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Archive for the ‘Campaign Contributions’ Category

Notable Quotables (in their own words)

Posted in Campaign Contributions, Civil Service, Governor's Office, Health Care, Layoffs, Legislature, Legislators, Notable Quotables, OGB, Office of Group Benefits, Politicians, Privatization, Transparency on July 20, 2012| 4 Comments »

“The selection of a third-party is an important step toward providing quality care and service…”

–Commissioner of Administration Paul Rainwater, defending the awarding of a contract to Blue Cross/Blue Shield to administer the state health care insurance plans. Announcement of the award was held off until near the close of business on Friday.

“It really is a shame that we will have to face the real cost of Bobby’s ambition for a very long time.”

–Former State Sen. Butch Gautreaux, responding to the awarding of the BCBS contract that will abolish 177 OGB positions.

“This is an opportunity to reform and modernize.”

–DHH Secretary Bruce Greenstein, explaining how the federal cut of $859 million to the state’s Medicaid program is “doable.”

“I was surprised to see this on the table. I was told 15 minutes before the announcement was made.”

–State Sen. Jack Donahue (R-Mandeville), reacting to the administration’s announcement late Friday that Southeast Louisiana Hospital in Mandeville would begin closing down operations effective Oct. 1, resulting in the loss of 300 positions.

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Did Nungesser use Plaquemines Parish 911 email list to hawk Piyush host at his January fundraiser? Did he get anything?

Posted in Campaign Contributions, Ethics, Governor's Office, Politicians, Public Records on July 3, 2012| Leave a Comment »

Did Plaquemines Parish President Billy Nungesser access parish computer emails to solicit attendance (read: contributions) at a January fundraiser following his unsuccessful challenge to Jay Dardenne for the state’s second-highest office last October?

A better question might well be did he receive any contributions at the Jan. 17 fundraiser at the Grand Oaks Mansion in New Orleans’ Mardi Gras World, co-hosted by Gov. Piyush Jindal?

LouisianaVoice has received a complaint that Nungesser may have solicited attendance (and contributions) via email addresses accessible only through the parish 9-1-1 call line for a fundraiser to pay off debts from his 2011 lieutenant governor’s race.

“The only way that I believe that Billy Nungesser could have accessed my email address would be through the 9-1-1 parish call line,” one Plaquemines Parish resident wrote. “Citizens can register to receive alerts if there’s a hurricane, an evacuation, a hazardous spill, ferry’s out, etc., but it should be off-limits to political fundraisers,” the writer said, adding, “but this IS Bobby Jindal’s Louisiana.”

That was in apparent reference to Jindal’s endorsement of Nungesser in last October’s race against Dardenne, won by Darden with 53.1 percent of the vote.

The emailed invitation said, “You’re invited to join Governor Bobby Jindal at a fundraiser for bill Nungesser Tuesday, Jan. 17, 2012 from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. (at) Grand Oaks Mansion in Mardi Gras World, 1380 Port of New Orleans Place, New Orleans.”

The invitation also said a “private patron party” would be held from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m.

The bottom of the invitation offered potential donors the options of being a “Patron,” with four tickets as a member of the $5,000 “Host Committee” and attendance at the “private patron party,” a “Sponsor,” with two tickets for a $2,500 contribution, and an “Attendee” with one ticket in exchange for a $1,000 contribution.

Potential attendees were given the option of making their contributions (in advance) via American Express, Discover or Visa, with spaces provided for cardholders’ names, card numbers, expiration dates, security codes and cardholders’ signatures.

Even though the deadline on the invitation was given as Jan. 10, Nungesser’s email was sent three days later, on the 13th, an indication that advance reservations might not have been coming in as hoped, despite the attraction of the governor.

Before Nungesser’s email, the Plaquemines Parish resident who complained to LouisianaVoice said, “I got similar things promoting David Vitter (YUK), Bill Bubrig (who lost the race for Plaquemines Parish sheriff by 12.5 percentage points last November) and Jindal stuff, too. I am a registered Democrat. My email was not on any church list (that would be illegal, too, but we know that is going on) or any other community or political list likely to be accessed by Nungesser.”

