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Archive for the ‘Budget’ Category

Musical chairs game continues in π-yush administration; we need a program to keep up with the players’ newest positions

Posted in Budget, Governor's Office on October 1, 2012| 8 Comments »

The ongoing game of musical chairs in the administration of Gov. Piyush Jindal continues with the naming of his third commissioner of administration and at least his third chief of staff in less than five years.

Yet, just like major league baseball managers, the same old retreads keep getting moved around to different teams.

Another analogy could be that appointees are trying to emulate their boss by not staying in one job long enough to learn the names of their subordinates—not that Piyush, with his glowing personality, ever really cared to.

Current Commissioner of Administration Paul Rainwater has been named Jindal’s chief of staff to succeed Stephen Waguespack who is returning to the private sector.

But the real bombshell was not that Deputy Chief of Staff Kristy Nichols would not be elevated to Waguespack’s position but that she would make the quantum leap to Rainwater’s job.

The commissioner of administration is the governor’s chief budget officer.

Announcement of the appointments, which become effective on Oct. 15, caught the Division of Administration flat-footed and may have some headed for the exits as soon as job interviews can be arranged.

Rainwater will be paid $204,000 per year, the same as he now makes and Nichols will get a $4,000 raise to $167,000, the amount paid Waguespack.

Nichols, like Superintendent of Education John White, appears to possess a certain personality that tends to rub people the wrong way. In White’s case, it simply appears that he is in way over his head in his job. With Nichols, it’s a habit of being both condescending and abrasive in her relationship with others, including her testimony before legislative committees.

Moreover, she was the one who attempted unsuccessfully to steer Jindal’s retirement package through the legislature this year—something state employees probably will not easily forget.

She will become the third commissioner of administration. Angelé Davis, who served as deputy commissioner under former Gov. Mike Foster, was appointed as Jindal’s first commissioner of administration before leaving two years to join Arkel International, a Baton Rouge-based company. She was succeeded by Rainwater.

Rainwater, despite frequent confrontations between LouisianaVoice and the Division of Administration (DOA), has done an admirable job of carrying the water for a governor who more often than not is consumed with either firing people, taking control of the state’s flagship university, traveling out of state or alienating state workers, teachers, legislators and the higher education community in general.

Timmy Teepell, Jindal’s first chief of staff, resigned last October and was replaced by Waguespack. No official reason was given for Waguespack’s departure other than that he was taking advantage of an opportunity in the private sector.

There is some speculation, however, that he may be named as the new general counsel to the LSU System, replacing Ray Lamonica who resigned under pressure last month.

This year alone, Jindal has fired LSU President John Lombardi, LSU Health Care System head Dr. Fred Cerise and the head of the Governor’s Office of Elderly Affairs, reassigned Interim LSU Public Hospital CEO Dr. Roxanne Townsend and demoted, in addition to Lamonica, two legislators from their committee assignments.

Last month Scott Angelle, secretary of the Department of Natural Resources, resigned to run for the Public Service Commission in the midst of the crisis of the growing sinkhole at Bayou Corne and continued bubbling in Lake Peigneur, both in Assumption Parish.

It didn’t help Jindal, PR-wise, when he named former executive counsel Tim Barfield as Secretary of the Department of Revenue at a salary of $250,000, more than twice the salary of his predecessor, Cynthia Bridges, who was also fired by Jindal.

In July, Legislative Fiscal Officer H. Gordon Monk, saying the pressures of dealing with infighting among legislative factions, retired after 33 years on the job.

“It appears that the Jindal administration is beginning to implode,” said a Lafayette attorney on Monday.

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First shot fired across bow of S.S. π-yush; legislator asking colleagues for special session to challenge administration

Posted in Boards, Budget, Economy, Education, Ethics, Governor's Office, Health Care, Higher Education, House, Senate, Jobs, Layoffs, Legislature, Legislators, LSU, Politicians, Prison, Privatization, Revenue, State Agencies on September 19, 2012| 15 Comments »

The first legislative salvo has been fired but it remains to be seen whether it will become merely an isolated sniper’s round or if it will escalate into an all-out battle between state lawmakers and Gov. Piyush Jindal.

