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Archive for the ‘Teague’ Category

Oops! He did it again! π-yush removes Roxanne Townsend, CEO of Interim Louisiana Public Hospital in New Orleans

Posted in Education, Governor's Office, Health Care, Higher Education, House, Senate, Legislature, Legislators, LSU, State Agencies, Teague on September 5, 2012| 9 Comments »

No sooner had we posted our account of the planned firing of LSU System Office General Counsel Raymond Lamonica than we learned that the Piyush Jindal administration has also relieved Dr. Roxanne Townsend of her position as CEO of the Interim LSU Public Hospital in New Orleans, a position she has held since 2009.

LouisianaVoice learned from independent sources that she was called into the office of Dr. Frank Opelka last Friday and informed that he planned to go “in another direction” with the LSU health care system. Opelka was named head of the health care system on Aug. 26 following the firing of his predecessor, Dr. Fred Cerise.

The “direction” alluded to by Dr. Opelka is apparently to remove from positions of responsibility anyone who does not bow and scrape at the Piyush pewter image. (For those who don’t know, pewter is defined as a dull, malleable alloy comprised mostly of tin; ergo, the Tin Man—with no heart.)

Dr. Townsend, a native of Pennsylvania, graduated from the LSU School of Medicine-New Orleans in 1992 and did her post-graduate training in Internal Medicine in Baton Rouge and also served as Chief Resident in Internal Medicine at Earl K. Long Hospital in Baton Rouge.

She has served as CEO of the Interim LSU Public Hospital in New Orleans since 2009. She previously worked for Dr. Cerise as the Chief Operating Officer at Earl K. Long and upon Dr. Cerise’s departure for the Department of Health and Hospitals (DHH), she was named Interim CEO. In July of 2004, she moved to DHH as Medicaid Medical Director where her responsibilities included oversight of all aspects of DHH’s Disease Management and Clinical Quality activities.

Following the closure of Charity Hospital in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, Lamonica, representing LSU, obtained a $474 million settlement with the Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA), part of which was used to convert the former Hotel Dieu into the Interim Louisiana Hospital which, besides serving as a medical safety net for indigent patients, also trains 300 resident physicians—200 from LSU and 100 from the Tulane Medical School—and to get the University Hospital campus up and operative.

News of Dr. Townsend’s demotion comes on the heels of reports that the administration plans to fire Lamonica, the man who negotiated that FEMA settlement. Last April, the LSU Board voted to fire John Lombardi as president of the LSU system and followed that last month with the firing of Dr. Cerise.

Jindal presently controls all but one of the appointments of the LSU Board, so it is impossible for him to separate himself from board action, no matter how much his media mouthpiece Kyle Plotkin may try to deny it. Any board action must be considered to have been taken at Jindal’s behest.

Given Piyush’s ongoing putsch, the question must be asked: when are legislators going to gather sufficient stones between them to stand as a body and say to this tyrant: “ENOUGH! There is only so much we as a legislative body will take from you in exchange for appropriations for our districts. There comes a time when your personal ambition may no longer run roughshod over the state’s principles, dignity and respect and you long ago crossed that line.”

Where is that so-called independent legislature? You are needed more today than at any time in this state’s history. But your timid silence is deafening.

And where are the voters in these legislators’ districts? You are equally mute when you should be at your very angriest–and loudest.

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New LSU teaguing by π-yush may be imminent; Raymond Lamonica rumored on way out as System general counsel

Posted in BESE, Commissions, Education, Governor's Office, Higher Education, House, Senate, Layoffs, Legislature, Legislators, LSU, OGB, Office of Group Benefits, Politicians, Regents, Teague, Transparency on September 4, 2012| 5 Comments »

Reports out of the State Capitol on Tuesday has yet another state employee about to become a victim of the ongoing Piyush Purge.

LouisianaVoice has learned of plans by the administration to fire LSU System Office General Counsel Raymond Lamonica.

If true, Lamonica would be the third LSU official to be teagued by Jindal in less than six months. System President John Lombardi was fired in April by the LSU Board of Supervisors acting on directions from the governor and last month, Dr. Fred Cerise, head of the LSU health care system similarly dismissed.

