Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Archive for the ‘State Agencies’ Category

Former OGB employee critical of BCBS contract with OGB: Legislative committees to consider proposal on Thursday

Posted in Civil Service, Contract, Contracts, Governor's Office, Health Care, Jobs, Layoffs, Legislature, Legislators, OGB, Office of Group Benefits, Privatization, State Agencies, Teague on October 31, 2012| 2 Comments »

Editor’s note: LouisianaVoice would like to acknowledge and thank Kay Prince of Ruston for contributing much of the research that went into this article. She has worked tirelessly with former Sen. Butch Gautreaux on this issue and was gracious enough to share this information with us for our use.

A former employee of the Louisiana Office of Group Benefits OGB) has taken issue with several points in the proposed contract between the Division of Administration (DOA) and Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Louisiana (BCBS) that calls for BCBS to take over the operations of OGB’s Preferred Provider Organization (PPO) plan as the plan’s third party administrator (TPA) in January.

The former employee, who is now retired, examined the contract which is scheduled for consideration by a special joint meeting of the House Appropriations and Senate Finance committees on Thursday, Nov. 1 and found several areas in which he said the state will be getting a bad deal if the contract is approved.

Gov. Piyush Jindal has pushing for the transition for nearly two years now in what he insists will be a cost-cutting measure but which will result in the loss of 177 positions at OGB and 111 actual jobs. The other 66 positions are currently vacant.

One of the things the former employees warns about is an obscure clause on page 8 the contract which says the maximum amount to be paid BCBS shall not exceed $1.1 billion for any one year “unless the director of the Office of Contractual Review approves a contract amendment.” (emphasis ours.)

That is an important provision considering what happened with the privatization of the Office of Risk Management (ORM) in September of 2010. Under terms of that contract, the state was to pay F.A. Richard and Associates (FARA) of Mandeville $68 million to be the TPA for ORM but only a few months into its contract, FARA asked for and received a $6.8 million amendment to its contract, increasing the over contract cost to just under $75 million.

Legislators were upset to learn that the amendment was legal because the law allows a one-time contract amendment of up to 10 percent with only the approval of Contractual Review. The FARA contract amendment was exactly 10 percent and legislators had no say in the matter.

The Jindal administration claims that allowing BCBS to become the TPA for OGB will save the state $20 per year. But if BCBS should seek a similar 10 percent increase in its contract, the $110 million in additional contract costs would wipe out any savings.

Administration projects of OGB’s spending 100 percent of budgeted amounts in several areas whereas the agency historically has spent between 65 and 80 percent of budgeted amounts on administrative costs. “This inflates the projected savings by approximately 20-35 percent,” the retired OGB official said.

Projected savings on building rental may also be overstated, he said, because OGB is locked into a 10year lease for its Baton Rouge office space. The cost of that lease is $100,000 per month and will not be reduced unless OGB can renegotiate its lease.

He said it was misleading to compare Louisiana to other states. First, the only other state that self-administers its health benefits program is Utah which has a smaller population. “You cannot compare staffing patterns for completely different ways of doing business” as the administration did with Florida and Mississippi, for example. “You need to compare total administrative costs for the other states, not just (the) number of employees,” he said.

But of even more importance, he said, is the misconception that it was a sound move to reduce premiums by 7 percent last July.

“The program operated at a small deficit for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2010 (before the premium rate reduction) and is almost guaranteed a significant loss for Fiscal Year 2013 with the 7 percent reduction in premium that was approved by the Division of Administration,” he said.

“The only reason that premiums could be reduced was the fact that the program had a significant surplus. For the current fiscal year the program will be operating on its surplus for significant portion of the current year’s operating expenses…but this cannot go on forever.

“It is another example of using one-time funds to pay for continuing operations of the state. Once the surplus is exhausted, rates will need to be increased significantly to cover continuing operations,” he said.

