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Jindal reveals only polls that favor him but diregards fact that polling company OnMessage is ‘OnPayroll’ for $1.2M

Posted in Governor's Office, Politicians, Transparency on August 20, 2013| 13 Comments »

There are only two ways to describe political polls if you are a candidate who turns up in one.

If the poll favors the candidate, it’s a trend—sometimes a significant trend. If not, the numbers are meaningless.

But for pure spin, there seems to be no one who can top Gov. Bobby Jindal and his treatment of the latest numbers is merely another illustration of his ability to taint, distort, twist and skew data to his political advantage.

Harsh words? Of course, but sadly accurate. We have seen over and over his willingness to tout to the point of ad nauseam the latest survey that shows Louisiana with a favorable business climate or some such statistic that, taken as a stand-alone point, would favor his administration. Disregarded, ignored and unpublicized are other, more credible studies that show Louisiana wallowing in obesity and poverty, its citizens existing in an environmental morass and in a state with one of the highest percentages of residents without health insurance.

We have seen him pop up immediately at the site of a natural crisis of one of someone else’s making, as with the BP spill or the recent derailment in Lawtell in St. Landry Parish. Yet, it literally took months and a chorus of demands from area residents to convince him to finally visit that ever-expanding sinkhole near the Assumption Parish community of Bayou Corne, a crisis precipitated in part by permits issued by his own Department of Natural Resources.

But now we have two separate political polls—both by political conservative organizations—that show vastly different results. One shows his approval rating hovering around 50 percent while the other has him at an abysmal 35 percent—one of the lowest rankings of any governor in the history of Louisiana.

Others, it turns out, have also written about the conflicting polls. http://www.bayoubuzz.com/buzz/item/521755-jindal-poll-pipeline-is-louisiana-governor-at-50-or-35-percent

http://cenlamar.com/2013/08/20/gop-poll-if-bobby-jindal-ran-for-president-hillary-cli/

So which poll does he choose to hype? Silly question. Of course, he trots out the one reflecting a 50 percent approval rating, boasting of the impressive 12-point increase from an April poll. Surely, the rebound must reflect strong public support for his policies in education reform, budget slashing, hospital privatization, health care and massive employee layoffs. Right?

Not so fast.

Never mentioned (by the Jindal folks, anyway) is the fact that the 50 percent approval rating was the result of a poll by OnMesssage of Alexandria, VA.

OnMessage. Sound familiar? It should. It was OnMessage that hired one Timmy Teepell to head up its Southern operations in Baton Rouge—except there was never a Baton Rouge address or telephone number in Baton Rouge for the company and Teepell’s Jeep has remains parked in the back lot of the State Capitol since his hiring.

Despite recent rumors of OnMessage’s dissatisfaction with Teepell’s failure to attract clients for the political consulting firm, there is the matter of some $1.2 million that can’t be ignored when considering those rosy OnMessage poll results.

That’s the amount that Jindal’s Believe in Louisiana non-profit, tax-exempt propaganda machine paid OnMessage through last September. That figure included $456,551 paid in March of 2012, ostensibly for polling and research.

It’s enough to make one wonder how much Jindal (or Believe in Louisiana) paid OnMessage for the latest good news.

If one knew no better, it would appear a question of professional honor when OnMessage partner Curt Anderson challenged last April’s poll by Bernie Pinsonat which showed Jindal’s approval rate at 37 percent.

But Pinsonat was quick to point out the close relationship. “He (Anderson) works for Jindal. I do not. I would expect him to defend his client,” he said.

OnMessage also seemed to bolster Jindal’s rejection of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Obamacare). The OnMessage poll showed that 62 percent opposed Obamacare.

The numbers should come as no surprise considering that more than 86 percent of those polled have health insurance.

Yet, at 17.8 percent, Louisiana has the second highest percentage of citizens with no health insurance. It would have been interesting to see the poll results had a greater number of non-insured residents been included in the sampling. But isn’t it interesting that even with 86 percent of those polled having health insurance, only 62 percent opposed Obamacare?

Without cozying up to any candidate, suffice it to say we all know polls can be constructed as to produce almost any desired results. A recent example is an automated, or robocall poll with questions so obviously couched to favor Congressman Bill Cassidy over incumbent U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu as to be laughable. I received one of the poll’s calls and while I usually hang up, for some reason I stayed on the line and completed the poll.