Reached at home Tuesday, Lamonica acknowledged that he had heard the reports but had no additional comment. “Not yet, anyway,” he added.

Lamonica was appointed as United States attorney for the middle district of Louisiana in 1986 by President Ronald Reagan. President Bill Clinton appointed L.J. Hymel to replace him in 1994. Prior to that, Lamonica worked as executive counsel to Gov. Dave Treen.

If the reports are accurate, Lamonica would be only the latest in a growing line of rank and file state employees, agency directors and cabinet secretaries who Jindal has either fired outright or, in the case of two legislators, demoted from committee assignments.

Besides members of board and commissions who are routinely replaced by governors with political allies and campaign contributors, Jindal has replaced, in order:

• March of 2008—Louisiana Highway Safety Commission Executive Director Jim Champagne, who opposed Jindal’s campaign promise to repeal the motorcycle helmet law;

• September of 2008—Department of Social Services Secretary Ann Williamson, after criticism of shelter conditions following Hurricane Gustav and problems with a post-storm food stamp program;

• June of 2009—Board of Elementary and Secondary Education member Tammie McDaniel, after she disagreed with some of the administration’s public education policies;

• October 2009—Melody Teague, a social services grant reviewer, after testifying in opposition to Jindal’s plan to streamline government;

• February 5, 2010—Department of Transportation and Development Secretary William Ankner, after a company that contributed $11,000 to Jindal’s campaign was awarded a $60 million highway contract despite not having the low bid;

• August 13, 2010—State Alcohol and Tobacco Control Secretary Murphy Painter, after being accused of sexual harassment and fired after rejecting a permit application to SMG, the New Orleans Superdome management company, that would allow Budweiser to erect a large tent and signage in Champions Square. Budweiser had offered $300,000 to the Louisiana Stadium and Exposition District to sponsor the tent for tailgating parties at Saints home games;

• April of 2011—Office of Group Benefits (OGB) Director Tommy Teague (husband of Melody Teague), after failing to display sufficient enthusiasm over Jindal’s plans to privatize his agency;

• June of 2011—Tommy Teague’s successor Scott Kipper, after apparently irritating his boss, Commissioner of Administration Paul Rainwater over the number of OGB employees he would recommend to be laid off;

• March of 2012—Office of Elderly Affairs Executive Director Mary Manuel, after testifying she was never informed of Jindal’s plans to move her agency from the governor’s office to the Department of Health and Hospitals;

• March of 2012—State Rep. Harold Richie (D-Bogalusa), demoted from his vice-chairmanship of the House Committee on Insurance after voting against a tax rebate for those who donate money for scholarships (vouchers) to private and parochial schools;

• April of 2012—LSU System President John Lombardi, after publicly criticizing massive budget cuts imposed on higher education by Jindal;

• June of 2012—Secretary of Revenue Cynthia Bridges after it became obvious that an alternative fuel tax credit law signed by Jindal which granted tax credits for the purchase of certain fuel-efficient automobiles would cost the state upwards of $100 million;

• June of 2012—State Rep. Jim Morris (R-Oil City), was removed from his vice-chairmanship of the House Natural Resources and Environment Committee after resisting efforts by Jindal to use one-time money to fund recurring expenses in the state’s General Budget;

• August of 2012—Dr. Fred Cerise, head of the LSU health care system, after criticizing Jindal budget cuts which gutted the LSU medical system of hundreds of millions of dollars.

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Political science professors trash Jindal, OGB privatization, legislature in scathing reports; can Teagues be far behind?

Posted in ALEC, American Legislative Exchange Council, Campaign Contributions, Civil Service, Contract, Contracts, Governor's Office, Health Care, Layoffs, Legislature, Legislators, OGB, Office of Group Benefits, Privatization, Teague, Transparency on July 31, 2012| 7 Comments »

A Baton Rouge attorney has filed papers in opposition to the privatization of the Office of Group Benefits (OGB) for Wednesday’s Civil Service hearing but in the process he could get two university professors teagued by Gov. Piyush Jindal.

