Stephen F. Campbell has been around quite a while in a number of capacities within the Department of Public Safety (DPS) and now he’s back as something called a Confidential Assistant to Louisiana State Police (LSP) Superintendent Mike Edmonson at the Joint Emergency Services Training Center (JESTC) in Zachary—with a benefit package that includes free room and board.
Campbell is a former Deputy Secretary of DPS in the Transportation and Environmental Safety Section. Following his retirement in 1987, he served as a public safety and transportation advocate in Washington, D.C., where he represented the American Trucking Association, the Motor Freight Carriers Association and the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance.
On July 11, 2011, he returned to LSP as Training and Development Program Staff Manager at $84,000 per year.
He remained at that position just over a year, terminating on July 31, 2012. Five days later, on August 5, 2012, he was appointed by Bobby Jindal as Commissioner of the Office of Motor Vehicles (OMV) to succeed former State Sen. Nick Gautreaux.
http://kpel965.com/new-director-for-the-office-of-motor-vehicles/
He started out at a salary of $99,000 but on July 1, 2015, during a time state civil service employees were going yet another year without pay increases, he was bumped up to $104,000.
But political realities being what they are, Campbell’s position as head of OMV was destined to be short-lived. Four months later, Democrat John Bel Edwards was elected governor and in December, the governor-elected pegged former Democratic State Rep. Karen St. Germain of Plaquemine to the position and Campbell appeared to be out.
http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2015/12/john_bel_edwards_appointees.html
But wait. When you’re a FOE (Friend of Edmonson), you’re never out.
Campbell had no sooner cleaned out his desk than Edmonson appointed him as his Confidential Assistant on January 11, coincidentally, the day Edwards was inaugurated as Governor.
Edmonson attempted to negotiate a salary for Campbell that was comparable to what he was making as OMV director but was told that Campbell was not qualified for that salary grade.
So, his salary is $64,500 per year and while his official title is Confidential Assistant, he is assigned to JESTC as an assistant manager, a position that never existed before. Observers at JESTC insist that he does little, if anything, to earn his salary.
One insider said, “An assistant manager was never needed during those years that JESTC was training foreign officers, nor when Triple Canopy had a large portion of the property leased for their training operations.”
Triple Canopy, founded in May 2003 by veteran U.S. Army Special Forces soldiers, is a private security company that provides risk management, security, and mission support services for corporate, government and non-profit clients.
“There have been no outside agencies doing substantial business with JESTC since Triple Canopy moved away a couple of years ago,” our source added.
A search by LouisianaVoice of current and expired contracts turned up no contracts between LSP and Triple Canopy, so the terms of the lease agreement remain obscured. LouisianaVoice has made a public records request for that lease agreement.
The JESTC features a Staff Development Center (SDC), a motel-type facility. SDC rooms are commonly assigned to troopers when they arrive from out of town for extended training. The rooms are assigned by the SDC staff during normal office hours and by an LSP Barracks supervisor after normal office hours. Rooms are also rented by outside agencies which use the facility for various activities, including training.
LouisianaVoice has been told that the Barracks Lieutenant assigned Room 613 to Campbell, apparently on something other than a temporary basis because a recent mix-up stirred the ire of Campbell.
Recently, the Control Room Supervisor at the LSP Barracks received an irate call from Campbell. Edmonson’s Confidential Assistant, it seems, was complaining that Room 613—his room—had apparently been assigned to another trooper by mistake. Campbell told the supervisor that the room was reserved for his exclusive use only and was not to be assigned to anyone else in the future, according to our sources.
This is reminiscent to our story a couple of month ago which revealed that State Police Major Jason Starnes, subsequent to his separation from his wife, was residing in the LSP Training Academy’s VIP quarters, aka the “Charlie Dupuy Suite,” so named because Edmonson’s Chief of Staff Charlie Dupuy also resided there during his own divorce.
