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Archive for April, 2016

As clamor increases for access to public records, some, like Lafayette city marshal, starting to learn expensive lessons

Posted in Corruption, Elections, Ethics, Lawsuits, Legislature, Legislators, Politicians, Public Records, State Agencies, Transparency on April 8, 2016| 6 Comments »

Last of four-part series:

There are those isolated cases scattered across the legal landscape in which a citizen or member of the media goes to court and wins a public records case against a reticent public official but even those occasional victories in the interest of transparency are bittersweet at best.

It goes without saying anyone would rather win than lose; that’s a no-brainer. So prevailing in a case against an elected official or appointee bent on blocking the free flow of information always evokes a certain smug euphoria.

On the other hand, each victory in a public records lawsuit should prompt members of the media and governmental watchdogs alike to ask five basic questions:

  • Why was litigation necessitated in the first place?
  • Why aren’t officials more forthcoming with information?
  • Were they trying to hide something embarrassing or incriminating?
  • Or were they just being obstinate as a matter of general principle?
  • Was fighting disclosure worth the legal costs and the potential of fines for noncompliance—and even the possibility of criminal charges?

The IND, a Lafayette news organization has most likely asked each of those questions repeatedly in the case of Lafayette City Marshal Brian Pope and his determination to shield 588 pages of emails from Pope’s workstation at the Lafayette City Marshal’s office.

For his part, Pope must be dwelling on the final question: Was it worth it?

http://www.katc.com/story/30893257/independent-wins-public-records-suit-against-city-marshal

At issue is Pope’s alleged use of his office—and the city’s computer—to campaign for Lafayette Parish Sheriff candidate Chad Leger over his opponent in the October 2015 election, Mark Garber. Garber ultimately won that election.

But when The IND requested those emails, apparently withheld some records and deleted others that were nevertheless captured on the Lafayette City Government servers through which all emails to and from city departments are routed.

Fifteenth Judicial District Court Judge Jules Edwards on Dec. 14 issued an order enjoining Pope from withholding any requested records. The IND originally made its public records requests on Oct. 8 and again on Nov. 30 and on Jan. 4 of this year, Edwards ruled that Pope’s response was “woefully inadequate,” that his withholding of documents was “arbitrary,” and his failure to respond “unreasonable.” http://theind.com/article-22457-Judge-Marshal-Pope’s-response-still-‘woefully-inadequate’.html

By the time Judge Edwards was finished with Pope, the tally was nearly $100,000 in penalties (at $100 per day for each day Pope failed to respond to the requests, or $17,300), plus attorney and expert fees and court costs—and, get this: 173 hours (one hour for each day of non-compliance) of community service instructing government employees on public records law. Oh, the irony!

Just for good measure, Judge Edwards sentenced Pope to one month in jail for contempt of court, suspending all but seven days and reducing that to house arrest.

The judge’s ruling also held Pope personally responsible for all costs and penalties.

Former Lafayette City Attorney Mike Hebert testified during cross-examination that all email traffic “got routed through LCG (Lafayette City Government) servers, and thus is as much the property of LCG as it would be the marshal’s. As soon as we became custodians we became responsible for producing the records,” he added.

Pope, for his part, fell back on the tried and true “everybody does it” explanation for his using his office for political fundraising purposes. “I’m a political figure,” he said. “I can use my office for my campaign. My predecessor did it, too.” That argument apparently failed to impress Judge Edwards.

Edwards also came down hard on Pope when Pope showed up in court in uniform and armed with his handgun, both of which are contrary to Louisiana law regarding police appearing in court as defendants.

Edwards said that and his “everyone does it” defense provided “remarkable insight” into how Pope runs his office. http://www.theadvertiser.com/story/news/crime/2016/03/24/judge-sentences-lafayette-city-marshal-jail-contempt/82208738/

Appropriately enough, on April 1, Pope’s house arrest was postponed while he appeals his contempt conviction. http://theadvocate.com/news/acadiana/15361890-123/house-arrest-for-lafayette-city-marshal-brian-pope-postponed-during-appeal-in-public-records-case

The Lafayette case is one of the ugliest public records lawsuits in the state since the brouhaha over the LSU Board of Supervisors’ furtive selection of F. King Alexander as LSU President. But that doesn’t mean things can’t get nastier. With the explosion of Internet blogging generating more public records requests, any immovable objects (resistance or reluctance in complying) is certain to be met by the irresistible force (litigation).

