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Notable Quotables (in their own words)

Posted in Boards, Coastal Erosion, Corruption, House, Senate, Lawsuits, Legislature, Legislators, Notable Quotables on May 30, 2014| 7 Comments »

“The flag of the oil companies still flies over the Louisiana Capitol today.”

—General Russel Honoré, US Army (Ret.), leader of Louisiana’s GreenArmy, and candidate for governor, commenting on the Louisiana House’s vote Thursday to not only kill future lawsuits against oil companies by levee boards, but to make such prohibition retroactive. The vote kills efforts by the Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority-East (SELPA-E) to force 97 oil and gas companies to repair the damage they have inflicted on Louisiana’s coastline and marshes over decades of pollution and misuse,.

 

“Thank all the people who worked to try make the oil industry obey the law and the legislators who voted to do so. I think many of the legislators who voted to kill the lawsuit know perfectly well that they were doing the wrong thing. This fight is not over. We will see you in court. And we will see you at the next election. Apparently a majority of the legislators believe that the oil and gas industry actually is above the law, which is an interesting concept to embrace in the United States.”

—John Barry, teagued by Jindal as vice president of SFLPA-E, and who has continued to fight on behalf of the lawsuit filed last July by SFLPA-E, on the action by the House.

 

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Post mortem examination of SFLPA-E lawsuit reveals blunt trauma from multiple oil and gas campaign contributions

Posted in Boards, Campaign Contributions, Coastal Erosion, Corruption, Ethics, Governor's Office, House, Senate, Lawsuits, Legislature, Legislators, Politicians, Transparency on May 29, 2014| 22 Comments »

When we make a mistake in our attempts to keep you informed about your state government and its elected officials, we make it a point to make amends as quickly and as accurately as possible in order to be fair to all concerned.

With that in mind, we owe a sincere apology for inadvertently misrepresenting the amount of campaign contributions received by certain legislators in our Wednesday post about the House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Rep. Gordon Dove (R-Houma), State Sen. Robert Adley (R-Benton) and Sen. Bret Allain (R-Franklin).

You may remember that we said that Adley had received $70,500 in campaign contributions from oil and gas interests and that Dove and Allain received $10,500 and $6,800, respectively.

We were incorrect and in fairness to them, we want to give the correct figures here and now:

  • Sen. Robert Adley: $597,950;
  • Sen. Bret Allain: $34,139;
  • Rep. Gordon Dove: $28,950.

There, now. We certainly feel better for having cleared the air and we hope the honorable legislators will forgive us our error.

We do not have a revised amount of oil and gas-related campaign contributions for Gov. Bobby Jindal, but we have confirmed that it is at least $545,000, most probably more. A lot more.

If there are any lingering doubts out there that politicians are bought and sold by the special interests like so many sacks of potatoes, consider the money that has been spread among our state lawmakers—just from the oil and gas interests:

  • The 144 incumbent legislators (remember, this does not include those who have left office) have received more than $5.8 million in campaign contributions by a single special interest group—oil and gas. That comes to an average of $40,357 per legislator.
  • For the 39 current members of the Louisiana Senate, the aggregate is a little north of $2.8 million, or $51,100 each.
  • A total of $2.99 million was distributed among the 105 House members—an average of $28, 458 each, the figures show.

So, the obvious question is: what do the oil and gas interests expect in return—other than the continuation of the same good, clean government to which we have grown so accustomed in Louisiana?

How about the dismissal of a pesky lawsuit that could result in the 97 oil companies having to spend some of their hard-earned profits to clean up and restore the state’s wetlands that they have destroyed over decades of misuse and abuse.

Just think what a bummer it would be if ExxonMobil had to dip into that $8.35 billion in net profits it earned during the last quarter of 2013. Same for Shell, with its $2.9 billion in net profits for the final quarter of last year. I mean, c’mon, you have to feel some sympathy for ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson who only makes $2.72 million per year—in salary, that is. An adverse court decision could impact his annual bonus of $3.7 million (plus 225,000 shares of restricted stock worth another $21.3 million). That’s $27.7 million in 2013 alone. http://www.foxbusiness.com/industries/2014/04/11/exxon-ceo-2013-compensation-falls-278519336/

So, by obtaining a dismissal of litigation—before it ever goes to trial or even to the discovery stage—that could conceivably cost oil companies several hundred million dollars by spreading $5.8 million around represents a nice return on investment.