Given the manner in which the questions were phrased, it would have been difficult for the most die-hard, Yellow Dog Democrat not to have bared his fangs at Landrieu. So, it was no surprise two days later when the poll results tilted in favor of Cassidy.

Still, it is worth noting that last April Pinsonat’s poll, commissioned by conservative Baton Rouge businessman Lane Grigsby, showed Jindal trailing Obama by five points—in Louisiana.

Even more interesting is another poll last week, by Harper Polling for Conservative Intel (that’s the one that has Jindal at a 35 percent approval rating) said that Jindal, occasionally mentioned (but often by the day) as a 2016 presidential contender, “has some work to do back home first.”

That poll, in a hypothetical 2016 presidential matchup, has Hillary Clinton beating Jindal by 44 to 42 percent—again, in Louisiana.

Losing to both Obama and Clinton on his home turf should be humiliating to Jindal but because has insulated himself in some sort of impenetrable buffer that apparently shields him from bad news, he bravely soldiers on, grabbing any and every opportunity to speak to conservative groups outside (but never in) Louisiana.

Still, it is interesting to read some of the comments at the bottom of online news stories about the Boy Blunder:

  • His political star is falling…handicapped by an intellectual base little different from that of the John Birch Society of the 1950s and ‘60s.
  • It is hard to see any of the current GOP presidential contenders righting the GOP ship when none of the contenders have both oars in the water.
  • He is a member of the stupid party.
  • But he’s a legend in his own mind.
  • He’s the only one who thinks he’s all that.
  • Poor Piyush! Like most TeaPots and GOPers, the more their constituents get to know them, the more their constituents despise them.
  • Look at his state; do you want that for your state?

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Jindal minions use Twitter to attack pesky bloggers who dare criticize their boss but look like playground bullies instead

Posted in Education, Governor's Office, House, Senate, Legislature, Legislators, Politicians, Retirement, Transparency on August 9, 2013| 7 Comments »

It looks as though they’re starting to get really thin-skinned on the fourth floor of the State Capitol.

First it was Timmy Teepell, the alter-ego for Gov. Bobby Jindal, who engaged Bob Mann in a Twitter war of words over the ice purchased for Hurricane Isaac. You will remember that the bottom line price for the ice was $28 per 10-pound bag after paying $7.1 million that included “loitering time” for truck drivers, ice purchases and restocking fees—and then allowing the ice to melt in an unrefrigerated storage building in St. Tammany Parish.

Now, Jindal’s assistant chief of staff Kyle Plotkin has weighed in with a few tweets of his own to Mann and his comments smack of juvenile playground retorts—not very dignified for someone who serves as Jindal’s public mouthpiece. Also not very mature for someone who has to know that any elected official, especially a governor, is going to be subjected to close scrutiny and criticism—by bloggers and voters. http://bobmannblog.com/2013/08/08/jindal-aide-to-bloggers-and-tweeters-shut-your-traps/#more-3038

“I knew that Gov. Bobby Jindal and his staff were intolerant of dissent,” Mann wrote in his introductory remarks. “Jindal has fired so many people who disagreed with him that we’ve all lost count.

“But until now, I assumed that the intolerance extended only to people who work for Jindal, not journalists and bloggers who critique Jindal’s leadership or policies. You know, citizens, who speak out in a democracy in a way that the Founders thought was essential for a strong democracy.

“But in Jindal’s world, dissent is not tolerated in any form. But at least they had the good sense to keep their intolerance of citizens’ commentary to themselves.

“Until Thursday night, that is.”

This time the exchange was over Mann’s repeated claim on his blog Something like the Truth that the administration, in its dogged pursuit of education “reform,” fails to take the state’s poverty rate into account when addressing school achievement.

“In every country, ever state, that has tried every possible reform, the achievement gap doesn’t close until poverty addressed,” Mann tweeted, followed by a quick “Oh yeah? So’s your old man” type retort by Plotkin.

“I’ve got an idea,” he fired back at Mann, “run 4 gov. Put ur ideas up 4 debate instead of just tweeting & complaining.”

Ouch. That’ll leave a mark. Did Plotkin somehow forget that Jindal’s approval ratings at the present time are in the 30-something percent range?

