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Archive for the ‘Governor’s Office’ Category

Jindal hospital privatization plans just won’t go away; Baton Rouge attorney files appeal of Huey P. Long Hospital closure

Posted in Ethics, Fraud, Governor's Office, Health Care, Huey Long, Lawsuits, Layoffs, Legislature, Legislators, Privatization, Senate, Transparency on April 25, 2016| 12 Comments »

There’re few feelings worse than a hangover and when the hangover contains remnants of the eight-year drunjeb privatization binge of the Bobby Jindal administration, the pain is particularly excruciating. In this case, it’s the state hospital privatization fiasco that keeps on giving us the dry heaves.

It may not rank up there with the 50-page blank contract http://www.forward-now.com/2014/01/09/as-the-la-hospital-privatization-biomed-worms-turn/ but the less-than-transparent and most probably more than a little illegal closure of one hospital has prompted a Baton Rouge attorney to file an APPEAL with the First Circuit Court of Appeal in Baton Rouge. His appeal follows the State Civil Service Commission’s denial of his Civil Service appeal on behalf of eight employees who lost their jobs when the Huey P. Long Hospital in Pineville.

Arthur Smith III initially also represented Edwin Ray Parker, president of Council 17 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), and Brad Ott, a public hospital patient from New Orleans. Upon being informed they had no standing in a civil service matter since they were not state employees, however, they requested that their claims be dismissed.

In all, some 200 employees lost their jobs when the Jindal administration shuttered the facility on June 30, 2014.

Ott and Parker initially sued the state as soon as the closure was approved, claiming legislators did not comply with the Louisiana State Constitution in authorizing Bobby Jindal to close the LSU-run hospital. A retired state judge sitting in for the presiding judge in the case, in a curious ruling noted that the Senate violated the open meetings law when the proposed legislation was heard by its Health and Welfare Committee and said the closure was unconstitutional—but nevertheless allowed the closure to go forward. http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2014/06/lsu_hospital_closure_ruled_unc.html

The open meetings law violation claim came into play when the Senate committee published a meeting notice two days before its hearing, with an agenda that did not include the hospital closure legislation. But on the afternoon prior to the meeting, a revised agenda was posted that included the legislation, a ploy most likely designed to blindside opponents of the closure by not giving them sufficient time to mount an organized opposition.

Judge Robert Downing said he made his ruling so that the matter would fast track a direct appeal to the State Supreme Court, which ultimately denied a stay order, thus allowing the closure. At the same time he sharply criticized Jindal for “turning down billions” of federal dollars through Medicaid Expansion—even as Jindal was (wink, wink) claiming the hospital closure would improve health care for the uninsured in the 16-parish area served by the hospital.

Smith filed his appeal with the First Circuit following the Civil Service Commission’s seven-page DENIAL of his civil service appeal issued on April 6.

State Civil Service Director Shannon Templet was quoted in the commission’s decision as saying a “lack of funds” was the reason for the layoff. That, of course, played directly into Jindal’s hands as he had been systematically starving health care for the indigent since long before he became governor—as Secretary of the Department of Health and Hospitals under former Gov. Mike Foster.

In his appeal, Smith argues that the Civil Service Commission erred in approving the cooperative endeavor agreement (CEA) pertaining to the medical center by failing to comply with the rules set forth by the Louisiana Supreme Court in Civil Service Commission v. City of New Orleans. http://caselaw.findlaw.com/la-supreme-court/1274405.html

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State Troopers’ Association considering proposal to oust dissident members; time for Gov. Edwards to take action

Posted in Boards, Campaign Contributions, Commissions, Corruption, Elections, Ethics, Finances, Governor's Office, Politicians, Public Records, Retirement, State Police, Teague on April 15, 2016| 14 Comments »

In North Korea, to the best of our knowledge about that closed society, political dissidents quietly disappear, rumored to receive a bullet to the back of the head.

In the old Soviet Union, dissidents were disposed of in similar fashion—with a bullet behind an ear. Today, Vladimir Putin apparently prefers the quieter—and cleaner—method of ricin-tipped umbrellas.

Thankfully, we are a bit more civilized.

But a purge is still a purge and things are about to get very nasty over at the Louisiana State Troopers’ Association, an organization that is growing increasingly more rogue with each new revelation.

Now the LSTA has under consideration a six-point proposal to change the organization’s by-laws to allow the expulsion of LSTA members without cause.

That’s right: The practice of Teaguing, perfected by Bobby Jindal, has wormed its way into the Louisiana State Troopers’ Association. The timing of the move couldn’t be more obvious.

The proposal apparently is aimed at a few retired troopers who dared question what may yet turn out to be illegal political activity and campaign contributions by LSTA and certain of its members.

