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Three former Jindal aides, aka “The Louisiana Mafia,” are implicated in campaign irregularities by Florida Gov. Scott

January 16, 2015 by tomaswell

Three people, including a married couple, who previous worked for Gov. Bobby Jindal have been implicated in purported campaign irregularities and demands that state police provide transportation for campaign workers in Florida in last year’s gubernatorial campaign that resulted in Florida Gov. Rick Scott’s firing the state’s top law enforcement officer following his re-election.

The two, Melissa Sellers and Frank Collins, worked for a time in Jindal’s office and Sellers worked briefly for both Jindal and in his 2011 re-election campaign.

Sellers was Scott’s campaign manager and since the election has been serving as his chief of staff.

The Florida incidents appear to have been the result of a clash between a feeling of entitlement carried over from their stints working for Jindal and Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) Commissioner Gerald Bailey who refused to allow his department, which is supposed to be independent, from becoming involved in partisan politics.

Bailey’s office denied requests by Scott’s campaign that it transport Meghan Collins, a campaign staffer who was assigned to first lady Ann Scott. FDLE said while it was responsible for providing transportation for the governor and the first lady, campaign workers were not allowed to avail themselves of state transportation vehicles.

Since Scott’s re-election, Collins was moved onto the state payroll as chief spokesperson for the Department of Education.

Her husband, Frank Collins, worked for Jindal from Jan. 14, 2008, immediately after Jindal first took office, until his resignation Oct. 6, 2012. He was first employed as assistant press secretary at a salary of $35,000 but was promoted to press secretary and received a salary increase to $65,000 on Dec. 2, 2011. He was named a policy assistant on April 17, 2012 at the same salary and remained at this post until he resigned to join the Scott campaign with his wife.

Sellers began in Jindal’s office one day later than Collins, on Jan. 15, 2008, as press secretary at a salary of $85,000 (no complaints of lower pay for the same job there) and on Oct. 2 that same year, she was promoted to Director of Communication and raised in pay to $90,000.

Inexplicably, she resigned on Oct. 24, 2011, only to return the next day at the same position and same salary, civil service records show, until she resigned again on Dec. 2, 2011, to join the Scott campaign in Florida.

Meghan and Frank Collins and Sellers quickly became known in Florida as the “Louisiana Mafia” as tensions mounted over demands made on Bailey, whose office was in charge of investigating wrongdoing by Florida public officials. http://www.tampabay.com/news/politics/legislature/gov-rick-scotts-ouster-of-fdle-commissioner-followed-months-of-tension/2213534

Bailey was asked Scott or his staff to take part in a June 2014 conference to discuss “the governor’s platform for the next four years. Bailey refused, saying he felt it inappropriate for him, as a law enforcement officer, to participate in partisan politics.

Bailey also complained to Scott’s chief legal counsel Pete Antonacci that he had received solicitations to contribute to Scott’s re-election on his state computer. Antonacci, he said, simply told Bailey to “just delete it.” In Florida, like Louisiana, it is illegal to destroy public records.

Scott said no state employees received email solicitations unless they gave an email address to the campaign but Bailey said he never provided his email address to the campaign.

Perhaps the incident that might cause some in Louisiana, particularly in Shreveport, to recall the George D’Artois-Jim Leslie saga of 1976 occurred in March of 2014.

The Florida Republic Party, acting on Scott’s behalf, sent a $90,000 check to FDLE to cover the costs of transporting Scott campaign workers (supposedly that included members of the “Louisiana Mafia”) in state vehicles to ensure that no state cars were used for campaign purposes.

D’Artois, Shreveport’s Public Safety Commissioner at the time, had, on the other hand, attempted to pay Shreveport advertising executive Jim Leslie for his work on D’Artois’ re-election campaign with a city check, which Leslie refused. D’Artois re-sent the check, telling Leslie to take it and keep quiet but Leslie threatened to go public if the commissioner persisted. In July of 1976, Leslie, who had worked on behalf of proponents of Louisiana’s Right to Work bill, was gunned down in a Baton Rouge motel parking lot after attending a party to celebrate passage of the bill. D’Artois was later implicated in the murder but died before he could be tried.