Attorney J. Arthur Smith filed his lengthy objection on behalf of 177 OGB employees who stand to lose their jobs if the proposed takeover by Blue Cross/Blue Shield (BCBS) goes through. He reminded the Civil Service Commission that the fundamental purpose of the Civil Service system “is to prevent permanent classified employees from being subjected to adverse personnel actions based on political influence.”

Political influence on the part of the Jindal administration is precisely what he is claiming—along with offering evidence that privatization has not proven to be the panacea claimed by governmental entities that have boldly gone where Piyush is attempting to go now.

BCBS was recently announced as the winner of the state contract to take over the OGB Preferred Provider Organization (PPO) which serves some 60,000 state employees, retirees and dependents.

But two political science professors at LSU and Southern University were sharply critical of the administration’s motives for privatizing OGB and challenged the administration’s fiscal arguments in written reports.

The State Civil Service Commission will hear presentations by the administration and by opponents of the privatization proposal on Wednesday at 9 a.m. in the appropriately named Louisiana Purchase Room of the Claiborne Building on North Third Street in Baton Rouge.

Smith cited a court case—New Orleans Civil Service Commission v. City of New Orleans—in which the Louisiana Supreme Court ruled that the mayor and city council “do not have the unfettered discretion to potentially decimate the civil service system by eliminating all civil service positions to privatization, and, therefore, we find that checks on that discretion are necessary and authorized by the Constitution.”

That ruling also said that the city must turn over all documents and other evidence which enable the Commission to determine (1) whether and civil service employees will be involuntarily displaced from the Civil Service; and, if so, (2) whether the contract was entered into for reasons of efficiency and economy and not for politically motivated reasons.”

The Jindal administration has been conspicuously reluctant in providing “all documents and other evidence,” to the legislature as well as the media. The reason for non-disclosure, which has become almost a cliché, is the often-cited “deliberative process,” an obscure provision behind which the governor consistently hides. He pushed through the deliberative process provision shortly after becoming governor and since has boasted non-stop to the nation that he has made state government more responsive, accountable and transparent.

Smith cited several examples in which privatization has run into problems, including cost overruns, little or no cost savings, inferior service, and a lack of accountability. In many of those cases, he said, governmental entities have on occasion been forced to bring outsourced services back in-house. That has already happened with OGB once before.

He also cited what he considered to be conflicts of interest regarding BCBS. He cited contributions to Jindal of $43,500 by BCBS; $12,500 by Louisiana Health & Indemnity (BCBS’s parent company), and at least $100,000 by BCBS to the Supriya Jindal Foundation. The foundation is run by Jindal’s wife, Supriya Jindal.

Moreover, Smith said the State of Louisiana “essentially donated in excess of $1 million to Louisiana Health & Indemnity to expand and upgrade its headquarters building.” That subsidy, which produced only 22 new jobs, was approved in 2009 as an Enterprise Zone project.

Smith also said the Jindal administration has failed to prove that the proposed OGB privatization would result in increased efficiency.

He cited former OGB Director Tommy Teague as saying in March of 2010 that if OGB is dismantled, the PPO provider network, most of the agency’s extensive expertise in claims, provider services, customer service and information technology would be lost. Also lost, he said, would be the capacity to reinstate the existing self-administered PPO plan structure. Teague pointed out that OGB, in addition to providing “excellent customer service,” also holds down costs by self-administering the PPO plan.

His arguments notwithstanding, Smith’s aces are two political scientists who have weighed in on the side of OGB employees with comprehensive reports that take issue with the administration stand that privatization would be best for OGB and the state.

Albert L. Samuel, chairman of the Political Science Department at Southern University, was critical of the fiscal irresponsibility of the administration and legislature in the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita which he said led to the current fiscal crisis.

“Due to federal recovery dollars as a result of the 2005 hurricanes and historically high oil prices, the (Jindal) administration inherited a budget surplus of nearly $2 billion. During its first year in office, the administration and its legislative allies swiftly passed a series of large tax cuts and spent millions of dollars in one-time money on road projects, deferred maintenance at state colleges and universities, levee improvements, coastal restoration projects and upgrades to Pennington Biomedical Center,” he said. “Perhaps most notably, Gov. Jindal signed a repeal of the Stelly Tax Plan which provided a substantial tax savings for upper-income Louisianians.”

