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A walk, a balk, and lots of talk but in the end LSPC stands by its man, Col. Mike Edmonson, and nothing is accomplished

Posted in Civil Service, Commissions, Corruption, Ethics, Governor's Office, State Police on February 9, 2017| 12 Comments »

One quit, another walked out and a third just said he wanted some answers and a fourth presented a witness who seemed a little too well-coached and in the end, nothing was accomplished because the fifth, aka the chairman, had the look of a Cervidae enrapt in the vehicular illuminating devices (deer caught in the headlights).

Just another routine meeting of the Louisiana State Police Commission (LSPC) on Thursday.

Well, maybe not so routine. There was the shouting match between members Jared J Caruso-Riecke (the “fourth” as referenced above) and Lloyd Grafton (the “one” above) with both men invoking words like “best face,” “integrity,” and “pontificate.” Oh, number four said “pontificate” a lot.

Meanwhile, the man around whom the entire controversy swirled, State Police Superintendent Mike Edmonson was off somewhere out of state collecting another award to go in his trophy case or schmoozing with Louisiana politicos at the Washington MARDI GRAS.

Caruso-Riecke, of Covington, brought Louisiana State Police (LSP) Human Resources Director Ginger Krieg before the commission to explain the smoke and mirrors concept of how the appointment of Jason Starnes to the role of retired Undersecretary of Management and Finance Jill Boudreaux (even though he possesses zero accounting experience) was accompanied by an immediate promotion to lieutenant colonel and a $25,000 per year pay increase without incurring any additional expense as promised by Edmonson.

The position was created last August when Edmonson asked for the creation of an unclassified position to oversee Management and Finance. At the time, he said there would be no addition expenses to LSP and that the position was not being necessarily for Starnes.

Krieg explained that Boudreaux had retired and her $100,000 per year position was never filled so the $25,000 pay increase for Starnes actually amounted to a savings to the state.

What Caruso-Riecke and Krieg failed to mention in their exchange (which seemed so well-rehearsed that one of them should receive an Oscar nomination) was that state statute says the governor “shall” appoint an Undersecretary of Management and Finance. So, if the law is followed and an undersecretary appointed….poof! There goes that savings.

Grafton reiterated what Edmonson had said in August and said Caruso-Riecke was just putting a “good face” on the duplicity of Edmonson, Starnes, and Edmonson’s supporters on the commission. Caruso-Riecke erupted, accusing Grafton of an “absolute falsehood.” He admonished Grafton to not “sit down there and say I’m trying to put a ‘best face’ on something when I’ve gone above and beyond in trying to get to the truth.”

Here is the video link to that EXCHANGE.

“What have you done other than pontificate for the press?” he asked, practically shouting.

Grafton, in a more subdued voice (relatively speaking), said, “I’ve tried to keep some integrity on this commission and there is none. You came on this board with an agenda and that agenda was fulfilled last month when (former Executive Director) Cathy Derbonne resigned from this commission because of the harassment and the crap she was having to put up with since (pointing to commission Chairman T.J. Doss, of Shreveport) a State Trooper was TDY’d (assigned temporary duty) to Baton Rouge to hang around her office every day and to find fault with her and (who) said at a public meeting that he was gonna get rid of Cathy Derbonne. He followed through with that (and) lived up to my low expectations of him and he managed to have this commission stuffed with people who want to endear themselves with State Police management who could care less about the civil service function of this board. The Louisiana State Troopers Association (LSTA) has absolutely helped destroy this commission.”

Grafton said the commission is supposed to investigate, among other things, claims of harassment brought by troopers but now those claims “go straight to management and that trooper doesn’t have a chance. That just destroys the civil service standing of this board.

“I have 55 years of law enforcement education experience. I know something about what is integrity and what is not. Wanting to go to a Christmas party is more important than holding management accountable and it’s going to come back to haunt you.

“The only salvation for this commission is for it to be dissolved and for the Civil Service Commission to take over the oversight of the State Police because right now we have no oversight whatsoever. The Colonel of the State Police (Edmonson) can do anything he wants to. He can lie, he can do anything and he does plenty of it and nobody holds him accountable.”

