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Archive for the ‘Teague’ Category

Bill would transfer OGB surplus to state general fund

Posted in Governor's Office, House, Senate, Legislature, Legislators, OGB, Office of Group Benefits, Teague, Uncategorized on April 23, 2011| 18 Comments »

Rep. Jim Fannin (D-Jonesboro) has authored a bill that would alter current law by allowing Gov. Bobby Jindal to use much of the current $500 million Office of Group Benefits (OGB) surplus to help plug the gaping $1.6 billion state budget deficit.

Fannin is Chairman of the House Appropriations Committee.

Controversy has swirled around Jindal’s attempts to privatize OGB because of the manner in which the administration brought Wall Street banking firm Goldman Sachs in on early efforts to draft a request for proposals (RFP) for a financial assessment of the agency and to marked OGB to potential buyers.

Goldman Sachs, after helping draft the RFP, turned out to be the only company to submit a proposal and now stands to reap up to $6 million for its work in helping to sell the agency.

The law that created OGB stipulates that benefits for about a quarter million state employees, retirees and their dependents may be paid by any provider. That language would allow Jindal to sell the agency without the necessity of legislative approval, said a source within the Division of Administration.

Commissioner of Administration Paul Rainwater said there would be no financial impact on OGB members.

But if OGB is sold, it would eliminate about 150 jobs in the agency and would also allow any purchaser to raise premiums, reduce benefits, or both, contract with a third party administrator or re-sell OGB to another buyer. Either way, once sold, all state control of OGB would be lost.

Besides the $500 million surplus currently on the OGB books, the agency also collects about $1.1 billion per year in premiums. State Sen. Butch Gautreaux (D-Morgan City), chairman of the Senate Retirement Committee and a member of the OGB board, has made no secret of his opposition to the auctioning off of OGB.

He said if premiums are worth $1 billion and the agency has a $500 million surplus, then the selling price should be at least $1.5 billion. “I support getting rid of a state agency that doesn’t work,” Gautreaux said. “But this (OGB) isn’t costing the state. This is a great value.”

Rainwater acknowledged as much when he said the OGB $500 million reserves are an attractive selling point because the private company that ultimately purchases the agency would not have to dip into its own capital to pay claims.

He said the current surplus exists because of initiatives overseen by former OGB CEO Tommy Teague, whom the administration abruptly fired on April 15. No reason has been given by Rainwater for Teague’s firing.

Teague was only six months away from qualifying for retirement when he was shown the door.

Gautreaux said he fears that privatization will drive up costs for state workers who are already facing increased contributions to their retirement plans. He charged that Jindal is targeting state workers, who could lose their jobs if they object publicly to the sale. “I call it predatory politics,” he said. “You go after the weakest of the herd.”

Preliminary estimates indicate that whoever purchases OGB would receive about $300 million to $350 million of the agency’s $500 million surplus with the state receiving the remainder.

But R.S. 42:854(C) has stood between Jindal and his desire to reap any political hay in the form of a cash influx. That statute says, “Not withstanding any other provision of law to the contrary, any money received by or under the control of the Office of Group Benefits shall not be used, loaned, or borrowed by the state for cash flow purposes or any other purpose inconsistent with the purposes of or the proper administration of the Office of Group Benefits.”

Now, Fannin’s bill, if approved by the legislature and signed by Jindal, the governor’s signature being a virtual certainty, would change all that. Jindal’s signature, of course, would be a virtual certainty.

HB-32, already assigned to Fannin’s Appropriations Committee, reads in part:

“After satisfying the requirements of the Bond Security and Redemption Fund as provided in Article VII, Section 9(B) of the Constitution of Louisiana, the (state) treasurer shall, notwithstanding R.S. 42:854-(C), transfer into the Overcollections Fund provided for in R.S. 39:100.21, the proceeds generated as a result of the sale or other transaction by the Office of Group Benefits which has the effect of transforming its operations.

In general layman’s terms, that means the legal prohibition of using OGB funds for the state’s general budget would be removed, making it legal for much of the OGB surplus to be used by the state to plug its budget hole.

Though the two statutes clearly conflict, under rules of construction, the new statute would take precedent, or overrule the older law, according to Terry Hessick, a retired attorney for the Louisiana State Board of Private Investigator Examiners.

Hessick wrote a letter to Richard Manship, manager of the Baton Rouge Advocate, taking the newspaper to task for its lack of coverage of the OGB controversy.