When the 2008 financial crisis struck, however, Samuel noted that rather than reconsidering the deep tax cuts that were enacted in previous years, Jindal “held steadfastly to (his) conservative ideals.” Jindal, he said, “adamantly opposed every attempt on the part of legislators to deal with the financial crisis through tax increases.”

“Consistent with that Naomi Klein calls ‘The Shock Doctrine,’ the governor capitalized on the financial crisis of the state to advance an agenda that called into the question the rationale for government to perform basic services on a wide range of issues.”

Samuel concluded his 21-page report by saying that political motivations “are driving the Jindal administration’s push to privatize the Office of Group Benefits.

“It locates Gov. Jindal squarely on the cutting edge of a national Republican party, determined to pursue this course without making a clear and convincing case that OGB, as currently constituted, has failed to provide quality service and coverage to its plan members at reasonable costs to taxpayers.

“The proposed privatization cuts to the heart of the fundamental rationales for having a civil service system in the first place—the idea of protecting state government workers from dismissal driven by politics.”

LSU political science professor Belinda Creel Davis cited from Shrinking the State: The Political Underpinnings of Privatization, a book by Harvey Feigenbaum, Jeffrey Henig and Chris Hamnett who said that privatization “is a political tool having the end goal of realigning institutions and decision-making in order to privilege the goals of one group over another.”

Davis cited the privatization of Louisiana’s Medicaid program as “an excellent example” of the difficulty in evaluating the effectiveness of privatization, specifically citing Jindal’s reluctance to approve legislative oversight of privatization programs.

“The Louisiana Legislature has passed bills in the 2011 and 2012 sessions that were designed to give legislators more information on the way the Jindal administration is implementing health care programs for the poor via private health care firms.

“For the second year in a row, Gov. Jindal has vetoed the bills, claiming they were unnecessary and duplicative since the Department of Health and Hospitals (DHH) issues extensive evaluations.

“It is interesting to note that his veto message does not claim that the report issued by DHH provides all or even most of the information sought by legislators. In the 2012 session, Senate Bill 569, seeking greater transparency on this matter passed unanimously in the House and Senate. Legislators seeking transparency regarding implementation must find the reports lacking if they have sought additional information, but they are unable to access the information they seek—resulting in a more difficult accountability process under privatization than you would see under government provision of the service.

“This is exactly the type of consequence systemic privatization predicts,” she said.

“In my opinion, as a scholar of public policy and government, privatization is an inherently political process. The evidence from both national and state studies supports this view. I believe the case before you is a clear case of politically motivated privatization.”

Those are the kinds of statements, bold and insightful as they may be, that seem to get people teagued these days.

Teagueing, after all, is the one activity in which this administration is abundantly transparent and open.

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Another potential member of the Teague Club: Jindal wants LLT board member Vallee gone for independent thinking

Posted in Governor's Office, Taxes, Teague, Transparency on July 16, 2012| 1 Comment »

Gov. Piyush Jindal has yet another dissident in his crosshairs.

This time it’s Louisiana Land Trust (LLT) board member Don Vallee of New Orleans who he wants to Teague.

This time, however, there could be a slight problem known as the State Constitution.

LLT, originally the Road Home Corp., is a publicly-chartered non-profit organization formed to manage properties purchased by the State of Louisiana under the current Road Home Program as part of the ongoing recovery effort from damage caused by hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005.

Once it takes title to properties purchased by the Road Home Homeowner Assistance Program, LLT has broad powers to receive and dispose of the properties, to accept funds “from any sources,” to borrow against the properties and to obtain payment for obligations under the guidelines set forth by the Louisiana Recovery Authority and to provide for financing as administered by the Office of Community Development (OCD).

Funding for LLT is provided through community development block grants (CDBG) funds administered by OCD.

LLT is governed by a seven-member board of directors with one member appointed from a list of three persons nominated by the president of the Senate and one appointed from a list of three nominated by the speaker of the House.

