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Archive for the ‘Governor’s Office’ Category

Defunct Abramson sister school continues operations; Kenilworth exec solicits funds with old business card

Posted in BESE, Charters, Education, Ethics, Governor's Office, Privatization, Recovery School District, Transparency, Uncategorized, Vouchers on October 14, 2012| 6 Comments »

LouisianaVoice has learned that despite serious deficiencies that included widespread cheating that closed the Abramson Science & Technology Charter School in New Orleans last year, its sister school in Baton Rouge continues to operate with the blessings of the Louisiana Department of Education (DOE).

At the same time Abramson’s problems were surfacing more than a year ago, reports of wrongful firing of teachers and student mistreatment at Kenilworth Science & Technology School in Baton Rouge finally came to light when it was learned that DOE had launched an investigation of Abramson.

Both schools are run by a Texas company affiliated with the Gulen movement, a Turkish offshoot of the Islamic faith.

The problems at Abramson were first reported by state education employee Folwell Dunbar. Dunbar and his supervisor, Jacob Landry, who was director of the DOE charter office, were promptly fired after reporting the abuses that included sexual misconduct, neglect and missing files.

In a cover-up that has become indicative of the manner in which DOE is run under the Piyush Jindal-John White administration, a 72-page report on an investigation conducted by DOE was generated. That report included a five-page cover letter by then-acting Superintendent of Education Ollie Tyler to Board of Elementary and Secondary Education President Penny Dastugue that claimed DOE first learned of the allegations surrounding Abramson on July 14, 2011, even though Dunbar and Landry had warned of problems at the school more than a year before.

To be fair, the report was compiled and released prior to White’s being named superintendent but he has taken no apparent steps to alter the situation at Kenilworth subsequent to his takeover of the department.

The claim that the department had no knowledge of wrongdoing at the school only served to discredit the entire report.

Dunbar, in a memo to department colleagues in 2010, said that Inci Akpinar, vice president of Atlas Texas Construction & Trading, the Texas company with ties to the Gulen movement, told Dunbar during a discussion of the school’s problems, “I have $25,000 to fix this problem: $20,000 for you and five for me.

A state audit conducted well in advance of the report’s publication also cited the school for having classrooms without instructors for weeks or even months at a time and of students who claimed their science fair projects had been done by their teachers.

Abramson’s charter was subsequently revoked but Kenilworth has continued to operate and last week, the school’ superintendent was calling on businesses in Baton Rouge in an attempt to raise funds for a science fair at the school.

Dr. Tevfik Eski, chief executive officer of Pelican Education Foundation in New Orleans which ran Abramson until its charter was revoked, was handing out business cards that contained the names of both Abramson and Kenilworth Science & Technology Charter Schools, only the word “Abramson” had been scratched through with blue ink and the letters “CMO” scribbled in over the word “Technology.”

CMO stands for “Charter Management Organization” and Pelican Education Foundation contracts with Cosmos Foundation, the CMO that runs the Harmony School Network in Texas, with which Abramson and Kenilworth were affiliated through Atlas Construction.

Click on image to enlarge:

If all that sounds terribly convoluted, it’s for a reason. Because of its organizational structure the Texas Education Authority (TEA) reported last year it had no knowledge of the problems with Abramson and Kenilworth even though the Cosmos Foundation operates more than 30 such schools in Texas.

In addition to his Baton Rouge address, Eski’s business card also contained the telephone and fax numbers of Pelican Education Foundation, his email address at Kenilworth and the web address of Pelican Education Foundation. In addition, he had written (also in blue ink) his Baton Rouge cell number.

One would think that a year after Abramson had its charter yanked, Eski would spring for new business cards but give him points for austerity.

In addition to the deficiencies already mentioned, the 72-page report by DOE also noted that Abramson students who were failing in English and math and who would not graduate from Abramson on time were being accepted en masse to North American College in Houston.

Then-Abramson principal Cuneyt Dokmen cited the acceptances as proof that Abramson was successful but the DOE report noted that Dokmen was scheduled to work at North American College in the fall of 2011.

North American College is a private, non-profit, four-year institution founded in 2010 that offers only three bachelor degree programs—education, computer science and business administration.