Caruso-Riecke interrupted Grafton, denying that Edmonson said there would be no pay raise for the new position. “Why don’t you listen to the tape instead of sitting up her pontificating (apparently he likes that word because he kept using it) for the press? For you to sit up here and act like you’re holier-than-thou and the only one with any integrity and character? That’s insulting to everyone else sitting here.”

“Anyone who joined in with that lynching of Cathy Derbonne has no character and I’ll stand by that,” Grafton replied.

“Last I checked, she resigned,” Caruso-Riecke shot back, conveniently forgetting that her fate had long been decided before her resignation.

But Grafton did not forget. “She resigned because she was told she was gonna be fired.”

Donald Breaux of Lafayette asked Grafton to identify those who said she was going to be fired. He had not opened his mouth to that point and probably should not have then since the worst-kept secret in the room was that there were four solid votes, a majority, to fire Derbonne just as Doss had indicated he wanted done. Derbonne was even told that during a 30-minute break in the January proceedings. “You bring up a lot of stuff, Grafton, but you have nothing to back it up with,” said Breaux, a former sheriff.

“When you say Grafton doesn’t know what’s going on in the State Police, you have underestimated my ability to get information,” he said.

Grafton, the most senior member of the commission, subsequently announced that he was attending his final meeting. “I’m through,” he said. “This commission has become useless and the only way it can ever be fixed is for the governor to get involved. I resign.”

His rant was followed in short order by member Calvin Braxton of Natchitoches who said he was not resigning but would refuse to participate in an executive session on the agenda about which he had no prior notice.

“I’m a reasonably intelligent person and I don’t like being kept in the dark and I am being kept out of the loop on this commission. You’ve got an item on the agenda calling for an executive session to discuss a trooper’s appeal. I was told nothing about this and I refuse to be a part of it.”

Here is the link to his part of the discussion:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SOMahyElYQ0&feature=youtu.be

Moments later, both he and Grafton were gone.

Then it was Eulis Simien, Jr.’s turn. The Baton Rouge attorney, who was appointed to the board last year, said like Grafton, it was his impression at the conclusion of Edmonson’s presentation last August that there would be no pay raise involved for the new position. “I said at a prior meeting that I would like for the person who said that to come to us and explain what he said,” he said. “Instead, we get the head of HR. That’s not who made the presentation to us last August. I asked for him to come before us and I want him to come before us.”

All the bantering, shouting and “pontification” of Thursday’s meeting comes on the heels of a 13-page report by the Louisiana Board of Ethics that investigated the practice by the LSTA of having its Executive Director David Young make political campaign contributions in his name to circumvent prohibitions against political involvement and then reimbursing Young for “expenses.”

It was LouisianaVoice’s initial story about the contributions more than a year ago that launched the investigation which resulted in three former LSPC members being forced to resign when it was learned that they, too, had contributed to campaigns.

The recent Ethics Board report only went back to 2014, so the $10,000 in contributions to former Gov. Bobby Jindal were not included in its investigation. It did, however reveal that LouisianaVoice‘s report that $10,000 was contributed to Gov. John Bel Edwards was considerably less than the $17,500 actually contributed to his campaign.

LSTA and Young got off extremely light with a fine of only $5,000, the document reveals. While state law allows an imposition of a penalty “equal to the amount of the contribution plus 10 percent ($35,000 plus $3,500 in this case), LSTA and Young were actually subject to fines of about $70,000, or twice amount of the total contributions, for “a knowing and willful violation.”

Young had admitted to the LSPC more than a year ago that the money was laundered through his personal account so as to allow the LSTA to get around the prohibition against such political activity. That constitutes “a knowing and willful violation.”

It was the embarrassment of the LSTA and Edmonson that forced the LSPC to conduct a sham investigation of the activity, an investigation that resulted in the recommendation that “no action be taken.” That recommendation was made by Natchitoches attorney and former State Sen. Taylor Townsend, a political supporter of Gov. Edwards who was paid $75,000 to issue an unwritten, “no action” recommendation.