State health insurance programs have varied over the years and remained pretty much in a state of flux until the administration of OGB CEO Tommy Teague, who was fired on April 15, 2011. It took a major political scandal involving a top state administrator and underworld boss Carlos Marcello to pull the state’s health and life insurance programs out of the doldrums.

OGB itself is relative new as a state agency, having been created on Sept. 1, 1979, as a result of the FBI’s Brilab sting operation which resulted in Commissioner of Administration Charles Roemer’s conviction of conspiracy to violate federal racketeering laws over accusations that he and Marcello took part in a scheme to win a multi-million dollar state group insurance contract through bribery.

Roemer served 15 months of a three-year prison term before his conviction was overturned.

Prior to July 1, 1970, each state agency was responsible for procuring its own insurance contract for its employees. This created a multitude of problems since each contract had different dates, coverage, premiums, etc. Plus, when an employee transferred from one agency to another, it forced the employee to switch coverage which resulted in considerable confusion and in some cases, loss of coverage because of different waiting periods among the various contracts.

The Uniform Insurance Act was passed and went into effect on July 1, 1970 and all Executive Branch agencies were brought under one consolidated health/life insurance contract, which was awarded to Blue Cross for health and Pan American Life for life insurance.

In 1973, when Blue Cross proposed a significant rate increase, the contracts with both Blue Cross and Pan American were terminated and the state’s health and life insurance programs became self-funded by the state. Continental Assurance (CNA) was retained as the TPA to handle claim payment functions, an arrangement that remained in effect for the remainder of the seventies.

It was during this time that the FBI began its sting operation after learning of alleged bribes and the legislature subsequently passed Act 749 of the 1979 regular session which created OGB and placed it under the State Treasurer’s office.

On May 1, 1981, the CNA contract was terminated and all employees who were working for CNA were offered an opportunity to become Civil Service employees, effective May 1. The agency operated under this arrangement until 1998 when the legislature was forced to make a supplemental appropriation of $77 million to cover an unfunded accrued liability (UAL) in the program because the OGB trustees had failed to increase rates to keep up with the program’s claims experience.

The program continued to operate with an UAL until the mid-2000s at which time it began generating a surplus each year through FY 2011, going from a $105 million deficit to its current $500 million surplus in about five years.

Here are the links to the committee memberships:

http://house.louisiana.gov/H_Cmtes/H_Cmte_AP.asp
http://senate.legis.louisiana.gov/Finance/Assignments.asp

Read Full Post »

100 pay increases approved for state’s top earners following Gov. π-yush 2010 pay freeze order; hiring freeze also ignored

Posted in Attorney General, Budget, Civil Service, Commissions, Economy, Education, Exemptions, Incentives, Governor's Office, Higher Education, Jobs, LSU, ORM, Office of Risk Management, Public Records, RSD, State Agencies, Transparency on October 22, 2012| 10 Comments »

Editor’s note: The information contained in this story was received via printouts from the Louisiana Department of Civil Service of those earning $100,000 or more for the years 2009 through 2012. Each year was listed separately. Accordingly, when the name of Patti Gonzalez of the Office of Risk Management did not appear until the 2012 printout, the indication was she had received a pay increase. This was not the case and there was no explanation as to why she did not appear in prior years but Ms. Gonzalez says she has not received an increase since March of 2010.

Likewise, no state elected officials received pay increases as their salaries are set in statute. Civil Service printouts did indicate pay increases for all but two statewide elected officials but this apparently was in error.

Rank and file state civil service employees have gone without pay increases, merit or otherwise, since 2009 but at least 104 managers, directors, supervisors and five statewide elected officials already making in excess of $100,000 a year have received increases over the past three years.

Not included in the tabulation were doctors, nurses, pharmacists, higher education professors or, with one exception, those who were promoted from one job to another and got raises.

Altogether, more than 3,200 state employees earning more than $100,000 per year accounted for an annual payroll of approximately $432 million—an average of about $135,000 each.

