Louisiana Voice

He was a small-time celebrity as a street hustler, but Ricco Bastardo wanted more in life. He desperately craved respectability and recognition. And more than anything, he wanted his name in the Social Register.

His only success in life had come thanks to a huge grubstake from his father, owner of a chain of seedy bars, strip clubs and cheap motels. He had parlayed that into a chain of lucrative storefront predator loan companies that he turned into a mega fortune, made on the backs of the poor.

There were the persistent rumors of mob connections. People who knew him swore Ricco was tied into the mob and that his payday loan operations were merely fronts for a massive money-laundering operation. There was no way, they said, that he could have amassed such a large fortune legitimately.

It was impossible to prove, of course, because his tax records were a tightly-held secret.

He took not one, not two, but three trophy wives over the years in his desperate—but vain—attempt to climb the ladder to join society’s elite upper crust.

But now he saw his opportunity and he was determined to seize the day. The presidency of Hope and Change University was being vacated and he announced his desire for the appointment.

No one gave him a ghost of a chance. He had zero experience running a university and, in fact, his own academic achievements had been called into question but they, like his tax returns, were locked away from prying eyes. The only thing anyone knew for sure about his scholastic pursuits was that he was admitted to the prestigious school up east only after his father bestowed a generous endowment upon the institution.

But he refused to allow that to discourage him from his dream of social acceptance and the adulation for which he yearned. He pushed his way to the front of the line by insulting the other applicants, hurling personal attacks at them to the point of outright libel, disparaging their families, and embellishing his own dubious, even nonexistent achievements.

There were rumors, as yet unproven, of outside help from rival university presidents who saw an opportunity to gain advantage over Hope and Change with Ricco’s appointment. Coincidentally, confidential emails, embarrassing to his leading rival, were released only days before the selection committee was scheduled to vote on a new president which only served to further fuel the persistent rumors.

Against all odds and in defiance of all logic, he was chosen and he set about immediately putting his stamp on the university, dismantling the legacy of Hope and Change in the process.

His first priority was to shut down the school infirmary, depriving thousands of students of medical care. Just as important was his insistence on constructing an ivy-covered wall around the school to keep out the riffraff. The university was his domain and low-income residents from the city where it was located were suddenly unwelcome. Education was strictly for the select few and strictly off-limits to all others.

As for the school’s heretofore powerhouse football team, the Fighting Scapegoats, Ricco Bastardo proclaimed that he was far more knowledgeable than the scouting reports compiled on upcoming opponents. Moreover, he insisted he knew more about football than the coaches. And he continued to hold himself blameless as the team went down to a humiliating string of defeats.

He decided the entire administrative structure of the university needed a change to shake off perceived (by him) doldrums. He announced four key appointments and a string of controversial changes:

• Viziato Bastardo, his oldest son, was named Dean of Student Life;
• Son-in-law Ignorante Opportunista, Dean of Arts and Sciences;
• Daughter Splendido Opportunista (wife of Ignorante) Administrative Vice President;
• Unemployed Uber driver Rancido Mungere, was named school band director. His first move was to abolish racial quotas by removing all the black keys from the orchestra piano.
• Cooperative programs with other universities were promptly abolished by Ricco, who said they were not in Hope and Change’s best interests. He then entered into new cooperative agreements between Hope and Change’s advanced computer technology programs and a local animal husbandry school’s goat farm.
• He converted the university’s power and heating systems to coal-fired furnaces and put the dining hall on an all-fried fast-food menu.
• Even as he vocally lamented the “invasion of third-world students” enrolled at Hope and Change, he employed undocumented workers for Buildings and Grounds maintenance.

Both the Economics and Earth Sciences departments lost their accreditation within the first year of Ricco’s administration.

Finally, when Hope and Change University’s newspaper published an editorial critical of the loss of important research grants under his administration, Ricco abolished the publication, calling it the “enemy of the students.”