The reference to church lists brings to mind Jindal’s visits to protestant churches in north Louisiana last year. An observer at one of those churches recalled seeing a clipboard being circulated during church services at a time when Jindal was giving his testimonial for church members to provide their names, telephone numbers and mailing and email addresses.

Not only was there an indication of slow RSVPs for the bash last January, there is also an even stronger indication that the event was a complete flop.

A check of Nungesser’s campaign finance reports shows that he received no contributions in all of 2012 and in fact, also received none in December of 2011, the month before the event.

In fact, the campaign finance report shows that he received only seven contributions of $500 or more in November, from Nov. 2 to Nov. 17, totaling only $16,500.

If he did receive any contributions as a result of his Jindal party in January, he neglected to file the legally-required campaign finance reports.

It wouldn’t be his first brush with authority—and ethics, however. In June of 2010, it was reported by Legislative Auditor Daryl Purpera that Nungesser may have violated the parish charter and local law when he independently entered into two hurricane recovery contracts in 2007 without obtaining the parish council’s approval.

Nungesser was also cited in 2010 as owning an interest in a marina being expanded by BP to support its cleanup efforts from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

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Suddenly, BESE, DOE, RSD and Piyush caught up in swirling litigation over reform, funding, and bureaucratic SNAFUs

Posted in BESE, Campaign Contributions, Contract, Contracts, Education, Governor's Office, Teague on June 27, 2012| 2 Comments »

The Louisiana Department of Education could find itself mired in state and federal courtroom disputes for years to come, thanks to Gov. Bobby Jindal’s sweeping education reform legislation and to the confusing mishmash of educational bureaucracy in Orleans Parish.

Disregard for the time being the last week’s court ruling that could end up costing the Orleans Parish School Board upwards of a billion dollars for the wrongful firing of about 7,000 teachers in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. That lawsuit did not involve the state—just Orleans Parish.

But across the state, several parish school boards and teachers’ unions are lining up as plaintiffs in various lawsuits against Jindal, the Louisiana Department of Education and the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE) to contest Jindal’s reform package that is being hailed by media everywhere but in Louisiana as groundbreaking, innovative and progressive.

One interesting development at the local level occurred in Ruston when the Lincoln Parish School Board recently voted to join litigation against Jindal’s move to usurp Minimum Foundation Program funds and local tax revenue from local school boards and to use those monies to pay for vouchers, or scholarships, to other schools—even if those other schools were in a different parish.

The local boards contend that those funds are dedicated to the parishes and should not be taken away.

In the case of Lincoln Parish, board member Trot Hunt was the only dissenting vote when the board voted to join as a plaintiff against the administration. He said the board could well do with a little more budgetary restraint.

But did Hunt have an ulterior motive other than fiscal prudence?

Well, consider this: his firm, Hunt-Guillot and Associates, has a couple of mega-contracts with the state which total more than $18 million, according to state documents. The largest, for $17.6 million, calls for the firm to administer HUD grant management activities for infrastructure and other projects undertaken as a result of damages from hurricanes Katrina, Rita, Gustav and Ike.

The other, a $900,000 contract, calls for the company to review applications for grant funds for the Department of Health and Hospitals.

Hunt-Guillot also contributed $4,750 to Jindal’s campaign in 2007 and Trot Hunt personally contributed $5,000 that same year.

If Hunt needed further incentive to vote against joining the lawsuit, there’s also the fact that his business partner, Jay Guillot, is a member of BESE, having been elected last fall thanks in part to strong support from Jindal that included a $5,000 contribution from Jindal’s own campaign. BESE, of course, overwhelmingly supported the Jindal reform package that calls for vouchers, the creation of charter schools and more teacher accountability.

And, of course, It’s pretty much a given that Hunt is keenly aware of what happens when anyone, be it an employee or legislator–or in this case, a contractor–crosses Piyush with a negative word or vote.

