Louisiana Voice

The March fundraiser for LouisianaVoice continues and your help is both needed and appreciated.

We’re working on some pretty intriguing stories at LouisianaVoice, one of which is about campaign contributions by special interests for this year’s elections of statewide officials and legislators.

Like any reporting enterprise, sometimes we run into dead-ends (non-stories) and sometimes we break really significant stories, stories that other news organizations either ignored completely or literally took years to jump on board, like:

• The series of Louisiana State Police stories under the administration of former Superintendent Mike Edmonson;
• The story about Superintendent of Education John White’s plotting in an email to “take some air out of the room” during misleading testimony before a legislative committee, a story that a north Louisiana daily newspaper tried (incorrectly) to take credit for breaking;
• About White’s plans to provide personal student data to a company controlled by RUPERT MURDOCH;
• Our series of stories about widespread abuses by the Louisiana Board of Dentistry and the Louisiana State Board of Medical Examiners;
• Several stories about campaign contributions from special interests and how those contributions take precedent over what’s best for the people of Louisiana;
• Stories about how campaign funds are misused for personal purposes like paying personal income taxes, purchasing season tickets to Saints, Pelicans and LSU games;
• Abuses of power by certain sheriffs in Louisiana, notably Terrebonne Parish’s Jerry Larpenter and Iberia Parish’s Louis Ackal;
• Critical investigative audits of state and local agencies that negatively impact the manner in which our hard-earned taxpayer dollars are misused, misappropriated, and at times, embezzled
• The Jindal administration’s attempt at steamrolling a state agency head because he wouldn’t compromise state regulations for a major Jindal campaign contributor;
• How major Jindal contributors appeared to have “bought” positions on powerful state boards and commissions.

I’m told that some legislators make faces and utter profanities at the mere mention of my name.

Thank you.

There are also countless stories that you will never know about because, well, they turned out to be dead-ends. But we nevertheless were forced to spend considerable time chasing down those blind leads and those efforts took time—and money.

That’s why LouisianaVoice needs your help. If you appreciate these stories, please do what you can to support our efforts.

I even invite those of you who disagreed with or were offended by certain stories. That’s certain to happen because no two people think alike on every single issue. There were be differences of opinion but I would hope my readers are open-minded enough to understand that what I do with LouisianaVoice, I do in the interest of transparency and accountability. If those two factors are removed from reporting, then democracy and freedom die. So, even if you take umbrage at what I write, I have at least laid the issue on the table for consideration and discussion.

So please. Do what you can by clicking on the yellow DONATE button in the upper part of the column to the right of this post or mail your check to:

LouisianaVoice

P.O. Box 922

Denham Springs, Louisiana 70727

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Louisiana State Government has enough boards to construct a fair-sized house.

The state has an eye-popping 477 boards and commissions, according to the Louisiana Legislative Auditor’s ANNUAL REPORT to the Legislature released last month.

That compares to 287 for Arkansas and 217 for Mississippi. Texas, meanwhile, manages to get by on just 89.

But then, Texas probably does not have a need for an Alligator Advisory Council since that state apparently doesn’t have as many alligators in need of advice.

And it’s questionable as to the real need of a Boll Weevil Eradication Commission, since they’ve been eradicated for some time now.

There well may be a need for the Boxing and Wrestling Commission, however—especially during Louisiana’s often contentious legislative sessions.

But one has to question the effectiveness of the Child Poverty Prevention Council, given the fact Louisiana has one of the highest childhood poverty rates in the nation.

Then there’s the Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) Advisory Board (and there’re certain places where board members DARE not enter).

But just to cover all the bases, we also have the Drug and Device Distributors Board, The Drug Control and Violent Crime Board, and the Drug Policy Board.

And Louisiana still has a huge drug problem, due in part perhaps to the report on the Louisiana Board of Pharmacy which noted that in 2016, there were 14,628 hydrocodone and oxycodone prescriptions missing from the Prescription Monitoring Program database.

There’s the Emergency Medical Services for Children Advisory Council, the Emergency Medical Services Certification Commission, the Emergency Response Commission, and the Emergency Response Network Board.

And I’m not even going to talk about the Crab Task Force.

I could go on, but in case you didn’t notice, I never even got out of the E’s on the list of boards.

For fiscal year 2018, the myriad boards collectively reported $1.3 million paid in board member per diems, $1.7 million for member salaries and $2.1 million for member travel expenses.