And on Thursday, it culminated in the resignation of a conscientious commission member, the walkout of an honorable member, and further questions from another member who appears to want to do the right thing—if someone would just tell him what was said.

But there are four other votes on the commission and their interests obviously lie elsewhere.

Why else would the commission have as its chairman a State Trooper who conceivably could one day be called on to investigate his boss?

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LouisianaVoice’s ‘Eye in North Louisiana’ spots new work release/credit angle in Jindal’s $50 million chicken plant

Posted in Business, Ethics, Governor's Office, Incentives, Jobs, Lobbyist, Prison, Privatization, Revenue, Taxes on January 27, 2017| 31 Comments »

There was a popular game about 40 years ago called “Whack-a-mole.” (For all I know, it may well still be around.) Anyway, the object of the game was for a player to “whack” a rodent with a rubber mallet each time it appeared out of one of five holes. The problem was each time a mole was “whacked”, it invariably popped up again from one of the remaining four holes.

So it is with certain news stories that just when you think you’ve written about all there is to say on the subject, up pops another angle to pursue.

This time though, two separate—and seemingly unrelated—stories that have been covered extensively in the past by LouisianaVoice have now converged to warrant a fresh look at old news.

Before I go any further, I should acknowledge the ever-sharp eyes of my bronchitis-infected friend and Ruston High School classmate John Sachs (Class of ’61). It is he, after all, that brought an otherwise routine local news story in the Farmerville Gazette to my attention. (I guess I’m going to have acquiesce and give him that honorary Deputy Ace Reporter badge he’s been clamoring for.)

Eagle-Eye John called me about efforts to hire a private prison management company to take over management of the 380-bed Union Parish Detention Center. You may recall that LouisianaVoice had a couple of stories about the facility last year, on MAY 10 and MAY 31 about a convicted rapist who was allowed out of his cell to rape a female prisoner. Twice.

That incident, deplorable as it certainly was, is not what this is about, however.

The Gazette story recounted the reason for the decision by LaSalle Corrections to decline Union Parish’s offer. Those reasons dealt with the potential shortage of prisoners if Gov. John Bel Edwards is successful in reducing the number of state inmates and the financial impact of such a move.

Another factor, said LaSalle Chief of Operations Johnny Creed, was the size of four other facilities in north Louisiana managed by LaSalle: Richwood Correctional Center (1,129 inmates), Jackson Parish Correctional Center (1,285), LaSalle Correctional Center (785) and Catahoula Correctional Center (835).

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And then Creed said the thing that caught Sach’s eye, prompting him to call me with his croaking voice and rattling cough: “As small as (Union Parish Detention Center) is, we would need to bring our work release inmate that work for Foster Farms from our Richwood facility.”

Wait. What?

Foster Farms has 100 work release inmates working at its cotton-pickin’ chicken-pluckin’ plant in Farmerville?

Isn’t this the same plant that Bobby Jindal, with the support of State Sen. Mike Walsworth (R-West Monroe), gave $50 million to in order to get Foster Farms to take over the plant from Pilgrim’s Pride back in 2009?

Wasn’t Foster Farms supposed to provide up to 1,100 jobs with that $50 million?

Does Foster Farms get a $2,400 tax credit for each inmate it employs in the work release program?

And aren’t work release programs something of a cash cow for sheriffs and private prisons farming out prisoners to work for just a smidgen more than minimum wage?

Yes,

Uh-huh.

Yep.

Hell, yes.

You mean to tell me Foster Farms gets a $240,000 tax credit (that’s credit, not a deduction, meaning that’s $240,000 income on which Foster Farm pays no taxes) for hiring 100 prisoners at $7.75 per hour (about 60 percent of which goes to the local sheriff), jobs that should be going to local folks?

Very perceptive, Grasshopper.

This, folks, is yet another lingering smell that hits our olfactory like a pair of dirty socks but which we affectionately call the Jindal Legacy.