The average pay of a state civil service employee is approximately $39,600.

In most cases—but not all—the pay increases were 4 percent increases. A 4 percent increase for one making $100,000 would be $4,000. That would fund four such increases for workers earning only $25,000 a year.

There were those, however, who did better. Much better.

Michael Diresto went from $103,792 in 2011 to $118,792 this year, a $15,000 (14.5 percent) bump. He was listed by the Department of Civil Service as a “director” in the Division of Administration (DOA) for both years. On the DOA web page, he is identified as an assistant commissioner for policy and communications.

Bruce Unangst, executive director of the Real Estate Commission, also saw his annual salary balloon from $109,000 in 2011 to $125,000 this year, a 14.7 percent increase.

In the governor’s office itself, Executive Counsel Elizabeth Murrill did extremely well for herself. Her 2011 salary of $110,000 grew to $165,000 this year—before her transfer to DOA where presumably, it will remain the same. Her one-year pay hike was a whopping 50 percent, according to Civil Service records.

In the Department of Insurance, 14 employees earning $100,000 or more received 4 percent increases from 2011 to 2012 while four others, including an attorney supervisor, did not. Insurance Commissioner James Donelon this year also hired former state legislator Noble Ellington, who had no experience in insurance, as deputy commissioner at a salary of $149,900.

Five of 14 employees of the Port of New Orleans Port Commission who earn $100,000 or more were awarded pay raises ranging from 5.5 percent to 7.5 percent.

At the Department of Health and Hospitals (DHH), several employees received pay increases from 2011 to 2012 despite the pay freeze. They included Executive Director Robert Marier, who went from $196,102 to $205,899 (5 percent); Associate Director Cecilia Mouton, from $185,640 to $194m916 (5.1 percent); Executive Director John Liggio, from $119,044 to $125,068 (5 percent), and Executive Director Lisa Schilling, from $107,702 to $134,638 (25 percent).

None of the four changed job classifications, according to the Civil Service report. One who did change classifications got a 14.8 percent increase, a lower percentage than Schilling. Courtney Phillips was promoted from a Medicaid Program Manager 4 at $102,814 per year to Chief of Staff at $118,019.

One other executive director, six DHH attorneys, a deputy director, a deputy secretary, a budget administrator, an economist and a program director received no salary increases from 2011 to 2012.

Debra Schum, listed as an executive officer in the Department of Education (DOE), got a 20 percent pay raise, from $110,000 in 2011 to $132,000 this year while Kerry Lester, also an executive officer with DOE, got a $5,000 increase, from $150,000 to $155,000 during the same time frame.

But what is particularly interesting about the DOE payroll is the seemingly inordinate number of new hires of people at six-figure salaries, especially in the Recovery School District.

State Superintendent of Education John White has brought in no fewer than 10 new employees at salaries in excess of $100,000 this year alone—and that’s not even counting Deirdre Finn, a part time contract employee who will be paid $144,000 a year to work as communications manager for the department—from her home in Florida.

The idea of hiring a commuting employee, apparently borrowed from DHH and Carol Steckel, who is being paid $148,500 a year as a “confidential assistant” to DHH Secretary Bruce Greenstein to commute back and forth from her home in Alabama, seems to be catching on.

David “Lefty” Lefkowith is being paid $146,000 to commute back and forth from Los Angeles to work at DOE as a “director,” according to Civil Service records. He describes himself in a DOE video, however, as a “deputy superintendent.”

Other new, six-figure employees added by DOE this year include:

• Gary Jones, Executive Officer, $145,000;

• Melissa Stilley, Liaison Officer, $135,000;

• Michael Rounds, Deputy Superintendent, $170,000;

• Hannah Dietsch, Assistant Superintendent, $130,000;

• Francis Touchet, Liaison Officer, $130,000;

• Stephen Osborn, Assistant Superintendent, $125,000;

• Sandy Michelet, Executive Director, $120,000;

• Kenneth Bradford, Director, $110,000;

• Heather Cope, Executive Director of the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, $125,000.