There seems to be a developing pattern here: If you are a FOE and in need of a place to crash, there’s plenty of rent-free space available, complete with all the amenities, including meals, at the LSP cafeteria.
These are perks not available to anyone outside Edmonson’s tight little circle.
Rank does have its privileges.
Louisiana Voice 
Another expose’ of yet another stunning conversion of state resources into personal pockets. I am disgusted with the privileged class nonsense, much of it within one agency – Department of Public Safety and CORRECTIONS. One question only – what is JBE going to do about these abuses?
Nothing. Both Jindal and now Edwards are totally beholden to the Louisiana Sheriff’s Association, and they demand Edmonson be LSP Colonel. Basically, Jindal and now Edwards are mere puppets to the LSA. The LSA permitted Jindal and now Edwards to hold the title of Governor and enjoy the power and ego trips that go with being Governor. In exchange, Jindal and now Edwards merely give a wink and a nod to whatever Edmonson and the LSA want to do. It was all quite predictable and certainly not rocket science.
Like Harry Lee said: “Why would I want to be governor when I can be Sheriff?”
Gotta love this state!
Must be nice to be one of the V.I.P.s. I wonder though if Campbell will declare the free room and board to the I.R.S. as part of his compensation package?
A little info on Triple Canopy:
http://fusion.net/story/289615/panama-papers-leak-military-contractor-triple-canopy/
It has always amazed me how things like this get swept under the rug. These contractors make billions and nobody cares that they charge exorbitant amounts for the services they provide, obviously use shell corporations and offshore accounts to shield their finances from review and, worse, engage in dangerous activities with what seems to be purposeful lack of oversight by our own government with whom they have the contracts. 60 Minutes reports on these kind of outrages are met with yawns from the public. Somebody had better wake up quick or our entire society will become completely corrupt, but we don’t even seem to have sense enough to acknowledge what thousands of years of history tell us will be the outcome.
Stephen, as I read that article my jaw dropped and all I could do was shake my head in amazement.
Including benefits, this one WASTED position nullifies the taxes raised on nearly $7 million in sales subject to JBE’s “clean penny” sales tax.
It’s also why many of us are prepared to focus on which legislators vote to renew that tax as it expires on 6/30/18 and kick them out of office the next year irrespective of whether it passes or not.
Look for Representative Julie Stokes (R-Kenner) and other similar-minded legislators who are inclined to renew that tax to be targeted by Kyle Ruckert. I was heartened to read his quote that the Republican-majority Super PAC won’t hesitate to target Republicans who vote for renewals like that.
The more money you give these clowns, the more lard they’re going to add to the expenditures just as Tom outlined this article. Start initiating structural spending reforms NOW!!!
JBE is squandering his opportunity to build a proud legacy of reform.
Does this type of behavior meet the legal definition of corruption and fraud? Can it be proven and prosecuted? Or is it simply that when you have friends in power that take care of you, that’s considered just fine as long as you don’t kick anything back to them? This same sort of thing happens all the time here at LSU, for example. I don’t know that you can ever stop that sort of thing. Power and high salaries bring out the worst in some people. And if you get rid of them, there are always more self-serving types to take their place. About the only way to keep those in power from profiting so much from their “public service” is to reduce taxes, cut budgets, and starve some of them out of existence. That strategy has a major problem too, of course. Management simply adjusts to the lower budget by laying off and freezing the salaries of the people who actually do the work while increasing their own salaries. Then they claim that “to deal with the challenges of a reduced budget you need more and higher paid managers.” So the governor needs to do more than work the budget. Also needs to control how agencies spend the money, reduce management, and ensure that appropriations of tax revenue to agencies are spent for the benefit of the people of the state rather than for the benefit of the management and their friends and families.
Fantastic post, Jethro, and you hit the nail on the head, ESPECIALLY entailing the six-figure “administrators” at LSU!! I cannot overstate just how spot-on your post is!!!