The work release program is such a golden egg that sheriffs all over the state, reading the tea leaves shaped like dollar signs, rushed to build their own programs, complete with barracks and vans for workers. And to make sure the beds stayed filled, which is the only way they can get the maximum state dollars, the accommodating Louisiana Sheriffs’ Association lobbied (read parties, booze, women and campaign contributions) Louisiana’s law and order legislators to be more law and order-oriented and pass stiffer penalties for even the most insignificant crimes.

To see just how lucrative this could be for a small parish like Union, let’s run the numbers.

State law allows the sheriff or operator of the private prison to take up to 62 percent of a prisoner’s earnings. One hundred prisoners working 40 hours per week for 50 weeks per year at $7.75 per hour. That comes to $1.55 million earned by the prisoner.

The Union Parish Detention Center is unique in that it is the only such facility in the state in which neither the sheriff nor a private company has operational controls. It is operated by committee comprised of a member of the Union Parish Police Jury, the district attorney and parish police chiefs. Lincoln Parish at one time was run in the same manner but it is now run by the sheriff.

If the parish takes “just” 60 percent, that’s $930,000 per year for the sheriff/operator. And that’s over and above the rate the state pays the sheriff/operator to house the prisoners. More than six years ago, LOUISIANA VOICE published a story that examined some of the housing contracts between the state and several Louisiana parishes.

Despite the money generated by the work release program, the Union Parish Detention Center has continued to lose money. That is the reason for the unsuccessful attempt to lure LaSalle into managing the center.

We followed our December 2010 post with a story in AUGUST 2015 that illustrated the abuses that can occur when someone with the right connections can use that advantage to manipulate a system like work release for his own monetary gain.

Jail operators, be they sheriffs or private corporations, love the money the work release program brings in to augment that paid by the state for housing the prisoners.

And businesses like Foster Farms love being able to hire 100 prisoners at near-minimum wage and receive a $240,000 tax credit in the process.

It’s a win-win for everyone but the taxpayers.

So, bottom line: Thar’s gold in them thar jails.

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Rumor mill has Edwards spokesman denying he’s pulling a Roemer-Kennedy and switching allegiances to Republicans

Posted in Attorney General, Campaign Contributions, Elections, Governor's Office, Politicians on January 26, 2017| 19 Comments »

One thing about Louisiana politics: the only constant is that the rumors are never ceasing.

Another is that even though the rumors may be baseless, sometimes the logic behind them can actually make sense.

Sort of.

That is, if anything in Louisiana politics makes sense.

And so it is that those close to Gov. John Bel Edwards have been called upon to deny rumors—and they have—that he is courting the Republican Party as he ponders the political practicality of a switcheroo, a-la Buddy Roemer, John Kennedy, John Alario, and former U.S. Reps. Billy Tauzin and Rodney Alexander.

Still, according to a high-ranking State Republican Party official, Edwards’s intermediaries have been talking with State Republican Party Chairman Roger Villere about that very possibility. Efforts by LouisianaVoice to reach Villere for a comment have been unsuccessful.

Gov. Edwards’s office categorically denies the report, hinting if anything, it was the Republican Party that asked him to the dance.

Either way, it’s now got both sides flinging rocks at each other with the next governor’s election nearly three years away yet.

As with any decision of such magnitude, fraught with perils as it would certainly be (it worked for Kennedy and Alexander but not so much for Roemer), there are plenty of pros and cons.

First the pros:

Remember those old (and I do mean old) Tareyton cigarette ads in which some happy smoker sporting a black eye proclaims that he/she would rather fight than switch?

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Well, in Edwards’s case, it could be that he’d rather switch than fight.

The worst-kept secret (if, indeed it is still a secret to anyone) in the state is that Republican Attorney General Jeff Landry is in a four-year campaign mode for the governorship. And Landry takes verbal (and legal) swipes at Edwards at every opportunity in his blatant self-promotion.

With $3 million already in his campaign coffers, what better way to cut the attorney general off at the knees than to take away Landry’s fund-raising capabilities while adding to his own? As one political observer put it, “If Edwards switches to Republican, $3 million might be enough. Landry won’t be able to buy a Chik-fil-A sandwich. Edwards would be the beneficiary of that scenario because the Republican money would allow him to raise even more cash.”

