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The legacy of Huey and Earl–75 and 50 years later

Posted in Governor's Office on September 2, 2010| 1 Comment »

With a conservative Republican occupying the governor’s mansion in Baton Rouge, it’s not likely that any official commemoration will be given the dates of September 5 and September 10 this year. Other than a symposium at the Old State Capitol, sponsored by Secretary of State Jay Dardenne, no other official functions show up on the radar. For a state so steeped in colorful politics as Louisiana, perhaps the general indifference with which those dates are likely to be met might truly indicate that an era has passed, that the old guard has once and for all been replaced.

In another time, those dates would have borne an undeniably special significance with voters at either end of the political spectrum. September 5 will mark the 50th anniversary of Earl Long’s death and five days later, September 10 will be the 75th anniversary of the death of his older brother Huey. Perhaps ominously, there was a lunar eclipse on the nights before the deaths of both Huey and Earl. Dardenne’s event, it should be noted, commemorates only the death of Huey while ignoring the 50th anniversary of his younger brother’s death.

Both men, natives of Winn Parish, left indelible marks in both the state and national political arenas. Huey was in his fourth year as a U.S. Senator when he was gunned down on September 8, 1935, in the corridors of the State Capitol Building he built while governor and died two days later. Earl, a three-term governor, much like the Phoenix, rose from the ashes to defeat incumbent Rep. Harold McSween to represent the state’s 8th Congressional District just a day after his 65th birthday but suffered a heart attack on election night and died nine days later on September 5, 1960.

Huey, championing his “share our wealth” program, was poised to mount a challenge to President Franklin Roosevelt’s re-election bid in 1936 when he was assassinated, but not before he initiated a number of ambitious programs for the state. Among other things, he completed 9,000 miles of new roads, doubling the size of the state’s road system; increased the miles of paved roads from 331 to 2,301; built 111 new bridges, including the Huey P. Long Bridge in Jefferson Parish, the first bridge over the lower Mississippi River; built the Louisiana State Capitol, at the time the tallest building in the South; founded the LSU School of Medicine and a new Charity Hospital building in New Orleans.

His free textbook, school-building, and school busing programs improved and expanded public education and his night schools allowed 100,000 adults to learn to read. He also increased funding for LSU, lowered tuition, and expanded its enrollment from 1,600 to 4,000.

Earl, on the other hand, was far ahead of his time by the simple fact that he refused to get caught up in the race-baiting politics so common in Louisiana and other southern states during the ‘40s, ‘50s, and 60s. In fact, Earl, going against the popular tide, increased the number of registered black voters from fewer than 23,000 to more than 107,000. He also brought black teacher pay up to the level of that of white teachers and insisted that classes at LSU-New Orleans (now the University of New Orleans) be open to blacks and whites alike when it opened its doors in September of 1958.

Earl also oversaw the construction of more than 1,000 new elementary and secondary schools; established several new college campuses and expanded others; built dozens of vocational-technical schools, and initiated the hot lunch program for school children.

But in retrospect, Earl’s greatest legacy would have to be his foresight during the racial strife of the late ‘50s and early ‘60s. While others, namely Leander Perez of Plaquemines Parish and State Sen. Willie Rainach of Claiborne Parish, attempted to purge voter rolls of Blacks and to block school desegregation, it was Earl who recognized the inevitability of the changing times, refusing to bend to the White Citizens Council and the KKK. At the height of the hysterics, Earl once chastised Perez, asking the rhetorical question: “Whatcha gonna do now, Leander? The feds got the A-bomb.”

Both men believed in absolute power and both consolidated their power through patronage, firing political opponents and placing supporters in cherished state jobs. Huey had his famous de-duct box, a campaign war chest into which went 10 percent of every state employee’s paycheck. Earl, who abolished civil service in order to perpetuate similar political patronage, also opened the state to prostitution and gambling, taking rake-offs from organized crime, according to Earl biographers Michael Kurtz and the late Morgan Peoples.

Kurtz is a retired history professor at Southeastern Louisiana University in Hammond and Peoples, who died in 1998, was a history professor at Louisiana Tech University in Ruston. The two collaborated on the book Earl K. Long: The Saga of Uncle Earl and Louisiana Politics, published in 1990, which was the first to reveal FBI records that tied Earl to Carlos Marcello, Frank Costello, and Meyer Lansky.