And make no mistake about it: campaign contributions are just that—investments. Nothing more, nothing less. More specifically, they are investments not in good government, but in business. And politics is a business—a very dirty business.

Politics long ago, even before the repugnant Citizens United U.S. Supreme Court decision of 2010, took the citizens of this country and this state out of the equation, eliminated us from the decision-making process on issues that clearly affect our lives each and every day.

And if you still believe our government is of the people, by the people and for the people, then you are either wonderfully naïve or pitifully delusional.

Not all the political back scratching, vote buying and deal making takes place in Washington. With far too few exceptions, it’s as close as our nearest state senator, state representative Board of Elementary and Secondary Education member and yes, even our governor. Especially our governor, the one who supposedly sets the moral tone for all other elected officials.

And the investments of the oil and gas interests in lawmakers who are supposed to be representing the interests of the state and its citizens are only indicative of a much larger problem, a problem that undermines the trust in the entire body politic, in the political process itself.

Can it be an accident that the seven members of the Senate Natural Resources Committee received an average of $62,902 each from oil interests—$11,785 more than the average for the 32 senators not assigned to that committee?

Do you think it a coincidence that the 19 members of the House Committee on Natural Resources and Environment received an average of $31,670—again, $3,200 more than the average for the remaining House membership?

Oil and gas contributions for the Senate committee members totaled $462,150 and for the House committee members, $394,150—a grand total of $856,300.

And then there is the seven-member Senate Committee on Environmental Quality, chaired by Sen. Mike Walsworth, or as one blogger refers to him, Walsworthless, (R-West Monroe), whose $46,775 was eclipsed by fellow committee member Sen. Dale Erdy (R-Livingston), who raked in $118,400 in donations from oil and gas.

In all, seven senators, including Adley, Gerald Long (R-Natchitoches) and Senate President John Alario (R-Westwego), received in excess of $100,000 from oil and gas interests. Alario, the poster child for using campaign funds for private purposes, received $124,400. That’s a lot of Saints and LSU football tickets and, with his expensive eating habits, a couple of gourmet meals at one of New Orleans’ finer restaurants.

Over on the House side, only one member received more than $100,000. But that just happened to be House Speaker Chuck Kleckley (R-Lake Charles). How’s that for strategic placement of your money?

And then there is Sen. Elbert Guillory (R/D/R-Opelousas) the carpetbagger from Seattle who is an announced candidate for lieutenant governor. Guillory seems to pop up anywhere there are contributions to be had. A member of the Senate Judiciary C Committee, he managed to pull in $130,400, second only to Adley’s $597,950.

These are just some of the highlights of the data we received, courtesy of Moss Robeson of Brooklyn, N.Y., whom we would like to thank for conducting a more thorough data search and for crunching the numbers for us. Working as an intern on behalf of John Barry and the Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority-East (SFLPA-E), he not only ran the numbers on the Senate and members of the House Committee on Natural Resources, he ran them for every member of the entire legislature.

After all, if Gov. Jindal can continue pulling in talent from out of state, then why not bring Ross in for this project—especially since his mom resides in New Orleans?

For the complete list compiled by Robeson, click here: Copy of Campaign Contributions

Here is the way the full House voted on SB 469 on Thursday:

YEAS:

Alario

Adams

Arnold

Barras

Berthelot

Billiot

Bishop, S.

Broadwater

Burford

Burns, H.

Burns, T.

Burrell

Carmody

Carter

Champagne

Chaney

Cromer

Danahay

Dove

Fannin

Garofalo

Geymann

Gisclair

Guinn

Harris

Harrison

Havard

Henry

Hensgens

Hodges

Hoffmann

Honore

Howard

Ivey

Jones

Landry, N.

Leopold

Lorusso

Mack

Miller

Morris, Jay

Morris, Jim

Ponti

Pope

Price

Pugh

Pylant

Reynolds

Richard

Robideaux

Schexnayder

Schroder

Seabaugh

Simon

Stokes

Thibaut

Thierry

Thompson

Whitney

Total — 59

 

NAYS

Anders

Armes

Badon

Barrow

Bishop, W.