Bloggers like Elliott Stonecipher, Jason France, and yours truly, along with citizens like James Finney, Barbara Ferguson, and Charles Hatfield, some members of the media, and legislators like State Rep. Jerome “Dee” Richard are going to keep pushing for more sunshine so long as there continues to be contracts with 50 blank pages or superficial “investigations” like the charade recently carried out by State Police in the Burl Cain and Angola State Penitentiary episode.

We are going to keep digging as long as we have officials attempting to sneak illegal retirement benefit increases into legislative bills during the closing minutes of legislative sessions. We will keep making public records requests into questionable methods of investigation and punishment carried out by autonomous boards and commissions like the State Dentistry Board and State Board of Medical Examiners. We will continue to ask questions when we observe a double standard in how we are expected to comport ourselves as citizens and how public officials are allowed to conduct themselves in their official capacities—be they agency heads, elected officials, regulatory boards and commissions or law enforcement agencies.

And when we encounter that immovable object, that resistance to transparency, we will continue to haul your butts into court until we are on a first-name basis with every judge in Baton Rouge. Reluctance or denial on your part will only strengthen the resolve on our part.

After all is said and done, we deserve two things from our government:

  • An even playing field where all live under and abide by the same rules;
  • The right to see, hear, and know that even the most obscure agency carries out its business in an upright, honest and fair manner.

We will accept nothing less.

And we shouldn’t have to sue someone to earn that right

 

 

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Why are public records laws enacted? Why don’t judges enforce laws? Perhaps Deshotels case will bring change

Posted in Corruption, Education, Ethics, Judges, Lawsuits, Media, Politicians, Public Records, State Agencies, Transparency on April 7, 2016| 9 Comments »

Third of four-part series:

Given the reluctance to impose meaningful fines in cases of blatant public records compliance violations, one has to wonder:

  • What is the purpose of going through the time consuming procedure of passing laws if they are not going to be enforced?
  • What is the purpose of a judge donning a robe and sitting on the bench if he/she has no intention of upholding so even the minimum penalty for violations of the law?
  • Is there some sort of unwritten agreement among certain judges and public officials that says judges must merely wink at violations and hand down only token penalties?

Louisiana laws, we can only assume, were enacted for a reason and that reason was to ensure strict compliance and to lay out proper punishment for violators. To that end, Louisiana Revised Statute (L.R.S.) 44:35 (E) (1) clearly says:

  • If the court finds that the custodian arbitrarily or capriciously withheld the requested record, it may award the requester any actual damages proven by him to have resulted from the actions of the custodian. It may also award the requester civil penalties not to exceed $100 per day, exclusive of Saturdays, Sundays and legal public holidays, for each such day of such failure….

That’s certainly clear enough but L.R.S.) 44:35 (E) (2) then goes on to say:

  • The custodian shall be personally liable for the payment of any such damages and shall be held liable in solido with the public body for the payment of the requester’s attorney’s fees and other costs of litigation, except where the custodian has withheld or denied production of the requested record or records on advice of legal counsel representing the public body in which the office of such custodian is located. In the event the custodian retains private legal counsel for his defense in connection with the request for records, the court may award attorney’s fees to the custodian. (Emphasis added.)

LOUISIANA PUBLIC RECORDS ACT

We have already seen in earlier posts this week how judges, through some form of convoluted rationale, are able to substantially reduce that $100 per day fine to insignificant amounts and in at least one case, to nothing at all.

First there was the case of the Baton Rouge Advocate and the LSU Daily Reveille. The two publications sued the LSU Board of Supervisors over its refusal to provide a list of candidates for LSU President. They won and the district court judge awarded more than $50,000 in penalties calculated on the $100-a-day formula for non-compliance only to see the monetary award overturned and negated in full by the Louisiana First Circuit Court of Appeal.