And whenever he was criticized for any of his actions, which was often, he invariably responded not with diplomatic, tactful explanations—ways in which he could defend his actions in a concise, orderly, structured manner, but with 280-character tweets, a practice that his peers felt was demeaning and beneath the dignity of a university president.

But those out in the countryside who had never been to college, some of whom never finished high school, were greatly pleased.

He was communicating on their level.

And members of the Board of Regents, terrified at incurring his twitter wrath, became his enablers by simply doing nothing.

Stories like the one below won’t be found in your daily newspaper or your local television newscast (the latter of which seems to exist only to keep the lawyer ads from bumping together).

I don’t prowl the halls of the legislature and I don’t attend too many legislative committee meetings. The deals that are detrimental to the interests of Louisiana taxpayers are not made in those meetings. Oh, sure, the official votes are taken in open for all to see but too often, decisions are made long before the actual votes.

I try to explain not that these things happen—we all know they do—but why they happen.

I’ve attempted in the nine years of LouisianaVoice’s existence to illustrate that power does in fact corrupt. I’ve tried to point out cases of mismanagement, misappropriations, malfeasance, and betrayals of the public trust. I’ve not made a lot of friends within the power structure, but that’s okay. I didn’t start this blog as a vehicle to popularity.

I started LouisianaVoice as an effort to show Louisiana’s citizens that their interests, their concerns, have been left at the door of state offices, commissions and boards while those with the checkbooks have been welcomed into the inner chambers of power and influence.

If you like what I do here, please help me continue those efforts by clicking HERE (you will be asked to verify that you’re not a robot) or on the yellow DONATE button to the right and making your contribution by credit card or by mailing your check to:

LouisianaVoice

P.O. Box 922

Denham Springs, Louisiana 70727

And as always, thank you so much for your continued support.

Dr. Arnold Feldman may be perplexed as to why House Health and Welfare Committee Chairman Rep. Frank Hoffman and other committee members have been unresponsive to his email inquiries, but I can give him 377,000 reasons, or in Hoffman’s individual case, 34,000 reasons.

Last April 10, the Senate voted 36-0, with three members absent, to approve Senate Bill 286, the so-called Physicians’ Bill of Rights.

But on May 2, Hoffman’s Committee, on the motion of Rep. Dustin Miller (D-Opelousas), involuntarily deferred the bill, thus killing it before it could reach the House floor.

Rep. J. Rogers Pope (R-Denham Springs) offered a motion that the committee move forward (meaning that the committee would vote to approve the bill) but when Miller made his substitute motion to involuntarily defer, there were no objections.

The BILL, by Sen. John Milkovich (D-Shreveport), would have provided a number of protections to physicians subjected to complaints to the Louisiana State Board of Medical Examiners.

That’s because the board of medical examiners, like the Louisiana State Board of Dentistry, has been shown to be autocratic and more than willing to abuse its broad investigative and regulatory powers to shakedown physicians of exorbitant fines for sometimes minor or even non-existent infractions.

Both the dentistry and medical examiners boards’ autocratic practices—Dr. Feldman recently received a letter from the medical examiners informing him of a fine of nearly half-a-million dollars—have been called into question by legislators.

Not only do the boards slap doctors and dentists with enormous fines—the sole source of income for both boards—but there also appears to be a less-known arrangement with the PHYSICIANS HEALTH FOUNDATION for the referral of penalized doctors to rehabilitation facilities at even more budget-busting costs to the physicians.

Meanwhile, Dr. Feldman is unable to get an answer from Hoffman or any other members whom he has contacted.

Last week, Feldman sent the following email to Hoffman (R-West Monroe):

From: Arnold Feldman MD
Sent: Thursday, March 14, 2019 8:23 AM
To: hoffmannf@legis.la.gov
Subject: Medical Board

Dear Representative Hoffman,

As you may recall I testified at a May 2 2018, Louisiana Health and welfare committee that you Chaired. My testimony was 100 percent accurate and truthful. 