For the Recovery School District (RSD), both the high turnover and six-figure salaries are significant. That’s because there is substantial turnover despite the high salaries and that turnover has stymied any progress the already troubled RSD might have realized.

No fewer than 20 employees earning six figures have left the RSD since 2009, records show.

For the three years from 2010 to 2012, there was a turnover rate among those earning $100,000 or more ranging from 29 to 44 percent from the previous year Civil Service records indicate.

Of 24 RSD employees earning six figures for the current year, 15, or 62.5 percent, are new hires, records show. These include:

• Stacy Green, School Nurse, $145,000;

• James D. Ford, Administrative Superintendent, $145,000;

• Dana Peterson, Administrative Superintendent, $125,000;

• Adam Hawf, Administrator, $120,000;

• Mark Comanducci, Executive Director, $115,000;

• Helen Molpus, Administrative Chief, Officers, $115,000;

• Kizzy Payton, Administrative, Business Office, $110,000;

• Hua Liang, Administrative Chief, Officers, $110,000;

• Nicole Diamantes, Administrative, Other Special Programs, $105,000;

• Isaac Pollack, Administrative, Principal, $105,000;

• Desmond Moore, Administrative, Principal, $105,000;

• Betty Robertson, Other Business Services, $105,000;

• Robert Webb, Administrator, Other Special Programs, $105,000;

• Sametta Brown, Administrator, Regular Programs, $100,800;

• Ericka Jones, Administrative, Principal, $100,000;

• Eric Richard, Administrative, Principal, $100,000.

Read Full Post »

Merry Christmas! E.A. Conway Hospital in Monroe receives word that 41 employees to be laid off effective November 30

Posted in Budget, Economy, Governor's Office, Health Care, Jobs, Layoffs, LSU, Revenue, State Agencies on October 16, 2012| 4 Comments »

A new survey by 24/7 Wall Street has revealed that the Monroe Metropolitan Area, which includes 11 northeast Louisiana Parishes, is the sixth-poorest metropolitan area in the U.S. and at 27.9 percent, has the eighth-highest percentage of households living below the poverty line.

Accordingly, The LSU Health Sciences Center in Shreveport sent out notices to 41 employees of E.A. Conway Medical Center in Monroe Tuesday that they will no longer have jobs after Nov. 30.

Merry Christmas to E.A. Conway employees who will soon be unemployed. Great timing.

University Medical Center (UMC) Chancellor Dr. Robert Barish simultaneously notified E.A. Conway employees and State Civil Service Director Shannon Templet that 25 of the 41 employees targeted for layoffs are nurses.

Others include four police officers, two nursing assistants, two administrative coordinators, and (one each) respiratory care therapist, speech/audiologist specialist, EKG technician, radiologic technician, social worker, electriction, mobile equipment operator and printing operator.

The layoffs, Barish said, are the result of a reduction in federal Medicaid dollars to the state and are necessary “after other budgetary measures were taken, as a layoff avoidance measure, that did not meet the total dollars needed to match the reduction.”

The overall impact of the layoffs and cutbacks to E.A. Conway will be $8.5 million, he said.

With such a high poverty rate, many of the 178,000 residents of the Monroe Metropolitan Area rely on Conway for health care. Now, those health care services will either be cut back drastically or delayed for many who need them most.

Merry Christmas to tens of thousands of northeast Louisiana residents who will soon find medical care more difficult to obtain.

While median income across the nation decreased by $642 per year from 2010 to 2011, it went into a free-fall in the Monroe Metropolitan Area, plummeting by $5,434.

At the same time, the area’s poverty rate rose by an eye-popping seven percentage points. Moreover, the 11.4 percent of households earning less than $10,000 in 2011 was the third-highest percentage of all metropolitan areas.