The LSTA’s Web page says, “The Louisiana State Troopers Association is a fraternal organization representing the men and women of the Louisiana State Police. The LSTA represents approximately 97 percent of the commissioned officers as well as a substantial portion of the State Police Retirees.” https://latroopers.org/about

Suddenly, with the proposed changes on the table, it doesn’t seem so “fraternal” anymore.

First there was that endorsement of John Bel Edwards last November, the first ever by the association, which raised all manner of questions about the propriety of political endorsements by an organization, albeit a private one, on behalf of Louisiana state troopers who are forbidden by statute from political activity.

Then came the news of some $45,000 in political contributions (about $10,000 each to Edwards and Bobby Jindal) over the past several years. Even more questionable was the method by which those contributions were made: LSTA Executive Director wrote personal checks and made the contributions in his name but then was reimbursed by the association for “expenses,” prompting State Police Commission (the equivalent to the state Civil Service Commission) to observe the whole thing took on the shady characteristics of money laundering.

For what it’s worth, when LouisianaVoice broke the news about the unexplained circuitous route of the campaign funds from LSTA through Young, Edwards refunded the money he received. Jindal, ever the shining beacon of his highly touted gold standards of ethics, did not.

The LSTA board did balk when asked to write a letter to then Gov.-elect Edwards endorsing State Police Superintendent Mike Edmonson for re-appointment. That request was not made directly by Edmonson, but there is little doubt that the idea originated with him.

When retired state troopers (members of LSTA, incidentally) tried to get answers about the decision-making process and the source of the campaign money they encountered instant resistance as the association dug in its heels. They’re a private organization, don’t you know, and it’s no one’s business—not even that of members. So naturally, you shoot the messenger.

So the retirees, led by Scott Perry and Bucky Millet, filed a formal complaint with the State Police Commission whose chairman, Franklin Kyle, took the position that the commission had no authority because LSTA was a private entity.

But its membership is not, Perry and Millet argued. The LSTA board is comprised of state troopers and if the board made those decisions, it was state troopers over whom the commission has oversight who may have violated terms of Article X, Sec. 47 of the Louisiana State Constitution: No member of the commission and no state police officer in the classified service shall participate or engage in political activity; be a candidate for nomination or election to public office except to seek election as the classified state police officer serving on the State Police Commission; or be a member of any national, state, or local committee of a political party or faction; make or solicit contributions for any political party, faction, or candidate; or take active part in the management of the affairs of a political party, faction, candidate, or any political campaign, except to exercise his right as a citizen to express his opinion privately, to serve as a commissioner or official watcher at the polls, and to cast his vote as he desires. (Emphasis added)

LouisianaVoice then discovered that three members of the commission charged with enforcing those laws had themselves been active in the political arena during the time they were sitting on the commission. Commission Chairman Kyle was among the three. The others were William Goldring and Freddie Pitcher.

Pitcher was the first to go, announcing his resignation soon after we revealed that he had made political campaigns himself. Then on Thursday, after a nine-page report by Natchitoches and former State Sen. Taylor Townsend recommended the removal of all three, Kyle and Goldring submitted their letters of resignation.

Obviously, the LSTA and Edmonson were highly offended over the unwelcome questioning by retirees. They were raining on the association’s parade and it wasn’t appreciated one bit. The forced ouster of three commission members who had also made tens of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions did nothing to assuage those feelings.

So now we have that six-point proposal that would allow the LSTA to rid itself of those noisy old has-beens who the association apparently thinks should just ride quietly off into the sunset.

But this over-the-hill gang still has a few battles left to fight in its effort to preserve the integrity of a once-noble organization that has descended into the depths of political deals and dirty tricks. Those retirees are the ones who built the LSTA and they are pissed that a bunch of politically motivated board members who were in diapers or yet unborn when LSTA was founded have chosen to pervert its intended purpose.

Here is the six-point by-laws change currently being proposed:

  • The affiliate troop (Troop A, Troop B, etc.) to which the member is attached shall move to remove the member via a vote of the members present at a duly called meeting of said affiliate.
  • The cited member shall receive formal written notification of the action pending against him and shall have an opportunity to respond to such action. Response may be either via written reply or in person at the next scheduled affiliate meeting.
  • The affiliate membership shall then take a vote on the motion to remove the member.
  • If the motion carries, the affiliate president shall report the action to the Board of Directors of the Association, who will then notify the cited member of the action and offer him an opportunity to appeal his removal.
  • After hearing any appeal of the action, the Board of Directors will vote to ratify or decline the member’s removal.
  • At any time that the Board of Directors of the Association feel that removal of a member is warranted, they may initiate such action via a motion from a Board member by following the procedure beginning in Step 4 above.

Apparently the proposed changes apply only to male members: Point 2 refers to “action pending against him” while Point 4 said the LSTA will “offer him” an opportunity to appeal. I don’t know about you, but that sounds a tad sexist to me.