The Baton Rouge paper ran a brief story on April 16 on Teague’s firing but nothing about details of the proposed sale until a week later, on April 23.

The text of Hessick’s letter:

Dear Mr. Manship:

As we edge ever closer to the anticipated privatization of the Office of Group Benefits, with its probable huge negative impact on state employees, retirees, and their dependents, I am amazed that the Advocate, as well as our local television news departments, has given little or no exposure to this potential catastrophe. As a subscriber, each morning I look for any articles on the sale of OGB, but the only thing I found recently was the announcement that Tommy Teague had been fired. The stories about this sale have been available on the internet for weeks, but not in the Advocate.

You may not think that the OGB sale is newsworthy or is of little interest, but the sale would affect about 150,000 state employees and retirees, and another 100,000 or so of their dependents, all of whom depend on OGB for their health, medical and prescription coverage. Also, the attempts of the Jindal administration to put the deal together in relative secrecy; the fact that Goldman Sachs wrote the RFP for doing the deal and was the only bidder for the services; the fact that Goldman Sachs stands to make $6 million for doing who knows what; the fact that the half-billion-dollar surplus or reserve which the OGB has accumulated would be divvied up between the state treasury ($150-200 million) and the eventual purchaser ($300 million); the fact that the OGB members and their dependents can only watch while the monies set aside to pay their medical expenses are plundered and carted off by the administration and some private party; the probability that those members will have to make up the missing monies by paying ever-increasing premiums for what can only be reduced services; and, the probability that increased premiums required by a private insurer will, in the near future, place additional burdens on the state treasury and on all Louisiana taxpayers; should induce the Advocate and other credible news sources to at least investigate, ask questions, and demand answers. In other words, send out your reporters to do their jobs, instead of sitting on this story.

To allow you to catch up with this ongoing story, I have attached several articles from the internet, including those published by TPM, louisianavoice.com, winzerinsurance.com, politicslaforums.com, and devtimessw.com. I have also attached a copy of my recent letter to the editor, which the Advocate chose not to publish. I understand that others have written letters to the editor on this subject, including the Louisiana Retired Employees Association, none of which have been published. It seems that the Advocate thinks it is more relevant to publish the endless bickering about the Baton Rouge to New Orleans passenger railway, which is unlikely to be funded or built in our lifetimes, than to publish letters which would bring to the attention of your readers an event which will impact the lives and health of a quarter of a million Louisiana citizens.

I do not know why the Advocate has chosen to ignore the privatization (sale) of OGB unless it fears the wrath of the Bobby and his henchmen or it actually approves of the disservice which this administration is doing the state employees. For many years, the New York Times has had as its motto, “All the news that’s fit to print.” Maybe the Advocate should adopt a similar motto: “All the news that’s SAFE to print.” I am disappointed in the Advocate.

Very truly yours,

Terry F. Hessick
Attorney at Law
Retired State Employee

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Got promised? Weighing the words of candidate Jindal vs. actions of governor Jindal: a study in deliberate deceit

Posted in Civil Service, Education, Governor's Office, House, Senate, Layoffs, Legislature, Legislators, OGB, Office of Group Benefits, Teague, Transparency on April 22, 2011| 7 Comments »

Perhaps this should be filed under “How Soon We Forget,” or maybe it shouldn’t be remembered at all because of the bitter irony it invokes. Either way, we felt a little reminder of campaign promises past might give you an insight into political realities present and future.

Candidate Bobby Jindal had an interesting campaign flyer in the last gubernatorial election that someone found and sent to LouisianaVoice.

It’s all about how touchy-feely he was about state employees. It’s almost enough to give you a warm fuzzy if it weren’t for the foreboding chills it invokes when one considers that his real motivation is not the welfare of state employees or even the citizenry of this state, but the consolidation of his own political power base.

While state employees are being laid off and in some instances, as in the case of Office of Group Benefits CEO Tommy Teague, fired outright, Jindal continues to campaign weekly outside the borders of Louisiana, adding more and more to a campaign war chest already crammed with more than $10 million.

When he campaigns in California, New York, Texas, and elsewhere, the costs of those trips—including flight costs, hotel accommodations, meals, and security detail (state police who accompany him on each and every trip)—are not reimbursed to the state by the Republican Party. They are borne by Louisiana taxpayers. And lest you thought he travels alone, rest assured he takes staff members with him on those jaunts. When George Bush campaigned for a second term and when Barrack Obama campaigns, the costs were—and are—reimbursed by their respective national parties.