Huey first ran for governor in 1924, narrowly missing a runoff, but that election set him up for a successful second run in 1928. In that 1928 election, he won with less than a majority of the vote. Huey got 43.9 percent of the vote and his opponents, Riley J. Wilson of Ruston and Oramel Simpson of New Orleans, split the remainder with 28.3 percent and 27.8 percent, respectively. When Simpson threw his support to Long, Wilson withdrew, giving Huey his victory.

He immediately set about firing opponents and replacing them with political supporters. When he got his free textbook program passed, Caddo Parish filed suit to prevent distribution of the books. But Long, flexing his political muscle, simply refused to authorize the location of an Army Air Corps base (now Barksdale AFB) in adjacent Bossier Parish until Caddo capitulated.

With Earl’s untiring help, he survived an excruciating impeachment in 1929, emerging more powerful than ever. He quickly went about firing opponents’ relatives and founded his own statewide newspaper, the Louisiana Progress. He not only trumpeted his administration’s accomplishments in the publication, but forced state employees to subscribe and pressured state contractors to purchase expensive advertisements.

In 1931, he was elected to the U.S. Senate, defeating incumbent Joseph E. Ransdell of Alexandria, 57.3 percent to 42.7 percent. Planning what many consider to have been a serious effort to unseat FDR, Huey never got the chance. Dr. Carl Austin Weiss, whose father-in-law had been gerrymandered out of a judgeship by Huey, approached Long in the Capitol foyer. What happened next is unclear but what is known is that Long was shot by either a .38 or .45 caliber pistol, both of which were consistent with the weapons carried by Huey’s bodyguards. Weiss owned a .32 caliber pistol but it was not found for six decades when investigator James Starrs recovered it in the 1990s. Whether Huey was slain by his own bodyguards reacting to some action of Weiss has never been determined but whatever the case, Weiss was cut down in a hail of gunfire from the bodyguards.

Huey’s hand-picked successor, Gov. O.K. Allen, died in office in January of 1936 after himself being elected to the U.S. Senate but before he could take office. He was succeeded for the remainder of his term by Monroe radio and television executive James A. Noe with whom Long had founded the infamous Win or Lose Oil Company from which Huey’s heirs were said to have reaped millions of dollars from leases of state-owned land that were subsequently sub-leased to major oil companies.

Another Long political heir, Richard Leche, was elected governor in 1936 along with his running mate for lieutenant governor, Earl Long. When Leche resigned for “health reasons” in 1939—prior to his being convicted of mail fraud and public corruption—Earl became governor but failed to win his own bid for the governorship in 1940 and again lost in 1944, when he ran for lieutenant governor on a ticket headed by Lewis L. Morgan of Covington, who in turn lost the governorship to Jimmie Davis.

Earl was finally elected governor in his own right in 1948 and immediately abolished the state’s civil service system (first established by Gov. Sam Jones) so that he could award jobs to political supporters. It was on Earl’s watch, according to Peoples and Kurtz, that the state saw an explosion in the spread of gambling, prostitution, and narcotics trafficking, eventually prompting hearings in New Orleans and Washington by Estes Kefauver, the Tennessee senator who chaired the Senate Special Committee to Investigate Crime in Interstate Commerce. The committee reported that under Long, organized crime operated openly and with the full cooperation of state and local officials.

Earl’s biggest blunder during his first administration, however, was in listening to Perez who prevailed upon the governor to reject the Truman administration’s generous offer in the settlement of the tidelands mineral royalty dispute. Perez was fearful of losing his vise-like grip on the royalties of mineral-rich Plaquemines Parish and lobbied Earl against accepting the offer put forward by House Speaker Sam Rayburn, saying the state would prevail in the pending federal litigation. The state of course, just as California had earlier, lost, costing Louisiana billions of dollars in lost revenue.

When Bob Kennon was elected in 1952, he instructed State Police Superintendent Francis X. Grevemberg to set about destroying slot machines from the Bossier Strip to Jefferson and Orleans parishes and to wipe out illegal gambling in general.

But Earl was back in ’56, winning in the first primary with 51.5 percent of the vote. He was aided no doubt by Costello and Marcello, each of whom contributed $250,000 to his campaign, according to FBI records cited in Kurtz’s and Peoples’s book. He also received substantial contributions from Louis Roussel of New Orleans who was interested in opening a racetrack in Jefferson Parish, and organized labor.

But trouble was on the horizon and Earl, already having suffered one heart attack in 1951, began a bizarre pattern of behavior that saw him first committed to mental institutions in Mandeville, Louisiana, and Galveston, Texas, embark on an odyssey across the southwest U.S. and Mexico, and become involved in a sordid affair with stripper Blaze Starr, all of which were dutifully chronicled by national and international media. As the pressure of racial tensions mounted—fueled by Perez and Rainach—Long grew ever more eccentric. He addressed the legislature in a rambling, incoherent tirade that ended with his being escorted from the floor of the House by Baton Rouge Advocate Editor Maggie Dixon and subsequently hospitalized.