Rep. Jerome “Dee” Richard (I-Thibodaux) Wednesday morning sent an email to his fellow legislators in the Louisiana House and Senate asking for their support in calling a special session of the legislature to consider reversing what he describes as “a complete disregard of the Legislative branch’s powers by this administration.”

Richard’s email comes as a result to deep budget cuts to higher education and health care, as well as the announcement of hospital and prison closures—all announced by Jindal since the end of the regular legislative session and without prior notification to legislators in the areas affected by the cutbacks.

The Leonard J. Chabert Medical Center in Houma, part of the LSU Health System that is undergoing massive budget cuts, is in his area as is Nicholls State University in Thibodaux. “If they reduce Chabert to a clinic, it will cripple that facility,” he said.

Asked if he was concerned that Jindal might strip him of his committee assignments as he did with Rep. Harold Ritchie (D-Franklinton) and Rep. Jim Morris (R-Oil City) who voted against Jindal-backed bills in the last legislative session, Richard said, “The governor can do what he wants to do; I do what I have to do.”

Richard serves on the House committees on Education, Labor and Industrial Relations, and Transportation, Highways and Public Works.

He said he was not attempting to threaten the governor. “I just want the legislature more involved,” he said.

The procedure for legislators’ calling themselves into special session requires for one-third of each chamber’s membership (35 in the House and 13 in the Senate) to sign a petition which would then be delivered to the clerk of the House and secretary of the Senate.

They, in turn, would be required to send individual petitions within 48 hours to each member of the legislature for his or her signature. Lawmakers would then have 20 days in which to return their individual petitions and once a majority of each chamber concurs, the presiding officers (Senate President John Alario, R-Westwego, and House Speaker Chuck Kleckley, R-Lake Charles) must issue the call for the special session.

Richard, like other members of the House and Senate, is also upset at Jindal’s habit of leaving legislators out of the loop so that they often find out about administrative decisions that affect their legislative districts only after announcements are made by the governor’s office.

Two cases in point are the recently-announced closures of Southeast Louisiana Hospital in Mandeville, scheduled for next month, and last Friday’s announced closure of the C. Paul Phelps Correctional Center in DeQuincy.

Lawmakers in both areas say they were not notified in advance of Jindal’s plans to close those facilities. One of those legislators is House Speaker Kleckley.

The Phelps closure will mean that some 940 prisoners will have to be moved to the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola and the Elayn Hunt Correctional Center in St. Gabriel. But of even greater concern to lawmakers is the fate of more than 250 prison employees who will face layoffs in a rural community that is largely dependent on the facility for employment.

Likewise, the closure of the 174-bed Southeast Louisiana Hospital, slated to begin Oct. 1, will mean the loss of about 300 jobs. The closure of Southeast, along with the earlier closure of state mental health facilities in Orleans Parish, leaves the entire southeastern area of the state without access to state mental health treatment.

Following the 2009 closure of New Orleans Adolescent Hospital, Jindal said those patients would be able to receive treatment at Southeast. Now that Southeast is facing closure, one reader asked, “Where will they go now, to Mississippi?”

Rep. Dorothy Sue Hill (D-Dry Creek) said she learned of the closure of C. Paul Phelps Correctional Center about a half-hour before the announcement was made by Corrections Secretary Jimmy LeBlanc.

“I was devastated,” she said, adding that DeQuincy is in the rural northern part of Calcasieu Parish and that a large number of its residents are dependent on the facility. “I don’t understand why they (the administration) don’t realize that rural people need jobs also,” she said. “This is a good place for jobs. We can’t all move to Baton Rouge or New Orleans. They don’t want to live there.”

Rep. Brett Geymann (R-Lake Charles) called the abrupt announcement without advance notice to legislators “a lack of respect” for area legislators.

Rep. John Smith (R-Leesville) echoed the sentiments of Hill and Geymann when he said the secrecy of the move “perplexes me more than anything.”