All his hopping from fundraiser to fundraiser at out-of-state venues must surely raise the question: just why is someone in California or Wisconsin or Montana so vitally interested in a governor’s race in Louisiana? That’s the question voters must ask themselves when they enter the polling booth next fall.

It’s a good bet that laid-off state employees or employees of agencies that Jindal has privatized or plans to privatize will be asking.

It’s a certainty that employees with serious health issues would like to know why they stand to lose their health benefits after years of loyal service, some of whom even fell for Jindal’s “love of state employees,” pitch and voted for him—not once, but twice—for governor.

Here, then, are the verbatim contents of that long lost (at least he must wish it was lost) flyer that, with any justification, will bite him in the backside next fall:

As a former state employee, I know firsthand how important it is that we protect state employees and state retirees.

I have served the state as Secretary of the Department of Health and Hospitals and as President of the University of Louisiana System.

My mother has been a state employee for three decades. I know that she and the thousands of people who serve our state at every level dedicate themselves on a daily basis to ensuring that Louisiana is moving forward, and I strongly believe that we must support these workers in their efforts.

As my campaign for Governor continues to intensify, I expect that some people will begin to spread false rumors about the future of state employees under my Administration.

I wanted you to hear it from me that I will be a friend and supporter of both state employees and retirees.

Any statements to the contrary are simply false.

I am committed to bringing more jobs and more economic opportunities to Louisiana, and I want to see state workers and retirees supported for the work they do.

In addition, I have been a vocal supporter in Congress of legislation to protect state employees and retirees from unfair Social Security provisions, specifically, the Government Pension Offset (GPO), which lowers the dependent benefits a state employee with a spouse working in the private sector receives through Social Security, and Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP), which penalizes public school teachers and state workers who have second jobs.

I am a co-sponsor of the Social Security Fairness Act (H.R. 82) in the U.S. House of Representatives, which would repeal both the GPO and the WEP.

I do not believe we should punish people for working, and certainly do not believe teachers and state workers in Louisiana should be singled out for penalty.

These men and women work incredibly hard to ensure a bright future for our state and our children, and they deserve to receive adequate Social Security benefits.

My mother is a state agency employee and I myself have paid into the State Teachers Retirement System, so I know firsthand how unfair these provisions are to state workers. I fully understand the importance of rectifying this problem so state workers and teachers are not unfairly penalized for their service.

I commit to you that I will continue to fight to protect all Louisiana workers as Governor of Louisiana.

There you have it. The words in that flyer certainly take on a hollow ring today. We have only one word for Gov. Jindal and his promises: pandering. By any definition, it’s pandering in the sorriest sense of the word. Does anyone remember Jindal’s uttering a single word as governor about the GPO or WEP? Didn’t think so.

Has anyone heard a single encouraging word from him to state employees. No? Hmm.

Does any remember another campaign promise to block any attempt by legislators to give themselves a pay increase? Probably not, but he certainly did, in another flyer like the one quoted above. Yet, what did he do when they voted for a 123 percent pay raise back in 2008? He said he would not veto the pay hike. Only when he was swamped with public outcry such that his email literally shut down, did he finally acquiesce and veto the action.

Turn your attention away from the NBA playoffs and LSU and Saints football long enough to do your homework. Weigh what he says against what he does. Consider the contracts handed out to donors to his wife’s foundation. Think about the motive behind his interstate campaign trips. Look below the surface for his real reasons for wanting to privatize so many state agencies and find out who is getting the contracts for those agencies. Most of all, try to put yourself in the place of that state employee who, facing grave health issues, finds himself on the street.

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No dissent allowed: DOA trying to block access to our posts

Posted in Governor's Office, Teague, Transparency on April 16, 2011| 5 Comments »

The Division of Administration (DOA), apparently unhappy with frequent posts here that have exposed some of the questionable tactics of the Jindal administration, have attempted to block state computer access to LouisianaVoice.

Never mind eBay.com, amazon.com, Drudge Report, solitaire games, news sites, and all those other internet pages that employees access on a regular basis. Just don’t dare read anything on louisianavoice.com because it doesn’t parrot the Jindal administration party line.