The number of boards and commissions, however, is just one area of concern covered in the 44-page report.

• The LSU System did not have adequate controls in place over the preparation of its financial statements, resulting in errors of its 2017 financial report;
• LSU Health Sciences Center (HSC) in Shreveport did not have adequate controls in place over federal, state and private grants and contracts to pursue collection of funds owed to it. The center reported $2 million in uncollected money from 2005 to 2017.
• For the third consecutive year, the HSC Division (HSCD) and LSU did not have a final, signed agreement for all equipment used by the partner managing the University Medical Center New Orleans. Even though a lease agreement requires supplies and other items purchased by the State to be reimbursed by the private partner, repayment of $8.4 million remains outstanding (this is just one of the results of the Jindal privatization of state hospitals). Additionally, HSCD did not even attempt to collect a $163,544 debt from a contractor and HSCD has still been unable to locate movable property totaling more than $1.6 million associated with Earl K. Long Medical Center.
• The Office of Juvenile Justice (OJJ) failed to maintain adequate control over its movable property, resulting in unlocated property and the incorrect reporting of an asset valued at $2 billion when the actual cost was $20,664.
• Five state agencies oversee 78 tax incentives that resulted in the loss of approximately $1.1 billion in revenue in fiscal year 2017. Moreover, auditors found that 25 of the 78 tax incentive reports submitted to the Legislature by March 1, 2018, did not include information on whether the state received a positive return on its investment.
• The Governor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness (GOHSEP) Public Assistance Programs had $149.6 million in federal reimbursement requests that were not supported by sufficient documentation.
• Louisiana spent about $5 million on lawsuits involving sexual harassment claims since 2009. State agencies do not have consistent processes in place to conduct reference checks of prospective employees and state law does not mandate training for employees on ways to identify, report and investigate sexual harassment.
• The Louisiana Department of Health (LDH) did not deposit about $2.8 million into the Medicaid Fraud Fund in accordance with state law. LDH spent $477,000 from the fund in 2017 for salaries that did not appear to contribute to the prevention and detection of Medicaid fraud and abuse and the agency spent $643,000 from the fund in fiscal 2012 for software that was useless because of system compatibility issues.

Additionally, the Legislative Auditor’s office conducted 4,173 audits of local governmental services during 2018, most of those by private auditing firms under contract. “During the 2018 calendar year, local auditee reports contained hundreds of findings related to deficiencies in operations, controls, and compliance with laws and regulations,” the report says. These findings included:

• Misappropriations and ethics violations;
• Noncompliance with federal regulations in local governments’ administration of federal programs;
• Noncompliance with bond covenants or loan agreements;
• Noncompliance with state laws covering public bids, open meetings, untimely deposits, and late filings of financial statements;
• Reconciliation of bank accounts;
• Errors in accounting records;
• Deficit fund balances.

And yet, precious little is ever heard from these reports. Oh, there is the occasional indictment, accompanied by a glowing, self-congratulatory press release from Attorney General Jeff Landry, but on the whole, zilch.

To paraphrase the quote mistakenly attributed to the late Illinois Senator EVERETT DIRKSEN: A million here and a million there and pretty soon you’re talking about real money.

Maybe the state needs to appoint another board or commission to study the problem of legislative apathy and inaction.

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Folks, I’m not going to promise you health, eternal life, or wealth like one-time TV preacher/huckster Rev. BOB TILTON who once sent me a plastic bag with a few grains of sand “from the mountain where I am going to go to pray for you,” (question: if he was “going to go” there, the implication being he hasn’t been yet, how’d he get the sand beforehand?) but I can promise you that I will continue to do my level best to expose political hucksterism when and where I find it if you help support the efforts of LouisianaVoice with your contributions.

I don’t aspire to prey on people’s emotions like JOEL OSTEEN who peddles happiness and self-image in order to induce you to empty your wallet. Nor do I need your donations to help me purchase a $17.5 million jet like KENNETH COPELAND. That’s just not my style.

My style is to rely on the Biblical tenet of comforting the afflicted (Louisiana taxpayers) and afflicting the comfortable (elected and appointed officials who are trying to stick it to the rest of us).

I am currently working with my attorney in setting LouisianaVoice up as a 501(3)(c) non-profit so that your future contributions will be tax deductible. But for now, they ain’t.

Nevertheless, I humbly ask that you help in whatever manner you can, either by clicking on the yellow DONATE button to the right and paying by credit card or by mailing your check to:

LouisianaVoice

P.O. Box 922

Denham Springs, Louisiana 70727

As always, thanks so much for your support.