Then came our own lawsuit against the Division of Administration and Commissioner Kristy Nichols. DOA delayed responses to numerous requests by LouisianaVoice for several months only to be hit with a penalty of only $800 plus court costs and attorney fees.

Louisiana’s Public records laws being routinely ignored by officials; lawsuits, fines increase – all at taxpayer expense

And in the case of Barbara Ferguson and Charles J. Hatfield and their lawsuit against the Department of Education on behalf of their non-profit research organization, Research on Reforms, the court’s ruling was even more egregious. Three full years of non-compliance came to 684 days by the plaintiffs’ estimation (we calculated the number to be closer to 745 days) and they requested the full application of the penalty of $100 per day, or $68,400 plus attorney fees ($29,779) and court costs ($3,121).

FERGUSON REQUESTED JUDGMENT

Baton Rouge District Judge William Morvant first denied the plaintiffs’ claim outright but was overturned by the First Circuit which remanded the case back to Morvant for the imposition of penalties. Morvant not only cut the attorney fees in half to $15,000, but he completely disregarded the penalties for DOE’s—and Morvant’s apparently—disregard of the law.

FIRST CIRCUIT RULING ON FERGUSON

Louisiana Department of Education does poorly combating public records requests; Rep. Richard bill seeks trasparency

So now comes Mike Deshotels and his public records lawsuit against veteran defendant John White and his Department of Education.

This one is pretty easy except for one minor snag:

Deshotels filed his lawsuit on April 10, 2015, after two months of back and forth communications between him and DOE failed to produce the requested Multi Stat report for all public schools in Louisiana which contained the actual total number of students enrolled in each grade.

MICHAEL DEHOTELS PETITION

Even though Deshotels never requested any personal information, DOE ultimately refused his request “because of their obligations to protect the personal information of the students pursuant to FERPA (Family Education Rights and Privacy Act),” according to Deshotel’s petition.

The case finally made its way to trial in Baton Rouge on Oct. 19, 2015, before 19th Judicial District Judge Todd Hernandez.

Hernandez broke with the pack when he held John White personally liable. More than that, he assessed White with attorney fees and court costs of $11,988.84. And then, applying the letter of the public records law he ordered the payment of $100 per day “from Feb. 16, 2015, until the requested records were produced.

DESHOTEL JUDGMENT

Despite his order, those records were not produced until more than five months later, when they were submitted along with a March 31, 2016, settlement offer. That additional delay brought the total cost, including attorney fees and court costs, to about $49,000, according to Deshotels’s Baton Rouge attorney J. Arthur Smith.

And Judge Hernandez, as if sending his own message, held John White personally liable, an indication that Hernandez had reason to believe White had withheld the records on his own volition and without the advice of legal counsel.

(Parenthetically, if more judges followed the example set by Hernandez, public officials might be more cognizant of the importance of complying with the law.)

Still White persisted in his state of denial. That March 31 settlement letter from DOE legal counsel G.M. Millet, Jr., was little more than an insult to Smith and Deshotels.

“After careful consideration, the Department of Education has decided to provide an unsuppressed copy of the October 2014 Multi-Stats Report to Michael Deshotels and to pay him $9,292.74 for attorney’s fees and litigation expenses pursuant to Judge Hernandez’s judgment,” the letter said.

SETTLEMENT OFFER

He then added the traditional legal verbiage that nevertheless appeared particularly absurd: “By complying with those portions of the judgment, in lieu of appeal, the Department is not admitting fault.” Not admitting fault? Really?

Millet also said that DOE planned to appeal the “portion of the judgement (sic) imposing fines against the Department for being arbitrary and capricious.”

Smith now says that the appeals have run, meaning the deadline has passed for White and DOE to appeal the judgment. Still, no payment has been made.

So Smith is now preparing to take matters to the next level.

He has prepared a Motion for Judgment Debtor Examination as the first step toward seizure of White’s assets, including his 2013 Infiniti and garnishment of his state wages.