Mann, in an apparent effort to keep the exchange on a higher plane, responded, “You really think no one can legitimately criticize you without first running for office? Seriously?”

“If ur ideas are so great. (sic) Go try and change the world,” Plotkin sniffed back.

Referencing one of the worst episodes of any television series, Mann harkened back to the 1977 Happy Days episode in which Fonzie, in an effort to boost the show’s sinking ratings, jumped a shark while on water skis—thus giving birth to a term synonymous with acts of desperation. “You and your administration officially jumped the shark on that one,” he wrote.

At that point, education blogger Crazy Crawfish, who has gained a reputation for his research and documentation with his own blog about public education, chimed in with, “He’s got a point. Jindal and his disciples like Kyle Plotkin are changing the world. Just a shame it’s not for the better.”

Mann got in the last shots on his blog:

“Just contemplate what it means if that’s truly the opinion of (the) governor’s senior staff—that you shouldn’t speak out or criticize the governor unless you become a candidate for public office. Everyone else, keep quiet. The public sphere isn’t for mere citizens!!”

Mann said he feels his 14-year-old son’s tweets would be “more mature and more circumspect than Plotkin’s.

“And, unlike Plotkin, he also knows about the First Amendment,” he wrote.

It would be nice if these were the only examples of Jindal’s people putting their mouths in motion before putting their brains in gear. Or, in the vernacular of my late grandfather: letting one’s alligator mouth overload his jaybird backside.

Unfortunately, they appear not to be the exception, but a trend.

Back in early 2012, I had my own legitimacy called into question by the administration. When Jindal presented his Executive Budget to the legislature, Division of Administration (DOA) spokesman Michael Diresto was handing out copies of the budget to the media. When I stepped up to get one, he informed me they were only for members of the media who had offices in the press corps area of the Capitol.

I motioned to a reporter to whom he had just handed a copy and said, “He doesn’t have an office in the Capitol.”

“They’re for legitimate media only,” he said. “You’re not legitimate.”

Inasmuch as I was a “traditional” reporter for a quarter-century and I now cover state government for about a dozen newspapers statewide in addition to my blog, I was naturally curious as to what equated to legitimacy in his narrow view.

I eventually got a copy of the budget but only after appealing to then Commissioner of Administration Paul Rainwater.

And then there is retiring Congressman Rodney Alexander.

Alexander, whom Jindal offered the position of Secretary of the Louisiana Office of Veterans Affairs (he served six years in the U.S. Air Force Reserve) at $130,000 per year, apparently feels much the same way about the First Amendment.

Walter Abbott of Ruston has a blog called Lincoln Parish Online and on Thursday he alluded to an interview Alexander did with the Ouachita Citizen of West Monroe. In that interview, Alexander indicated he had a problem with social media and “non-traditional” news outlets such as blogs. http://lincolnparishnewsonline.wordpress.com/2013/08/08/alexander-unhappy-with-people-who-are-not-necessarily-in-the-news-business/

“The Facebook and all of that—people who are not necessarily in the news business—are driving what people do, and at times, that’s had a very negative impact on how the Congress operates.”

(Funny we didn’t hear him complain when Dan Rather was disgraced and forced into retirement by bloggers over that bogus Texas Air National Guard letter about George W. Bush.)

No, Congressman-cum-double dipper, bloggers aren’t the problem. Congress itself is the one dominating factor in the negative impact on how Congress operates. How dare you try to foist the inability of 535 lobbyist-purchased senators and representatives to accomplish squat onto a handful of bloggers. That’s a cop out and you know it.

Apparently, Alexander feels that the First Amendment is applicable only to those who are paid to write in traditional media, says blogger-attorney C.B. Forgotston of Hammond. “He blames the ills of our country on those of us who express our views in non-traditional ways,” C.B. wrote. “We caused Congress to be a do-nothing group. Yeah, right.

“If Alexander can’t take the heat of hearing from citizens of the United States, (it) isn’t going to be any more comfortable working on the state dole for Bobby Jindal. Yes, we have Internet in Louisiana,” Forgotston wrote.

“Rodney, if you are so concerned about the public outcry, perhaps you should refuse Jindal’s job offer and come back to Louisiana as a private citizen. You might find it educational to learn what it’s like to be a mere citizen and why we are upset with people like you who look down your nose at us.