So what we have here is a dysfunctional DOE that shoots the messenger when it hears bad news from its own, generates lengthy investigative reports that deny knowledge of information that in fact the department had for more than a year, and allows one of the charter schools to continue operations with no accountability required.

Bottom line: can we believe anything that comes out of the Louisiana Department of Education’s administrative offices?

No wonder John White thinks he needs that $144,000 public relations mouthpiece.

The inmates are truly running the asylum.

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Troy Hebert, like his predecessor, accused of misconduct as Alcohol Tobacco Control Commissioner; Civil Service orders reinstatement, back pay and legal fees for suspended agent

Posted in Civil Service, Governor's Office, Politicians, State Agencies on October 12, 2012| 27 Comments »

The beleaguered State Office of Alcohol and Tobacco Control (ATC) is experiencing more bad karma, thanks to what appears to be a series of ill-advised polices put in place by ATC Commissioner Troy Hebert.

Hebert is a former state senator from Jeanerette appointed to his position by Gov. Piyush Jindal in November of 2010 after Hebert’s predecessor, Murphy Painter was fired in August of that year on charges of sexual harassment and then was indicted earlier this year on charges of computer fraud, making false statements and aggravated identity theft.

Hebert now is facing his own problems including allegations that he deliberately sent an ATC agent into harm’s way, that he has transferred agents from one end of the state to the other with as little as two days’ notice, and last month’s decision by the Louisiana Civil Service Commission that he pay an employee back wages, interest and attorney fees after he suspended her for insubordination when her doctor refused to comply with what the commission agreed were unreasonable demands made under the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA).

Hebert had suspended ATC administrative assistant Lisa Pike after her physician declined to provide weekly status reports as ordered by Hebert. Pike was on extended medical leave for failure to provide acceptable proof that was unable to work.

Hebert’s action was taken despite her doctor’s written certification that she was unable to work and that she “has been under my care from July 19, 2011 to Aug. 19, 2011” and that she could “return to work on Aug. 20, 2011.”

On July 29, 2011, Hebert sent Pike a letter of suspension.

“This letter is to advise you that you are being placed (o)n Leave Without Pay (LWOP) effective Thursday, July 21, 2011, for failure to provide acceptable proof that you were ill and unable to report to work,” the letter from Hebert said.

“You were directed by letter dated July 13, 2011, to submit a statement from your health care provider to verify that you are unable to report to work due to illness or medical condition. The statements you submitted do not specify the cause of your absence or verify that you are unable to report to work.”

The physician subsequently agreed to provide weekly medical reports but charged Pike $25 for each of the weekly updates.

In her ruling of Sept. 20, Civil Service Commission referee Roxie F. Goynes ordered the Department of Revenue (DOR) to pay Ms. Pike back wages, with interest. ATC is part of DOR. “I further order DOR to remove all documents concerning this disciplinary action from Ms. Pike’s personnel file,” Goynes said in her ruling.

Goynes added that DOR “was unreasonable in going forward on its charge. Therefore, pursuant to the provisions of Civil Service Rule 13.35, I award attorney’s fees to Ms. Pike in the amount of $1500.”

But perhaps the most serious claim against Hebert is that he ordered an agent back into bars in New Orleans in full uniform where she had previously worked on undercover assignments to purchase drugs. If true, such a decision could have placed the agent’s life in peril had she been recognized by those from whom she had purchased drugs.

A formal complaint of discrimination filed against Hebert by agent Daimian McDowell contained the allocation that “Commissioner Hebert has assigned African-American agents to dangerous duties.”

In his complaint, one of three separate complaints filed by three separate agents earlier this month, McDowell said that agent Lori Claiborne of Gonzales was transferred from the Baton Rouge region to the New Orleans region. She had worked as a narcotics agent in Baton Rouge so her supervisor in New Orleans allowed her to work as a task force officer (TFO) in cooperation with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) while remaining an employee of ATC.

As a TFO, Claiborne worked undercover in civilian clothing, purchasing synthetic marijuana from dealers in New Orleans bars.

Upon learning of her work with DEA, Hebert ordered her back to Baton Rouge and over the objections of Claiborne and another agent, assigned her to conduct inspections in the same establishments—in full uniform—where she had purchased drugs as an undercover agent, the complaint says.

