Even as the so-called mainstream media (and we’re not really certain what qualifies as “mainstream” anymore) shifts into its sympathetic mode for Superintendent of State Police Mike Edmonson, there are lots of loose ends still lying around that LouisianaVoice will continue to report.
As we wrote in Wednesday’s post, the controversy swirling around Louisiana State Police (LSP) headquarters in Independence Boulevard was never just about a trip to San Diego.
It’s about the overall atmosphere permeating the agency and trooper morale which is said to be at an all-time low. That’s because in spite of generous pay raises bestowed upon troopers, the rank and file feel the administration has put its own interests ahead of those of the agency and its personnel.
The parties, inconsistent discipline dictated by whether or not a trooper is a member of the elite clique, distinguished troopers passed over for promotions in favor of lesser qualified candidates, trips, many trips, taken by LSP management and not all strictly for business; and we have received reports of free trips, which would be in violation of regulations set forth by the State Ethics Board.
GENERAL PROHIBITIONS (R.S. 42:1111 – 1121)
- 1115 – Elected officials and public employees are prohibited from soliciting or accepting a gift from the following persons: persons who have or are seeking to obtain a contractual or other business or financial relationship with the public servant’s agency; or persons who are seeking, for compensation, to influence the passage or defeat of legislation by the public servant’s agency. Public employees, not elected officials, are also prohibited from soliciting or accepting a 4 gift from the following persons: persons who conduct operations or activities regulated by the public employee’s agency; or persons who have substantial economic interests which may be substantially affected by the performance or non-performance of the public employee’s official duties.
There are events and conditions not yet reported but which will be. And they are scattered throughout the organization, from LSP to the Louisiana State Troopers Association (LSTA), and the Louisiana State Police Commission (LSPC). Especially LSPC, which is charged with overseeing State Police in the same manner as the Civil Service Commission oversees the rights of state civil service employees. That one commission, chaired by a State Trooper, has purged its membership if all but one member who is not easily identified as an Edmonson supporter and has morphed into something of a secretive club now rumored to be carrying on extra-curricular activities far outside the scope of its mission.
And one other facet of operations at LSP largely overlooked up to now is the issue of overtime hours. While troopers charged with carrying out investigations of criminal activity are finding it next to impossible to get overtime approved from their superiors and are forced to conduct investigations on their own time, others are finding it much easier to pad their paychecks.
Take Master Trooper Thurman D. Miller, for example.
Miller, who serves as President of the CENTRAL STATE TROOPERS COALITION, which is affiliated with the National Black State Troopers Coalition, is called the “One Man Overtime Machine” by his fellow troopers, though probably not to his face.
It’s a title well-earned.
From last June 20, 2016, through March 12 of this year, Miller has reported working 1,066 hours of overtime. Of that amount, he was paid time-and-a-half for 951 hours with the balance of 115 hours taken as compensatory, or K-time, meaning he gets paid leave for a like number of hours worked.
That works out to nearly 60 hours of combined overtime and K-time for every two-week pay period since last June—75 percent of a regular two-week, 80-hour pay period.
Miller, who makes $72,600 in regular salary, earned $50,400 in straight time during that period and nearly matched that amount in overtime earnings of another $45,900. Plus, he accumulated almost three weeks extra paid vacation.
So, not quite having worked 70 percent of a year since last June, he already has been paid 131 percent of his base yearly salary.
But the real kicker is found in his daily time sheets.
For example, during one stretch last August when his time sheet shows that he was assigned to disaster relief while working the South Louisiana floods, he logged 24-hour days for four consecutive days.
But that’s nothing. The month before, working extra security in the wake of the Alton Sterling shooting in Baton Rouge, iron-man Miller logged 24-hour shifts for nine consecutive days.
State Police Public Information Officer Maj. Doug Cain said there are provisions for allowing troopers to be called in on emergency duty and not allowed to go home. “They sleep 20 or 30 minutes and go back on duty,” he said.
And on that infamous drive to San Diego in October, Miller initially reported two consecutive 24-hour shifts on Oct. 11 and 12 followed by a 22-hour shift on the 13th, but was forced to trim 12 hours off each of the 24-hour claims of Oct. 11 and 12 and to eliminate altogether the 14-hours overtime claimed for Oct. 13 in a revised timesheet. It was not immediately known if he was paid for the excessive hours and required to repay the state or not.