But it is that last point, Point number Six, that is crucial and eerily reminiscent of the manner in which Edmonson attempted to swing an illegal $55,000-a-year increase in his retirement benefits. In 2014, an amendment was tacked onto a benign Senate bill during the closing hours of the legislative session which ignored an irrevocable action taken years before by Edmonson that froze his retirement benefits.

Generous retirement benefit boost slipped into bill for State Police Col. Mike Edmonson on last day of legislative session

The provision in Point 6 appears to allow the LSTA board to circumvent the individual troops, or affiliates, by initiating expulsion action on its own, a provision which would, in effect, negate any input from affiliate troops.

It’s obvious to even the most casual observer now that the LSTA is no longer a “fraternal” organization, but one that is highly politicized—and vindictive to the core. By rolling out this proposal, it is clear that dissention will not be tolerated: what the board wants trumps anything the membership desires.

Perhaps that is why LouisianaVoice is picking up rumblings that the association has lost membership from among the ranks of active troopers. Apparently even the active troopers who are subject to extreme pressure from above, i.e. Edmonson, want no part of what LSTA has become.

That may also be the reason we’re also hearing that private donations to LSTA have slipped over the past several months. Benevolence is one thing; political activism by an organization that passes itself off as a “fraternal organization” is something else altogether.

LouisianaVoice sent the following email to David Young earlier today:

From: Tom Aswell
Sent: Friday, April 15, 2016 10:52 AM
To: David Young
Subject: QUESTIONS

Mr. Young, please respond to the following questions:

  • What is the purpose of this proposed by-laws change?
  • Who proposed it?
  • Was the board’s vote unanimous?
  • Is it aimed at any retired troopers in particular?
  • How many troops (affiliates?) have already recorded votes for and against this proposal?
  • Has the LSTA lost membership in recent months?
  • Has the LSTA experienced a drop in private donations in recent months?

I eagerly await your response.

I am still waiting.

Meanwhile, the time has long passed when Gov. Edwards should intervene and rein in the LSTA board members. Allowed to continue their off-the-reservation activity, they will only bring further embarrassment to the administration which has already come under considerable criticism for the re-appointment of both Edmonson and Department of Corrections Secretary Jimmy LeBlanc.

Certainly, Governor, your  plate is full with a massive budget deficit but when you were elected, you were elected as the CEO over all departments in the state.

You cannot afford to ignore festering problems in any department, especially one as high-profile and as saddled with morale issues as the Department of Public Safety and the Louisiana State Police.

 

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Two more members of LSPC quit over political contributions while pondering its investigation of LSTA for same offense

Posted in Campaign Contributions, Ethics, Governor's Office, Politicians, Public Records, State Police, Transparency on April 14, 2016| 5 Comments »

The second and third members of the Louisiana State Police Commission (LSPC) resigned Thursday in the wake of earlier reports by LouisianaVoice that they had contributed to political campaigns in violation of the Louisiana State Constitution.

Their resignations of William Goldring and commission Chairman Franklin Kyle came on the heels of a nine-page report prepared by Natchitoches attorney Taylor Townsend. Taylor was contracted by commission Executive Director Cathy Derbonne after LouisianaVoice and the Baton Rouge Advocate revealed that they and a third member, retired appellate court judge Freddie Pitcher, faced removal from the commission because of their political campaign contributions while sitting as commission members. http://theadvocate.com/news/15297801-173/three-members-of-louisiana-state-police-commission-may-be-ousted-over-campaign-contribution-issue

INVESTIGATIVE REPORT

Pitcher resigned several weeks ago prior to Taylor’s being contracted to prepare the report.

The violations of the prohibition against political activity was an even more volatile issue because the commission was debating whether or not to initiate an investigation of the Louisiana State Troopers’ Association (LSTA) over its laundering association money through its own executive director David Young. https://louisianavoice.com/2016/03/10/state-police-commission-members-probing-lsta-appear-to-have-committed-similar-campaign-contribution-violations/

In his report to Derbonne, Townsend noted that statements contained in his report were supported by public records maintained by the Louisiana Ethics Administration Program, the Louisiana Secretary of State, State Police Commission oaths, and the Federal Elections Commission—the same sources cited by LouisianaVoice.

Quoting from the Louisiana State Constitution, Townsend said, “Members of the State Police Commission and state police officers are expressly prohibited from engaging in political activity. More specifically, Section 47 provides that ‘No member of the commission and no state police officer in the classified service shall participate or engage in political activity…make or solicit contributions for any political party, faction, or candidate…except to exercise his right as a citizen to express his opinion privately…and to cast his vote as he desires.’”

Willful violation of the relative provisions, he said, “is a crime, a misdemeanor, punishable by a fine of not more than $500 or imprisonment for not more than six months, or both,” Townsend said.