Barred constitutionally from serving two consecutive terms, he ran for lieutenant governor on a ticket headed by Noe. Other gubernatorial candidates included New Orleans Mayor deLesseps (Chep) Morrison, Jimmie Davis, and Rainach. The plan was for Noe to get elected, resign, and allow Long to assume the governorship.

Noe ran fourth, however, failing even to win his own precinct. Long, outpolled his running mate but nevertheless finished third. Morrison led the first primary followed by Davis and Rainach. Davis won the runoff against Morrison, creating a sense of political Déjà vu: Davis had also won in 1944 when Earl ran unsuccessfully for lieutenant governor.

Long was suddenly an old man at 64. Having survived a heart attack, a mental breakdown and a grueling, unsuccessful political campaign, most gave him up as politically dead. They couldn’t have been more wrong.

Despite pleadings from friends and family and advice from his physicians that another campaign would surely kill him, Long steeled himself for one last hurrah. Hollow-eyed, gaunt, and pale, and sometimes lacking the energy to mount a platform from which to address crowds, he nevertheless plunged ahead, announcing that he would run against incumbent Harold McSween for the 8th District congressional seat. Few gave him any chance, especially McSween.

The incumbent stayed in the larger cities and towns of the district—Alexandria, Pineville, Marksville, and Natchitoches while Earl hit every village and hamlet in the district, incessantly driving himself in the stifling heat and humidity of Louisiana’s oppressive summer months of July and August.

Earl won by 4,458 votes, but the victory came with a price. He suffered another heart attack on election day, one day after his 65th birthday, but refused to check into a hospital until all the votes were in. In the movie Blaze, a sadly inaccurate account of Earl’s career by every measure, he is depicted as dying on election night but before doing so, pleading with Blaze Starr (who in fact was never with him during the campaign) to check the returns in Monroe. Monroe was not in the 8th District; it was in the 5th, represented at the time by Otto Passman.

In reality, Earl lived for nine days after the election and even held a press conference from his hospital room on Sept. 3, two days before his death.

The Long style of politics did not die a sudden and complete death; it took a while. The method of campaigning became more urbane with the advent of television, ad agencies, and political consultants, but the populism didn’t go quietly. John McKeithen won two terms with his plaintive “Won’t you he’p me?” campaigns in 1963 and 1967 (after a constitutional amendment allowed him to become the first governor to serve two consecutive terms). Edwin Edwards was elected on four different occasions (1971, 1975, 1983, and 1991).

Both McKeithen and Edwards, much as Earl had done, drew on a political base comprised largely of labor unions, blacks, and rural voters and both rewarded their constituents accordingly.

As political campaigns become slicker and more sophisticated and campaign costs continue to soar into the stratosphere, it becomes increasingly difficult for a true grassroots campaign to gather any real traction as witnessed by efforts of Buddy Leach and Foster Campbell in recent campaigns, capturing 13.8 and 17 percent, respectively, in the last two gubernatorial elections.

So, if there is to be any formal observance this month, perhaps it should be in fond memory of when political campaigns were more fun and the candidates far more colorful than today. In many ways, some would say we are better off now with our reform and Ivy League candidates but are we really? Is there something missing from the modern political landscape? Names like the Kingfish, Uncle Earl, Big John, and Fast Eddie have given way to Bobby, Dave, Buddy, and Kathleen.

Don’t we miss the old warriors and their charismatic politicking and stumping just a bit? When was the last time we heard a candidate address the real issues of the day by calling his opponent “Catfish Mouth” or a “yellow bellied sapsucker?”

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Did Jindal and Caldwell cut a deal on health care litigation?

Posted in Attorney General, Ethics, Governor's Office, Health Care, Layoffs, Politicians, Transparency, tagged on September 1, 2010| 2 Comments »

The following story was first reported by Capitol News Service, which is affiliated with this web blog, in June and though vehemently denied by Gov. Jindal’s office, we felt it was worth posting here.

Politics do indeed make strange bedfellows, especially when one of the partners is in denial.

When Louisiana Attorney General Buddy Caldwell entered the fray in challenging the recently passed federal health care law, he stood alone as the only Democrat among 14 state attorneys general doing so. The litigation, if successful, could also ultimately cost the state.