In that motion, yet to be filed pending Hernandez’s ruling on a separate DOE motion, Smith asks “to examine John White, Defendant/Judgment Debtor and his income records, pay check stubs, W-2 forms, last year’s income tax returns, business papers, automobile titles and registration certificates (pink slips), records of accounts in banks and other financial institutions (checking and savings) on all matters pertaining to his income or property, in order that Plaintiff (Deshotels) may find means to execute the Judgment, and that the said Defendant (White) should be ordered to appear before this Honorable Court at such time as the Court assigns for said examination.”

MOTION FOR DEBTOR EXAMINATION

Now that should get someone’s attention, especially if Smith’s motion is granted.

If that’s what it takes to change the mindset of bureaucrats and elected officials, to hold them accountable to the laws of this state, to force them to cease furtive actions away from public observation, then so be it.

Tomorrow: Lafayette City Marshal Brian Pope has learned an expensive lesson for his refusal to make available 588 pages of emails Lafayette-based newspaper The Independent. Besides monetary penalties totaling almost $100,000, a state district judge tacked on seven days’ house arrest for contempt of court. That sentence has been postponed pending the outcome of Pope’s appeal of the conviction.

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Louisiana Department of Education does poorly combating public records requests; Rep. Richard bill seeks trasparency

Posted in Corruption, Education, Ethics, Governor's Office, Lawsuits, Legislature, Legislators, Media, Politicians, Public Records, Transparency on April 6, 2016| 6 Comments »

Second of four-part series:

When the conversation turns to public records, there’s seldom a reporter, governmental watchdog agency, or a private citizen active in the public arena who doesn’t have a personal story to tell about obstacles encountered in efforts to obtain documents.

Nowhere in state government is that more evident than in the labyrinth known as the Louisiana Department of Education (LDOE) and in the governor’s office over the past eight years.

And if State Rep. Jerome “Dee” Richard (I-Thibodaux) gets his way, his HB 166 would make records of the governor’s office more accessible to the public. HB 166

The House Governmental Affairs Committee will hold hearings on his bill Thursday at 9 a.m.

Bobby Jindal is gone and there is reason to hope for a new era of openness in the governor’s office. But across Third Street from the towering State Capitol, John White remains at DOE and if what’s past is truly prologue, to borrow a phrase from Shakespeare’s The Tempest, any fantasizing about change is just that: fantasizing.

All you have to do is ask anyone who has suffered through the process of obtaining anything of substance in the way of public records from LDOE.

Ask James Finney, Ph.D., about his efforts to get answers to his records requests.

Finney began his quest for records from White back in April 2013 and in the ensuing years has filed dozens of other public records requests with DOE, all to no avail. Finally, after giving up on getting DOE and White to comply with state law, he sued on May 22, 2015. The suit will be heard by 19th Judicial District Court Judge William Morvant, which is not necessarily good news for Finney as we shall see later. It’s also unusual for a public records lawsuit to take nearly a year for trial in that they are supposed to be put on a fast track for hearing.

FINNEY LAWSUIT

White has been taken to court at least three times in the past. He has lost no fewer than three times. In two of those three cases, monetary penalties handed down by the courts still have yet to be paid.

Barring any delays the trial in Finney’s case is set for April 29. If he prevails and if he is awarded monetary damages (and there is no reason he shouldn’t, Judge Morvant notwithstanding), he stands to reap quite a financial windfall, given the number of unmet requests and the time periods involved—all at taxpayer expense, of course.

The lone exception is LouisianaVoice, which sued and won back in 2013 and was awarded damages of $2,800 plus court costs and attorney fees. In our case, the records were produced and the monetary damages paid. But not since then.

Ask Barbara Ferguson, Ph.D. and Charles J. Hatfield.

In April of 2013, exasperated at their failure to obtained requested documents from DOE, they sued. http://www.louisianaweekly.com/research-on-reform-files-lawsuit-against-la-doe/

RESEARCH ON REFORMS LAWSUIT

Ferguson is the first female superintendent of New Orleans public schools and an attorney. Hatfield is managing partner of a company specializing in diverse information retrieval and data analysis for public opinion researches. Together, they head up a non-profit organization called Research on Reforms.