“The integrity of the State Police Service requires your immediate action and attention,” he said in his conclusion. “The law, specifically the Louisiana Constitution…and State Police Commission Rule 14.2, are both clear: ‘Members of the State Police Commission are expressly prohibited from participating in political activity.’ The findings of fact outlined (in his report) clearly show evidence of multiple violations of the applicable law by Mr. Kyle and Mr. Goldring. As you know, the authority to remove members of the commission is invested in the Governor. Barring voluntary resignation by these members, I see no alternative but to ask the Governor to call a public hearing.”

At Thursday’s meeting it was learned that Kyle had submitted his resignation letter prior to the 9 a.m. meeting after reviewing an advance copy of the report. Goldring said through the brief meeting but submitted his resignation letter later on Thursday.

FRANKLIN KYLE RESIGNATION LETTER

In his letter, which was sent by email, Kyle said, “I was provided a copy of the report by Mr. Townsend last night regarding commissioners that (sic) have broken LSPC rules…

“Given this information, I think it proper to tender my resignation. Attached, please find a letter to the governor regarding such.”

Goldring wrote, “After reading Mr. Townsend’s legal interpretation of the rules and regulations for Louisiana State Police Commissioners, I respectfully have no issues with his interpretation. The work of the commission is extremely important and should not be distracted and, therefore, I believe it is in everyone’s best interest for me to resign immediately.”

GOLDRING RESIGNATION LETTER

Pitcher resigned by letter dated March 29. “Now that I am fully aware of the prohibition, I feel that I must step down as a commission member…” he wrote.

PITCHER CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTIONS

With the resignations, the commission is far from finished with its work regarding the LSTA’s funneling nearly more than $45,000, including $10,000 each to Bobby Jindal and Gov. John Bel Edwards through Young to political candidates last year. Even though the LSTA is a private organization as opposed to a public entity, its membership is comprised of state troopers who, like the LSPC members, are prohibited from political activity.

Even with the resignations, the commission still has a quorum but will probably delay initiation of an investigation. Young and the LSTA are beyond the commission’s purview but it does have authority to conduct a probe of which members of the association made the decisions to reimburse Young for his contributions as well as the decision to endorse Edwards in last November’s runoff election between Edwards and U.S. Sen. David Vitter. Those responsible for the decisions would apparently be in violation of the constitution.

KYLE CONTRIBUTIONS

GOLDRING CONTRIBUTIONS

PITCHER CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTIONS

 

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Louisiana has a new Clown Prince but it’s egg, not a pie all over Lt. Gov. Nungesser’s face after succession of blunders

Posted in Business, Cartoons, Contract, Contracts, Earl Long, Ethics, Finances, Fraud, Governor's Office, Huey Long, Incentives, Media, Politicians, Public Records on April 12, 2016| 23 Comments »

CONSEQUENCES OF VOTING

LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR:

Melvin L. “Kip” Holden (DEM)             Defeated         506640            45%

“Billy” Nungesser (REP)                     Elected            628876            55%

Turnout: 40.2% 

We’re not yet halfway through the 2016 legislative session in which lawmakers and Gov. John Bel Edwards are struggling to close a $2 billion budget gap for the coming fiscal year but attention has been diverted from that knotty problem by one of the most bizarre political behavior since Earl Long’s mental crash of 1959, accompanied by a whirlwind tour of the Southwest and his fling with stripper Blaze Starr.

Lt. Gov. Billy Nungesser fell for a phishing scam that’s been around at least three years and in doing so, proved beyond any shadow of a doubt that Louisiana’s electoral legacy of a revolving door for scalawags, con men, thieves and clowns is securely intact. And while we’re at it, let’s not leave out outright idiots and demagogues.

You’d think we had at least partially rid ourselves of that ilk with the exit of Bobby Jindal, but you’d be oh, so wrong. There apparently is no shortage of egos or stupidity to go around and sadly, we keep electing them. The legislature is riddled with those who have set themselves apart from reality.

Thanks to the diligence of Baton Rouge Advocate reporters Rebekah Allen and Richard Thompson, we are now assured that Billy Nungesser is heir-apparent to the title of Chief Clown in residence—a worthy successor to Jindal, we might add.

The two reporters on Sunday (April 10) broke an astonishing story that Nungesser, abetted by state Republican Chairman Roger Villere, not only fell for a huge scam involving a supposed agreement between a Delaware-based corporation, a Lake Charles refinery, and the Iraqi government, but he did it without the knowledge or consent of Gov. John Bel Edwards on whose behalf he claimed he was acting. http://theadvocate.com/news/politics/15398751-125/lt-gov-billy-nungesser-gop-chairman-roger-villere-work-to-recruit-unlikely-iraq-to-louisiana-busin

For sheer audacity, it even surpassed Huey Long’s classic “Round Robin” pledge by 15 senators to block his impeachment back in 1929. Huey, after all, was battling for his political life while Nungesser was only feeding his inflated ego like a ravenous wolf devouring a fresh deer carcass. And he fed it with a story that had no basis in fact. And he did it for all the world to see. And then he apologized. Sort of.