It also turns out that Caldwell may have been reluctant to become what he described as the “token Democrat” in the litigation, but was backed into a corner by Gov. Bobby Jindal. Jindal’s press secretary Kyle Plotkin, however, vehemently denied that.

Caldwell and 12 Republican attorneys general joined in the lawsuit filed in Pensacola by Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum, who is taking the lead in the litigation filed only minutes after President Barack Obama signed it into law. Virginia’s attorney general, also a Republican, filed a separate suit challenging the constitutionality of the law.

Caldwell initially declined to comment on Louisiana’s participation in the lawsuit, saying that he anticipated a spokesperson would be appointed by the litigation group to address media inquiries. “It would not be appropriate for me to comment in the interim,” he said.

Three days later, however, he did issue a brief statement and his office said, “No other statements will be made.”

“As Attorney General, I am duty bound by my oath of office to pursue a request by the Governor of the state of Louisiana for legal assistance, so long as it has substantial legal merit.”

Democratic attorneys generals in three other states apparently do not feel so duty bound. Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson, a Democrat, refused Republican Governor Tim Pawlenty’s request to join in the suit. Democratic attorneys general in Georgia and Nevada also have balked at demands by Republican governors of those states to challenge the health care law.

Some legal experts, according to the Associated Press, feel the lawsuit has dim prospects of success because, under the U.S. Constitution, federal laws prevail over state laws.

Caldwell said it was his decision to sign onto what he called Florida’s “well-drafted action” at the least cost to Louisiana in order to accomplish the same objective.

But his decision may not have been as willing as he attempted to make it appear.

In a subsequent address to employees of his office, the Attorney General said the decision was made more out of the necessity of saving jobs in his agency than any real hope—or desire—of overturning the health care law.

Four separate employees said Caldwell, in a candid admission, claimed that a deal was made with Jindal. Under terms of that agreement, the governor would not make additional cuts in the attorney general’s budget if Caldwell joined in the litigation. Caldwell agreed to be the “token Democrat,” they said, so that he might save additional job cuts by an administration whose stated goal is to reduce the number of state employees by as much as 5,000 per year over three years.

A spokesman for the Division of Administration said Jindal could not cut the attorney general’s budget at this late date even if he wanted to because the budget has already been submitted and is “set in stone.”

A side effect of the lawsuit, one source said, could be the jeopardizing of $300 million in Medicaid funding, negotiated by Sen. Mary Landrieu in return for her support of the bill.

Because of the heavy influx of millions of dollars in insurance payments, aid, and money for new construction following Hurricane Katrina, the federal government calculated on paper that state income increased by 40 percent. That resulted in a drastic cut in Medicaid funding, prompting Landrieu to do some 11th-hour horse-trading to restore the lost funding to the state.

The $300 million recovery, however, would be offset by the costs of the health care bill, according to Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals Secretary Alan Levine. Levine said the bill, because it was passed as an unfunded mandate, would mean a minimum additional cost to Louisiana of about $350 million per year to implement. “Unfunded mandates have been successfully challenged in court before,” Caldwell said in his written statement.

“As Attorney General I will not engage in political opportunism or partisan politics nor file any claim that does not have substantial legal merit,” he said.

Both Caldwell and Jindal were unavailable for comment on the reports of the agreement to spare Caldwell’s office further budget cuts in exchange for joining the lawsuit.

Plotkin demanded to know the source of the information but was told only that the information came from within the attorney general’s office and was corroborated by no fewer than four employees of Caldwell’s office.

“Your story (first published earlier this week in the Eunice News) is preposterous,” Plotkin told a reporter. “Moreover, you said you tried to call the governor and he and the attorney general were unavailable for comment. We have no record of any inquiry made to the governor’s office.”

The initial report, however, never said the governor’s office was called since at the time the story was being filed late last Thursday, Jindal was in Winnsboro. An attempt was made to call Caldwell but because it was the day before Good Friday, Jindal had sent his employees home early and closed the attorney general’s offices.

Plotkin then demanded that the reporter add a sentence to the initial story “saying that you never called the governor’s office.” The reporter refused, saying it was never claimed that the governor’s office was called so there was no reason to correct an error that was never made.

Plotkin, when asked for the governor’s version of what happened, insisted that Caldwell joined the suit “on his own volition.”

“You’ve caused a lot of problems for this office,” he said. “This story has been all over the internet and national television. Why don’t you call the attorney general and let him tell you what happened?” He was told that no fewer than four employees of the attorney general’s office had already related details of Caldwell’s address to his employees.

