If you know how to game the system, it can pay handsomely to be a former Louisiana legislator with friends in high and not-so-high places. Just ask former State Sen./Rep. Mike Walsworth, a West Monroe Republican.
Former senator and representative because, like several others who got used to a life of influence in Baton Rouge, he served in both chambers, moving from one when hitting the three-term limit to the other for another 12 years, thus rendering Louisiana’s term limits statute meaningless as a deterrent to legislators hanging around too long.
Walsworth was last elected to his third Senate term in 2015 and left office in January 2020. But he didn’t exactly go away. He signed a six-month, $30,000 contract to perform “consulting” services for Lt. Gov. Billy Nungesser’s office.
No sooner did that contract expire than he signed a renewal – for a full year this time, from July 1, 2023 to June 30, 2024 – for $60,000, never missing his $5,000 per month payments for keeping a pulse on legislative issues in north Louisiana for Nungesser and making “oral” reports To the lieutenant governor. No information was available on whether or not he has had his contract renewed again.
Those oral reports apparently were channeled through a Sarasota, Florida, public relations firm called Miles Partnership, which also was used to route an additional $25,000 for each of three separate six-month contracts – from July 1, 2021 to De. 31, 2021, from Jan. 1, 2022, to June 30, 2022 and from July 1, 2022 to Dec. 31, 2022, to Walsworth.
All that is certainly interesting enough, but the real story here is found in a parcel of land designated as the site for Louisiana Delta Community College (DcC) in Farmerville, Walsworth’s connection to Mayor John T. Crow and a glaring failure to inform the Farmerville Town Council of that connection which would appear to create an obvious conflict of interests and a major ethics breach.
Farmerville attorney and real estate developer Johnny Dollar owns a company called Deloutre (for the non-initiated, that’s pronounced “d’Looter”, after an area bayou) Property Rentals. He previously donated land for the Union Parish Law Enforcement District (sheriff’s office), for a local church and developed land on which a Walmart store, a strip shopping center, two banks, two convenience stories and a Natural Resources Conservation Service office are located.
Dollar offered to donate a “shovel ready” site for DCC, utilities and access already in place. His offer was rejected in favor of a 100-acre tract of raw wooded land that has no public infrastructure at a cost of $1.2 million – on the advice of a consulting firm and….Mike Walsworth.
Walsworth was retained by the town as a “consultant” at a rate of $1,000 per month and to date has been paid more than $40,000. The extent of his “consulting,” however, is somewhat vague.
The problem with all that, besides the spurning of an offer of free land in favor of coughing up $1.2 million of state taxpayer money, is that his honor the mayor (John Crow) and Walsworth are business partners in a little outfit called C and W Louisiana Properties, LLC, according to records on file with the LOUISIANA SECRETARY OF STATE, which might be construed by the discriminating observer as something of a conflict of interest – and probably a violation of even Louisiana’s otherwise toothless ethics code for public and elected officials. Dollar said that a woman named Angie Robert was a former assistant to Walsworth and is a “current associate of both Walsworth and Crow, receiving mail for C and W Louisiana Properties at her place of work in the Monroe office of U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy.
The history of the tract selected has an interesting history in itself:
Feb. 13, 2015 – it was sold to William Caskey Terral for $306,978.
Nov. 11, 2022 – Terral sold one-half interest in the land to Mayor Towns and a man named Jared Ramsey for $1,356,450, quadrupling his initial investment while retaining half-interest in the tract.
Nov. 16, 2022 – Terral, Towns and Ramsey transferred what was now called the TTR tract to TTR, LLC, a limited liability corporation formed on Nov. 11, 2022. The division was designated as 50 percent to Terral and 25 percent each to Towns and Ramsey.
On Nov. 14, 2022 (two days before the aforementioned transfer took place) – Deloutre Property Rentals (DPR) protested a requirement that the DDC campus be locate within half-a-mile of LA. 15 (a state highway leading into and out of Farmerville). Dollar in filing his protest for DPR, said the requirement was a “transparent” attempt to control the site selection for the benefit of the TTR tract, partially owned by Mayor Crow. Dollar claimed the requirement raised the question of “improper collusive conduct in connection with public funding.” Walsworth, who you might remember was/is being paid $1,000 per month at the insistence of his business partner, the mayor, in a text exchange with Dollar, denied the existence of any such collusion.
January – March 2023 – DPR became aware that DCC had selected a consultant of its own, a company called CSRS, to advise it on site selection. CSRS is a Baton Rouge consulting firm and in September 2019, contributed $1,000 to Walworth’s political campaign even he was term-limited and slated to leave office in four months.
Jan. 27, 2023 – Mayor Crow sold his 25 percent interest in the 120-acre site (30 acres) to an outfit called TFR (Towns Family Rental) for $1.2 million, nearly doubling his investment.
Ignored by the Louisiana’s daily newspapers, it has played prominently on the front pages of the tiny Farmerville Gazette, which, on the surface would raise eyebrows; it’s rare that a local weekly would take on the local political power structure.
But The Gazette was purchased some time ago by the Ruston Daily Leader which in turn sold it to former NBA basketball star Karl Malone…and Johnny Dollar. Dollar subsequently purchased full control from Malone. And it’s Dollar who’s kicking up sand, probably from Folly Beach at nearby D’Arbonne Lake, over the shenanigans of Mayor Crow and Walsworth. If you own the paper, you can speak truth to power as much as you please. There was a time when that pretty much defined authentic journalism and bold publishers, but sadly, those days are pretty much gone. Maybe real reporting by The Gazette will arouse a sleeping daily in nearby Monroe – but it’s doubtful that a Gannett paper investigates anything other than its own bottom line and shareholder profits.
There will be more to this saga in the coming days, a story of a boat ramp and the town’s paying for the demolition of a deserted motel but for now, this is plenty to chew on. But if you insist on a more detailed narrative, read this installment from The Gazette:
and here:
Louisiana Voice 
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