Only one problem with the blocking strategy: it won’t stop those who want to find out what’s really going on in state government.

Louisianavoice.com, after all, is the place to go to read about state government waste of hundreds of millions of dollars—while the administration poor-mouths about deficits and revenue shortfalls.

It’s the place to go to read about just about anything the administration would rather you didn’t know.

But wait. As long as you have a free subscription to louisianavoice.com, they can block access to the blog all they want but it won’t block your access to our posts.

Whenever a new story is posted, subscribers automatically receive an email that contains the complete text of the post.

So all you have to do is access your home email account to access our posts.

Gee, that’s almost too easy.

They wouldn’t block access to your home email accounts, would they?

Don’t bet on it.

These guys just don’t tolerate dissent.

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Better than Trump: disagree with Jindal? You’re fired!

Posted in Governor's Office, OGB, Office of Group Benefits, Teague, Transparency on April 15, 2011| 28 Comments »

Chalk up another victim to the Petulance of Piyush. This time it’s Office of Group Benefits (OGB) CEO Tommy Teague, the man who refused to throw his employees under the bus to satisfy the governor’s gargantuan ego.

Teague, asked to resign or be fired late Friday by Deputy Commissioner of Administration Mark Brady, refused to step down voluntarily and was terminated. Teague told the Baton Rouge Advocate that Brady gave no reason for his action. The locks to Teague’s office door were changed and his computer seized after he left OGB Friday.

He was six months away from qualifying for retirement.

The latest development is clear evidence of the high stakes in this game. There is an OGB surplus of $500 million on the table and Jindal wants it to help plug a hole in his budget.

What will he do next year, install parking meters in all the state employee parking garages?

Only 18 months ago, Teague’s wife, Melody Teague, a Department of Social Services contract grants reviewer, was canned one day after she had the temerity to publicly criticize the Piyush Push (yeah, we like that phrase) to privatize everything that moves in state government.

Her remarks were made during an Oct. 1, 2009, state Commission for Streamlining Government forum in Jefferson Parish.

Tommy Teague was shown the door after word leaked out that Brady apparently brought in the international investment banking firm of Goldman Sachs last fall to help plan the privatization of OGB and that Brady had ties to Goldman Sachs from a previous position as executive director of the Arab Banking Association of North America.

OGB, or perhaps more accurately, the Division of Administration, enlisted the aid of Goldman Sachs to write specifications for a request for proposals (RFP) for a firm to conduct financial assessment of OGB and to market the agency to a private buyer that would keep as much as $350 million of OGB’s $500 million surplus as part of the purchase of assets that would also include premiums to be paid by state employees for health coverage.

When proposals were opened a few weeks ago, voila! Goldman Sachs was the only bidder. In most circles, public and private, that would be considered a glaring conflict of interests. A Senate report released Thursday roundly criticized Goldman Sachs for helping to bring about the financial crisis of 2008. Now the firm stands to net $6 million for doing a financial assessment of OGB and for trying to find a buyer. The $6 million will be paid whether or not Goldman Sachs is successful in its efforts.

Firing people seems to be Jindal’s favorite way of dealing with a problem. Some others leave to cash in on their connections established and some others leave voluntarily, out of disgust.

Like Richard Sherburne, who resigned as State Ethics Administrator after Jindal gutted the Ethics Board’s adjudicatory authority and gave it to administrative law judges. That couldn’t have been because Jindal had been fined by the State Ethics Board for campaign violations.

Then, there was Jim Champagne, executive director of the Louisiana Highway Safety commission for 12 years, whose passion was driver safety. Champagne made the fatal mistake of disagreeing with Jindal’s decision to repeal the state’s motorcycle helmet law and poof! He was gone.

Jindal tried to get Tammie McDaniel to resign her seat on the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education because she refused to go along with some of his education reform programs. She refused at first but finally stepped down.

Ann Williamson “resigned” her position at the Department of Social Services after complications were experienced with assistance programs following Hurricane Gustav.

William Ankner was Secretary of the Department of Transportation and Developments but after a $60 million highway construction contract was awarded to the high bidder, he was shown the door.

Most recently, Roland Toups of Baton Rouge, the longest-serving member of the Louisiana Board of Regents, resigned under not-so-subtle pressure from Jindal so that he could appoint vascular surgeon Dr. Albert Sam, II, an African-American to the board.