Plotkin, who had first contacted the reporter by email, was asked to reduce Jindal’s version of events to writing and to submit them to the reporter via email “so there would be no chance of any misunderstanding.”

Plotkin refused, suggesting again that the reporter call Caldwell.

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Francis Thompson: Water Water Everywhere….but we need more

Posted in Budget, Economy, Governor's Office, House, Senate, Legislature, Legislators, Transparency, Water Reservoirs on August 25, 2010| Leave a Comment »

State Sen. Francis Thompson is not only the family employment champion among state lawmakers (a news report from the 1980s claimed that he had more relatives on the state payroll than any other member of the legislature) but he also appears perfectly capable of siphoning off millions of dollars in state revenue for pet projects. Those projects primarily include ground water reservoirs in more than a dozen parishes costing taxpayers more than $163 million since 1997.

In a state teeming with hundreds of lakes and reservoirs while reeling from dwindling tax revenues, Sen. Thompson has managed to convince fellow legislators and three governors of the necessity of constructing even more. With the passage of each piece of legislation to appropriate funds for a new reservoir Thompson’s brother, former Delhi mayor Mike Thompson, secured a $100,000 per year consulting contract from the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development (DOTD). That’s $100,000 per year per reservoir project.

Mike Thompson earlier this year was sentenced to 18 months after having been found guilty of one count of using district employees to work on his home in Delhi and charging the Poverty Point Reservoir District for the labor in violation of the Hobbs Act. The Hobbs Act was enacted by Congress in 1951 to combat racketeering in labor-management disputes but is often invoked in cases involving public corruption. He could have been sentenced to up to 20 years in prison and prosecutors did argue for a sentence of 41-50 months. He was scheduled to report to prison on Monday of this week.

Francis Thompson’s older brother, Clyde Thompson, currently employed as executive director of the Madison Parish Port Commission at $49,207 per year, once served as second in command to DOTD Secretary Paul Hardy during the administration of former Gov. Dave Treen.

Monroe engineer Terry Denmon just as consistently was awarded engineering contracts for each of the reservoir projects undertaken. His contracts ranged from $200,000 to more than $700,000. Like Francis, Mike, and Clyde Thompson, Denmon is a graduate of Louisiana Tech University in Ruston and as recently as 2007 was chairman of the Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Commission.

None of the reservoir projects has proved as expensive to the state and profitable—and troublesome—to the Thompsons and Denmon as the centerpiece of all of Francis Thompson’s reservoirs, Poverty Point Reservoir in Richland and Madison parishes. That project alone has cost the state more than all the others combined in priority 1, or first-year, funding. From 1997 through the 2010 regular legislative session that adjourned on June 21, Poverty Point has cost state taxpayers at least $81,855,000. That compares to $81,257,000 for all the other reservoir projects combined.

Not that the Bayou Dechene Reservoir project in Caldwell Parish isn’t in the running. The cost of that proposed lake to date is $40,650,000 in priority 1 funding—and counting.

Even as the state budget was swimming in a sea of red ink that forced major cutbacks to higher education and health care this year, the legislature plowed ahead, appropriating nearly $8.1 million in funding for Thompson’s reservoir projects in 2010. That amount included $3,152,000 for Poverty Point and $4,940,000 for four other reservoir projects in Allen ($800,000), Caldwell ($1,415,000), Washington ($2,625,000), and LaSalle ($100,000).

Those figures can be misleading because if bonds approved are not sold or funding appropriated for a project are not spent, the project must obtain renewed approval the following year. Bayou Dechene, for example, has received approval of identical amounts of $1,415,000 in each of the last seven years, including 2010.

What is not misleading, however, is how the Thompsons, through the efforts of Francis, have ensconced themselves in profitable recreational lakefront property development largely at the expense of taxpayer dollars. Francis Thompson even convinced the state in 2006 to take control of the 439-acre Black Bear Golf Course which is part of the Poverty Point Reservoir development and to install Mike Thompson as administrative director of the golf course.

But more significantly, was the plan to develop an elaborate retirement community at Poverty Point Reservoir. After purchasing the land and constructing elevated berms on which the state constructed roads and cul de sacs that would extend outward as island lots into the still-to-be-built lake, Thompson, then serving in the House, pushed through HB 1136 in the 2001 session which called for the state to purchase 2,586 acres that would become the Poverty Point Reservoir, excluding of course mineral rights and the berms that would make up the residential island lots on which Francis and Mike Thompson planned to develop a retirement community. That sale was consummated in early 2003 when the state paid the Poverty Point Reservoir District more than $2 million. The state, according to a 2002 state audit, also paid $1.2 million to develop the island lots, one of which was sold to a neighbor of Francis Thompson for $621,200. The state also paid $2.2 million for a keyed-gate entry private road to the lots and another $300,000 for an office burglar alarm system.