Research on Reforms was founded after Hurricane Katrina and the subsequent takeover of 107 New Orleans public schools. Ferguson agreed that the Orleans Parish School Board “was a mess.” She said she was initially “delighted” at the conversion of the schools into charter schools but soon came to the realization that things were not as they appeared, particularly with the Recovery School District (RSD).

Data requested by Research on Reforms for the ’06-’07 and the ’07-’08 school years was provided but beginning in the ’08-’09 school year, the organization began to experience roadblocks thrown up to block its requests. Among the records it did receive was one with the absurd claim that one RSD school boasted a 100 percent attendance rate.

“You don’t have 100 percent attendance at a high school, ever,” Hatfield said.

“Research on Reforms, Inc. is not interested in obtaining privileged student-level data,” the organization said on its Web site after the lawsuit was filed.

But because LDOE was providing raw data to other national reporting organizations, Ferguson and Hatfield felt they had a right to the same information.

“LDOE is becoming increasingly less transparent through its recent actions to modify its website, removing historical databases and removing actual current school enrollment counts,” the Web site said.

“Because Louisiana’s state takeover of public schools was an experiment in how to improve failing schools, data had to be collected, aggregated and analyzed to determine whether the experiment was working or not,” it said. “While the Louisiana Department of Education collected, and continues to collect, the raw student level data needed for analysis, the LDOE has developed its own rules for releasing this data.”

LDOE dug in its heels and the lawsuit proceeded to trial in Baton Rouge’s 19th Judicial District Court before District Judge…..William Morvant.

Incredulously, Morvant sided with LDOE and White that the citizens of Louisiana had no right to information about how the state’s ballyhooed school reform movement under Bobby Jindal and White was progressing or if the reforms were even remotely successful.

In effect, it was none of our business.

Fortunately, in the interest of transparency and open government, the First Circuit Court of Appeal disagreed with Morvant and on Sept. 19, 2014, it upheld Research on Reform’s appeal, reversed the lower court judge and remanded the case back to Morvant’s court for the awarding of damages. The $675 cost of Research on Reform’s appeal was assessed against LDOE.

FIRST CIRCUIT RULING ON FERGUSON

The decision by the three-judge panel was unanimous.

“We agree with the plaintiffs (Research on Reforms) that the Louisiana Public Records Law does not conflict with FERPA,” the First Circuit ruling said. FERPA is the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act, a federal law that protects the privacy of student education records.

“FERPA allows an educational agency to create a record to be used for education research only if the personally-identifiable information of the students is de-identified, or that the records are coded,” the ruling continued. “According to FERPA, an educational agency can release a student’s record if the agency removes personally identifiable information and replaces it with a code….Once the document is legally created, the document becomes a public record under the Louisiana Public Records Law.

“For the reasons set forth above, this court maintains the appeal, the judgment of the trial court is reversed, and this matter is remanded to the trial court for further proceedings.”

With the issue of whether or not the records were public settled, the only remaining proceeding was the awarding of damages.

“We went back into district court and Judge Morvant was not happy he’d been reversed,” said Ferguson.

In its memorandum in support of motion for attorney fees, court costs and penalties, Research on Reforms requested that Morvant award for the trial and appeal litigation $29,779 in attorney fees and $3,121in court costs, a total of $32,850.

FERGUSON REQUESTED JUDGMENT

Research on Reforms requested the documents on Jan. 27, 2012, and LDOE did not release the documents until three years later, on Jan. 22, 2015.

L.R.S. 44:1 et seq. provides penalties for non-compliance:

  • If the court finds that the custodian arbitrarily or capriciously withheld the requested record, it may award the requester any actual damages proven by him to have resulted from the actions of the custodian. It may also award the requester civil penalties not to exceed $100 per day, exclusive of Saturdays, Sundays and legal public holidays, for each such day of such failure to give notification.

Taking into account weekends and the 10 official legal holidays per year in Louisiana, there were 684 working days over the three-year period, according to the motion. At $100 per day, Research on Reforms was within its rights in asking for penalties totaling an additional $68,400—a total of $101,250 (actually, LouisianaVoice calculated 745 days, which would have increased the penalty to $74,500 in addition to court costs and attorney fees).