There’s also this: as a Republican governor, he would be able to do what he could not as a Democrat: name his choice for Speaker of the House.

Another, a former state official, said, “The Democratic Party in Louisiana is gravely disappointing and I have to wonder the extent to which what is happening here is replicated in other states and at the national level, i. e., if Democrats in power have essentially given up on their own party.

“As you know, (State Rep.) Karen Carter Peterson and former U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu tried to talk JBE out of even running (they wanted to support Dardenne) and it took him forever to get support from the national party in D.C.

“When is the last time our state party has come up with a viable candidate for anything? Was Hillary Clinton really the best the party could come up with as a POTUS candidate? Really? JBE got elected because the stars were aligned against Vitter—and look how long it took Republicans to essentially give up on Vitter. I had/have some hope for JBE. If he jumps ship, I guess the only place to go is independent which, to me, is like ceding all power to the Republicans and their führer.”

Another possible benefit to crossing over is Donald Trump. As vindictive, petulant, petty, vile and vicious as he is crazy, Trump would never hesitate to hit Louisiana where it hurts if it had a governor who insisted on partisan politics: the state treasury.

Louisiana already is the second most-reliant on federal funds of the 50 states. We are behind only Mississippi (but barely) in slopping at the federal trough. To see a cut in the influx of federal dollars for a variety of programs would only add to the already draconian budgetary woes facing the state.

On the con side, there is the obvious potential political fallout.

Politicians who change parties sometimes have a tough time of it, said a state employee who tends to keep his finger on the political pulse. “They are despised in the party they leave, and they are not trusted in the party they join. Buddy Roemer and John Connolly of Texas come to mind. However, Richard Shelby of Alabama changed from the Democratic Party to the GOP back in the mid-1990s, and he is still in the United States Senate.”

Finally, a Baton Rouge attorney said Edwards has been a difficult governor to figure out. “He is a real enigma and very disappointing, thus far, to me as a moderate conservative who voted for him. I cannot imagine how the progressives and the left feel at this point.

“I have been unable to figure out what his goals are,” the attorney, a former state employee, said. “He is obviously very indebted to many groups, such as the Sheriffs’ Association. That, it clearly appears to me, keeps him from doing many things that would make him more successful.”

As we said, one source wired into the Edwards camp says it just ain’t so but we’ve all heard promises and denials before from our elected officials that in the end, turned out to be just so much hot air. He already is pro-life and pro-gun so half the battle’s won if he decides to go over.

So, the question is this: is this a non-story story on a slow news day or something major in the offing? The rumors and the denials are equally strong at this juncture so we’ll wait and see.

Edwards spokesperson Richard Carbo, reached by LouisianaVoice, expressed shock at the report. “Let me check this out and I’ll get right back to you. Give me five minutes.”

Two hours later he replied by text message: “I can confirm that neither the governor nor his ‘intermediaries’ have been in contact with the state GOP about changing parties.”

Carbo quickly followed with a second text that accused the Louisiana Republican Party of planting the rumor: “First the state GOP floats this idea, then backtrack(s) when the governor shows no interest. The governor did not have a single conversation regarding political parties. He’s too busy cleaning up their (Republicans’) budget mess. Roger Villere should stick to negotiating illegal Iraqi oil deals. He’s better at that than party leadership.

“Unless there’s a source named, the onus is on them,” he said.

His reference to Villere’s “negotiating illegal Iraqi oil deals” was in reference an April 12, 2016, LouisianaVoice STORY about Villere’s and Lt. Gov. Billy Nungesser’s comedy of errors in being taken in by a con man promoting an oil deal with Iraq.

All of which just serves to support our advice: Never listen to what politicians say. In this case, observe instead, the governor’s action on the issues: taxes, education, higher education, etc. to get a true sense of which direction the political winds are blowing.

But above all else, remember that it’s the sincerity of the B.S. factor that trumps everything else (and no, that’s not a reference to anyone).