Sticking to what has become an increasingly obvious policy of revealing as little as possible, the Department of Corrections did not respond to questions about why southwest Louisiana lawmakers were not included in the decision-making process.

“This is a good deal for Louisiana taxpayers and will result in significant savings while maintaining public safety,” was the only official response from the department. There was no further explanation as to where savings might be realized or how the closure was a good deal for the state—explanations that would seem easy enough to provide if the administration chose to do so.

Having provided the backdrop for the simmering resentment of Jindal that apparently has been building in the legislature, here is the content of Richard’s letter to his colleagues:

I respectfully ask that each of you read this email in its entirety and then ask yourself if you agree that we should immediately call ourselves in to special session. If you agree I ask that you respond to my legislative email address in order to begin the process of petitioning the body in order to reach a majority. While I acknowledge that this is not easy for each of us to decide I feel that it is time for us to get back into the process and our Constitution provides for that to happen.

Like many of you, I am passionate about the well-being of this state and its people and will continue to stand for the things that I believe in whether it be during session or while we are not in session. I believe that we are witnessing a complete disregard of the Legislative branch’s powers by this administration and must address this immediately or we shall find ourselves completely left out of the budget process. When we as a body are not convened in regular session, but have important matters to address, we do not have to wait until next year’s annual session. Our state Constitution provides a mechanism for us to meet in other times in order to enable the Legislature to continue the checks and balances of state government.

Extraordinary Sessions and the Need to Convene

As per Article III, Section 2(B) of the Constitution, the state “legislature may be convened at other times” in “Extraordinary Sessions,” (informally known as special sessions). It is during special sessions that legislators may address important items or “objects” as they are referred to in Article III.

Since our adjournment in June, there has been almost a billion dollars in reductions to the state budget without any input from the Legislature. And thanks to some media outlets we are now learning of still more cuts to healthcare without any input from the Legislature. And we know that mid-year cuts are approaching and these will be made with no input from the Legislature. We spent many hours during the past session debating the budget and trying to protect health care and higher ed and then after adjournment cuts were made with no input from legislators.

I believe it is time for us, as Legislators, to aggressively reinsert ourselves into the budget process by using the Constitutional rights given to us. We should not have to relinquish our legislative duties to the administration once we pass the budget at the end of regular session in times like this. I am tired of explaining to constituents and at civic gatherings that there is nothing we can do once the budget is passed.

There IS a PROCESS:

As stated earlier, Article III, Section (B) of the Constitution authorizes the Legislature to call itself into session for up to a maximum of 30 days. A majority of House members (53) and a majority of Senate members (20) must be in favor of convening and, if so, its members choose the time and the Call.

I would like to see the Call include the discussion of health care and higher ed and how we can determine just how reductions are made. The Constitution allows for us to set the agenda and each of you may have other interests to bring before the body.

Please understand that Louisiana Revised Statutes 24:11 sets forth the procedure for calling ourselves into special session. First, we will need a petition signed by 35 members of the House and by 13 members of the Senate, which would be delivered to the presiding officer in each. Within 48 hours of receipt of petition, the Secretary of the Senate and the Clerk of the House are then required to send individual petitions to each member for their signature. We, as Legislators, then have 20 days to return our individual petitions and once a majority of each house is reached, the presiding officers must call the Legislature into special session.

It is OUR CHOICE.

This is how I look at the situation: we can either continue to stand by and allow the administration (to) amend the budget; or we can do what we were elected to do; to represent our constituents. The Constitution gives us that right. The choice is up to each one of us.

In closing, I fully understand that convening and conducting a special session will not be easy but think about the cuts that our hospitals and universities are having to make and will continue to be forced to make while we, as local elected representatives, sit back and try to defend those cuts that we know nothing about. Please know that I respect each and every one of you, regardless of your decision to support or not to support a special session. I simply ask that you take the time to respond to this email to: richardj@legis.la.gov.
Respectfully,

Jerome “Dee” Richard
La. State House of Representatives
District 55, Lafourche Parish
Thibodaux, La. 70301

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π-yush ‘slash and burn’ tactics reminiscent of first LSU Pres. Gen. Sherman’s March to the Sea–but without the charisma; 600 jobs, 50 beds to be cut at Interim LSU Hospital in N.O.