While Baton Rouge was metaphorically wiping its eyes and laughing at this buffoon, we did a quick Internet search and found that a former East Baton Rouge parish councilman and failed mayoral candidate fell for a variation of the same scheme involving the same Delaware corporation three years ago. More about that later.

First, here is what has transpired thus far:

  • Villere, the state GOP brain bust…er, trust, apparently approached Nungesser for a new billion-dollar deal that involved a plan by Alexandros, Inc. http://alexandrosinc.com/index.html to partner with Pelican Refinery of Lake Charles http://www.pelican-refinery.com/index.html in signing a 25-year agreement to become the exclusive shipping company for the Iraqi government’s oil marketing arm, interchangeably called the State Organization for Marketing Oil and the State Oil Marketing Organization (SOMO). The plan called for the transporting of up to 150 million barrels of Iraqi oil each month. http://www.alexandrosinc.com/shipping.html
  • Alexandros, headed by CEO Markos Fuson of California, proposed reopening the former Avondale Shipyard on the Mississippi River near New Orleans. The facility shut down in 2014.
  • Alexandros also proposed building more than 40 new ships, “super-tankers,” capable of hauling 200 million barrels of oil per month.
  • Fuson supposedly committed to investing 100 percent of his profits from the venture in Louisiana’s motion picture industry and to then invest his share of film profits into an as-yet-to-be-created charitable foundation that would provide education, health care and housing assistance to Louisiana’s minorities.
  • Pelican Refining’s role in the scenario was unclear, given the fact the Lake Charles facility only produces asphalt and road oil. It has not processed sweet or heavier crude oil in more than a decade, The Advocate quoted the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources as saying.

If all that sounds implausible enough, consider this: Nungesser, salivating over the prospects of establishing himself as the state’s economic emancipator, then took matters into his own hands. In quick succession, he:

  • Issued a press release in March saying that Iraqi’s export agency had signed off on Alexandros’s request to partner with Pelican Refining to purchase light and heavy crude oil from SOMO.
  • Inexplicably sent the press release only to the Washington Post which, recognizing a con when it saw one, chose not to publish the release.
  • Represented himself in the news release as well as in letters to representatives of the Department of State and to Iraqi officials as Louisiana’s economic development recruiter (he’s not; that duty falls to the Secretary of Economic Development, in this case, Donald Pierson). “The honorable governor of Louisiana, John Bel Edwards, has given me a directive to expedite economic stimulus for the state of Louisiana,” Nungesser lied in his letter to Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, adding, “This request for Your Excellency’s advocacy is part of my office’s effort to fulfill that directive.”
  • Wrote similar letters to Stuart Jones, ambassador to Iraq, and to Secretary of State John Kerry in which he again passed himself off as the state’s key economic development leader. “It is with sincere gratitude that I, Billy Nungesser, as the lieutenant governor of the state of Louisiana, respectfully request the Department of State’s additional advocacy to the Republic of Iraq on behalf of the state of Louisiana,” he wrote to Kerry and Stuart.
  • Said in his letters that he copied Edwards with all correspondence. Not so, said a spokesman for the governor’s office, who said Edwards never received a copy.
  • With egg all over his face, denied reading, let alone writing the letters that he signed. Instead, he officially kicked off the blame game, saying first that Villere, an old friend and political ally, had told him he wanted a letter expressing the state’s interest.
  • In the lowest of lows, blamed his staff, saying the letters should never have made their way to his desk. “We’re changing the way some things flow in my office to make sure this doesn’t happen again,” he was quoted as saying by The Advocate.
  • Apologized to Edwards. “I would have never used the governor’s name without his permission,” he added.

Falah Alamri, SOMO director general, said the entire deal was a scam, “a hundred percent not real,” The Advocate story says.

But wait. Jeff DeRosia, operations manager for Grand Isle Shipyard in Galliano, says otherwise. “I know they’re real. One hundred percent,” he said. DeRosia, it should be noted also is executive vice president of domestic sales for Alexandros, according to Alexandros documents.

So just where does Villere figure in this entire sordid mess? Who knows? He did, however write his own letter back in February to the Iraqi prime minister and the minister of Oil, Adil Abd al-Mahdi in which he laid out the “urgent next steps that the state of Louisiana and the United States insist upon.” Some of those steps included SOMO’s granting legal authority and the issuing of contracts to Pelican Refining.

It’s still unclear how Villere considered himself in a position to insist on anything on behalf of the United States or Louisiana governments.

The three—Nungesser, Villere and DeRosia—would have been wise to do even the slightest bit of investigation before going off the reservation the way they did.

