are the same people who also told the world about 8 years ago that Bonky Jindal was about to rip us a new one.
My dears, with people like this running the show (into the ground), it’s no wonder public health care in Louisiana is iffy and not in a jiffy. We ALL feel the brunt of these poor (insane?) decisions, but the ones who suffer the most are the ones with the smallest voices…Louisiana’s working poor, the disabled, the homeless, the hopeless, the poverty-stricken, the very young, the very old…look closely…this could be you or yours one day, Mr. Legislative Assistant, Ms. CEO, LSU Board member, State Trooper, Judge, DA, Legislator….or even you, Ms. Marketa Garner Gautreau Walters…and especially you, sir, and with great hope and optimism I voted for you, Gov. John Bel Edwards.
People placed in key jobs and leadership roles must be informed, compassionate, honest and hard-working. Gov. Edwards, we need you to be the leader you swore you would be and find individuals of character, quality and humilty to lead our public agencies. Better to leave the positions unfilled while you make a complete and informed search than to let the cat drag in what amounts to some pretty whiffy human refuse. It might take a little longer to find those who can wear the glass slippers.
Gov, if you are relying on an advisor to make these job appointments, please take to heart what we impassioned few impart to you now: ya have brer debil in yo ear, and ya fo sho need an angel on ya shoulder befo ya put any mo wrecking balls on our play yard. If you came up with these people yourself, I find myself at a loss for words…My initial reaction is that you’ve already begun to break your campaign promises and most definitely violated your Westpoint Code of Honor.
I know it will take a lot to untangle 8 years of chaos in the henhouse, ie: a major cluster cluck, but each and everyone of us has both the responsibility and privilege of being one of those mandated reporters. We have to find our voices and shout to the Heavens what is wrong and why it is wrong and what the consequences will be in the problem isn’t remedied.
It’s great to engage in thoughtful conversations such as Tom facilitates, and it’s something else entirely to be motivated to act. To know and not to act is very akin to being guilty after the fact, or so say I. At any rate, I very firmly believe if we don’t make our voices heard now, loudly and clearly, we will all find ourselves in the same predicament Ms. Marketa Garner Gautreau Walters says is both commonplace and perfectly acceptable for a damaged and defenseless population: screwed.
Yep! Whether Gov. Edwards owed Dardenne an IOU or not is an open question, but we know Dardenne says Edwards approached him for Commissioner at $237,500 (resulting in a $615,000 increase in state retirement unfunded liabilities) because he wanted “the best possible person for the job.” See first video: http://www.soundoffla.com/?p=269. Are these people egomaniacs, or what?
The egotism, or lack thereof, is a matter of perspective and people will be able to make their own decisions if they look at the video in its entirety.
I would urge anybody visiting the site to look at the total content of the recent videos Robert Burns has posted of Kennedy and Dardenne during live press conferences.
Although Burns was a strong supporter of David Vitter in the election and doesn’t mind showing his disdain for JBE, et al, his videos, viewed in context and together provide the most balanced view of the budget situation I’ve seen anywhere. He juxtaposes Kennedy’s assertions with Dardenne’s answers and does so fairly. Of course you have concentrate on the videos and not Burns’ narrative to see that balance, but it is there for those willing to look at real video of real people saying exactly what they said. You don’t get any fairer than that.
I believe Dardenne is the best person for the job. JBE needed a commissioner who could hit the ground running. Dardenne knows and understands the budget process. I have to agree with Lanny Keller. Read his column in today’s Advocate.
Patrick Robinson is right. We need to pray for justice for our political leaders. “Vengeance is mine!,” saith the Lord.
Politicallypooped. I hung with you. Good post. We all should be called to act. About six years ago, I had the pleasure to work with a gentleman who was an employee of the Legislative Fiscal Office. He had once been a colleague of mine with House Legislative Services. One day he told me that he was retiring soon. I asked why and he said he did not want to sit and watch Jindal dismantle state government. Little did I know that what he said would come to fruition. As employees of the legislature, many of us watched and even helped this to happen. As we were merely worker bees for the legislature, drafting their legislation, and helping them accomplish what they wanted to do. Many of us would advise the members not to introduce and push certain items of legislation. But, all we could do was advise. The ultimate decision maker was the legislator. I think your post has inspired me to speak out. As now I can appear before the various legislative committees and speak my mine as a private citizen. Something I could not do as an employee.
Bless you, Clifford..you inspire me as well… I will soon be free, too…and what a day it will be.
Amen, Clifford. I, too, read Politicallypooped’s post in its entirety and found it exceptionally well-written with keen insights both from the heart and to the heart of the matter.
I also know and admire the person of whom you speak. I am sure he left for the same reason many talented, intelligent, knowledgeable people leave the state service – they tire of banging their heads against an unyielding wall. The machine doe not miss these people – If it pays any attention, it is glad they are gone because it no longer has to ignore them or brush them away like annoying gnats. It is of utmost importance to not derail personal and political ambition with facts.
P. S. G. M. was absolutely correct about Gov. Jindal and the dismantling was done with clear intent – and it worked. I don’t think the state will recover from his administration in my lifetime.
Congrats, Tom. This article was picked up by Daily Kos, http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/2/6/1480066/-This-week-at-progressive-state-blogs-Satanists-spring-trap-in-Phoenix-La-gov-appoints-retreads .
Fox news ran a story tonight featuring Marketa Garner Walters complaining about the cuts she had to endure and she stated over and over how she needs more money to assure the safety of children in her care. I e-mailed a link to this article of investigative reporting Fox 8 failed to do, Good job.
Has a new date been set for you to do the OLLI coffee at the Baptist Church in St Frsncisville?
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Not yet, but when it is, I hope it doesn’t rain!