Posted in Boards, Budget, Governor's Office, Health Care, Higher Education, Jobs, Layoffs, Legislature, Legislators, LSU, Privatization, Public Records, RFP, Request for Proposals, State Agencies, Teague, Transparency on September 9, 2012| 4 Comments »

LouisianaVoice has learned that Gov. Piyush Jindal, through the LSU Board of Supervisors, is planning to lay off up to 600 people at the Interim LSU Public Hospital in New Orleans within the next few weeks in a move that will further reduce access to health care for Louisiana’s indigent population.

The action also would mean the loss of about 50 of the facility’s 201 beds.

The layoffs were mentioned by Dr. Frank Opelka, recently appointed to replace Dr. Fred Cerise as head of LSU’s health care system, during last week’s meeting of the Board of Supervisors. Though he said he would be accelerating the cuts that Dr. Cerise and Dr. Roxane Townsend had developed in an effort to mitigate negative impacts, Opelka never mentioned any numbers and apparently no one on the Jindal-dominated board, thought, or wanted to ask.

Nor did any board members inquire as to the impact the cutbacks would have on the ability to continue to provide health care to indigent residents and neither was the question raised as to how the action might affect some 300 residents who train at the facility.

The Interim LSU Public Hospital presently employs about 2100 persons, meaning that about 24 percent of the facility’s personnel and 25 percent of its beds will be lost.

Last Friday, Robert Barish, chancellor of LSU Health Shreveport, notified his faculty and staff that the LSU Board had approved a resolution authorizing the LSU Health Sciences Center in Shreveport and the Health Care Service Division to issue a request for proposals (RFP) “for the purpose of exploring public-private partnerships for the LSUGSC-S affiliated hospitals, namely the LSU Medical Center in Shreveport, the E.A. Conway Medical Center in Monroe and the Huey P. Long Medical Center in Pineville/Alexandria.”

Consideration of that resolution was not added to the board’s agenda until late Thursday and the board subsequently amended the wording to include “each of the hospitals in Health Care Services Division.”

That amendment to include “each of the hospitals in Health Care Services Division,” while largely ignored and not discussed at all, is key in that it means that “every hospital within the LSU System is now on the table for privatization,” as one observer put it.

“Shreveport is moving faster but they are just the first,” he said. “The dismantling of indigent care will now occur much more quickly and more broadly.”

The resolution says, “The President shall have the discretion to authorize the release of the Request for Proposal and to accept the proposal that he deems in the best interest of the university.”

It did not specify if that would be current Interim President William Jenkins or his successor, recently rumored to be Steve Moret, current Secretary of the Louisiana Department of Economic Development.

Administration officials and LSU Board members have denied that the fix is in for Moret to become the next president. Jenkins said it would be ridiculous to hire a consultant to conduct a national search if the decision had already been made.

The layoff plan is the latest example of the slash and burn tactics employed by Piyush in his zeal to cut health care services to the poor while at the same time dismantling the teaching hospitals that currently serve about 200 LSU and 100 Tulane University medical students.

Beginning with the firing of LSU President John Lombardi last April, Jindal, through his hand-picked Board of Supervisors, has fired or reassigned Drs. Cerise and Townsend and LSU System General Counsel Ray Lamonica.

At the same time, he has implemented severe cutbacks at Lallie Kemp Regional Medical Center in Tangipahoa Parish and at LSU Hospital in Bogalusa—cutbacks that have adversely affected the availability to provide care in the areas of oncology, gynecology, disease management and pediatrics and the loss of up to 150 jobs at Lallie Kemp. Jindal also announced the closure of Southeast Louisiana Hospital in Mandeville, beginning next month, a move that will leave the entire southeastern section of Louisiana without state mental health treatment centers.