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Phantom DWI stop by Baton Rouge police during last year’s Bayou Country Superfest in BR continues to fuel speculation

Posted in Corruption, Crime, Ethics, Governor's Office, Politicians, Public Records, State Agencies, Transparency on January 14, 2017| 16 Comments »

It was Memorial Day weekend in Baton Rouge last year, the weekend of the BAYOU COUNTRY SUPERFEST that had country music fans flocking to LSU’s Tiger Stadium. LSU subsequently cancelled its contract with promoters and this year’s event will take place in the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans.

But this story isn’t about Bayou Country Superfest.

It was several hours after the final performance of one night of the three-day event, around 3 a.m., in fact, that a black SUV was pulled over by a Baton Rouge police officer at the corner of Perkins and Acadian, only a few blocks south of I-10.

The officer, a member of the city’s DWI Strike Force, suspected the driver of driving while impaired, perhaps even intoxicated. In the SUV was a woman, a blonde. She was not the driver’s wife; she’s a brunette.

The driver, violating all protocol, exited his SUV and started toward the officer who, alarmed, is said to have pulled his weapon just before recognizing the driver as a high-ranking member of the governor’s administration.

Instead of escalating, as the situation could easily have done, the driver was inexplicably allowed to proceed on to his destination, driving that black SUV. He was not arrested, issued a citation or even asked to submit to a field sobriety test and the matter was quickly hushed up. Even the city officer, when asked about the incident, denied it ever happened. But later, when asked about the incident by a fellow officer, rather than deny it occurred, said instead, “I can’t talk about that.”

Yet the stories continue to persist nearly nine full months after the stop that the officer denies ever took place. LouisianaVoice was even given the officer’s name by no fewer than eight different, independent sources. At least when Bobby Jindal’s Commissioner of Administration Paul Rainwater was pulled over for DWI, there was no attempt to keep the arrest quiet and he paid his fines and court costs for the offense. The only thing that raised eyebrows was when State Police Superintendent Mike Edmonson showed up and gave him a ride home—a courtesy no ordinary citizen sans political connections would likely be accorded.

Who made the decision to allow the driver to go on his way? It’s unlikely the officer would have assumed the responsibility for such a decision fraught with all kinds of downsides on his own. That would mean there had to be an order from up the chain of command within the Baton Rouge Police Department. The question then, is at what level of the command was the decision made, mid-level or from the very top?

Baton Rouge Police Chief Carl Dabadie is probably on his way out. At least that’s the indication given by former State Sen. Sharon Weston Broome who was recently elect Baton Rouge’s new Mayor-President and inaugurated on Jan. 2, though Dabadie appears to be fighting to keep his job.

This is not to say Dabadie was ever even aware of the stop but if (and of course, at this stage, that’s a very speculative if)…if he is the one who put the kibosh on the stop and potential arrest of the state official, both men need to go. Immediately.

If he had any records of the pullover expunged from the police log, he could be found guilty of injuring public records under Louisiana R.S. 14:132 and he conceivably could face imprisonment. At any rate, if any records of the stop were destroyed on his watch, he must be held accountable for destruction of public records.

If records were never tampered with, then somewhere there is a paper trail that still exists, perhaps by now buried somewhere in the bowels of the BRPD.

LouisianaVoice is continuing to investigate the matter. We’ll let you know if anything develops. If not, the story probably will evaporate as did the ghost stop of a black SUV at 3 a.m. during the 2016 Bayou Superfest.

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LSPC Executive Director resigns; Commission chairman, attorney played bizarre verbal ping pong with reporters

Posted in Campaign Contributions, Commissions, Corruption, Ethics, Fraud, Governor's Office, Legislature, Legislators, State Police on January 12, 2017| 22 Comments »

Mike Edmonson got his way but Louisiana State Police Commission (LSPC) Executive Director Cathy Derbonne did not give him the satisfaction of having his puppet commission fire her.

She quit. But she said she did so under duress.

The commission plowed through the first three items on the agenda before Chairman T.J. Doss, the state police representative on the board, abruptly announced there would be a 30-minute recess in proceedings.