Brown

Connick

Cox

Dixon

Edwards

Foil

Franklin

Greene

Guillory

Hazel

Hill

Hunter

Jackson

James

Jefferson

Johnson

Lambert

Landry, T.

LeBas

Leger

Lopinto

Montoucet

Moreno

Norton

Ortego

Pearson

Pierre

Ritchie

Shadoin

Smith

Williams, A.

Williams, P.

Willmott

Woodruff

Total – 39

 

ABSENT

Abramson

Gaines

Hollis

Huval

St. Germain

Talbot

Total — 6

 

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Notable Quotables (in their own words)

Posted in Boards, Coastal Erosion, Commissions, Ethics, House, Senate, Legislature, Legislators, Notable Quotables on May 28, 2014| 2 Comments »

“We’ve really done a lot…thanks to CPRA (the Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority).”

—House Committee on Natural Resources Chairman Rep. Gordon Dove (R-Houma), who also is a member of the CPRA, commenting prior to his vote in favor of an amendment to SB 469 which would make the prohibition against suing oil companies for damages to the state’s wetlands retroactive to include the year-old lawsuit against 97 oil companies by the Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority-East (SLFPA-E). (While he was busy patting himself on the back for his accomplishments in protecting Louisiana’s wetlands, one of his trucking companies was being cited by the State of Montana for dumping radioactive waste in that state.)

 

“This bill  is a 110 percent get out of jail free card.”

—SLFPA-E attorney Gladstone Jones, offering his opinion of SB 469 during Sunday’s committee hearing.

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House Natural Resources Comm. kills SELPA-E suit even as committee chairman cited for dumping toxic oilfield wastes

Posted in Campaign Contributions, Corruption, Ethics, Governor's Office, House, Senate, Legislature, Legislators, Politicians, Transparency on May 28, 2014| 3 Comments »

While Gov. Bobby Jindal continues to flit around the country like a hummingbird on amphetamines, he apparently can be secure in the knowledge that his lackeys in the Louisiana Legislature will have his back in protecting the 97 oil companies that have done so much damage to Louisiana’s coastline and marshlands.

And at least one legislator has been cited for illegal dumping in another state even as he votes to ensure the oil companies may continue to destroy our wetlands with impunity.

The Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority-East’s (SFLPA-E) filed its landmark lawsuit nearly a year ago and the politicians who feed on the mother’s milk called oil and gas immediately closed ranks behind the companies that have destroyed the marshes and in so doing, left the entire Louisiana coastline, from Buras to Lake Charles—and New Orleans—vulnerable to more tragic hurricane destruction like that inflicted by 2005’s Katrina and Rita.

Sen. Robert Adley, R-Benton, who has benefitted from a minimum of $70,500 in oil and gas contributions and armed with predictable righteous indignation, came to the rescue like the Lone Ranger, complete with the silver bullets of anti-lawsuit legislation. He was followed in quick succession by a flood of similar bills from other shameless oil money-dependent lawmakers—the protectors of Louisiana’s citizenry from the bad old lawsuits and greedy lawyers, all following the lead of Jindal who condemned the litigation as if it were an attack on motherhood itself.

One of those bills, SB 469, by Sen. Bret Allain, R-Franklin, was authored by our old friend Jimmy Faircloth. Allain was recipient of at least $6,800 in oil money, his campaign records show. The bill, co-sponsored by Adley, zipped through the Senate by a 24-13 margin with two absentees.

SB 469 “provides that no state or local governmental entity may have, nor may pursue, any right or cause of action arising from any activity subject to permitting under present law or certain federal statutes in the coastal area, or arising from or related in any use as defined by present law, regardless of the date such use or activity occurred.”

In plain English, which most of the great unwashed employ in our everyday communications, the bill simply prohibits any entity like SFLPA-E from attempting to hold oil companies accountable through litigation for the destruction they have unleashed with careless abandon on our coastline and marshlands.

But here’s the real kicker: The bill was amended by the House Committee on Natural Resources to make that prohibition retroactive, thus in effect, killing the SFLPA-E attempt to hold the companies legally responsible for cleaning up the mess they created. As the Church Lady from Saturday Night Live was fond of saying, “How convenient.”