The most incredulous statement to come out of all this is that of Jindal spokesman Kyle Plotkin who, when asked whether Piyush was involved in Cerise’s firing, said, “That’s a decision for the board and the LSU System president.”

But almost as puzzling is the deafening quiet from members of the legislature whose constituents—both health care providers and their patients—stand to be negatively impacted by the recent chain of events.

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Lamonica out as LSU System General Counsel; former U.S. attorney mum on administration spin claiming he resigned

Posted in Boards, Budget, Education, Governor's Office, Health Care, Higher Education, Legislature, Legislators, LSU, Teague, Transparency on September 6, 2012| 4 Comments »

As reported by LouisianaVoice earlier this week, LSU System General Counsel has resigned, reportedly under pressure, as the chief legal advisor to the state’s flagship university’s administration.

Dr. Roxanne Townsend, CEO of the Interim LSU Public Hospital in New Orleans, was relieved of her position and reassigned by Dr. Frank Opelka, head of LSU’s health care system on Wednesday of this week.

Lamonica is the fourth LSU official to resign, be fired or reassigned by the Jindal administration in less than six months. System President John Lombardi was fired in April by the LSU Board of Supervisors acting on directions from the governor and on Aug. 26, Dr. Fred Cerise, head of the LSU health care system similarly dismissed and replaced by Opelka late last month.

Reached at home Wednesday, Lamonica acknowledged that he had resigned. When asked if he was asked or pressured into resigning, he declined to comment further except to say that he is remaining on as a tenured professor at the LSU Law Center.

Lamonica was appointed as United States attorney for the middle district of Louisiana in 1986 by President Ronald Reagan. President Bill Clinton appointed L.J. Hymel to replace him in 1994. Prior to that, Lamonica worked as executive counsel to Gov. Dave Treen.

He becomes the latest in a growing line of rank and file state employees, administrators, agency directors and cabinet secretaries who Jindal has either fired outright or, in the case of two legislators, demoted from committee assignments.

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Legislative veteran John Carpenter, late of BR mayor’s office, chosen interim Legislative Fiscal Officer to succeed Monk

Posted in Budget, Governor's Office, House, Senate, Legislature, Legislators, Politicians, Revenue on August 15, 2012| 1 Comment »

The Joint Legislative Committee on the Budget (JLCB) Tuesday voted 37-3 (16-0 by Senate members and 21-3 by the House members) to name former legislative staffer John Carpenter to the position of interim Legislative Fiscal Officer pending the naming of a permanent replacement for retired Gordon Monk by next January.

Carpenter recently resigned as Chief Administrative Officer to Baton Rouge Mayor Kip Holden. Before joining Holden’s administration, he spent 25 years working for the state House of Representatives.

Early reports speculated that Jindal Deputy Chief of Staff Kristy Nichols would be named to the post and even though her name was not mentioned, a former employee of Gov. Piyush Jindal’s administration was named to the post. Carpenter spent a year with Jindal’s Division of Administration.

Carpenter is widely regarded as an able replacement for Monk because of his past experience in working with legislators and administration officials alike. He is considered as both knowledgeable and professional by both camps.

Jindal’s rumored effort to place Nichols in the position would have stirred even more resentment among legislators who have seen all semblance of independence steadily erode during Jindal’s tenure. Unlike any other governor, Jindal was able to name both the Speaker of the House and the Senate President and a compliant Legislature has acquiesced in every instance.

Monk, after 33 years in state government, finally became fed up earlier this month and announced his retirement citing increased workload, pressure, stress and infighting among legislators. He said the session, which began on March 12 with 18-hour days and ended on June 4 with budget battles, convinced him to walk away.

He announced on Aug. 3 that his last day would be Aug. 8 and the JLCB was originally scheduled to name his interim replacement on Aug. 6 but that announcement was delayed twice.
Though the position of Legislative Fiscal Officer is one of the more low-profile positions in state government, the Legislative Fiscal Office (LFO) is one of the more important agencies in state government.