Then, during the 2002 legislative session, then-Rep. Francis Thompson struck again with what he probably felt would be the major coup. HB 84 of that session called for the exemption of a “developer of a qualified retirement community” from having to pay state or local ad valorem (property) taxes. The measure passed Senate by a 33-0 vote and the House with only seven dissents. Thompson might have been expected to abstain from voting on a measure that stood to benefit him financially—but he didn’t. Instead, he was among the 93 members voting in favor of the bill that eventually became Act 57 when signed by then-Gov. Mike Foster. Likewise, Thompson was one of 99 House members who in 2001 voted in favor of HB 1136, Thompson’s bill to sell Poverty Point Reservoir to the state for $2 million.

The only fly in the ointment was that the measure would have to go before the voters as a constitutional amendment in the Nov. 5, 2002 statewide election. It turned out to be a major problem when voters rejected the proposed amendment.

Thompson, upon being term-limited in the House, was elected Senator in 2007 to succeed similarly term-limited Charles Jones. Undeterred over the failure of the 2002 proposed constitutional amendment, he tried again, this time with SB 584, a bill identical in language to the 2002 House bill. This time, opponents were better prepared. The Legislative Fiscal Office provided estimates that the bill, if successful, would cost local and state governments as much as $600,000 per year in lost revenue.

Perhaps Francis Thompson, in voting in favor of HB 84 back in 2002, a bill that had the potential of enriching himself by as much as $600,000 per year was not joking when in his farewell address to the Louisiana House in 2007, he admonished fellow House members to “never allow ethics to get in the way of a good bill.”

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Ex-DOA Commissioner Angelé Davis moves to Arkel

Posted in Contract, Contracts, Governor's Office, Transparency, tagged , , , , on August 5, 2010| 1 Comment »

            In the constantly-shifting tides of Louisiana politics, it seems the same personalities keep bobbing to the surface over and over in a never-ending parade of appointments, resignations, and re-appointments, always ushered in or bid adieu with words of laudatory praise and expressed optimism.

            Such is the case of Angelé Davis, who until this week served as Commissioner of Administration for Gov. Bobby Jindal. Before being brought on board by Jindal, she served as Secretary of the Department of Culture, Recreation & Tourism and prior to that, she was Deputy to Commissioner of Administration Mark Drennan in the administration of Jindal’s mentor, former Gov. Mike Foster.

            On her way out the door, it was announced that Davis would enter the employ of politically-connected Arkel International of Baton Rouge as vice president of strategic programs. She will be in charge of “identifying and evaluating strategic acquisitions and business partnerships and alliances, business development strategies and capitalization and overseeing strategic planning,” according to an Arkel press release.

            In 2007, the First Circuit Court of Appeal overturned a ruling favorable to Arkel during litigation initiated by Arkel against the state. The trial court judge who ruled in Arkel’s favor on a key motion was Tim Kelly of the 19th Judicial District. Kelly is married to Davis. One of Arkel’s attorneys was Murphy J. Foster, son of former Gov. Mike Foster. Kelly’s ruling was handed down before Davis joined Jindal’s administration.

            “Angelé led us through some unprecedented budget challenges and our state is in a better posture today because of her cost-cutting approach and dedication to streamlining government,” Jindal said. “Paul Rainwater will be an effective leader at DOA, as he was at LRA and as Deputy Chief of Staff. The budget challenges facing our state are historic and his dynamic thinking and quick action will be essential to moving our state forward,” the governor added.

            As soon as it was announced that Davis was leaving the state, speculation began as to the reason for her sudden departure. Some equated her and other top Jindal administration officials’ recent exodus to “rats deserting a sinking ship” in anticipation of impending budgetary shortfalls next year estimated by some as approaching $2 billion to $3 billion.

            Others felt that agency privatization and the controversy surrounding the awarding of the contract for health coverage to Blue Cross-Blue Shield of Louisiana led to her resignation, or ouster.

            Considerable controversy resulted from the handling of the privatization of the Office of Risk Management when Davis appeared before the Joint Committee on the Budget with no supporting documentation from her or agency Director Bud Thompson. Both were chided by committee members and told to return later with information requested by lawmakers. Lawmakers didn’t learn until after the privatization contract was approved that the state would actually be obligated to an increase in state funding the first year of the contract.