How’s that for giving a kid your credit card in a toy store?

So, what makes the committee vote on the amendment so different from any other backroom deal by lawmakers to protect not their constituents but the ones who bankroll their election campaigns?

For starters, we have the chairman of the House Committee on Natural Resources, one Gordon Dove (R-Houma), who voted in favor of the amendment.

gordon dove

(CLICK TO VIEW IMAGE)

Dove, who has been the recipient of at least $10,500 in oil and gas campaign money since 2005, just happens to own a trucking company that was cited last month for dumping radioactive waste in the state of Montana.

http://m.missoulian.com/news/state-and-regional/company-suspected-of-dumping-radioactive-waste-in-montana-ordered-to/article_e63b89ac-cdc2-11e3-b909-0019bb2963f4.html?mobile_touch=true

Dual Trucking and Transport of Houma has been ordered by the Montana Department of Environmental Quality to cease all operations near the Bakken community of Bainville after it was determined that the company was believed to have illegally dumped radioactive oilfield waste in an Eastern Montana landfill over a two-year period.

The Montana Secretary of State listed Dove and Tony Alford of Houma, president of the Terrebonne Levee and Conservation District Board, as principals in the Montana trucking company. Another Montana company, KJK Trucking, lists Dove’s daughter, Jackie Elizabeth Dove (Sye), as its registered agent.

The Montana DEQ said the waste site is only a couple hundred yards upwind from a housing development and is located in a sandy-soiled region where the water table is sufficient high to produce wetlands.

That sounds vaguely familiar. Oh, wait. It was only five months ago that Plaquemine Parish accused BP and Chevron in a federal lawsuit of dumping toxic waste—some of it radioactive—from their drilling operations into the parish’s coastal waters.

Dual was issued a warning nearly two years ago, in September of 2012, to cease operations until it was licensed by DEQ’s Solid Waste Program and the company did begin the permit process but subsequently refused the state’s requests for additional information, saying it was no longer processing oilfield waste and did not require a permit.

But in April of this year, DEQ again inspected the site and found that Dual was still hauling the oilfield waste without a permit.

The Montana regulatory action arose from growing reports of illegally disposed of waste from the Bakken shale oilfield in nearby North Dakota. Garbage bags full of the oilfield sock filters were also discovered in an abandoned North Dakota gas station and on a flatbed trailer near a landfill in that state. Neither of the North Dakota sites has been tied to Dove’s trucking company.

The citation issued to the chairman of the Louisiana Committee on Natural Resources by the State of Montana apparently has no relevance when it comes to the all-important duty of our elected officials to protect the very ones who are destroying our coastline.

But it does raise another important issue.

Gordon Dove is merely symptomatic of a much larger problem in Louisiana and that is one of trust.

For our part, we find it impossible to place any degree of confidence in those who would go against the best interests of our state in favor of prostituting themselves to political benefactors while at the same time flaunting environmental laws in another state and in effect, flipping off the citizens of both states.

The Louisiana official motto “Union, Justice and Confidence” has become a cruel hoax perpetrated on the citizens of Louisiana and Bobby Jindal and Gordon Dove are right out front as the primary proponents. There is no justice nor is there confidence. There is, of course, ample evidence of the unholy union between the big oil donors and those who took oaths to protect the interests of this state.

Public Service Commissioner Foster Campbell (D-Elm Grove) made two important points during an appearance on the Jim Engster Show on Louisiana Public Radio several months ago:

  • As a member of the legislature, he supported former Republican Gov. Dave Treen’s unsuccessful efforts to pass the Coastal Wetlands Environmental Levy (CWEL)—a tax on the transportation of oil and gas through the state’s coastal wetlands;
  • If someone drives his car through your fence, destroys your lawn and a storage building, you would justifiably expect that person or his insurance company to pay for those damages.

But apparently that’s just not the case in Louisiana.

The amended version of SB 469 is scheduled for floor debate in the full House tomorrow (May 29). If you wish to email your legislator, you don’t have much time.

Here are the links to both the House and Senate:

http://house.louisiana.gov/H_Reps/H_Reps_ByName.asp

http://senate.legis.louisiana.gov/Senators/Default.asp

(Click on legislator’s name to access email address and House or Senate phone number.)