Our own quick search found a Web site called Ripoff Report in which a Baton Rouge writer in February 2013 warned of a similar scheme by Alexandros. http://www.ripoffreport.com/r/Alexandros-Inc/Highland-California-92346/Alexandros-Inc-Attempt-to-Defraud-with-Fake-Documents-Highland-California-1053139

In that report, Terry Easley produced a letter purportedly from the Iraqi State Oil Marketing Organization attesting to a professional relationship between Alexandros, Inc., Fuson, and the Iraqi government. The letter was signed, supposedly by Sarmad H. Abd, SOMO general manager of contracts, and John Percy de Jongh, Jr., governor of the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Easley pointed out discrepancies in the letterhead of that sham letter, comparing it to one he received on April 29, 2013, from SOMO Director General Alamri. The Alamri letter, he said, was on the correct letterhead, complete with correct logos, addresses and contact information in both English and Arabic. Here are the contents of that letter:

TO: Mr. Terry L. Easley

Email: [REDACTED]

Subj./Fraud Document

Reference to you letter dated 26th April 2013.

Please note the following:

1-The Document attached to your above letter is fraud and has never been issued by SOMO.

2-SOMO has no business relationship whatsoever neither with a company named “Alexandros, Inc.” nor with a person called “Sarmad H. Abd”.

3-Our policy is to deal directly and exclusively with End Users (refining system owners) and not through traders or middlemen.

Best Regards,

Dr. Falah J. Alamri

Director General

/04/2013

Oil Marketing Organization (SOMO) Fax: + 964 1 7726 574 / + 964 1 7742 979

PO Box 5118 Email: info@somooil. Gov. Iq

Baghdad – Iraq Web: www.somooil. Gov. Iq

The fake letter that precipitated the above response from Alamri, Easley said, was also copied to one Darrell Glasper of Baton Rouge. Glasper, for those outside the Baton Rouge area, was a member of the Baton Rouge Metro Council and ran for mayor-president against incumbent Kip Holden in 2008. He later admitted to paying for a campaign flier during that election which included doctored photos depicting Holden after being severely beaten by the husband because of an affair between the two.

Ironically, seven years later Nungesser would defeat Holden in an election for the lieutenant governor’s office.

The Baton Rouge media and a prominent blogger lost no time jumping all over the hapless and apparently clueless Nungesser.

Reporter Stephanie Grace, saying on Tuesday (April 12) that Nungesser had gone rogue, pointed out that in a 2011 forum between lieutenant governor candidates, Jay Dardenne pounded Nungesser on the duties of the office while Nungesser countered by saying he was one who followed his gut and “thinks outside the box.” http://theadvocate.com/news/opinion/15457076-133/stephanie-grace-nungesser-goes-rogue-on-whacky-economic-deal

Grace said in his first big move after taking office in January, he “proved he’s thinking much further outside the box than anyone could have imagined.”

Saying that Nungesser “has no authority over economic development, no right to speak for the governor, and no place contacting the U.S. government, a national news organization, or a foreign head of state” on behalf of Edwards, she did give him a backhanded compliment in noting that he “basically fessed up to have had no idea what he was doing.”

She suggested that Nungesser make a call to Dardenne, who now serves as Commissioner of Administration. “I’m guessing he’d (Dardenne) would be perfectly happy to, once again, school Nungesser on what the day job entails—and what it doesn’t.”

Political blogger Lamar White wasn’t quite as kind.

In his post today (April 12), White suggested that far from being funny, Nungesser’s actions are impeachable. https://cenlamar.com/2016/04/12/lt-gov-nungessers-scam-deal-isnt-funny-its-impeachable/

I disagree. I think to save himself further humiliation, he should take it upon himself to resign.

Even more biting, however, was White’s quote from Jan Moller, director of the Louisiana Budget Project, another political blog: “I always used to wonder what kind of person fell for those Nigerian prince email scams. This says a lot.”

White called Nungesser’s actions “an enormous embarrassment to Louisiana, a blatant usurpation of the statutory power of the Lt. Governor’s office.” He said it also “demonstrates both an enormous disrespect to Gov. John Bel Edwards, for whom Nungesser deliberately misrepresented as working under his authority and blessing, and a fundamental and damaging misunderstanding of the duties of his office.”

He referred to Nungesser’s claim of never having read the letters he signed and his blaming of his staff as “pathetic.”

Not overlooking the role of the state GOP chairman in the fiasco, White said Villere’s “intimate involvement, at the very least, warrants an investigation into criminal conspiracy.”

But then he observed, perhaps correctly that Nungesser need not fear the consequences. “Louisiana is too busy laughing at him to worry about actually holding him accountable.”

There is a lot of stupid to go around in Baton Rouge but with this stunt, Nungesser may have laid claim to franchise rights.

And that is particularly pathetic.