Donald Vallee, former president and general manager of Boland Marine and Manufacturing Co. of New Orleans, was nominated by then-House Speaker Jim Tucker and subsequently appointed by Jindal in May of 2008.

Vallee has occasionally clashed with other board members, even accusing one member of a conflict of interest. Vallee said in 2009 that he felt rents in New Orleans were artificially inflated by voucher rates.

In successfully lobbying the state Bond Commission for a temporary moratorium on new bonds for subsidized, affordable-housing construction in New Orleans, he said in September of 2009 that the city’s rental market “overbuilt.”

The Bond Commission hearing was prompted by a Bureau of Governmental Research report that supported Vallee’s position.

The report said that since Katrina, a larger share of New Orleans families received federal housing subsidies. It further suggested that the city may be in danger of having too much affordable housing, predicting that by 2012, if all proposed projects were completed, one in four households in New Orleans would be subsidized.

The rate was one in 10 prior to Katrina.

“What we don’t need is more construction,” Vallee reiterated. “We need reasonable rents.”

He said the moratorium on new subsidized housing was necessary because no one had properly studied the big picture. He called for the moratorium to remain in place until a comprehensive market study could be completed by an independent party—“someone without any skin in the game.”

Tucker also supported the moratorium, saying policymakers had been “flying by the seat of our pants” when making determinations of what housing subsidies were necessary in New Orleans. The result, he said, was an “excess supply.”

Added to the problem was the credit-market crash of 2008 stalled some developments and potential builders were unable to find investors to buy state-allocated tax credits.

Apparently Vallee’s independent streak doesn’t sit well with Jindal, who has expressed his wishes to replace him.

Apparently, whenever one stands between Jindal and tax credits, it gets Piyush’s hackles up.

But Vallee said he will fight his attempted ouster because he believes that Jindal lacks the legal authority to replace him.

“We’re not a state agency,” he said. “We are a private, non-profit corporation. I was not selected by the governor. He did appoint me but it was on the nomination of the Speaker of the House.”

Part of Vallee’s problem could be that unlike many of Jindal’s appointees, he has never contributed to any of the governor’s political campaigns.

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Suddenly, BESE, DOE, RSD and Piyush caught up in swirling litigation over reform, funding, and bureaucratic SNAFUs

Posted in BESE, Campaign Contributions, Contract, Contracts, Education, Governor's Office, Teague on June 27, 2012| 2 Comments »

The Louisiana Department of Education could find itself mired in state and federal courtroom disputes for years to come, thanks to Gov. Bobby Jindal’s sweeping education reform legislation and to the confusing mishmash of educational bureaucracy in Orleans Parish.

Disregard for the time being the last week’s court ruling that could end up costing the Orleans Parish School Board upwards of a billion dollars for the wrongful firing of about 7,000 teachers in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. That lawsuit did not involve the state—just Orleans Parish.

But across the state, several parish school boards and teachers’ unions are lining up as plaintiffs in various lawsuits against Jindal, the Louisiana Department of Education and the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE) to contest Jindal’s reform package that is being hailed by media everywhere but in Louisiana as groundbreaking, innovative and progressive.

One interesting development at the local level occurred in Ruston when the Lincoln Parish School Board recently voted to join litigation against Jindal’s move to usurp Minimum Foundation Program funds and local tax revenue from local school boards and to use those monies to pay for vouchers, or scholarships, to other schools—even if those other schools were in a different parish.

The local boards contend that those funds are dedicated to the parishes and should not be taken away.

In the case of Lincoln Parish, board member Trot Hunt was the only dissenting vote when the board voted to join as a plaintiff against the administration. He said the board could well do with a little more budgetary restraint.

But did Hunt have an ulterior motive other than fiscal prudence?

Well, consider this: his firm, Hunt-Guillot and Associates, has a couple of mega-contracts with the state which total more than $18 million, according to state documents. The largest, for $17.6 million, calls for the firm to administer HUD grant management activities for infrastructure and other projects undertaken as a result of damages from hurricanes Katrina, Rita, Gustav and Ike.

