The Louisiana State Police Commission may have placed on its agenda for Thursday’s meeting an item to go into “executive session for discussion of professional competence” of commission Director Cathy Derbonne but an option that rests with Derbonne could put commission Chairman T.J. Doss behind the proverbial eight ball.
Doss is the State Police member on the commission. The remaining six members are appointed by the governor from each of the state’s Congressional districts.
Besides the item to enter into executive session, a separate item calls for “consideration of whether employment of the Director of State Police Commission should be continued or terminated.”
The entire proceeding, however could blow up in the faces of commissioners should Derbonne exercise her option to insist that all discussion be held in open session. Legally, she is entitled to make that call and if she does, there could be egg on the faces of Doss, Jared J Caruso-Riecke, et al.
In something of a plot twist, the web page of the State Police Commission was down briefly Wednesday night. Efforts to go onto the PAGE resulted in a message that the web address could not be accessed. The page was back online, however, after about 20 minutes.
Interestingly, the funneling of more than $40,000 in campaign contributions by the Louisiana State Troopers’ Association (LSTA) through its executive director produced only a sham of an investigation by a political ally of Gov. John Bel Edwards.
Natchitoches attorney and former State Sen. Taylor Townsend was hired under a $75,000 contract to “investigate” the contributions which were approved by the LSTA board of directors, comprised of state troopers, and laundered through LSTA Executive Director David Young. Young made the contributions, including $10,000 each to Bobby Jindal and Edwards, by writing checks on his personal account and then submitting expense invoices to the association.
Townsend, obviously taking his marching orders from up the food chain, declined to include as part of the evidence an audio recording of a meeting of troopers concerned about the contributions at which it was acknowledged that the LSTA violated the restrictions against state troopers becoming active in political campaigns, including making contributions. Townsend also failed to follow protocol in submitting a written report of his findings and instead, made only a verbal recommendation that “no action be taken.”
Townsend likewise has been silent on the issue of the manner in which commission members were appointed. When there is a vacancy, the commission chairman is required to notify the university president in that congressional district to solicit names for nominations from which list the governor makes his appointment.
Derbonne’s major transgression appears to be that she did her job, including notifying the governor’s office of the requirements for member appointments and of commission members who, like the LSTA, violated ethics rules by making political contributions while sitting on the board. Three members ultimately resigned because of that issue.
So, bottom line, what we have here is a failure to communicate (apologies to the late Strother Martin of Cool Hand Luke). An attorney who is a crony of the governor shirks his duty to the job for which he was contracted but still collects his fees and stands in good stead with the commission while Derbonne followed the dictates of her job and finds her job is on the line.
Way to go, guys. You should really feel good about yourselves. Eulis Simien, I really thought you had more integrity than to let yourself be manipulated by Doss and Edmonson.
Every time I hear Doss talk, I wonder how it feels to have Edmonson’s hand up his backside.
Calvin Braxton, you’ve already seen what can happen when you cross Mike Edmonson, but you’re going along with this fiasco anyway?
Monica J. Manzella, I’m really not that surprised; after all, you negotiate contracts with the State Police on behalf of the City of New Orleans. No conflict there.
Jared J Caruso-Riecke, Mike Edmonson obviously owns you.
Donald Breaux, we know where your loyalty lies with your special LSTA-1 license plate on your car.
You’re all a real piece of work.
How can Simien and Caruso-Riecke (appointed June 6) and Manzella (Oct. 11), who between them, have barely a year’s experience on the board, make any kind of intelligent judgment call as to the competence of Derbonne? The answer is, they can’t; they can only rely on the manipulations of Edmonson and Doss.
And that $75,000 investigation by Taylor Townsend only to get a verbal “I recommend no action.” It’s a damn good thing you weren’t heading up the investigation of the previous commission executive director DEBRA JOHNSON. Even the Office of Inspector General nailed her for felony theft, fraud, and malfeasance in office.
If anyone in this tragicomedy should be called to the carpet for misappropriation of funds, it should be Townsend. I could’ve done what he did for a measly five bucks and a beer from the bar run by LSTA over at the State Police training facility in Zachary.
We can only hope Derbonne will exercise her rights and make them do their dirty work out in the open for everyone to see.
And if you think firing a single employee—for no other reason that she insists on doing the right thing despite what Edmonson wants—will make your problems disappear, you’re so very wrong.
If you think LouisianaVoice has been a pain in the ass so far, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet.
Louisiana Voice 
I hope Ms. Derbonne does open up the meeting. These corrupt individuals do not have as much courage in the open. Maybe if enough people see just how corrupt the Commission, State Police, and the State Trooper’s Association have become, they will pressure Governor Edwards to stand up to the Louisiana Sheriffs Association. All of this surrounds Edmonson who still has Lt. Governor ambitions. I have previously called for and still call for Edwards to fire Edmonson and choose someone from outside who hasn’t been part of the culture of corruption that Edmonson has created. Whoever it is, should not be connected to or supported by the Sheriffs. He or she should be appointed for a specific time such as 3 years to clean up the corruption and then turn it back over to a career State Trooper. The Commissioners should be cleaned out. The Troopers Association should be told that political activity is over and take necessary action against those who can be identified as violators. If they are allowed to remove the Commission Director, it will only verify that it has become political and serves no public purpose. The Director and staff should not be located on the State Police Compound and definitely not in the Management and Finance Building where Troopers are unable to privately meet with Commission staff without cameras filming them. The budget for the Commission should be independent of rather than under the Undersecretary who exerts budgetary control over the Commission. Of course these changes would only be effected if there was a desire to have independent oversight of State Police personnel as relates to adherence to the Commission Rules without department control.
Thank you for your article. The whole commission and commission process needs to be cleaned up and re-organized. We have a quorum of new members who clearly do not know their roles or the base rules of the commission process. Cathy Derbonne has operated in a clear and diligent manner…God help her deal with this renegade bunch.
If Ms. Derbonne opts for open session, let’s hope there’s nobody from Caldwell’s old AG staff still employed by Landry who readily exposes RANK IGNORANCE of the law and tells the board it can go into ES over Dernonne’s objection. That’s EXACTLY what happened to me on 9/17/12 (the Assistant AG was Michael Vallen). Here’s the link with a quick video of Vallan’s ignorance and all the litigation that followed that ignorance:
http://www.auctioneer-la.org/LALBom2.html
I appealed to the First Circuit when let LALB members off the hook because of Vallan’s ill-founded guidance!!!!!
Also, don’t count on LSPC attorneys to even know the law. I had to school attorneys for the State Cosmetology Board (Sherrie Morris and Celia Cangelosi) on that matter entailing Nelda Dural:
http://www.soundoffla.com/?p=58
Leaving now to attend and videotape whatever is public of this matter.
The Louisiana Sheriff’s Association is the source of many of Louisiana’s ills. The Green Room has seen more dirty dealing than any place on earth. There is probably a stairway down to hell in there.