Toups showed a lot of class in stepping down, saying he felt a “responsibility.” Jindal denied the move had anything to do with a lawsuit filed by students at Southern University over the all-white makeup of the Regents. Yeah, right.

Ironically enough, in Sam’s first vote as a member of the board, he voted against Jindal’s proposal to merge the University of New Orleans and Southern University-New Orleans. So much for strategy.

So now, apparently it was Tommy Teague’s turn.

Terague’s wife, by the way, was reinstated after she filed legal action against the state. Tommy Teague might not be so lucky. He was an unclassified employee who served at the pleasure of the Division of Administration.

State Sen. Butch Gautreaux (D-Morgan City), a member of the OGB board of directors, is an outspoken opponent of the sale of the agency, even going so far as to write a letter to his fellow legislators to ask their support in opposing the sale. “Help me let everyone know that we are not afraid and we are not for sale,” he wrote.

He attributed Jindal’s rise to power to what he called “predatory politics.” He said Jindal’s mindset appears to be “Let’s take out the weakest in the herd, employees who are afraid of losing their jobs. The general public loves it.”

Indeed, Jindal has consistently shown that he holds state employees in utter disdain by selling off their jobs, raising the employee contributions to retirement and health benefit programs while denying civil service workers merit raises for the second year in a row.

Not satisfied with that, he displayed the height of arrogance and contempt on Thursday by issuing a “State Employee Appreciation Day” proclamation.

Employees could almost see the smirk on this face as he signed it.

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Was that Goldman Sachs behind the grassy knoll?

Posted in Governor's Office, Health Care, OGB, Office of Group Benefits, Teague, Transparency on April 13, 2011| 6 Comments »

The involvement of Goldman Sachs in the proposed privatization of the Louisiana Office of Group Benefits (OGB) is such that even conspiracy theory skeptics might want to take a second look.

Details that are slowly becoming known only serve to raise more questions than they answer and at the same time, feed the anxieties of those who distrust government at all levels.

Capitol News Service has learned that Goldman Sachs has been active in the planned privatization of OGB for much longer than was first thought—as far back as last October or November.

Reports first surfaced a few weeks ago that the Wall Street banking firm, a major player in international financial circles, helped write the specifications for a request for proposals (RFP) from reputable financial institutions to conduct a financial assessment of OGB and to help find a buyer for the agency that currently carries a surplus of more than $500 million.

When it came time to open the proposals for the project, Goldman Sachs was the only bidder and stood to rake in a $6 million fee for its services, whether it was successful in finding a buyer or not.

Now it has been learned that Deputy Commissioner of Administration Mark Brady floated the idea of selling OGB to OGB CEO Tommy Teague in a meeting between Brady, Teague, and four representatives of Goldman Sachs last fall. Brady was reported to have asked Teague if he was on board with the proposal. If not, he was told, Brady “would find someone” who was. Teague is an unclassified employee appointed by the Commissioner of Administration and Brady is his supervisor.

Neither Teague nor Brady returned telephone calls from CNS. To date, neither man has commented on Goldman Sachs’s involvement.

As a result of that meeting, the fiscal staff at OGB was directed to compile financial data with the main thrust being a breakdown of the financial statements of the agency into separate components from OGB preferred provider organization (PPO), exclusive provider organization ( EPO), and health maintenance organization ( HMO), represented by United Health Care, Vantage Health Plan, and Blue Cross/Blue Shield.

Speculation among key OGB employees is that the data was turned over to Goldman or Chaffe and Associates of New Orleans.

Chaffe was given an under-the-radar $49,999.99 contract to crunch some OGB numbers for Jindal in time for him to include the OGB proposal in his proposed budget for the coming year. The budget proposal was presented on March 11, but no mention was made of OGB, leading to speculation that Chaffe’s draft report did not reflect numbers favorable to implementation of Jindal’s plan to sell OGB. The amount of Chaff’s contract was exactly one cent below the amount that would have required approval of the Office of Contractual Review.

When sent requests for copies of the report under the state’s public records act, Commissioner of Administration Paul Rainwater twice denied that any such report exists. But those knowledgeable about events at OGB said there was a report and that Teague was given express orders not to release it to state auditors who also have requested a copy.

Under terms of Gov. Bobby Jindal’s proposal to sell OGB, the buyer would receive between $300 million and $350 million of OGB’s $500 million surplus with the remainder being used to help plug a gaping $1.6 billion deficit for the upcoming fiscal year.