The cutbacks and layoffs at Conway would appear to have been implemented with no planning and little consideration given to the needs of the areas served just as other policy moves have been made.

The Jindal administration, for example, privatized the John Hainkel Home and Rehabilitation Center in New Orleans in 2011 and in June of this year, Department of Health and Hospitals Secretary Bruce Greenstein quietly notified the facility that it was revoking its license, ostensibly because of deficiencies found during inspections.

A more likely reason for the action is that 73 of the home’s 82 patients pay for their care at the Hainkel Home through state Medicaid funding. Ergo, close the facility and if those 73 patients are unable to enter another facility that accepts Medicaid patients, Jindal gets to cut Medicaid costs in a furtive move that flies under the radar.

And it won’t be a simple task for those patients to find a new care provider. The Hainkel Home is one of the few remaining options in New Orleans for Medicaid patients and Veterans Administration patients. Most nursing homes will not accept Medicaid and V.A. patients and are actively purging current Medicaid and V.A. patients from their populations.

So, while Piyush Jindal continues to push for corporate tax breaks and exemptions for campaign contributors, he embarks on a campaign of slashing budgets and cutting services as a means of making up revenue lost by what can only be described as to poor—or perhaps contrived—administrative decisions.

Such are the methods of the Piyush Jindal administration.

Read Full Post »

Troy Hebert, like his predecessor, accused of misconduct as Alcohol Tobacco Control Commissioner; Civil Service orders reinstatement, back pay and legal fees for suspended agent

Posted in Civil Service, Governor's Office, Politicians, State Agencies on October 12, 2012| 27 Comments »

The beleaguered State Office of Alcohol and Tobacco Control (ATC) is experiencing more bad karma, thanks to what appears to be a series of ill-advised polices put in place by ATC Commissioner Troy Hebert.

Hebert is a former state senator from Jeanerette appointed to his position by Gov. Piyush Jindal in November of 2010 after Hebert’s predecessor, Murphy Painter was fired in August of that year on charges of sexual harassment and then was indicted earlier this year on charges of computer fraud, making false statements and aggravated identity theft.

Hebert now is facing his own problems including allegations that he deliberately sent an ATC agent into harm’s way, that he has transferred agents from one end of the state to the other with as little as two days’ notice, and last month’s decision by the Louisiana Civil Service Commission that he pay an employee back wages, interest and attorney fees after he suspended her for insubordination when her doctor refused to comply with what the commission agreed were unreasonable demands made under the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA).

Hebert had suspended ATC administrative assistant Lisa Pike after her physician declined to provide weekly status reports as ordered by Hebert. Pike was on extended medical leave for failure to provide acceptable proof that was unable to work.

Hebert’s action was taken despite her doctor’s written certification that she was unable to work and that she “has been under my care from July 19, 2011 to Aug. 19, 2011” and that she could “return to work on Aug. 20, 2011.”

On July 29, 2011, Hebert sent Pike a letter of suspension.

“This letter is to advise you that you are being placed (o)n Leave Without Pay (LWOP) effective Thursday, July 21, 2011, for failure to provide acceptable proof that you were ill and unable to report to work,” the letter from Hebert said.

“You were directed by letter dated July 13, 2011, to submit a statement from your health care provider to verify that you are unable to report to work due to illness or medical condition. The statements you submitted do not specify the cause of your absence or verify that you are unable to report to work.”

The physician subsequently agreed to provide weekly medical reports but charged Pike $25 for each of the weekly updates.

In her ruling of Sept. 20, Civil Service Commission referee Roxie F. Goynes ordered the Department of Revenue (DOR) to pay Ms. Pike back wages, with interest. ATC is part of DOR. “I further order DOR to remove all documents concerning this disciplinary action from Ms. Pike’s personnel file,” Goynes said in her ruling.

Goynes added that DOR “was unreasonable in going forward on its charge. Therefore, pursuant to the provisions of Civil Service Rule 13.35, I award attorney’s fees to Ms. Pike in the amount of $1500.”