Other written complaints against Hebert, all dated Oct. 2, 2012, include:

• Asking an employee to “keep tabs” on a fellow agent;

• Transferring agent Charles Gilmore from Baton Rouge to Shreveport with no advance notice and subsequently telling one of his co-workers, another ATC agent, that he took the action in the hopes it would prompt Gilmore to take early retirement;

• Boasting that he planned to “break up” a trio of black agents in north Louisiana (one of whom was subsequently fired);

• Requiring supervisors to report to their subordinates;

• Calling agent Larry Hingle “a zero” and sending an email to other employees soliciting suggestions for ways to punish Hingle for the agent’s failure to address Hebert at “Commissioner” or “Sir,” as per a directive by Hebert.

In addition to the three formal complaints to both the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and to Civil Service, six members of the ATC Command staff and six ATC employees sent a five-page letter in March of 2011 to then-Revenue Secretary Cynthia Bridges in which they itemized a laundry list of 45 separate complaints against Hebert. The contents of that letter would comprise much of the complaint contained in a subsequent lawsuit against the Department of Revenue that is still pending in 19th Judicial District Court in Baton Rouge.

That letter and the lawsuit filed by a fourth ATC agent contain several charges that are eerily familiar to some of the charges against Hebert’s predecessor, Murphy Painter. Those documents will be the subject of our next installment.

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Notable Quotables (in their own words)

Posted in Boards, Civil Service, Governor's Office, Jobs, Layoffs, Notable Quotables, State Agencies on October 8, 2012| 2 Comments »

“Yesterday afternoon, I submitted a request to Civil Service for the Layoff Avoidance Measure of withholding performance adjustment pay increases (or merit increases) for the upcoming year. I sincerely regret that this is necessary for a third year in a row, but I made this request to minimize the impact of budget pressures on our levels of staffing and on the agency.”

–Louisiana Workforce Commission executive director Curt Eysink, in a September 26 email to his employees informing them they would not be receiving 4 percent merit increases.

“I’m not going to cast a vote to set a precedent for one employee.”

–State Civil Service Commission member Scott Hughes, less than week later, speaking out against a proposed $19,430 annual pay increase (40.8 percent) for a Louisiana Workforce Commission mid-level manager. Despite Hughes’s opposition, the compliant Civil Service Board rubber stamped the pay increase from $47,570 to $67,000 for the employee described by Civil Service assistant director Jean Jones as barely meeting minimum job standards.

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LWC director sends email announcing no pay raises: oops! he forgot about one who will get a $19,430 (40.8%) bump

Posted in Broadband, Internet, Civil Service, Commissions, Governor's Office, Higher Education, Layoffs, Legislature, Legislators, OGB, Office of Group Benefits, Politicians, Privatization, State Agencies on October 8, 2012| 6 Comments »

State Civil Service employees have gone without a 4 percent merit pay raise for three years now because of budgetary restrictions, brought on in large part by a Piyush Jindal administration that refuses to apply for federal grants for needed projects and by Jindal’s insistence on granting more and more tax breaks to corporate entities who take the money and, in at least one case, cease operations within a year or so.

No one is saying that grant money can be used to fund employee pay raises but when federal funds for broadband internet ($80.6 million), early childhood development ($60 million), and $5 billion a year in tax exemptions are taken out of the budgetary mix, the money must be made up from other sources.

Because of constitutionally mandated spending, there are only two areas where cuts may be made: higher education and health care. And of course, there is always the suspension of pay raises.

Accordingly, Curt Eysink, executive director of the Louisiana Workforce Commission (LWC)–once known by its archaic nom de plume, the Department of Labor–sent an email to all his employees on Sept. 26 which informed them thusly:

Dear Fellow LWC Employees,

As you are aware, the LWC has experienced significant reductions in funding over the last four years as the demand for our services increased. That has put a lot of added pressure on many of you, and you should know that your efforts are greatly appreciated. Unfortunately, the combination of funding reductions and increased services also puts a tremendous strain on our budget, and we continue to struggle to maintain staffing levels in certain areas.

Yesterday afternoon, I submitted a request to Civil Service for the Layoff Avoidance Measure of withholding performance adjustment pay increases (or merit increases) for the upcoming year. I sincerely regret that this is necessary for a third year in a row, but I made this request to minimize the impact of budget pressures on our levels of staffing and on the agency.