There was probably a good reason for the recess. During almost the entirety of testimony of retired State Trooper Leon “Bucky” Millet, who is one of the commission’s harshest critics, Doss was busy texting someone (we suspect it may have been Edmonson)

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He continued texting during part of the recess but different commissioners kept caucusing in corners, offices and around the coffee pot but were careful to keep their meetings down to three members or fewer. If four had met anywhere in the room, there would have been a quorum and LouisianaVoice would have politely asked to sit in. Instead, whenever a fourth entered the discussion, someone else would leave.

Just to be on the safe side, LouisianaVoice submitted a formal, written public records request for the content of all of Doss’s texts sent and received during Thursday’s meeting. On the outside chance he was texting commission attorney Lenore Feeney, we are prepared to demand proof of that by having LSPC provide us with the “To” and “From” portions of the texts with the actual messages redacted. All other messages are to be provided intact.

Millet did get Doss’s undivided attention at one point when he alluded to a report that Doss had addressed a meeting of the Louisiana State Troopers Association at which he was quoted as saying his goal was to be elected chairman of the commission and to “get rid of the executive director.” Doss, of course, denied saying that.

Upon re-convening, contract attorney Taylor Townsend read Derbonne’s resignation letter and the commission then voted on whether or not to accept the resignation (I always thought when one quit, it was his or her decision). Member Calvin Braxton and Jared J Caruso-Riecke voted no on accepting her resignation letter.

Voting to accept were members Doss, Monica Manzella, Eulis Simien, Jr., and Donald Breaux.

Caruso-Riecke, it should be noted, contributed $3,500 to John Bel Edwards and $2,000 to his brother, Tangipahoa Parish Sheriff Daniel Edwards. Daniel Edwards is a member of the Louisiana Sheriffs’ Association which endorsed John Bel Edwards for governor and once elected, John Bel Edwards re-appointed Edmonson as State Police Superintendent as a condition of the sheriffs’ association’s endorsement, proving that life—political life, at least—is indeed a circle.

LouisianaVoice attempted to ask Caruso-Riecke why he voted not to accept Derbonne’s resignation and he refused to comment, choosing instead to take the opportunity to chastise LouisianaVoice for yesterday’s post that said Edmonson OWNED HIM.

Well, quite frankly, we didn’t see anything during Thursday’s meeting that would change our mind.

Why is that?

Simply because LouisianaVoice happened to learn it was Doss and Caruso-Riecke who placed the two items on the LSPC agenda that were to have dealt with Derbonne’s “professional competence” and whether she would be continued or terminated.

So, basically, Caruso-Riecke, aware that the four votes needed to end Derbonne’s eight years as executive director were locked in, he could vote “no” and come off as the nice guy by taking the high road, confident that it was a done deal.

Now if he just hadn’t been one of those who prepared the agenda and handed it to Derbonne for her signature….

The obvious question is what trigger was the commission going to pull to terminate Derbonne? Conspicuously displayed behind commissioners was a screen with a paused video of proceedings of the Joint Legislative Committee on the Budget at which Derbonne testified last year. The video was never shown because Derbonne resigned but what it would have shown was legislators asking her who approved the LSPA’s budget and she inadvertently replied, “The Commission.” The commission budget is actually approved by the commission before being sent to the legislature for final approval and it was that gaffe members were going to use to hang her.

Well, that brings up an obvious question: Back around October, State Police Superintendent Mike Edmonson appeared before the commission to ask that a new position of lieutenant colonel be created to oversee finances for State Police. He assured commission members that (a) the position was not to be created for any specific individual and that there would be no additional expenses for the position. Before anyone could say cut and dried, Jason Starnes was promoted into the position and promptly given a $25,000 raise.

Edmonson lied and he did so deliberately. Will he be fired as well?

Edmonson, back in 2014, engineered the insertion of an AMENDMENT to an otherwise benign bill in the closing minutes of the legislature that would have given him an additional $55,000 per year in retirement income—illegally, because Edmonson had locked his retirement in years before when he entered the state’s DROP Program, which froze retirement income at his rank at that time. A lawsuit by State Sen. Dan Claitor killed the raise. Was he fired for that? Check that box No.

JOHN BEL EDWARDS, a state representative at the time, said he would seek a “full investigation” of the furtive attempt to approve the raise. Instead, he reappointed Edmonson to head Louisiana State Police (LSP).