“Meanwhile, get over yourself before you come back to our state.”

In his interview with the Ouachita Citizen, Alexander was less than candid about his future plans when asked. “Oh, I don’t know,” he said. “Something will come up.” http://www.ouachitacitizen.com/news.php?id=12879

That “something” already had come up. Jindal officially extended his offer of a job the day after his announcement that he would not seek re-election in 2014 but anyone who does not believe the fix was already in, has his head in the sand.

Here is the scenario:

Those in the employ of the state, including legislators, are eligible to retire at 2.5 percent of the average of their three highest-earning years times the number of years of service. An employee making an average of $50,000 for a minimum of three years who retires after 20 years, for example, would retire at $25,000 per year. ($50,000 X .025 X 20).

Alexander served in the legislature 15 years, from January 1988 to January 2003, at which time he entered Congress. While he took out his contributions to the state retirement system (LASERS), he would have the option of buying back his time when he begins his new job. The retirement benefits for legislators, based on salaries of less than $20,000 and his years of service would not be that much, but if he remains on the job for the duration of Jindal’s term (three-plus years) at $130,000, the numbers change rather dramatically.

Because of his age, if he chooses to buy back his time, his retirement would be at 3.5 percent of $15,000 (an arbitrary figure; it was probably less back then), times 15 years of service would come to $7,875 per year.

But take an average of $130,000 per year and add three more years to his tenure and his retirement income would take quite a jump. Suddenly, at 3.5 percent of $130,000 times 18 years, that retirement increases more than tenfold, to $81,900 per year—in addition to his federal retirement (based on his 10-year tenure and his final three-year average salary of $174,000), plus his Social Security benefits.

No wonder Alexander and the Jindal administration hold bloggers in such low esteem: we can do the math.

Perhaps those of you reading this would wish to email Plotkin at kyle.plotkin@la.gov

or call the governor’s office at 225-342-7015 to let them know that you can do the math, too—just for fun, of course.

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Never let anyone say Gov. Jindal isn’t green; no one is better at recycling old politicians into cushy retirement positions

Posted in ATC, Congress, Governor's Office, House, Senate, Legislature, Legislators, Politicians, State Agencies on August 8, 2013| 19 Comments »

BATON ROUGE (CNS)—Gov. Bobby Jindal is green and we can prove it.

He must have the welfare of the environment uppermost in his mind. He is all about recycling. The man was born to recycle. Just examine this list:

  • He recycled defeated State Rep. Jane Smith to Deputy Secretary of the Louisiana Department of Revenue at $107,500.
  • He recycled former State Rep. Kay Katz to the Louisiana Tax Commission ($56,000).
  • He recycled former St. Tammany Parish President and defeated lieutenant governor candidate Kevin Davis to Director of the Governor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness ($165,000).
  • He recycled former Slidell police chief and mayor Ben Morris into a position at GOHSEP (unknown salary).
  • He recycled former House members Rickey Hardy, Tank Powell and Mert Smiley and former Grant Parish Sheriff Leonard Hataway to the State Pardon Board ($36,000 each).
  • He recycled former State Rep. Noble Ellington to Deputy Commissioner of Insurance ($150,000).
  • He recycled defeated St. Barnard Parish President Craig Taffaro as the new Director of Hazard Mitigation and Recovery ($150,000).
  • He recycled term-limited State Rep. Troy Hebert as Director of the Alcohol and Tobacco Control Board ($107,000).
  • He recycled former State Sen. Nick Gautreaux to Commissioner of the Office of Motor Vehicles (no salary available, but it doesn’t matter; he was forced out after a few months).
  • He has recycled former executive counselors Tim Barfield and Jimmy Fairchild more times than we can count and Commissioner of Administration Kristy Nichols has been recycled a few times in her own right.
  • He recycled former State Rep. Lane Carson to Secretary of the Louisiana Department of Veterans Affairs ($130,000).
  • And now that Carson is retiring after four years on the job, we get word that Jindal is recycling Congressman Rodney Alexander to fill Carson’s post.

No sooner did Alexander announce on Wednesday that he was retiring from Congress because of his stated dissatisfaction with partisan gridlock than Jindal made the offer.