Here are a few samples of Miller’s timesheets (Click on images to enlarge):
Cain said that during the flood, state offices were closed and Miller and other officers were compensated for hours state offices were closed and for hours actually worked.
The LSP Policy Manual specifically addresses the issue of excessive overtime:
Officers/Civilians shall not work more than a total of 16 cumulative hours without having a rest period of 8 consecutive hours off-duty. An 8 hour rest period shall be required following 16 cumulative work hours before returning to regular duty or an overtime assignment. Exceptions to the 16 hour rule require the approval of the Troop/Section Commander or designee. Cumulative hours are defined as any combination of regular work hours and/or overtime/details.
Commanders and supervisors are urged to exercise caution and sound judgment when considering whether to allow an officer/civilian to work more than 16 cumulative hours.
Troop/Section Commanders, Region Commanders and Unit Supervisors are responsible for effectively managing work schedules to minimize overtime.
Reasonable justification shall mean that the work could not be performed by other on-duty personnel or that time constraints require that the work be immediately performed.
If overtime is necessary, every effort to minimize the total accumulation shall be made by all supervisory personnel.
Miller, it should be pointed out, works in Operations and not Investigations. And while he’s racking up all that overtime, there are troopers spread across the state who need overtime to complete ongoing investigations but cannot get approval for it.
They do their investigations on their own time which somehow makes the whole picture seem a little out of kilter.
Yet another symptom of a much large problem that is plaguing LSP.
Louisiana Voice 
I hope Trooper Miller can cook or at least bus tables so that he can work in the Capitol Dining Room. Otherwise he is going to have lots of time on the roadways in and around Baton Rouge picking up trash in his orange correction center outfit alongside all of his supervisors that approved this blatant theft by falsehood. At least as an ex-trooper he will still be close to highway traffic,
There are troopers like that at every troop. Some you never see them doing much while on duty (especially supervisors) but they rack up a large amount of overtime doing what they should have done while on duty. A few seem to be there just for the overtime, not a sense of duty. When you are making $60.00 to $80.00 an hour on overtime, you can make quite a bit of money. As you have seen, a few like to stretch those hours. It all falls back on that trooper’s supervisor. I have witnessed troopers working overtime just to have them come to work to take a break. There are times when you are required to work over but when you put in 80 hrs in two weeks and then work 60 hrs overtime in the same pay period, something is wrong. Keep up the good work Tom.
Again quoting Col. Edmonson:
“This organization will survive anything,” he added, “even the things yet to come.”
What has his retirement accomplished if the organization remains otherwise unchanged?
http://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/opinion/article_a69e9102-0a61-11e7-964a-73d290092e96.html
Be sure to watch the video in addition to reading the column.
Great job Tom, Will take a lot of rehab to correct the ills of Jindalism and the GOP. We now have the gold standard of Ethics reform, deconstruction of the Administrative oversight, hell, 88! love, but you can’t like lies, always ron thompson
What Do You Expect? His Boss Was Crooked, So Lead By Example. Edmonson, Talking About Troopers Disgrace The Badge. What The Heck Did He Do?
Not really sure what you’re trying to say here. Whose boss? Be more specific.
I WAS TALKING ABOUT THURMAN MILLER’S BSS. WHICH WAS EDMONDSON
I’m going to print out a hard copy of this feature for Rev. Phillips to read before the next Auction Board meeting. For years, he has tried to pursue Sandy Edmonds entailing her ability to relax at the beach, visit Disneyworld (for a week!), visit friends and relatived in Oklahoma and New York, etc. all while claiming to be on the clock.
I’ m going to have to explain to him that the Auction Board has been getting a bargain because at least she caps her number of hours at 15 per week (25 for Interior Design). They’re damn lucky that, for times she actually does have to work, she doesn’t bill them for overtime (though he may argue she effectively has done so through her repetitive demanding and getting one pay raise after another that Purpera said in his report were all illegal).
It’s truly sad when fraud like this in the private sector would result in firings in no time flat, yet when it’s the government, it festers for years. For those with patience, here’s a highly detailed chronicle of all Rev. Phillips did to TRY to get payroll fraud under control (just watch the 1/10/11 video and see how his colleagues bite his head off for suggesting Edmonds should actually have to work in order to be paid):
I guess you can see why they don’t even want items he requests on the agenda pertaining to her work arrangements to be be placed on the agenda (and most recently, the Interior Design Board defiantly told him they would not).