Next from LouisianaVoice: a complete list of oil and gas company contributions to all members of the House Committee on Natural Resources and the full Senate.

 

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Alvarez & Marsal bills $2M thus far on $5 million contract; state has little to show for expenditure to save $500 million

Posted in Audit Reports, Budget, Contract, Contracts, Governor's Office, Legislature, Legislators, OGB, Office of Group Benefits on May 27, 2014| 12 Comments »

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CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE

Alvarez & Marsal, Gov. Bobby Jindal’s favorite consulting firm, has submitted invoices totaling more than $2.1 million thus far, accounting for a tad more than the firm’s $5 million contract to ferret out $500 million in savings to the state, according to documents provided by the Division of Administration.

And so far, all taxpayers have to show for that is a 2 ½ page preliminary report provided to legislators earlier this month recommended $74 million in spending cuts, some of which have already been rejected by the administration.

A&M’s invoices included an $80,000 charge for an assessment of the Office of Group Benefits (OGB) conducted in December at the specific request of Commissioner of Administration Kristy Nichols.

But…but…but didn’t the administration conduct a full blown assessment of OGB before it made that decision to privatize the agency a couple of years ago? Is this administration determined to study and consult this state into financial oblivion?

And speaking of OGB, that $500 million reserve fund it had when Jindal came up with the bright idea of privatization—an economy move, he said; it would save the state gazillions—has shrunk like hemorrhoids in a Preparation H commercial and both the Legislative Fiscal office and the Legislative Auditor’s office are projecting an end of year balance of only $55 million or so.

And Jindal’s ploy of reducing premiums—the by-product of that action being that it would also reduce the state’s portion of premiums by 9 percent, freeing up money Jindal would use to patch yet another state budget—has now done a 180 with the word going out this week that premiums for state employees and retirees and their dependents will be increased by 5 percent, effective July 1.

Talk about your voodoo economics…

So why blow $80,000 to conduct the OGB “assessment when the Legislative Fiscal office and/or the Legislative Auditor’s office would probably have performed the same service for free.

Wait…they did already.

Yep, both conducted their own separate assessment and came up with remarkably similar numbers for the anticipated reserve fund reduction by the end of 2014. The picture isn’t pretty and no consultant’s study is going to change that.

Legislative Auditor Daryl Purpera said the reserve fund is currently being reduced by about $17 million a month and even with the 5 percent premium increased announced by the administration, the drawdown will be reduced by less than half—$7 million, leaving the monthly deficit at $10 million a month.

Nichols, in typical fashion, continues to spout the party line, assuring us that everything is peachy and the fund is in no danger of going broke. So now with this prediction coupled with previous pronouncements, we now know her to be a legal authority, an economist, an actuary and a wellness expert. Given her track record, we should be worried, very worried.

But we digress. Back to those A&M invoices and the firm’s recommendations.

In case there may be those whose memories are short, A&M is the same firm that Jindal hired last year to come up with his brainstorm of eliminating state income taxes, a plan that crashed and burned before ever lifting off.

It’s also the same firm that advised the Orleans Parish School Board to fire 7,500 teachers after Hurricane Katrina, an action that prompted a class action lawsuit which in return produced a judgment in favor of the teachers that could end up costing the state $1.5 billion.

So, what did that 2 ½ page preliminary report contain? Oh, great things, like requiring women on Medicaid to use midwives or doulas for delivery (these would be women who often go without prenatal care), finding jobs for prison inmates, cutting the thickness of asphalt in future highway overlays, and cutting back hours of operation for the Cameron Parish ferry.

It didn’t take Jindal long to cave to pressure to keep the ferry open.

Scratch that big savings.

Then Jindal decided against a plan not part of the A&M recommendations, that of closing 18 motor vehicle offices throughout Louisiana.

Out with that savings plan.

Now, having already been paid 40 percent of its contract amount, A&M still has not submitted the overall plan for saving $500 million—a plan originally given the deadline of April 30 but extended to the end of May.

That gives A&M three days to come up with an additional $426 million in savings.

Could it be that the one-month extension was timed to have A&M submit its savings plan only hours before the legislature adjourns on Monday, thus giving lawmakers no opportunity to review the plan or to offer any input of their own?

With this governor, stranger things have happened.

 

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