Major League Baseball’s managerial revolving door has nothing on Jindal when it comes to running the same tired old names through the system, allowing them to fatten their retirements even as Jindal is laying off state employees who need their jobs—and who actually perform work as opposed to these appointees who only occupy a desk and suck on the public teat.

It just seems to us that there are others out there who are equally—or more—qualified for these positions and it gets more disgusting with each appointment of the same fat cats to these six-figure jobs.

Of course, we know the underlying reason for recycling all these washed-up legislators: it’s to bump up their retirement benefits—at the expense of you, the taxpayer.

You see, legislators don’t really make that much in outright salary, so their retirement benefits aren’t that much—unless they can secure a six-figure job and remain in it for three years. Retirement is computed at 2.5 percent of one’s highest three years of average earnings times the number of years of service. Thus, 2.5 percent of $130,000 is considerably more than 2.5 percent of $16,000 or so.

Now with Alexander, it’s different: he already has a federal pension from his tenure as a congressman. But now, even though he cashed in his legislative retirement from his days in the legislature, he can buy all that time back and draw a state pension based on his $130,000 salary for the final three years of Jindal’s administration.

Nice gig if you happen to have the stroke to get it and of course there’s nothing like being governor and having the power to screw the taxpayers while running around preaching fiscal responsibility and laying off state workers.

Granted, we are a bit jaded and cynical from covering this administration, but if someone can convince me that fix wasn’t already in on this retirement/appointment, we’re willing to listen.

We can’t help but wonder what Alexander’s duties will entail, duties that someone else was not qualified to perform—especially since Jindal already gave out all those veterans’ medals before his 2011 re-election.

Thanks, Bobby and thanks, Rodney, for all that “good, ethical government.”

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One NGO recipient run by senator’s husband; another holds millions in state contracts, to run LSUMC on blank contract

Posted in Budget, Campaign Contributions, Contract, Contracts, Governor's Office, Grant, Grants, House, Senate, Legislature, Legislators, Politicians, Public Records, Transparency on August 2, 2013| 11 Comments »

BATON ROUGE (CNS)—Before we leave the Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) funding controversy (for now; we can always return to it when events warrant), we thought we’d review a few of the more interesting NGO funding requests that came before the Louisiana Legislature this year.

We interrupt this story for a tip of the hat to our friend C.B. Forgotston who provided us with some background information on one of the 36 organizations that State Treasurer John Kennedy said earlier this week were a tad negligent in providing an accounting of how their NGO funding from the state was spent.

Forgotston pointed out that one of those, The Colomb Foundation in Lafayette, is being asked to account for $300,000 of $361,000 in funding it received.

All non-profits are required by law to file Non-Profits 990 Reports with the IRS each year. These reports are public record but search of Non-Profits 990 Reports by Forgotston produced no results under the name The Colomb Foundation, Inc.

Oops.

The foundation’s registered agent is Sterling Colomb, according to the Louisiana Secretary of State’s office.

Sterling Colomb is married to Yvonne Dorsey-Colomb.

Yvonne Dorsey-Colomb is a state senator from Baton Rouge.

Oops again.

Connect the dots and follow the money, folks.

Thanks, C.B.

We return you now to our regular story.

Altogether, about 100 applications were received from the same NGOs which submit their paperwork each year in hopes of receiving funding from the state.

In the past, it’s been pretty much a routine procedure to ask for—and receive—funds from the state. It is, after all, a scheme strikingly similar to vote buying, only more respectable, we suppose. Who could vote against a legislator who brought home funding for the local Council on Aging or for a community activity center or a kids’ baseball park?

That was then when the state had money. There was little to no oversight provided on the disposition of these funds. Give ‘em the money and remind them who to vote for next election.

But this is now when funding is hard to come by and when the governor is pulling money from higher education, health care and developmentally disabled programs and using one-time money to plug budget holes.

Still the applications came in from those councils on aging, local civic clubs, arts museums, the YMCAs and substance abuse centers.

Even the Treme Community Education Program, Inc. which was on that list of 36 organizations that State Treasurer John Kennedy is asking to provide an accounting for the use of past funding—or pay the state back—submitted a request.

In the case of Treme Community Education Program, it is being asked to account for the expenditure of $425,000 but that didn’t prevent the organization from submitting a request this year for $475,000 “to provide transportation for senior citizens to all offsite field trips; wholesome nutritious means, and organized physical, academic and social activities specifically for their age group.”