Can you say Teagued?

All that aside, there is yet another lawsuit brewing down in New Orleans, this one in the Eastern District of U.S. Federal Court.

If the Department of Education’s action earlier this month is any indication, it is taking this lawsuit quite seriously.

After eschewing Louisiana law firms and the Louisiana attorney general’s office, the department decided to enlist the powerful Washington, D.C. law firm of Hogan-Lovelis as its defense counsel. The initial contract was for $249,999, which is one dollar less than the $250,000 threshold at which the approval of BESE President Penny Dastugue would have been required.

But on May 30, it was decided to go for broke in defending this lawsuit when State Superintendent John White requested that Dastugue approve a $1.2 million amendment, bringing the contract to an eye-popping $1,449,000. Dastugue signed off on White’s request on June 6.

The lawsuit was filed by the Southern Poverty Law Center in October of 2010 on behalf of 10 lead plaintiffs and approximately 4,500 Orleans Parish students with learning and physical disabilities. It names former State Superintendent of Education Paul Pastorek, the State Department of Education and BESE as defendants.

The suit claims that 16 Orleans Parish schools fall under the parish school board, 23 are run by the Recovery School District (RSD) and 49 more are stand-alone charter schools. This arrangement, the lawsuit claims, results in the creation of 51 separate school districts, or local education agencies (LEA). Each charter school, it says, is an LEA.

This arrangement, the petition says, creates a confusing, impossible-to-navigate system for children with disabilities who, under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEA), are entitled to “the appropriate resources, policies and procedures” to provide unfettered access to special education services—“from evaluations to related services and supports.”

Federal law prohibits public entities from discriminating against individuals with disabilities but, the lawsuit claims, students have been subjected to systemic violations that included:

• Discrimination and denial of access to educational services;

• Failure to develop and implement child find procedures are required by law;

• Failure to provide free appropriate public education;

• Failure to protect students’ procedural safeguards in the disciplinary process.

The petition cites a survey conducted by Educational Support Systems which said that schools “under-identify students with disabilities in an effort to escape their legal obligations under IDEA.

Some students referred to the RSD for initial evaluations “frequently must wait months before an evaluation occurs—losing valuable educational time during the wait,” the suit says.

“New Orleans is the only geographic region in the state in which students cannot receive child-find services until they are actually admitted and enrolled in a public school,” it added.

The lawsuit also claims that the RSD has an “abysmal” graduation and school completion rate for students with disabilities. “On average, across the state of Louisiana, 19.4 percent of all students with disabilities graduate with a diploma,” it says. In comparison, only 6.8 percent of RSD students with disabilities obtain a diploma, the petition says.

While he tries to put positive spin on the recent legislative session, there can be no denying that Jindal fell far short of getting what he wanted in terms of state employee retirement reform and the sale of state prisons.

Even though he appears to have been successful with his education reform, there are signs that his support in the legislature may be starting to crumble in that regard as well.

Legislators, already miffed at demotions within their ranks, the use of one-time funds for recurring expenses, the veto of a major commercial project in Livingston Parish, drastic cuts to higher education and the closure of a prison in central Louisiana, are also hearing from their local school boards and public school teachers.

And what they’re hearing may be causing them to entertain second thoughts about their having allowed the governor to rip funds from local school boards.

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Jindal campaign fund update: 1 bank board member says none were aware of contributions made in their names

Posted in Campaign Contributions, Ethics, Governor's Office, Uncategorized on June 5, 2012| 4 Comments »

At least one of the 11 board members of the failed Central Progressive Bank of Lacombe was unaware that a $5,000 campaign contribution had been made in his name to Gov. Bobby Jindal during his successful run for governor in 2007, LouisianaVoice has learned. He added that he was sure none of the other board members knew of the contributions made in their names as well.

Richard Blossman, Jr., of Lacombe is accused in a federal bill of information of funneling $55,000 through the Lacombe bank into Jindal’s campaign.

Central Progressive, after being designated as a “troubled bank” last year, was taken over in November by First NBC Bank of New Orleans.