The main hurdle to the implementation of that plan is a state law, R.S. 42:854.5(A), which says, in part, “Any money received by or under the control of the Office of Group Benefits shall not be used, loaned, or borrowed by the state for cash flow purposes” (emphasis added).

The involvement of Brady in the discussions is particularly interesting. Brady was brought into the Division of Administration (DOA) about two years ago. Prior to moving to Baton Rouge from New Hampshire, Brady served as Executive Director of the Arab Bankers Association of North America (ABANA).

Though no direct link between Brady and Goldman Sachs was immediately evident, representatives of Goldman Sachs were featured speakers at ABANA functions and Goldman Sachs was listed as an “institutional member” in ABANA’S 2005 annual report.

One of the speakers was David M. Leuschen, who was a partner and managing director at Goldman Sachs and who was instrumental in advising Mobil Oil on its $81 billion merger with Exxon before moving on to found the Carlyle Group, an international investment firm, and Riverstone Holdings. Both companies are also listed as institutional members in the ABANA annual report.

It was through Carlyle that Leuschen became actively involved in technology investments in the Middle East.

Carlyle and Riverstone partnered in using political connections to solicit the business of public retirement funds from all over the country. Moreover, Leuschen, who owns Switchback Ranch, a 200,000-acre spread in Montana, serves on the board of the Buffalo Bill Museum in nearby Cody, Wyoming. Other members of the board include former Vice President Dick Cheney, former Montana Sen. Alan Simpson, and Ray Hunt of the Texas Hunt Oil family.

State funds that invested in Carlyle included $40 million from the New Mexico State Investment Council, $100 million from the Connecticut State Pension Fund, and $100 million from the Texas teachers’ pension fund (whose board was appointed by then-Gov. George W. Bush), and hundreds of millions more from the California Public Employees’ Retirement System, the Retirement System of the State of Illinois, the Delaware Public Employees Retirement System, the San Francisco Employees’ Retirement System, and Ohio State University. Carlyle and Riverstone also retained a third firm tied to them and that firm, Searle & Co., received $530 million in investment commitments from the New York State Pension Fund.

The latter transaction resulted in an extensive investigation of both Carlyle and Riverstone by New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo. His prosecution resulted in Leuschen and his two firms having to repay the New York fund $50 million—$30 million by Riverstone and $20 million by Carlyle.

Additionally, the Nevada Public Employees Retirement system only last month fired Goldman Sachs and Quantitative Management Associates as its portfolio managers.

Goldman Sachs managed $600 million and Quantitative Management handled $500 million of the system’s total holdings of $2.5 billion.

Among those who have worked in the employ of the Carlyle Group are former President George H.W. Bush, former Secretary of State James Baker, former British Prime Minister John Major, a member of the Bid Laden family of Saudi Arabia, former BP chief executive John Browne, and former Louisiana Senator John Breaux, now a Washington, D.C. lobbyist.

Lest OGB employees consider themselves unique, the move to privatize government agencies is by no means limited to Louisiana. Texas billionaire Thomas Hicks, who contributed $25,000 to George W. Bush’s gubernatorial campaign, was appointed to the University of Texas Board of Regents following Bush’s election.

Hicks then pushed for the privatization of the university’s assets and eventually created the University of Texas Investment Management Co., so that its dealings would be concealed from public scrutiny. Only a massive public outcry forced the management company to reopen its holdings.

Typically, a high-ranking government official directs a substantial amount of government business to the Carlyle group with the taxpayer often being the source of the money. Then, upon leaving public service, the high-ranking official joins the Carlyle group and cashes in.

With Goldman Sachs searching for a buyer, the question was whether the buyer might ultimately be Carlyle and would any “high-ranking” Louisiana officials subsequently leave state government to join Carlyle?

There are reports that at least two groups are considering class action lawsuits to halt the proposed sale of OGB.

Reports also surfaced last week that Goldman Sachs was having second thoughts about the $6 million contract to find a buyer. Representatives of the banking firm, in a conference call on April 11, demanded that the state indemnify the firm from any legal liability stemming from lawsuits. When Division of Administration (DOA) officials balked at that demand, the Goldman Sachs representatives said they would have to talk to their legal department and get back with state officials. They had not called back by the end of last week.

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