Small potatoes. Check out some of the other requests, some of which were approved in House Bill 1, the state’s general appropriations bill signed into law by Gov. Bobby Jindal as Act 13. First, those that received funding:

  • $1 million for the 2013 NCAA Women’s Final Four Basketball Tournament Host Committee;
  • $544,020 for the Greater New Orleans Sports Foundation;
  • $280,577 for the New Orleans Bowl;
  • $151,140 for Healing Hearts for Community Development in Metairie;
  • $400,000 for the Avondale Booster Club.

Here are some of the other requests:

  • New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival and Foundation (Jazz Fest): $2,470,586;
  • State Fair of Louisiana (Shreveport): $12,664,960;
  • 2014 NBA All-Star Host Committee; $3,250,000;
  • Teach for America: $5 million (at least $1 million of that request was approved by the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education). TFA, in addition to the money received from the state outright, also receives $3,000 per teacher placed from local school districts that hire TFA teachers. The local school districts must also pay the salaries of the TFA teachers.
  • Biomedical Research Foundation of Northwest Louisiana: $6.53 million (approved for $4.8 million in Priority 2, or second year funding).

This is the same Biomedical Research Foundation of Northwest Louisiana that was recently awarded a blank contract by the LSU Board of Stuporvisors to assume administrative and operational control of the LSU Medical Center in Shreveport and E.A. Conway Medical Center in Monroe.

This is the same Biomedical Research Foundation whose President and CEO, Dr. John F. George, Jr., is a member of the LSU Board of Stuporvisors—the same public agency that somehow skirted all existing conflict of interest laws to award that blank contract to an organization run by one of its board members.

That’s the same John F. George, Jr., M.D., who made two campaign contributions of $5,000 each to Jindal.

That’s the same Biomedical Research Foundation whose board members, including John F. George, Jr., M.D., combined to contribute $31,000 to various Jindal campaigns. Besides George, those board members and the amounts contributed include:

  • Roy L. Griggs of Griggs Enterprise: $5,000;
  • Thomas Pressly, III, M.D.: $3,500;
  • John F. Sharp, past President/CEO: $2,500;
  • Craig Spohn of the Cyber Innovation Center: $10,000.

Oh, and this is the same Biomedical Research Center of Northwest Louisiana that currently has five active contracts with the state, excluding that blank contract with LSU, totaling $26.2 million. These include:

  • $14 million “for capital improvements for the wet-lab business incubators.”
  • $995,966 “to facilitate economic development by developing infrastructure need to provide technology transfer assistance to the university systems of Louisiana and to help commercialize technologies through the operations of a wet lab facility.”
  • $8.75 million for research equipment.
  • $1.9 million for “scanner acquisition for the positron emission tomography imaging center.”
  • $563,700 the “provide PET and PET/CT scans for patients who are financially and medically indigent.”

Going back a few years, the Biomedical Research Foundation of Northwest Louisiana, which will henceforth operate the LSU Medical Center in Shreveport and the E.A. Conway Medical Center in Monroe with a blank contract, also had eight contracts (now expired) totaling another $14.1 million.

So it only makes sense that the foundation would be seeking an additional $6.53 million in NGO funding for “acquisitions.”

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NGO appropriations only symptomatic of real problem: inexcusable indifference of elected officials, appointees

Posted in Contract, Contracts, Governor's Office, Grant, Grants, House, Senate, Legislature, Legislators, Politicians, Transparency on August 1, 2013| 6 Comments »

When last we left State Treasurer John Kennedy, he was announcing that 36 Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) have until Aug. 31 to fulfill their reporting requirements under terms of more than $4.45 million in grants they received from the state or be turned over to the Office of Debt Recovery.

We wish him well in this endeavor. His efforts are certainly fiscally responsible.

LouisianaVoice took a little closer look at some of those 36 recipients and made several interesting discoveries:

  • Of the 36, only 15, or 41.7 percent were still listed as organizations in good standing with the Secretary of State’s office as required for qualification for the grants. Those 15 combined to receive $2,265,000, or 50.9 percent of the total amount received;
  • Nine ($1.1 million) were listed as no longer in good standing with the Secretary of State and nine others ($450,000) were listed as inactive.
  • Three ($645,000) were never listed with the Secretary of State as required.