The federal Bill of Information says that Blossman, while CEO of Central Progressive Bank, gave each of his 11 board members a $5,000 bonus. In reality none of the $5,000 bonus payments ever went to the board members, according to Raphael Goyeneche, president of the New Orleans Metropolitan Crime Commission.

“The defendant well knew the ‘bonus’ was to funnel illegal political contributions and was not a bonus, as he caused it to be inscribed in the board minutes,” prosecutors said.

“That is a felony,” Goyeneche said.

Immediately after the bonuses were announced by Blossman, federal prosecutors say 11 checks of $5,000 each were sent to Jindal’s campaign in the names of each of the individual board members.

The limit for political contributions is $5,000. But with all of the board members “donating” their $5,000 of Central Progressive Bank funds, the donation came to $55,000.

Additionally, the Louisiana Board of Ethics last month said Jindal received $40,000 in campaign contributions from River Birch, Inc. when the company formed six “straw man entities” to launder illegal donations to Jindal.

River Birch Landfill had its offices in Gretna raided by federal agents in September of 2010 after landing a controversial $160 million garbage disposal contract with Jefferson Parish in 2009.

Curiously, Timmy Teepell, who ran Jindal’s 2007 campaign, said the governor would not return any of the tainted $95,000.

“We accept every contribution in good faith and in accordance with the law,” he sniffed.

So, while there are laws against receiving stolen goods, and even as Louisiana legislators fret over the selling of art by Angola death row inmates, there apparently are no restrictions on politicians keeping laundered campaign money.

When asked if Blossman received anything in return for the donations, Teepell said, “No, absolutely not. Everybody who donates to our campaign gets the same thing and that is good government.”

When LouisianaVoice attempted to question the board members, no one answered phone calls at seven of the numbers called, two numbers had been disconnected and the first board member contacted, Raymond Fontaine of Slidell, said he had no comment.

At another, LouisianaVoice at first reached Douglas Ferrer, Sr., father of board member Douglas Ferrer, Jr. The elder Ferrer referred to Central Progressive as “that no-good bank” and added that his son was unaware of the contribution made in his name.

When contacted, Douglas Ferrer, Jr. of Lacombe at first explained that he had been involved in litigation against the bank and that the settlement agreement contained a non-disclosure clause that prohibited him from commenting. When told that his father had said he knew nothing of the campaign contribution, he then said, “My dad doesn’t lie. You can take that for what it’s worth.” Given the fact his father had already commented, the younger Ferrer finally said, “I think none of the others were aware of the contributions.”

Besides Fontaine, Ferrer and Blossman, the other eight board members who ostensibly made $5,000 campaign contributions to Jindal, all on April 6, 2007, according to Jindal’s campaign finance report, included Welton Brumfield, Jr., address unknown, Charles Law Ponder of Kentwood, Edward Amar, Jr., of Tickfaw, Brandon Faciane of Slidell, Ralph Menetre of Covington, Jim Venezia, Sr., of Pearl River, Henry Powell, Jr. of Lacombe and Mark Perrilloux of Ponchatoula.

The Louisiana Office of Financial Institutions, which provided the names of the board members pursuant to a public records request by CNS, noted that Menetre was elected to the board on January 29, 2007 and that Perrilloux left the board on December 10, 2007.

Jindal paid a $2,500 ethics fine less than a month after taking office in 2008 for campaign violations when his campaign failed to timely disclose more than $100,000 spent on his behalf by the state Republican Party.

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Notable Quotables (in their own words)

Posted in Campaign Contributions, Ethics, Governor's Office, Notable Quotables, Transparency on June 2, 2012| Leave a Comment »

“We accept every contribution in good faith and in accordance with the law.”

“Everybody who donates to our campaign gets the same thing and that is good government.”

–Timmy Teepell, advisor and confidant to Gov. Piyush Jindal, responding to questions about $95,000 that federal investigators say may have been laundered illegally into the Jindal 2007 campaign for governor.

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