When a Troop D State Trooper was found to be doctor-shopping in order to stockpile prescription narcotics, which he was taking while on duty, Edmonson’s solution was to first promote him to Troop D Commander and later, when the incident became public, to make a LATERAL TRANSFER.

When a State Trooper was found to have had sex with a woman in his patrol unit, he was SUSPENDED for 36 hours and reduced in pay for 18 pay periods but was allowed to work overtime to make up the reduction in pay.

When a married State Trooper escorted an underage woman into a Vicksburg, Mississippi CASINO floor to play slot machines and blackjack, he was busted and attempted unsuccessfully to use his position as a trooper to negotiate his way out of a fine. Edmonson promoted him to Troop F Commander.

When Department of Public Safety (DPS) Deputy Undersecretary JILL BOUDREAUX was allowed to take an early retirement buyout incentive and cash in her leave time and then return to work the next day—with a promotion to Undersecretary, Edmonson allowed her to keep $59,000 in buyout and annual leave payments—and her job—despite instructions from the Division of Administration for her to repay the money.

Edmonson sat on a HARASSMENT complaint on a Troop D State Trooper for more than a year.

Louisiana State Troopers’ Association Executive Director David Young kept his job after it was revealed that he laundered state troopers’ funds through his personal bank account in order to make substantial—and illegal—campaign donations, including $10,000 each to Bobby Jindal and Edwards. A political crony of Gov. Edwards was hired to torpedo the investigation—and did just that.

And when a handful of retirees, members of LSTA, complained about the contributions, they were politely booted out of the association. You don’t cross Edmonson’s boys and not pay a price.

Through all these disruptive incidents, Edmonson sailed right along, never receiving any disciplinary action. He will say he has no control over the LSTA, but that organization’s members don’t go to the bathroom without a hall pass from Edmonson.

He skates when he lies about how the promotion of Jason Starnes would cost no additional money but Derbonne is offered up for sacrifice when she inadvertently says the commission approves her budget.

Capping off the bizarre events on Thursday, reporters attempted in vain to get any member or either of the two commission attorneys—Taylor Townsend and Lenore Feeney—to say something, anything, about the meeting and Derbonne’s resignation. Each one, Doss, Braxton, Caruso-Riecke, Breaux, Manzella, Simien, Townsend and Feeney, seemed to have somewhere to go in one helluva hurry. Everyone was scurrying around like a bunch of rats in a burning meth lab.

Townsend, all but sprinting from the room, was pursued by a reporter who asked, “What did you guys talk about during the break?”

Townsend’s RESPONSE, made over his right shoulder as he exited the room was, “You don’t want to get into that.”

Well….yeah, we do.

The most humorous—and frustrating—exchange took place when reporters followed Doss as he entered a private room with Maj. Durell Williams, who is over Louisiana State Police Internal Affairs.

Doss, just before entering the room, turned and faced reporters who asked for a more detailed explanation of events. He referred reporters to Feeney, “the attorney in the red jacket,” saying that she could address their questions.

But when FEENEY was confronted, she rushed past reporters, saying, “I’m not been authorized to make a comment.” It was a classic game of bureaucratic ping pong with reporters serving as the little plastic ball.

So there you have it, folks. The wagons have been circled; Starnes, with no accounting experience, has been put in charge of LSP finances; Edmonson has consolidated his base by eliminating another potential critic and gaining complete control of the LSPC; the Sheriffs’ Association is happy as a pig in the sunshine, and Derbonne has been sacrificed at the Altar of Deniability.

And to think, Edmonson gets away with all the above—and more—mismanagement but when I, as a five-year-old, threw a candy wrapper out of my grandfather’s truck window, I felt a pop on the back of my head and I could see Jesus at the end of a long tunnel, waving me to the light.

But not to worry. Edmonson is off to Rome with his latest benefactor, Gov. John Bel Edwards, to meet with the Pope on the issue of child sex trafficking so all is right with the world.

(But we can’t help but wonder if he will get into trouble like he did when another Pope came to Louisiana.)

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