Even more interesting was the discovery that five of the organizations with combined grants of $1,955,000 have seven active contracts with the state in amounts totaling more than twice that amount—nearly $4.4 million, according to figures provided by Louisiana Transparency and Accountability (LaTrac), a master online list of state contracts.

And while each of the contracts has a different starting date, each runs through April 4, 2049, according to LaTrac records. No reason was given for contracts of such long duration but LouisianaVoice has submitted a public records request for copies of the contracts and explanations of the scope of work to be performed under the contracts.

While no years were given for when any of the organizations received their respective state grants, the most interesting entity on that list was Rapides Primary Health Care Center in Alexandria which Kennedy has asked to provide an accounting for the $550,000 in NGO money it received from the state.

At the same time, Rapides Primary Health Care Center has two contracts with the state totaling $1,525,000.

The first, for $1,025,000 (issued on Jan. 19, 1996), calls for the construction of a health care center building and the second, for $500,000 (issued on March 2, 2007), is for emergency roof and equipment replacement and building repairs, planning and construction.

There are others.

  • The Colomb Foundation of Lafayette has a $369,875 contract that began in 2008 with the state for the completion of building and grounds improvements but is being asked to account for a $300,000 state grant.
  • The Treme Community Education Center in New Orleans has two contracts totaling $2,110,000 for program operations, planning and construction (1.45 million) and for planning and construction of Leverette Senior House ($660,000). Both contracts were issued in 2001. At the same time, Treme Community Education Center is being asked to account for the disposition of $325,000 in received from the state.
  • Serenity 67 of Baton Rouge has a $225,000 contract issued in 2003 for the acquisition, planning, construction and renovation of a multi-purpose center. The organization has been asked to explain how it used a $150,000 grant.
  • Community Awareness Revitalization and Enhancement of New Orleans is listed as one of the nine inactive organizations by the Secretary of State. The organization’s last report was filed with the Secretary of State on Nov. 12, 2010 and it has not accounted for the manner in which a $130,000 grant was used. Yet, it has an active contract with the state in the amount of $150,000 for the planning and construction of the Claiborne Avenue Walking and Bike Path.

Besides its current contracts, Rapides Primary Health Care Center also had seven other contracts with the state totaling $535,800 which expired between the years 2004 and 2009.

The largest of the seven, for $325,000, a contract issued on July 16, 2006 and ending on June 30, 2007, was for equipment and other items to provide primary and preventive health care services in the medically-underserved area of Rapides Parish.

Another contract for $90,000, which ran from April 1, 2004 to March 16, 2005, was issued to provide family planning services to individuals and families in Rapides and a third, for $82,000, ran from Oct. 1, 2004 to Sept. 30, 2007, called for the facility to provide Women, Infants and Children (WIC) food and nutrition services for Rapides Parish.

But there is a lot more to this story than 36 non-profit organizations crowding around the public trough. It’s about accountability and playing fast and loose with the public’s money. A lot of people have a lot of questions to answer and we’re willing to wager not a single member of the legislature—or any state agency head, for that matter—can tell us to what purpose these funds were used—or by whom.

The amount—$4.5 million—is rather miniscule in the overall scheme of things, in a state budget running into the billions where contracts for hundreds of millions of dollars are funneled to political allies and former employers with little thought of the cumulative costs to taxpayers. The lack of accountability is symptomatic of a much larger problem—a complete loss of public confidence in the ability—or willingness—of Baton Rouge to keep the interest of the citizenry uppermost in mind.

The state may get some of these funds back but in all likelihood won’t come close to recovering all of it. Even if it does recover every dime, there are literally hundreds upon hundreds of state contracts where there is little to no oversight. The public funds that are sucked up in these contracts dwarf any amount these 36 non-governmental organizations may have received in public largesse.https://louisianavoice.com/category/orm-office-of-risk-management/page/3/

https://louisianavoice.com/2011/05/20/rainwater-thompson-what-did-you-know-and-when-did-you-know-it/

https://louisianavoice.com/2011/12/12/doa-apparently-allowed-several-major-violations-of-contract-through-poor-oversight-management-of-orm-privatization/

No, the NGOs are not the real problem here.

The problem is the GOs.

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