Despite this Senator Milkovich, who spoke truthfully had his bill involuntarily deferred, yet it passed the Senate almost unanimously.

I have written to you and other members multiple times but I have received no response.

What can be Done? The Medical Board is corrupt and operates as a racketeering enterprise. Responsibility for physician suicide was heard. The culprit Cecilia Mouton was demoted but given a 220,000 dollar job for no work. Action is necessary.

I deserve at least a response.

Justice delayed is Justice denied.

It’s really not difficult to understand the breakdown in communications—$377,000 has a way of doing that.

That’s how much Hoffman and the other 12 committee members received in campaign contributions from the medical community over the past five years.

Rep. Julie Stokes led the way with $84,000, but to be fair, she recently ran a campaign for Secretary of State, a statewide campaign in which the maximum allowable contributions was $5,000, twice that for legislative offices.

But Rep. Katrina Jackson (D-Monroe) had no statewide race but still raked in $70,000 from medical interests.

Others included, in order of amount received:

• Rep. Dodie Horton (R-Haughton): $43,600;
• Pope: $36,150;
• Hoffman: $34,000;
• Rep. Robert Johnson (D-Marksville): $22,350;
• Rep. Joseph Stagni (R-Kenner) and Rep. Miller: $17,500 each;
• Rep. Larry Bagley (R-Stonewall): $17,000;
• Rep. H. Bernard LeBas (D-Ville Platte): $15,400;
• Rep. Charles R. Chaney (R-Rayville): $12,600;
• Rep. Kenny R. Cox (D-Natchitoches): $5,000;
• Rep. Jerome “Dee” Richard (I-Thibodaux): $2,000.

So now maybe Dr. Feldman understands that $377,000 can buy a lot of silence.

But if you’re one of those ponying up some of that $377,000, it’s a good bet you’d get an immediate response to your inquiry. Can I get any takers on that bet?

I can almost hear the crickets chirping.

LouisianaVoice is going to be devoting considerable attention to campaign money in the coming months.

Your help is needed so that we can continue to give you stories like on waste, mismanagement, malfeasance, misappropriations, harassment, sweetheart contracts, backroom deals, preferential treatment in the awarding of contracts by circumventing bid laws, power plays by boards and commissions, appointments to those boards and commissions on the basis not of qualifications but of campaign contributions, investigative audits, and like the story below this post on our lieutenant governor attempting to corral members of Louisiana’s various retirement systems to retain the services of a specified private law firm in a mass mailing on state letterhead.

Please contribute by clicking on the yellow DONATE button to the right of this post and give by credit card or by mailing your check to LouisianaVoice, P.O. Box 922, Denham Springs, LA. 70727.

This site has consistently focused on money in politics but it’s more important than ever in 2019 because there’s a statewide election this year. Voters will choose not only a governor, but lieutenant governor, secretary of state, attorney general, insurance commissioner, agriculture commissioner, sheriffs, police jurors and parish commissioners, district attorneys, and 144 state legislators–105 representatives and 39 senators.

And those 144 legislators will have the responsibility redrawing congressional district lines to comply with the 2020 census. If you take a good look at the gerrymandering done by the legislature for the 2010 census, you’ll get a feel for just how important the legislative elections are.

While in the world would Rep. Ralph Abraham (green on the above map), for instance, represent a district that abuts the state’s northeast boundary with southeast Arkansas all the way down to the Felicianas and Tangipahoa, Washington and St. Tammany parishes’ northern borders with southwest Mississippi? Neither does it make sense for Rep. Mike Johnson (yellow) to represent a district that runs from the state’s northwest boundary with southwest Arkansas all the way down the western part of Louisiana into Cajun country. I mean, north Louisiana has about as much in common with Cajun country as Hank Williams does with Tupac.