            A month later, when Blue Cross was awarded the contract for health coverage for 114,000 state employees, dependents, and retirees, Humana, which had previously held the contract, appealed to Davis to block the contract. Davis refused and Humana filed suit against the state claiming that the Office of Group Benefits made a “mockery” of the contract process by “awarding a contract that was never bid,” according to Humana attorney Phil Franco.

            Tommy Teague, executive officer of the Office of Group Benefits, said the Blue Cross contract, which took effect on July 1, would save the state $34 million in the first year.

            But on June 21, Judge Mike Caldwell, who serves with Davis’s husband, Judge Kelly, in the 19th Judicial District in Baton Rouge, ordered the state to reconsider its award of the contract to Blue Cross. Caldwell said Humana had raised some valid issues over the Blue Cross contract. Within a matter of days following Caldwell’s order, Davis announced her resignation, which takes effect this Friday.

            But when Davis decided to leave the state for Arkel, she did not leave controversy behind.

            When former Congressman William Jefferson was convicted on 11 of 16 federal counts of racketeering, conspiracy, solicitation, and money laundering, the second count for which he was found guilty was for conspiracy to bribe officials of Arkel Sugar, one of Arkel International’s many interests. That charge involved Arkel’s efforts to build a $500 million sugar mill in Kenya for which Jefferson allegedly demanded a 4-percent cut in exchange as “consulting fees” for his brother, Mose Jefferson.

            Deborah Haggard, who was Arkel Sugar’s vice president when the deal was consummated in 2001, said the extent of Mose Jefferson’s consulting was when he appeared to receive his pay, which totaled just over $21,000. “To the best of my knowledge, he didn’t do anything,” Haggard said. Arkel did secure an $8 million feasibility and engineering contract with a Nigerian sugar company, according to the William Jefferson indictment documents.

            Arkel, an infrastructure and construction services company employing some 300 people and which works with government agencies, had about $85 million in sales in 2008 and boasts of having constructed the world’s largest sugar refinery in Sudan. Besides sugar mills, the company engages in the design, engineering, and construction of biomass power generation, ethanol plants, warehouses, and port facilities as well as offering food service solutions to government agencies and commercial organizations during times of disaster such as Hurricane Katrina, and sustained catering operations for longer duration missions in remote regions.

            In April, Arkel International was awarded a $6.4 million federal contract by the Kandahar Air Field Regional Contracting Center in Afghanistan to set up electrical power and force protection barriers at 16 buildings at Camp Leatherneck in Helmand Province, Afghanistan.

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An old story worth remembering

Posted in Civil Service, Ethics, Governor's Office, House, Senate, Layoffs, Legislature, Legislators, Transparency on July 28, 2010| Leave a Comment »

            Legislators have been working themselves into an emotional lather over the past several months in efforts to abolish what they mistakenly refer to as “automatic” 4 percent merit increases for state civil service employees. Lost in all the rhetoric, however, was another “automatic” increase that quietly kicked in last October 1—legislators’ per diem payments.

            With no debate and no vote, and even as the speechifying over state classified employee pay raises was ongoing, all 144 legislators’ daily allowance jumped $14 a day, from $145 to $159 for each day they meet in the Capitol. That’s because legislators several years ago passed a bill that ties their per diem rate to rates paid federal employees, making the legislators’ per diem increases truly automatic.  And that includes days they don’t even meet—37 days for each of the 144 House members and 39 Senate members—during this year’s 85-day session. That obscure law, however, could end if Rep. Jerome Richard (I-Thibodaux) has his way.

            With the administration anticipating a deficit of $319 million this year, House members showed no qualms about accepting the per diem payments for 12 Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays, plus Memorial Day—days during which both chambers are empty. For House members, that’s $611,832 in per diem payments for days that members are gone and for the Senate, the tab comes to $229,437 for a total payment of $841,269 for all 144 legislators for 37 days in absentia—43 percent of the 85-day session. Factoring in lower per diem rates for prior years and shorter, 60-day sessions in odd-numbered years, that still comes to about $6.5 million in payments over the last 15 years for days during which only the laughter of children and the sounds of tourists reverberate in the otherwise empty Capitol rotunda.

            The classic quotation by Everett Dirksen, the late U.S. Senator from Illinois, somehow seems appropriate for the Louisiana Legislature today: “A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you’re talking about real money.” And we’re not even talking about special sessions.