Tom

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The last (and only) Mardi Gras I attended was on Canal Street in 1964. That was quite enough for this north Louisiana country boy not quite yet 21 at the time.

As has become my custom since moving to the Baton Rouge area first in 1973 when I first learned that Mardi Gras was a state holiday, and upon my return in 1981, I will be spending the day in the warm comfort of my home while others partake in the insanity and revelry. I only watch the Denham Springs Mardi Gras parade because it rolls right by my house and I have only to walk 50 feet in order to catch beads that will ultimately find their way into the garbage.

It’s not that I’m a wet blanket (well, maybe I am), but I’ll be working on what I’ve done for the past nine years now: keeping you informed about the miscreants we entrust our state, our parishes and our municipalities to.

There are backroom deals to ferret out, campaign contributions that influence the way our legislators vote, decisions our judges and district attorneys make, audit reports, stories of the minority of law enforcement officials who abuse their authority, and board and commissions that become power mad to the detriment of those whom they regulate.

Chasing down these stories, of course, takes time….and expenses. Purchasing copies of records and legal fees for filing lawsuits when records are not forthcoming, along with the normal daily expenses of travel from one end of this state to the other takes money.

That’s why I approach my readers twice a year for contributions. I skipped last October’s fundraiser but now there is an even more pressing need: I am incurring considerable legal expense in setting LouisianaVoice up as a 501 (3)(c) non-profit. I’m doing that so that the next time I come calling, hat in hand, your contributions will be tax deductible, providing, of course, Mr. Trump and his Republican lap dogs don’t decide to take that deduction away as part of their tax “reform.”

But for now, I need your generosity to come through in order to continue to support the work done by LouisianaVoice. As I said last Friday, you’re not going to agree with everything I write and I hope that you can understand that.

Please click on the yellow “DONATE” button to the right or mail your check to:

LouisianaVoice

P.O. Box 922

Denham Springs, Louisiana 70727

As always, thank you for your support these nine years.

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It’s that time again.

After forgoing the October fundraiser, I am again doing the most unpleasant chore of maintaining LouisianaVoice: asking for your financial support.

In October, when I felt my diminished eyesight would not allow me to continue at the same pace as before, I opted not to ask for contributions. But since additional consultation indicated the rate of eyesight loss is not as great as originally feared, I’ve returned to the fray and I again am humbly asking for your support.

In fact, I am in the process of obtaining a nonprofit status for LouisianaVoice, which would mean that your future contributions would be tax deductible. In the meantime, however, I have incurred significant legal fees in efforts to set up the 501(3)(C) nonprofit, so in addition to my normal operating expenses of travel, purchasing records for researching stories, normal legal fees, and paying for the internet domain to support LouisianaVoice, I now have that major one-time added expense.

I know some of you don’t agree with some of the things I’ve written. That’s to be expected. No two persons are going to always agree on every subject. But on balance, I believe I have appealed to a lot of readers by exposing official wrongdoing on many levels of government—from the misappropriation of funds, to the misuse of official positions, to outright illegal activity. That, after all, is the underlying basis for the existence of LouisianaVoice.

Investigative journalism has taken a major hit among newspapers both nationally and locally and that’s a significant loss. I have attempted to fill that void when and where I can. I have not always made everyone happy, but I have always attempted to be even-handed and fair.

I’ve written critical stories about our former governor and several of his appointees, as well as other state and local officials. I’ve shown how boards and commissions misuse their powers at the expense of those they regulate through questionable methods of control. I strongly support law enforcement but when I find wrongdoing, whether by state police, a local sheriff, or a municipal officer, I try to expose it. I’ve shown on many occasions how campaign contributions influence the votes of our legislators. It doesn’t matter if the subject is Republican or Democrat—if I find them to be abusing their positions of trust, I do my very best to inform the public.

I’m not perfect nor will I ever be. But I try to give a voice to the average citizen who has become a rather insignificant bit player in a drama dominated by armies of lobbyists, buckets of cash and indifferent elected officials.

If you share my sense of frustration at the manner in which the powerful interests have shoved the rest of us aside, I ask that you contribute what you feel you can afford. You may do so in one of two ways: You can click on the yellow DONATE button at the upper right and pay by credit card or you may send checks to:

LouisianaVoice

P.O. Box 922

Denham Springs, Louisiana 70627

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