But perhaps the most serious claim against Hebert is that he ordered an agent back into bars in New Orleans in full uniform where she had previously worked on undercover assignments to purchase drugs. If true, such a decision could have placed the agent’s life in peril had she been recognized by those from whom she had purchased drugs.

A formal complaint of discrimination filed against Hebert by agent Daimian McDowell contained the allocation that “Commissioner Hebert has assigned African-American agents to dangerous duties.”

In his complaint, one of three separate complaints filed by three separate agents earlier this month, McDowell said that agent Lori Claiborne of Gonzales was transferred from the Baton Rouge region to the New Orleans region. She had worked as a narcotics agent in Baton Rouge so her supervisor in New Orleans allowed her to work as a task force officer (TFO) in cooperation with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) while remaining an employee of ATC.

As a TFO, Claiborne worked undercover in civilian clothing, purchasing synthetic marijuana from dealers in New Orleans bars.

Upon learning of her work with DEA, Hebert ordered her back to Baton Rouge and over the objections of Claiborne and another agent, assigned her to conduct inspections in the same establishments—in full uniform—where she had purchased drugs as an undercover agent, the complaint says.

Other written complaints against Hebert, all dated Oct. 2, 2012, include:

• Asking an employee to “keep tabs” on a fellow agent;

• Transferring agent Charles Gilmore from Baton Rouge to Shreveport with no advance notice and subsequently telling one of his co-workers, another ATC agent, that he took the action in the hopes it would prompt Gilmore to take early retirement;

• Boasting that he planned to “break up” a trio of black agents in north Louisiana (one of whom was subsequently fired);

• Requiring supervisors to report to their subordinates;

• Calling agent Larry Hingle “a zero” and sending an email to other employees soliciting suggestions for ways to punish Hingle for the agent’s failure to address Hebert at “Commissioner” or “Sir,” as per a directive by Hebert.

In addition to the three formal complaints to both the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and to Civil Service, six members of the ATC Command staff and six ATC employees sent a five-page letter in March of 2011 to then-Revenue Secretary Cynthia Bridges in which they itemized a laundry list of 45 separate complaints against Hebert. The contents of that letter would comprise much of the complaint contained in a subsequent lawsuit against the Department of Revenue that is still pending in 19th Judicial District Court in Baton Rouge.

That letter and the lawsuit filed by a fourth ATC agent contain several charges that are eerily familiar to some of the charges against Hebert’s predecessor, Murphy Painter. Those documents will be the subject of our next installment.

Read Full Post »

DOE, John White are masters at obfuscation and baffling with B.S., but are not very good at dazzling with brilliance

Posted in BESE, Charters, Education, Public Records, State Agencies, Vouchers on October 9, 2012| 5 Comments »

The Monroe News-Star has sued them and the Associated Press keeps pounding out the message that the Louisiana Department of Education has consistently refused to provide public records to the media—even after having first promised to do so.

But after a recent exchange of emails with DOE, LouisianaVoice has arrived at the conclusion that perhaps it is just as well that the media cease its quest for the information and that the department remain non-compliant with such requests. At least it cuts down on the confusion.

A reader recently sent us a Youtube link to a video presentation in which one Dave “Lefty” Lefkowith hyped the department’s computer Course Choice.

Course Choice is Superintendent of Education John White’s brainchild whereby a business, a college or an individual may offer computer courses to students at a fee set by the business, college or individual providing the courses.

But back to Lefty. Here is the link to his presentation, poor audio and all:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfFoeQFoduM

After viewing his stellar performance, we decided to check Lefty’s credentials.

Executive Speakers Bureau, a booking agency for public speakers, described Lefkowith as a resident of California whose speaking fee ranges from $10,000 to $15,000.

“Dave ‘Lefty’ Lefkowith is a dynamic hands-on change agent, successful as an executive, a corporate consultant, an entrepreneur and a speaker/trainer,” the speaker bureau’s bio profile said. “Dave provides leaders and organizations with the practical insights they need to be successful in the 21st Century.”