I appreciate your dedication and patience as we work through these tough financial times. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.

Well, wasn’t that special? Eysink, in an effort to avoid layoffs, was willing to allow his employees to bite the bullet on behalf of the greater good by denying them pay raises, even though he “sincerely” regretted the action.

But wait. While he was sacrificing 4 percent increases for virtually his entire agency, Eysink was apparently attempting a backdoor salary bump of some $20,000 per year (40.8 percent), from $47,570 to $67,000, for a single employee.

Jonie Smith, Emerging Workforce Manager (for programs involving community action agencies, veterans and disabled workers), was approved by the state Civil Service Commission for an increase from $47,570 to $67,000 despite restrictions that would have limited her increase to only $53,000.

This is the same Civil Service Commission that rubber stamped the privatization plan for the Office of Group Benefits that will cause about 120 workers in that agency to lose their jobs. (Is it just us, or does anyone else see the Civil Service Commission as becoming just another Jindal dancing monkey in much the same mode as the Ethics Commission and the Louisiana Legislature?)

Not that one member, at least, didn’t try to discourage the big raise.

Briefly, here’s a recap of what went down:

Smith apparently got a job offer from the private sector and Eysink felt she was just too valuable to lose. Civil Service rules allow a state agency to match a private sector offer and in this particular case a match would have boosted her salary by $5,430, or 11.4 percent—nearly three times the 4 percent merit raise for state employees—if such raises still existed, which, of course, they don’t.

Even at that, agency officials lobbied for $67,000, causing commission member Scott Hughes to balk. Hughes observed that a lot of good employees have already been lost to layoffs. Another 1500 or so are slated to lose their jobs (just in time for Christmas, no less) through massive cutbacks in services by the LSU healthcare system.

“I’m not going to cast a vote to set a precedent for one employee,” he said, adding that other agencies might attempt similar moves. “I believe it’s a barn door we are opening that will not get shut.”

Commission Vice Chairman John McLure pooh-poohed Hughes’s concerns. “Given the current economic situation and the downsizing we have approved, we won’t see much of this,” he said somewhat incredulously.

Apparently, McLure has not been paying close attention to the news lately (see Tim Barfield, whom Jindal appointed Revenue Secretary at twice the salary of his predecessor).

It should also be noted that while Eysink pays the obligatory lip service to his employees by telling them how much he values and appreciates their dedication and patience, at least one staff member is valued and appreciated considerably more than the rest. Either that or he’s simply lying about how much he appreciates his workers in the first place. Of course, lying is certainly not new to this administration.

Remember Jindal’s disingenuous State Employee Appreciation proclamations the past three years? Were they not so cynical and such classic examples of sick humor, they’d almost be laughable. Almost.

Hughes did have one ally in Civil Service assistant director Jean Jones.

While Ashley Gautreaux, LWC human resources director described Smith, who has worked for the agency since December of 2010, a “critical” employee, Jones said based on Civil Service records, Smith barely meets minimum job qualifications for the job she is in.

The commission predictably went along with the $19,430 per year pay raise with Hughes casting the only negative vote.

One LWC employee emailed LouisianaVoice expressing an attitude of being quite “p—sed” at the action.

That’s certainly easy to understand. Jindal has completely ignored this state since his re-election (with the exception of opportunities for camera face time during Hurricane Isaac). He is rarely even in the state anymore even as a dangerous sinkhole has caused evacuations in Assumption Parish. He is nowhere to be found even as the state’s economy is tanking, causing cutbacks in medical care, budget cuts to higher education which in turn precipitated tuition increases for already financially-strapped students—all while he pumps up salaries for his appointees (see Tim Barfield), fires doctors and college presidents and attorneys and continues to campaign for president—a goal, by the way, that he will never reach.

The question then is, with more than three years left for him to turn his nose up at the citizens who elected him, how much more of this boorish behavior is the state citizenry—and the legislature—willing to take off this arrogant Alfred E. Newman lookalike?

Perhaps Hammond attorney C.B. Forgotston said it best when he said it is time for us to move on because Bobby has. “It’s time for us to admit the truth: Bobby Jindal is finished with Louisiana,” he said.

“Bobby’s future is beyond the borders of Louisiana and he shows it every day. It’s time for the legislators to determine what type of state in which they want to live, not what Bobby leaves us.”