Stephen, you’re right. The “average Joe” is certainly getting the perception from episodes like these that state government is just a huge truckload of waste, fraud, cronyism, and downright theft. The only thing I’ll add is that my extensive deep dives into Louisiana boards and commissions (and, BTW, Miller also serves on the LSP Retirement Board) reveal that is EXACTLY what they are!!
Great article, Tom.
O. K. Let’s do this: let’s permit these guys to just stand beside Wal Mart cash registers and, when we pay our exorbitant sales taxes, they can just take the money directly. Periodically, they can grab the tax collections from the other registers beyond the one at which they’re assigned.
Apparently, such that would represent a much more efficient system of taxation and outlay, and that’s obviously what Jindal/Edwards mean by “efficiency in government.”
What should really tick everyone off is that other agencies are begging for the money to pay just 1 hour of overtime instead of awarding ktime but can’t and instead are forcing employees to work for ktime they can never cash and never take off because of the workload. Very unfair.
I know for a fact that the SOP (standard operating procedure) for investigations is as follows…no crime is solved until overtime.
“State Police Public Information Officer Maj. Doug Cain said there are provisions for allowing troopers to be called in on emergency duty and not allowed to go home. “They sleep 20 or 30 minutes and go back on duty,” he said.”
As a former LEO there is nothing more unsafe than this..going back on duty with no sleep. What a line of made up BS.
It is excessive no matter how you look at it. My concern is the missing signatures. A overall percentage compared to troopers of similar rank will show it is excessive. Lets ask this question, in the last twelve months what is the total number of criminal arrests mad by Trooper Miller and that should show you where the proof is in the pudding. But before LSP cooks the books on that one ask for the Parishes he submitted the charges in.
One more tip, lets look at why the LSP has discontinued the LACE Program in St Landry Parish.
What’s sad is that Mr Aswel would make these asinine allegations without doing what your first year journalism student knows to do, get all the facts. During the protest after Alton sterling troopers were made to sleep and eat at the training academy and they were not allowed to go home. Thus being on the clock and call for 24 hours a day. During the floods there was office closure for which troopers are paid for working hours at that same rate. A simple phone call fromMr aswel to LSP office of finance would have confirmed such. Instead he decided to besmirch a Trooper with allegations of fraud and theft. While I applaud the exposure of real fraud I can not respect pure sensationalism at the expensive of innocent parties just so mr aswel can try and make more money for promoting fake news. You should be ashamed sir.
Normally I would not bother to respond to such tripe but you’re so far out there, I felt it necessary to set the record straight.
First of all, I cited the exceptions which allow troopers to work more than a 16-hour shift. Second, I did make a phone call to PIO Doug Cain and he explained the exceptions—which I then cited in the post. All you had to do was actually read the entire story. It seems to me someone who is trying to tell how a “first-year journalism student” should write should first learn to read.
The fact is, I have many more of Trooper Miller’s time sheets and he consistently logs more overtime than other troopers, so I’m not just referring to the Alton Sterling shooting or the floods.
I notice you conveniently neglected to make any reference to those overtime hours on the San Diego trip, i.e. 12 hours each for two 250-mile drives. No emergency there.
Finally, you accuse me of writing stories to make more money. Oh, were that but the case! Again, if you bothered to read, you would be aware that (a) I don’t accept advertising (except for one free ad for a local bookstore), (b) I don’t charge a subscription fee and (3) I’m on no one’s payroll, i.e. I do this at my own cost. No salary. I’m retired and live on my retirement income.
Next time I suggest you educate yourself a little better before firing off a bunch of accusations—or your own brand of fake news.
Where all these Story hoppers when Gindal broke the State going all over the US running for an office he didn’t have snowball chance in tell of winning being protected by Troopers. Y’all thought it was great and since you singled out Trooper Miller, I read in the news there were four troopers, ” supposely” broke rank. I don’t want think this is racial or personal.
Well, I guess it’s true that no organisation can ever escape corruption, or is it favoritism in this case? I’m confused. Anyways, what do you think would happen if a third party was assigned to distribute their pay instead of the department itself?
If the trooper has really worked all that long he deserves the double pay. Its a pretty hard and tough life.