And as much as it defies logic for Rep. Steve Scalise (brown) to represent a district split in half by Rep. Cedric Richmond (red), it’s no less illogical for Richmond’s district to run all the way from New Orleans to Baton Rouge where Rep. Garret Graves’ (blue) district looks as though it’s trying to swallow Richmond’s like some sort of Pac-Man caricature.

The only Louisiana congressional district where some semblance of sanity seems to have prevailed is that of Rep. Clay Higgins (gold), in southwest Louisiana (the term sanity being applied only to the district lines in this case).

It would have made far more sense for Districts 4 (Johnson) and 5 (Abraham) to have been divided with one district extended across north Louisiana from the Mississippi River to the Texas border and the other to be comprised of central Louisiana. The districts represented by Graves, Richmond and Scalise could also be re-drawn to more representative of their respective geographic areas.

Of course, money is poured into political campaigns for one reason and one reason only: to buy influence. If you believe for one nano-second that contributions are made in the interest of civic-minded responsibility, you’re only fooling yourself. When contributions are made by financial institutions, big business, labor, oil and gas, chemicals, prisons, pharmaceutical companies, nursing homes, health institutions, transportation, or any other special interest, it’s for the purpose of influencing votes.

One might think it’s never occurred to these donors that their money, directed toward education, infrastructure, and health care could do so much more good than buying a legislator. That’s not it. It’s just that they’d rather lock down legislative votes in order to continue to shore up their own bottom line than use the money for greater good.

To call attention to that sorry state of affairs is the reason—the only reason—for LouisianaVoice and it’s the reason I’m asking for—and sincerely appreciate—your continued help.

Just when you think things can’t possibly get any weirder in state government, they invariably do.

That’s the one constant in Louisiana politics.

Take Lt. Gov. Billy Nungesser, for example.

The man just doesn’t know how to not be the court jester.

And he certainly doesn’t grasp just what the duties of his office entail. Or it could be he just doesn’t give a rat’s patootie.

How else to explain that, with there being more than half-a-dozen Louisiana LAW FIRMS and no telling how many attorneys in those firms qualified to represent clients in pension and investment fraud, why Nungesser would solicit clients for a specific law firm to represent them in cases of potential fraud.

A letter on state letterhead, no less—the lieutenant governor’s office letterhead and over his signature.

The letter, dated March 6 and received by someone identifying himself only as “a representative of a public retirement system,” was forwarded to LouisianaVoice with the recipient’s name and address redacted.

The first paragraph introduces the firm Kahn Swick & Foti (KSF) “whose primary practice involves representing state and local pension and municipal funds in shareholder lawsuits that seen to recover money lost from stock and fraud and other corporate malfeasance.”

It then notes that Charles C. Foti, Jr., “the 28-year sheriff of Orleans Parish and the former Attorney General of Louisiana (2004-2008) is a named partner in this firm.”

Nungesser’s letter somehow neglected to mention that while he served as Orleans Parish sheriff, Foti was hit by a $10 million fine by a federal court which found that the sheriff’s department under his administration had illegally strip-searched and conducted body-cavity searches on more than sixty thousand minor-offense arrestees.

In the third paragraph, Nungesser says, “I would like to discuss the opportunity for your fund to meet with the principals of KSF so that they can explain how your system can benefit (by) retaining a Louisiana-based firm with a national reputation to provide services to your system and help to safeguard your assets.”

Finally, he says, “Please call me at 225-342-7009 if you have any questions about the firm or if you would like any additional information…”

That’s the state telephone number for the Lieutenant Governor’s office.

Attached with his letter was a brochure from the KSF firm that touted its credentials and which went to great lengths to point out that, “Since 1998, pension funds in Louisiana have served as lead plaintiff in securities fraud class actions that have produced almost $10 billion in recoveries and (which) have produced legal fees in excess of $1.3 billion. However, of the over $1 billion in legal fees paid out, almost nothing was paid into the state treasury in the form of Louisiana state taxes.”