            Legislators bemoan the fact that they are paid only $16,800 per year. But $159 per diem for an 85-day session adds another $22,896. Each legislator also receives an un-vouchered $6,000 per year expense allowance, up to $1,500 per month in other vouchered expenses (that’s $63,696 for a part time job, which is more than the average state civil service employee makes in his or her full time job). Add to that perks that include a laptop computer for the Capitol, a desktop computer for his or her district office, high-speed internet service, up to three telephones for each legislator’s district office, and up to $3,000 per month for the salary of a legislative aide. Additionally, Legislators serving on or before Jan. 1, 1997, or who were already participating in a public retirement system at that time, also are eligible for retirement benefits of 3.5 percent of the member’s annual salary for each year of service. State civil service employees receive 2.5 percent of their annual salaries.

            Richard, who represents Lafourche Parish, introduced HB 1390 on Tuesday that would divorce legislators’ per diem from the federal rate by freezing the daily payments at $159 in light of the anticipated fiscal shortfall facing the state. As of Tuesday, his bill had not been received a committee referral.

            Civil service employees will have their salaries frozen, effective July 1 after lawmakers railed against what some perceived as automatic 4 percent merit increases for state classified employees. The term automatic, however, is somewhat misleading. Merit, or step, increases are given based on job performance. If an employee fails to attain certain goals, there is no merit increase. Moreover, once a classified employee maxes out on his or her step increases, there are no more increases available under civil service unless that employee receives a promotion or changes jobs. There have been no cost of living (COL) increases for state workers since 2007. The last COL prior to that was during the Edwards administration.

            That hasn’t stopped lawmakers like District 77 Rep. John M. Schroder, Sr. (R-Covington) who has led a vendetta-like campaign against state classified employees. He has authored no less than six separate bills dealing with state civil service, none of which would appear to be favorable to state workers. All six of his bills were referred to the House and Governmental Affairs Committee.

            HB 752 would grant the legislature sole authority to provide for pay increases for state employees and state elected officials. The bill would include employees of joint state and parochial agency or joint state and municipal agency, “regardless of the source of the funds used to pay for such employment.”

            HB 753 would abolish the State Civil Service Commission and the Department of State Civil Service, effective Jan. 9, 2012. Though Schroder is proposing the abolishment of civil service, his bill offers no alternative that would protect state government from returning to the spoils system of political patronage. Civil service currently protects employees from being required to campaign for or contribute to political candidates as a condition of keeping their jobs. Without civil service, some fear a return of the “deduct box” of the Huey Long era.

            HB 754 would prohibit pay increases to state employees when there is a budget deficit, subject to a fine of up to $500 or imprisonment for up to six month, or both.

            HB 755 would require the legislature to determine prior to each fiscal year if pay increases may be granted to state employees and if so, the manner and amount of the increase. This bill would be a radical departure from allowing supervisors and managers to evaluate employees’ work performance and to make decisions on merit increases. Schroder’s bill does not explain how the legislature would be qualified to evaluate job performance of 60,000 individual state employees.

            House bills 752, 753, 754, and 755 are all proposed constitutional amendments and would have to be voted on in the Nov. 2 statewide election.

            HB 757 would require that certain employee reports be sent to the Department of State Civil Service, the Speaker of the House and President of the Senate. The reports would include employees’ names, addresses, positions, dates and place of employment, hours of work, and salaries.

            Perhaps the most ominous bill, however, is HB 1296, which would require employees to use annual, compensatory, or unpaid leave for official holidays. Official state holidays include New Year’s Day, Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday, Mardi Gras, Good Friday, Independence Day, Labor Day, Veterans’ Day, Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day, Inauguration Day once every four years in the city of Baton Rouge, and General Election Day every two years.

            Particularly galling to state employees are the 9 percent per diem increase for legislators and the $159 per diem paid lawmakers for three days per week that the House and Senate do not meet during the 85-day session while at the same time halting 4 percent merit increases and also considering a bill to take paid holidays away from workers.

            It was Schroder who initially raised the issue of “automatic” merit increases for state employees last year with House Speaker Jim Tucker quickly joining in the effort to thwart the increases. Many felt that Schroder and Tucker were simply doing Gov. Bobby Jindal’s bidding in attacking the civil service merit increases. The governor has mostly remained above the fray even while allowing six legislators sitting on his Commission on Streamlining Government to collect more than $17,000 in per diem payments during their consideration of ways to reduce government spending. Four private sector members of the commission received no payments though Barry Erwin, president of the Council for a Better Louisiana, did say, “We did get certificates to hang on the wall.”

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