CLOWN IN CHIEF

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Louisiana Department of Education does poorly combating public records requests; Rep. Richard bill seeks trasparency

Posted in Corruption, Education, Ethics, Governor's Office, Lawsuits, Legislature, Legislators, Media, Politicians, Public Records, Transparency on April 6, 2016| 6 Comments »

Second of four-part series:

When the conversation turns to public records, there’s seldom a reporter, governmental watchdog agency, or a private citizen active in the public arena who doesn’t have a personal story to tell about obstacles encountered in efforts to obtain documents.

Nowhere in state government is that more evident than in the labyrinth known as the Louisiana Department of Education (LDOE) and in the governor’s office over the past eight years.

And if State Rep. Jerome “Dee” Richard (I-Thibodaux) gets his way, his HB 166 would make records of the governor’s office more accessible to the public. HB 166

The House Governmental Affairs Committee will hold hearings on his bill Thursday at 9 a.m.

Bobby Jindal is gone and there is reason to hope for a new era of openness in the governor’s office. But across Third Street from the towering State Capitol, John White remains at DOE and if what’s past is truly prologue, to borrow a phrase from Shakespeare’s The Tempest, any fantasizing about change is just that: fantasizing.

All you have to do is ask anyone who has suffered through the process of obtaining anything of substance in the way of public records from LDOE.

Ask James Finney, Ph.D., about his efforts to get answers to his records requests.

Finney began his quest for records from White back in April 2013 and in the ensuing years has filed dozens of other public records requests with DOE, all to no avail. Finally, after giving up on getting DOE and White to comply with state law, he sued on May 22, 2015. The suit will be heard by 19th Judicial District Court Judge William Morvant, which is not necessarily good news for Finney as we shall see later. It’s also unusual for a public records lawsuit to take nearly a year for trial in that they are supposed to be put on a fast track for hearing.

FINNEY LAWSUIT

White has been taken to court at least three times in the past. He has lost no fewer than three times. In two of those three cases, monetary penalties handed down by the courts still have yet to be paid.

Barring any delays the trial in Finney’s case is set for April 29. If he prevails and if he is awarded monetary damages (and there is no reason he shouldn’t, Judge Morvant notwithstanding), he stands to reap quite a financial windfall, given the number of unmet requests and the time periods involved—all at taxpayer expense, of course.

The lone exception is LouisianaVoice, which sued and won back in 2013 and was awarded damages of $2,800 plus court costs and attorney fees. In our case, the records were produced and the monetary damages paid. But not since then.

Ask Barbara Ferguson, Ph.D. and Charles J. Hatfield.

In April of 2013, exasperated at their failure to obtained requested documents from DOE, they sued. http://www.louisianaweekly.com/research-on-reform-files-lawsuit-against-la-doe/

RESEARCH ON REFORMS LAWSUIT

Ferguson is the first female superintendent of New Orleans public schools and an attorney. Hatfield is managing partner of a company specializing in diverse information retrieval and data analysis for public opinion researches. Together, they head up a non-profit organization called Research on Reforms.

Research on Reforms was founded after Hurricane Katrina and the subsequent takeover of 107 New Orleans public schools. Ferguson agreed that the Orleans Parish School Board “was a mess.” She said she was initially “delighted” at the conversion of the schools into charter schools but soon came to the realization that things were not as they appeared, particularly with the Recovery School District (RSD).

Data requested by Research on Reforms for the ’06-’07 and the ’07-’08 school years was provided but beginning in the ’08-’09 school year, the organization began to experience roadblocks thrown up to block its requests. Among the records it did receive was one with the absurd claim that one RSD school boasted a 100 percent attendance rate.

“You don’t have 100 percent attendance at a high school, ever,” Hatfield said.

“Research on Reforms, Inc. is not interested in obtaining privileged student-level data,” the organization said on its Web site after the lawsuit was filed.

But because LDOE was providing raw data to other national reporting organizations, Ferguson and Hatfield felt they had a right to the same information.

“LDOE is becoming increasingly less transparent through its recent actions to modify its website, removing historical databases and removing actual current school enrollment counts,” the Web site said.

“Because Louisiana’s state takeover of public schools was an experiment in how to improve failing schools, data had to be collected, aggregated and analyzed to determine whether the experiment was working or not,” it said. “While the Louisiana Department of Education collected, and continues to collect, the raw student level data needed for analysis, the LDOE has developed its own rules for releasing this data.”

LDOE dug in its heels and the lawsuit proceeded to trial in Baton Rouge’s 19th Judicial District Court before District Judge…..William Morvant.

Incredulously, Morvant sided with LDOE and White that the citizens of Louisiana had no right to information about how the state’s ballyhooed school reform movement under Bobby Jindal and White was progressing or if the reforms were even remotely successful.

In effect, it was none of our business.