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House members stick around for per diem but leave before adjournment of Joint Committee studying hospital closures

Posted in Governor's Office, Health Care, Higher Education, House, Senate, Legislature, Legislators, LSU, Politicians, Transparency on October 5, 2012| 5 Comments »

Thursday’s meeting of the Joint Legislative Committee on Health and Welfare was a critical meeting in that committee members were considering massive cutbacks to the LSU healthcare system and the impending layoffs of nearly 1500 employees at seven of the 10 hospitals in the LSU system.

One might think that a meeting such as this might important enough to merit the testimony of Bobby Yarborough, member and former chairman of the LSU Board of Supervisors.

One would be wrong.

Yarborough, who also served as campaign finance chairman for Jindal’s re-election campaign last year (he’s a busy man), might also have spoken up in his capacity as chairman of the University Medical Center Management Corp. Board.

But he did not.

Nor did anyone from the administration of one Piyush Jindal appear to justify cuts of more than $300 million that will necessarily cause significant reductions to the availability of health care to Louisiana’s uninsured poor—and even insured Louisiana residents who are geographically depending on facilities such as Bogalusa Medical Center, one of those slated for cutbacks.

Instead, Dr. Frank Opelka, chief of the LDU system health care, was left to defend the cuts and to withstand withering questioning from members of the joint committee.

It might also be expected that for a meeting as important as this one was, all members would be in attendance, but that also was not the case.

Absent from the entire four-hour session were Sens. Dan Claitor (R) and Yvonne Dorsey-Colomb (D) of Baton Rouge and ex-officio member Rep. Walt Leger (D-New Orleans).

House members attending the meeting included committee Chairman Scott Simon (R-Abita Springs), Frank Hoffman, vice chair (R-West Monroe), John Anders (D-Vidalia), Kenny Cox (D-Natchitoches), A.B. Franklin (D-Lake Charles), Lance Harris (R-Alexandria), Kenneth Havard (R-Jackson), Bob Hensgens (R-Abbeville), Dorothy Sue Hill (D-Dry Creek), Katrina Jackson (D-Monroe), H. Bernard LeBas (D-Ville Platte), John Morris (R-Monroe), Rogers Pope (R-Denham Springs), Lenar Whitney (R-Houma), Patrick Williams (D-Shreveport), Thomas Willmott (R-Kenner) and House Speaker Chuck Kleckley, ex officio (R-Lake Charles.

Senators present on Thursday included Chairman David Heitmeier (D-New Orleans), Fred Mills, vice chairman (R-New Iberia), R.L. “Bret” Allain, II (R-Franklin), Sherri Smith Buffington (R-Keithville), Dale Erdey (R-Livingston), Elbert Guillory (D-Opelousas), Ben Nevers (D-Bogalusa), and Senate President John Alario (R-Westwego).

Even more difficult to understand, however, was the early exit of many of those who did attend. Several were there long enough to qualify for their $149 per diem checks, plus 55.5 cents per mile (round trip) for travel, but were not present near the conclusion of the session when Nevers attempted to push through a resolution requesting the LSU Board of Supervisors and Dr. Opelka to delay implementation of any cuts until all plans have been finalized and presented to the legislature.

While there was a sufficient contingency of senators to mount a quorum, more than half the House members had departed, leaving Simon with no choice but to disallow any vote on Nevers’s motion under House rules.

Rep. Rogers Pope (R-Denham Springs), one of those who stayed until the end, said he could not speak for those who left and did not know the reasons for their departure. “They may have had things to do but you know, this is an important issue and we were elected to look out for the best interests of our constituents. I took an oath of office and I felt obligated to remain until adjournment.”

Pope said he is fully aware of the budgetary crisis, but said health care for the poor is imperative. “There are going to be cutbacks in services rendered but we need to make wise decisions on what is cut and where.

“I don’t like a lot of things this governor is doing,” he added. “I especially do not like what he has done and is doing to education in this state.

“Sure, we have problems in education, but you don’t scrap the whole system. We have bad governors in this country, too, but we can’t just throw them all out and start over. It’s not that easy. You work within the system to improve it; you don’t destroy the system.”

Pope said he was aware that Jindal does not like criticism. “But I’ve criticized him in the past so I know I’m among those on the outside.”

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