The LFO, a counterpart to the State Budget Office, is responsible for analyzing the governor’s revenue and spending proposals for the Legislature and is charged with generating fiscal notes on every bill filed in order to provide legislators with its analysis of the potential financial impact of proposed laws. In theory, the LFO is independent but in reality, it answers to the House Speaker and Senate Presidents.
Fiscal notes that reflect potential financial impact considered too high have been known to kill bills in the past.

It is those fiscal notes that have generated considerable consternation in the governor’s office as more than once its projected financial impact has clashed with Jindal’s and word around the Capitol is that the governor wants to control the LFO so that he can also control the all-important fiscal notes.

Employees are required to be present during the session, often working to midnight, to address questions about bills from legislators. The pace was stepped up this year when Jindal pushed through the majority of his education package before Easter.

Senate President John Alario (R-Westwego) indicated last week that the interim appointee will not be one of the existing employees—including Staff Director Evan Brasseaux and Chief Economist Greg Albrecht. Albrecht, however, recently crossed Jindal by contradicting the governor’s rose economic outlook by depicting the state as still struggling to recover from the recession. That flash of independence probably doomed his chances—even if Jindal had not already decided on Nichols.

Alario also said it was his intention that the interim appointee not be a candidate for the permanent position and Carpenter, who will earn $153,000 per year—the same as Monk—in his temporary position, confirmed he would not apply when asked by committee members.

Alario resisted efforts by several committee members, mostly from among House members, to set a firm date by which a permanent fiscal officer would be named though he did intimate that he hoped it would be by Jan. 15.

Reps. Jim Fannin (D-Jonesboro), chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, Patricia Smith (D-Baton Rouge) and Edward James (D-Baton Rouge) pushed for a deadline of Oct. 1 for the issuance of a request for proposals (RFP) in order to begin receiving applications but Oct. 15 was the deadline chosen for the RFP.

Alario said that it would require a majority vote of both the Senate and House for the naming of a permanent Legislative Fiscal Officer but only after candidates are interviewed by both the JLCB and the House Appropriations Committee.

The three committee members who voted against Carpenter’s interim appointment included Reps. John Schroder (R-Covington), James Morris (R-Oil City), and Brett Geymann (R-Lake Charles).

Voting yes were Sens. Jack Donahue (R-Mandeville), chairman, Bret Allain (R-Franklin), Sherri Smith Buffington (R-Keithville), Norby Chabert (R-Houma), Dan Claitor (R-Baton Rouge), Ronnie Johns (R-Lake Charles), Gerald Long (R-Natchitoches), Fred Mills, Jr., (R-New Iberia), Dan “Blade” Morrish (R-Jennings), Ed Murray (D-New Orleans), Neil Riser (R-Columbia), Greg Tarver (D-Shreveport), Francis Thompson (D-Delhi), Michael Walsworth (R-West Monroe), Mack “Bodi” White (R-Central), and Sharon Weston Broome (D-Baton Rouge).

House members voting in favor of Carpenter’s appointment were Speaker Chuck Kleckley (R-Lake Charles), James Armes, III (D-Leesville), John Berthelot (R-Gonzales), Robert Billiot (D-Westwego), Rep. Patrick Williams (D-Shreveport), Henry Burns (R-Haughton), Roy Burrell (D-Shreveport), Simone Champagne (R-Erath), Charles Chaney (R-Rayville), Patrick Connick (R-Marrero), Fannin, Franklin Foil (R-Baton Rouge), Lance Harris (R-Alexandria), Cameron Henry (R-Metairie), Walt Leger, III (D-New Orleans), Anthony Ligi (R-Metairie), Jr., Jack Montoucet (D-Crowley), J. Rogers Pope (R-Denham Springs), Smith, and Ledricka Johnson Thierry (D-Opelousas).

Members absent from the meeting were Reps. Jared Brosset (D-New Orleans), Joseph Harrison (R-Gray), Bob Hensgens (R-Abbeville), Katrina Jackson (D-Monroe), Helena Moreno (D-New Orleans) and Joel Robideaux (R-Lafayette).

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