That’s because nearly all of the law firms that represented Louisiana pension and retirement funds were out-of-state firms “that maintain either no presence or only a very nominal presence in our state,” the brochure says.

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On the flip side of the brochure is a list of 26 class-action cases that resulted in settlements totaling $8.1 billion, not the “almost $10 billion” the brochure claimed.

A list of Louisiana public retirement systems was at the bottom of that page. They included the Louisiana State Employees’ Retirement System (LASERS), Louisiana Sheriffs’ Pension and Relief Fund (LSPRF), New Orleans Employees’ Retirement System (NOERS), Louisiana Municipal Police Employees Retirement System (LAMPERS), the Teachers Retirement System of Louisiana (TRS), and Louisiana School Employees Retirement System (LSERS).

It’s understandable—and even commendable—that Nungesser would encourage the retention of in-state law firms in general terms but to single out a specific firm is over the top, according to a New Orleans attorney with a competing firm who specializes in investment fraud cases. “It’s a really brazen letter,” he said, adding that he would take the issue up with his partners.

Nungesser cannot have a legal ethics charge filed against him since he is not an attorney but he can have charges filed with the Louisiana State Board of Ethics for misuse of his office, although such a complaint seems remote.

KSF, however, could be subject to a legal ethics charge if it can be shown that principals in the firm knew of Nungesser’s letter and condoned it. It is a legal ethics violation to have non-attorneys soliciting business for a legal firm or attorney.

It is not known if KSF provided the brochure to Nungesser for the express purpose of inclusion in his letter. LouisianaVoice attempted to call Nungesser but he was said to be unavailable.

Six different spokespersons for Nungesser’s office were emailed with a request for an explanation of the letter. They included Chief of Staff Julie Samson, Nungesser’s Executive Assistant Penny Bouquet, Director of Scheduling Jasmine Tregre, Communications Director Julio Guichard, and Director of Public Affairs Betsy Barnes.

A return receipt indicated that Guichard opened the email from LouisianaVoice, but no one from Nungesser’s office responded to our inquiry.

In following the mantra “follow the money,” LouisianaVoice ran a search of campaign contributions to Nungesser by KSF but came up empty except for firm partner Larry Joseph Palestina’s $3,500 in campaign contributions to Nungesser in 2015, 2016, and 2018.

That’s not to say that KSF was inactive in the political arena. The firm, along with two sister firms, Kahn & Swick Real Estate and Kahn & Swick Ventures, made $58,000 in campaign contributions from 2014-2018, including $35,000 to Foti, all in 2014.

The law firm and Kahn & Swick Real Estate also combined to contribute $10,000 to Attorney General Jeff Landry in 2015 and the law firm gave $5,000 to State Treasurer John Schroder in 2018. The law firm may also have violated state campaign contribution limits in 2015 when it gave $5,000 to Jefferson Parish Councilman Christopher Roberts. Statewide officers are limited to $5,000 but all other officers are limited to $2,500 in contributions.

[Contribution limits could also present something of a sticky wicket for Nungesser. On November 10, 2015, Burnside Plantation of New Orleans made two contributions to Nungesser, one for the statutory maximum $5,000 and another for $10,000. There was no indication in Nungesser’s campaign expense report that he refunded any of the $10,000.]

The KSF endorsement letter is not the first time that Nungesser has tried to prove stand up comic Ron White’s assertion that “you can’t fix stupid.”

In April 2016, he fell for a really transparent phishing SCAM in which he and State Republican Chairman Robert Villere tried to do an end run around Gov. John Bel Edwards only to end up with mostly rotten egg on their faces.

Of course, his escapades pre-date his election as lieutenant governor, as a 2010 PERFORMANCE AUDIT by the Legislative Auditor’s office showed.

Taken together, all these embarrassing public misadventures prove beyond the slightest doubt that Billy Nungesser is eminently qualified to hold political office in Louisiana.

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LouisianaVoice, P.O. Box 922, Denham Springs, LA 70727