The Louisiana Public Records Law further says:

  • The custodian (in this case, John White) shall be personally liable for the payment of any such damages and shall be held liable in solido with the public body for the payment of the requester’s attorney’s fees and other costs of litigation, except where the custodian has withheld or denied production of the requested record or records on advice of legal counsel representing the public body in which the office of such custodian is located. In the event the custodian retains private legal counsel for his defense in connection with the request for records, the court may award attorney’s fees to the custodian (Emphasis added).

So, when all parties reconvened in Morvant’s courtroom on Nov. 9, 2015, what did Morvant, in his magnanimous administration of justice under Louisiana’s Public Records Law, award Research on Reforms? How did he protect the rights of Louisiana’s citizens to access public records without future unnecessary and unfair challenges while sending a message to politicians and bureaucrats that defiance of the law was not to be taken lightly?

Why, he slashed attorney fees and courts exactly by more than half, of course, to a paltry $18,121—$3,121 in court costs and $15,000 in attorney fees. (You have to wonder what Morvant’s attorney fees would have been had he been in private practice and handled this case.)

But, but…what about the $100 per day penalty, the $68,400?

Surely you jest. “It is ordered, adjudged and decreed that …Louisiana Department of Education shall pay to plaintiffs $3,121 in court costs and $15,000 in attorney fees, for a total of $18,121. Period. MORVANT GRANTED HALF OF REQUESTED FEES

No mention of penalties for LDOE’s openly defying the law. Nada. Zilch. Zero.

It would be egregious enough if that was the end of the story, but it isn’t.

Now LDOE refuses to pay the judgment.

Department legal counsel Chris Frugé informed Ferguson and Hatfield that they must now find a legislator who will introduce an amendment in the current legislative session for payment not by LDOE, but by the Legislature.

That procedure is followed in payment of judgments against the state and the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development (DOTD) involving automobile accidents. That’s because of some misapplication of federal funds by DOTD several years ago, but that has never been the case with any other agency—and it certainly was not the case in LouisianaVoice’s $2,800 award in 2013.

Unless there is some provision that we don’t know about, that is not the law; it’s just another hoop LDOE is making citizens jump through in order to hold John White’s feet to the fire of Louisiana law.

Tomorrow: In a case in which John White was held personally liable for $49,000 in fines, attorney fees and court costs, he has chosen to ignore the court’s decision and has made no effort to pay the judgment. But that may be about to change when the plaintiff attorney unveils his fallback plan in court.

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Louisiana’s Public records laws being routinely ignored by officials; lawsuits, fines increase – all at taxpayer expense

Posted in Corruption, DOA, Education, Ethics, Governor's Office, Lawsuits, Legislature, Legislators, Media, Politicians, Public Records, Transparency on April 5, 2016| 6 Comments »

First of four-part series:

Officially, it’s Louisiana Revised Statute (L.R.S.) 44:1 et seq., or informally, the Louisiana Public Records Act.

It’s a sister statute to L.R.S. 42:4.1 et seq., otherwise known as the Louisiana Open Meetings Law.

Both are state laws enacted to give us the right to examine public documents and to attend meetings of public bodies in order to know what our elected representatives and political appointees are doing that affect our lives.

But to some in positions of authority, from city marshals to the previous governor’s office, they are merely suggestions.

And that’s what’s keeping Louisiana courts a little busier these days.

Today begins a four-part installment on ways in which certain public servants circumvent or even ignore the state’s public records law.

Under L.R.S. 44:1 et seq., a public body is defined to include a “political subdivision, or any committee, subcommittee, advisory board, or task force thereof.”