There was more, of course, but we had seen enough to wonder why, at a fee of $10,000 to $15,000, Lefty’s DEO Course Choice video sounded as if he were speaking from the bottom of an empty metal barrel.

So, naturally we made a public records request of the department as to how much Lefty charged Louisiana taxpayers to make such a poorly-produced video presentation.

The answer surprised us.

Lefty, it seems, charged the department absolutely nothing in the way of fees to make the promo. That’s because, explained DOE public information representative Barry Landry, ol’ Lefty is now a full time employee of the department.

Wait. What?

That news flash, of course prompted yet another public records request:

• What is David “Lefty” Lefkowith’s official title?

• When was he hired by the Louisiana Department of Education?

• What is his official title?

• What are his qualifications for his position?

A few days later we received this response:

“Dave Lefkowith replaced Parker Baxter. Lefkowith’s title is Director, which was the same as Baxter. Lefkowith’s first day with the Department was July 20, 2012. Lefkowith’s salary is $145,999.88, comparable to Baxter’s salary of $140,000. Dave has three decades of experience bringing innovation into the workplace and Louisiana has tapped his proven skills to bring innovation into the classroom. He has worked with private sector companies and government agencies across the nation to harness the talent of professionals in diverse industries and develop creative solutions to improve results. He is regarded as an expert nationally in these areas, and the skills and experience he brings will be critical in effectively implementing a number of large, complex programs and activities aimed at benefiting Louisiana school children.”

Several things came to mind after reading this:

• First of all, director of what? Lefty is simply described as a “Director.”

• Second, does anyone actually understand what the DOE response said? From our reading, it’s what we like to call gooney-babble.

• Third, if Lefty is really as “dynamic” as his bio on the Executive Speakers Bureau web page says he is and at $10,000 to $15,000 a pop, it would appear that as few as 10 to 15 of those “dynamic, hands-on” presentations a year would match what the department is paying him. So, why would he give all that up and leave California to become a hired hand in Louisiana?

We also checked out his predecessor, Parker Baxter. Here is what his DOE bio said about him:

“Parker Baxter is the Executive Director of the Office of Parental Options at the Louisiana Department of Education. He previously served as Senior Legal Analyst at the Center on Reinventing Public Education, working as project manager for the District-Charter Collaboration Compact project. He is an education attorney, consultant, and author with over ten years of experience in the field. Previously, Parker served for three years as Director of Charter Schools for Denver Public Schools (DPS) where he was responsible for authorization, quality assurance, oversight, and performance management of the district’s portfolio of more than 30 charter and contract schools. Prior to joining DPS, Parker was an aide to Senator Edward M. Kennedy on the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, where he worked on issues related to the No Child Left Behind Act and Head Start, and assisted in the formation and passage of the Higher Education Access Act. Parker has a Juris Doctor from New York University School of Law and a Masters in Public Management and Policy from NYU’s Wagner School of Public Service where he was a Dean’s Scholar. He is also a former special education teacher, an alumnus of Teach for America, and an honors graduate of Colorado College.”

Okay, so Lefty replaced the director of Parental Options (whatever that is) but now is the Director of the Office of Portfolio (whatever that is), which includes Parental Options, according to Landry in his follow-up response.

So our initial request for public records resulted in the following terminology being made available to us:

• Office of Parental Options;

• Center on Reinventing Public Education;

• District Charter Collaboration Compact Project;

• Teach for America;

• Innovation in the classroom;

• Implementing a number of large complex programs;

• Harnessing the talent of professionals;

• Developing creative solutions to improve results.

All for a mere $144,999.88 a year. What a bargain.

And for all that, we get a “free” Youtube video of amateurish quality.

As the old adage goes, be careful what you ask for…

Read Full Post »

« Newer Posts - Older Posts »