Fortunately, in the interest of transparency and open government, the First Circuit Court of Appeal disagreed with Morvant and on Sept. 19, 2014, it upheld Research on Reform’s appeal, reversed the lower court judge and remanded the case back to Morvant’s court for the awarding of damages. The $675 cost of Research on Reform’s appeal was assessed against LDOE.

FIRST CIRCUIT RULING ON FERGUSON

The decision by the three-judge panel was unanimous.

“We agree with the plaintiffs (Research on Reforms) that the Louisiana Public Records Law does not conflict with FERPA,” the First Circuit ruling said. FERPA is the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act, a federal law that protects the privacy of student education records.

“FERPA allows an educational agency to create a record to be used for education research only if the personally-identifiable information of the students is de-identified, or that the records are coded,” the ruling continued. “According to FERPA, an educational agency can release a student’s record if the agency removes personally identifiable information and replaces it with a code….Once the document is legally created, the document becomes a public record under the Louisiana Public Records Law.

“For the reasons set forth above, this court maintains the appeal, the judgment of the trial court is reversed, and this matter is remanded to the trial court for further proceedings.”

With the issue of whether or not the records were public settled, the only remaining proceeding was the awarding of damages.

“We went back into district court and Judge Morvant was not happy he’d been reversed,” said Ferguson.

In its memorandum in support of motion for attorney fees, court costs and penalties, Research on Reforms requested that Morvant award for the trial and appeal litigation $29,779 in attorney fees and $3,121in court costs, a total of $32,850.

FERGUSON REQUESTED JUDGMENT

Research on Reforms requested the documents on Jan. 27, 2012, and LDOE did not release the documents until three years later, on Jan. 22, 2015.

L.R.S. 44:1 et seq. provides penalties for non-compliance:

  • If the court finds that the custodian arbitrarily or capriciously withheld the requested record, it may award the requester any actual damages proven by him to have resulted from the actions of the custodian. It may also award the requester civil penalties not to exceed $100 per day, exclusive of Saturdays, Sundays and legal public holidays, for each such day of such failure to give notification.

Taking into account weekends and the 10 official legal holidays per year in Louisiana, there were 684 working days over the three-year period, according to the motion. At $100 per day, Research on Reforms was within its rights in asking for penalties totaling an additional $68,400—a total of $101,250 (actually, LouisianaVoice calculated 745 days, which would have increased the penalty to $74,500 in addition to court costs and attorney fees).

The Louisiana Public Records Law further says:

  • The custodian (in this case, John White) shall be personally liable for the payment of any such damages and shall be held liable in solido with the public body for the payment of the requester’s attorney’s fees and other costs of litigation, except where the custodian has withheld or denied production of the requested record or records on advice of legal counsel representing the public body in which the office of such custodian is located. In the event the custodian retains private legal counsel for his defense in connection with the request for records, the court may award attorney’s fees to the custodian (Emphasis added).

So, when all parties reconvened in Morvant’s courtroom on Nov. 9, 2015, what did Morvant, in his magnanimous administration of justice under Louisiana’s Public Records Law, award Research on Reforms? How did he protect the rights of Louisiana’s citizens to access public records without future unnecessary and unfair challenges while sending a message to politicians and bureaucrats that defiance of the law was not to be taken lightly?

Why, he slashed attorney fees and courts exactly by more than half, of course, to a paltry $18,121—$3,121 in court costs and $15,000 in attorney fees. (You have to wonder what Morvant’s attorney fees would have been had he been in private practice and handled this case.)

But, but…what about the $100 per day penalty, the $68,400?

Surely you jest. “It is ordered, adjudged and decreed that …Louisiana Department of Education shall pay to plaintiffs $3,121 in court costs and $15,000 in attorney fees, for a total of $18,121. Period. MORVANT GRANTED HALF OF REQUESTED FEES

No mention of penalties for LDOE’s openly defying the law. Nada. Zilch. Zero.

It would be egregious enough if that was the end of the story, but it isn’t.

Now LDOE refuses to pay the judgment.

Department legal counsel Chris Frugé informed Ferguson and Hatfield that they must now find a legislator who will introduce an amendment in the current legislative session for payment not by LDOE, but by the Legislature.

That procedure is followed in payment of judgments against the state and the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development (DOTD) involving automobile accidents. That’s because of some misapplication of federal funds by DOTD several years ago, but that has never been the case with any other agency—and it certainly was not the case in LouisianaVoice’s $2,800 award in 2013.

Unless there is some provision that we don’t know about, that is not the law; it’s just another hoop LDOE is making citizens jump through in order to hold John White’s feet to the fire of Louisiana law.

Tomorrow: In a case in which John White was held personally liable for $49,000 in fines, attorney fees and court costs, he has chosen to ignore the court’s decision and has made no effort to pay the judgment. But that may be about to change when the plaintiff attorney unveils his fallback plan in court.

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