Public records include “all books, records, writings, accounts, letters and letter books, maps, drawings, photographs, cards, tapes, recordings, memoranda, and papers, and all copies, duplicates, photographs, including microfilm, or other reproductions thereof, or any other documentary materials, regardless of physical form or characteristics, including information contained in electronic data processing equipment, having been used, being in use, or prepared, possessed, or retained for use in the conduct, transaction, or performance of any business, transaction, work, duty, or function which was conducted, transacted, or performed by or under the authority of the constitution or laws of this state, or by or under the authority of any ordinance, regulation, mandate, or order of any public body or concerning the receipt or payment of any money received or paid by or under the authority of the constitution or the laws of this state.”

Custodian is defined as “the public official or head of any public body having custody or control of a public record, or a representative specifically authorized by him to respond to requests to inspect any such public records.

“It shall be the duty of the custodian of the public records to provide copies to persons so requesting.

“In any case in which a record is requested and a question is raised by the custodian as to whether it is a public record, such custodian shall within three days, exclusive of Saturdays, Sundays, and legal public holidays, of the receipt of the request in writing for such record notify in writing the person making such request of his determination and the reasons therefor. Such written notification shall contain a reference to the basis under law which the custodian has determined exempts a record, or any part thereof, from inspection, copying, or reproduction.” (Emphasis added.)

Under L.R.S. 44:31, the right to examine records is clearly spelled out:

  • Providing access to public records is a responsibility and duty of the appointive or elective office of a custodian and his employees.
  • Any person may inspect, copy, reproduce, or obtain a reproduction of any public record.
  • The burden of proving that a public record is not subject to inspection, copying, or reproduction shall rest with the custodian.

LOUISIANA PUBLIC RECORDS ACT

There is no ambiguity in the law. It’s all right there in black and white. Yet, there are those, notable of them Superintendent of Education John White, former Commissioner of Administration Kristy Nichols, the LSU Board of Supervisors, a city marshal, and some judges who steadfastly abide by their own set of rules that were—and are—in stark contrast to what the law enunciates in concise language that any layman can easily comprehend.

Two key words are now routinely ignored: Public, as in public records, and Servant, as in public servant.

Almost exactly three years ago, in April 2013, the Baton Rouge Advocate and the LSU Daily Reveille filed suit against the LSU Board of Supervisors to obtain a complete list of candidates for LSU President, a position awarded to F. King Alexander. After winning at the district court level, the First Circuit Court of Appeal split the baby by partially reversing 19th JDC Judge Janice Clark’s ruling that the names of all 35 candidates must be turned over to the public. The First Circuit ruled that only the four finalists for the post and not the entire 35 names must be made public. http://theadvocate.com/news/11213914-123/lsu-wins-partial-reversal-in

The First Circuit also overturned Judge Clark’s sanctions against LSU which would have had the university having to pony up some $50,000 in fines.

LouisianaVoice has participated in the running battle over public records, winning one, losing one and winning a partial victory in a third that is currently on appeal.

The first case involved a request for records from the Louisiana Department of Education. When those records were not forthcoming, we sued and won a judgment of $2,800 plus court costs and attorney’s fees. That judgment was paid by DOE shortly after the decision by Judge Clark.

We later sued the Division of Administration but our suit was tossed by District Judge Mike Caldwell who helped DOE attorneys formulate their objections from the bench. But soon we were back before Caldwell in a second public records suit that rendered a strange decision, a token slap on the wrist to Nichols who then appealed.

In that case, we had several public records request outstanding, including one in which we made our request in October 2015. On the same day we made our request, we had a state representative file an identical request through House Legislative Services. The legislator had the records in two days. In January of 2016, three months later, we still did not have the records, including the one given the legislator within two days, so we sued. Wonder of wonders, no sooner was the lawsuit served than presto! DOA hand delivered a disc containing the requested records.

Prior to trial, DOE offered to settle our case for attorney fees and court costs. We declined.

So we again entered the courtroom, again presided over by Judge Caldwell, confident that we had a solid case. According to our calculations, DOA owed fines of $100 per day for each day in which each of the requests went unanswered—a total of about $45,000. Caldwell, in his infinite wisdom, awarded us eight days on one request, or $800, plus court costs and attorney fees. He also ruled that Nichols would be personally liable, meaning a check would not be forthcoming from DOE but from her personal checking account.