The other, a $900,000 contract, calls for the company to review applications for grant funds for the Department of Health and Hospitals.

Hunt-Guillot also contributed $4,750 to Jindal’s campaign in 2007 and Trot Hunt personally contributed $5,000 that same year.

If Hunt needed further incentive to vote against joining the lawsuit, there’s also the fact that his business partner, Jay Guillot, is a member of BESE, having been elected last fall thanks in part to strong support from Jindal that included a $5,000 contribution from Jindal’s own campaign. BESE, of course, overwhelmingly supported the Jindal reform package that calls for vouchers, the creation of charter schools and more teacher accountability.

And, of course, It’s pretty much a given that Hunt is keenly aware of what happens when anyone, be it an employee or legislator–or in this case, a contractor–crosses Piyush with a negative word or vote.

Can you say Teagued?

All that aside, there is yet another lawsuit brewing down in New Orleans, this one in the Eastern District of U.S. Federal Court.

If the Department of Education’s action earlier this month is any indication, it is taking this lawsuit quite seriously.

After eschewing Louisiana law firms and the Louisiana attorney general’s office, the department decided to enlist the powerful Washington, D.C. law firm of Hogan-Lovelis as its defense counsel. The initial contract was for $249,999, which is one dollar less than the $250,000 threshold at which the approval of BESE President Penny Dastugue would have been required.

But on May 30, it was decided to go for broke in defending this lawsuit when State Superintendent John White requested that Dastugue approve a $1.2 million amendment, bringing the contract to an eye-popping $1,449,000. Dastugue signed off on White’s request on June 6.

The lawsuit was filed by the Southern Poverty Law Center in October of 2010 on behalf of 10 lead plaintiffs and approximately 4,500 Orleans Parish students with learning and physical disabilities. It names former State Superintendent of Education Paul Pastorek, the State Department of Education and BESE as defendants.

The suit claims that 16 Orleans Parish schools fall under the parish school board, 23 are run by the Recovery School District (RSD) and 49 more are stand-alone charter schools. This arrangement, the lawsuit claims, results in the creation of 51 separate school districts, or local education agencies (LEA). Each charter school, it says, is an LEA.

This arrangement, the petition says, creates a confusing, impossible-to-navigate system for children with disabilities who, under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEA), are entitled to “the appropriate resources, policies and procedures” to provide unfettered access to special education services—“from evaluations to related services and supports.”

Federal law prohibits public entities from discriminating against individuals with disabilities but, the lawsuit claims, students have been subjected to systemic violations that included:

• Discrimination and denial of access to educational services;

• Failure to develop and implement child find procedures are required by law;

• Failure to provide free appropriate public education;

• Failure to protect students’ procedural safeguards in the disciplinary process.

The petition cites a survey conducted by Educational Support Systems which said that schools “under-identify students with disabilities in an effort to escape their legal obligations under IDEA.

Some students referred to the RSD for initial evaluations “frequently must wait months before an evaluation occurs—losing valuable educational time during the wait,” the suit says.

“New Orleans is the only geographic region in the state in which students cannot receive child-find services until they are actually admitted and enrolled in a public school,” it added.

The lawsuit also claims that the RSD has an “abysmal” graduation and school completion rate for students with disabilities. “On average, across the state of Louisiana, 19.4 percent of all students with disabilities graduate with a diploma,” it says. In comparison, only 6.8 percent of RSD students with disabilities obtain a diploma, the petition says.

While he tries to put positive spin on the recent legislative session, there can be no denying that Jindal fell far short of getting what he wanted in terms of state employee retirement reform and the sale of state prisons.

Even though he appears to have been successful with his education reform, there are signs that his support in the legislature may be starting to crumble in that regard as well.

Legislators, already miffed at demotions within their ranks, the use of one-time funds for recurring expenses, the veto of a major commercial project in Livingston Parish, drastic cuts to higher education and the closure of a prison in central Louisiana, are also hearing from their local school boards and public school teachers.

And what they’re hearing may be causing them to entertain second thoughts about their having allowed the governor to rip funds from local school boards.

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