Then Nichols did a curious thing: she appealed. She appealed an $800 judgment to the First Circuit. And even though Caldwell held her personally liable, the taxpayers are picking up the legal costs of her appeal and those costs aren’t cheap. But since she appealed, we did likewise, asking the First Circuit to overrule Caldwell and assess the full $45,000. Arguments have not been scheduled on the appeals but it is our contention if the lower court decision is upheld or better yet, if the appellate court decides to impose the full amount, or somewhere in between, Ms. Nichols should be required to pay her own legal costs. It was her decision, after all, to take a personal penalty up the ladder.

Tomorrow: Superintendent of Education John White personifies the contempt with which officials treat requests for public records—and adverse court judgments by concocting non-existent rules along the way that delay justice by requiring plaintiffs to jump through imaginary hoops to collect what’s owed them.

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At last! Bobby Jindal: His Destiny and Obsession is now available in e-books. Book version scheduled for April 15

Posted in Book Review, Corruption, Ethics, Governor's Office on April 4, 2016| 1 Comment »

For those who have been so patient during the inevitable unseen delays that somehow always seem to occur in the publishing world, my book Bobby Jindal: His Destiny and Obsession, is finally available—on Kindle.

The actual book is scheduled for release on April 15 but for those of you who like e-books, you may now order your copy for $26.55 at this site: http://www.amazon.com/BOBBY-JINDAL-HIS-DESTINY-OBSESSION-ebook/dp/B01DTHMSNM/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1459802517&sr=1-1

Folks, I would be less than honest if I said I wasn’t excited about this book. Like my earlier book, Louisiana Rocks: The True Genesis of Rock & Roll, this work is the result of years of research—eight years, in fact, for that’s the length of His reign of error as Louisiana’s largely absentee governor.

Even as he raised his right hand to take the oath of office way back in 2007, he already had his focus firmly fixed on what he somehow assumed in his narcissistic temperament was his ultimate destiny: POTUS. Family members in attendance that day, in fact, were overheard already discussing that very destiny as though karma already ruled the day.

But it didn’t happen—and it won’t. Not this year, not in 2020, not ever. Try as he might to convince voters otherwise, he simply doesn’t have the creds, the cojones, to play with the big boys. He fooled Louisiana’s voters—twice. Elevating his game to the national stage and pulling the hat trick is another proposition altogether.

That’s what the book is about: his disastrous programs, his bull-headed dogma, his disdain for voters who he seemed to feel were beneath him once he won “the only job he ever wanted.” Yes, he even lied about that, not that a single person believed it for a nano-second. We all knew he was wanted to run for president in the worst way—and he certainly did.

To borrow a line from Kris Kristofferson’s The Pilgrim:

He’s a walkin’ contradiction, partly truth and partly fiction

Takin’ every wrong direction on his lonely way back home

He first ran in 2003 but lost when Protestant voters in North Louisiana (who, ironically, would embrace him in 2007 and 2011) rejected him. So, he ran for Congress in 2004, running in a Congressional district that included mostly white conservative Republican Jefferson Parish even though his official residence was in Baton Rouge. He won that election and was re-elected in 2006 before capturing the governor’s office the following year.

While we do touch on those three years in Congress, during which time he mysteriously increased his net worth to the status of millionaire, it is those wretched years as governor on which we devoted most of the book.

So, if you are one of those who love electronic books, get your order in now.

If you prefer a book you can hold in your hands (as I do) and you would like a copy signed personally to you by me, click on the book cover’s image to the right and place your order with Cavalier House Books of Denham Springs.

Cavalier House Books is about three blocks from my home and when your copy comes in, he will call me and I will dutifully hop on my bicycle and ride up to this store and sign your copy before he mails it to you.

I recommend this for two reasons: John Cavalier, who, along with his wife Michelle, owns the store, built the LouisianaVoice blog page as a favor to me and his is the only advertisement LouisianaVoice accepts on our Web page. Just as he did not charge me for building our blog page, I do not charge him for the advertising.

The other reason is I am a strong supporter of mom and pop businesses in general. I strongly urge you to support their bookstore by ordering your signed copy from Cavalier House Books.

 

 

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