Like Leslie, Bailey refused the money from the Florida GOP, saying it had no legal authority to accept it and that moreover, it was inappropriate to accept money from a political party. A second check was written to the state general revenue fund in April of 2014. “We properly reimbursed the state,” said Scott spokesperson Jackie Schultz. “Everything was paid for properly,” she said.

But the damage was done and Scott, like Jindal, apparently is not the forgiving sort.

Bailey, 67, a veteran of more than 35 years in law enforcement, 30 of those with FDLE and the last eight as the state’s top cop, said Antonacci arrived at his office on the morning of Dec. 16 with a three-word ultimatum: “Retire or resign.”

He said he was told by Antonacci to write a brief letter of resignation, pack his things and leave his office by 5 p.m. His two-paragraph made no mention of the word “resignation,” even though Scott continues to insist Bailey resigned. “He resigned. I’ll say it again, Commissioner Bailey did a great job.”

But Bailey said Scott is lying. “I did not voluntarily do anything,” he said. “If he said I resigned voluntarily, that is a lie.”

Sellers, 32, who has been Scott’s chief of staff for five weeks now and who is considered his most influential adviser, has declined to comment. “I have nothing further to say on the record,” she said.

FDLE, which has about 1,700 full-time employees and a $300 million budget, has been investigating a series of suspicious inmate deaths in state prisons and also has been assisting in the search for human remains at the former Dozier School for Boys in Marianna.

The agency also has investigated the destruction of emails during Scott’s transition to the governor’s office in 2010.

Public records obtained by LouisianaVoice have revealed that Sellers and others who worked in Jindal’s 2011 re-election campaign, took numerous trips on state police helicopters. We will examine those flights in subsequent posts.

Posted in Corruption, Elections, Governor's Office, Politicians, State Police | 12 Comments »

Gov. Jindal has mailed in his administrative duties after 2011 re-election as revealed by state police helicopter logs

January 15, 2015 by tomaswell

If more conclusive proof that Gov. Bobby Jindal has simply mailed in his administrative duties for the final three years of his administration, a quick review of his use of State Police helicopters to call on constituents throughout the state should do the trick.

He has availed himself the use of the ‘copters in years 2012, 2013 and the first eight months of 2014 just 86 times combined for all three years compared to 93 during the first 10 months of 2011, the year he was re-elected, and 100 times during 2010, records show.

Following 2010 and 2011, his usage of the helicopters dropped precipitously, to 34 in 2012, 39 in 2013, and just 13 through August of 2014.

Prior to the 2011 October election, Jindal was hopscotching all over the state to visit Protestant churches, primarily in north Louisiana, and to hand out federal checks to local officials. He has not visited a single church since the election.

On occasions, the state police helicopters were used to take the entire Jindal family to destinations that would appear to have no connection to state business.

For example, in early December of 2010 (the exact date is obliterated but the trip fell between two others—on Dec. 2 and Dec. 6—the state police helicopter transported the Jindal family to Natchitoches during the time of the Natchitoches Christmas Festival of Lights.

The Jindals participated in the 85th Annual Festival of Lights on Dec. 3 of that year, according to local news sources.

Earlier that year, on Feb. 9, the Jindals were flown in the state police ‘copter to New Orleans to attend the victory parade to celebrate the New Orleans Saints’ Super Bowl championship.

On July 6, 2011, Daniel Kirk, program manager of the Governor’s Program on Abstinence, and Gene Mills, executive director of the Louisiana Family Forum, accompanied Jindal and his press secretary Kyle Plotkin on a jaunt to Monroe and Pineville. No purpose for the trip was provided on the flight logs but Jindal was at the First Baptist Church of West Monroe on that date to sign into law a bill designed to deter women from having abortions.

Mills, you may recall, in 2012 called the issue of school bullying “agenda-driven propaganda” and referred to a bill to prevent bullying as an introduction to “a sexually-charged political agenda” into schools.

We suppose Mills was given a free ride on the state helicopter by virtue of his position, but we can’t help but wonder if he will also offer free rides to all those corporate executives who get those generous tax breaks from the state or if state employees will get the same treatment when Jindal signs a pay raise for civil service workers.

Oh, wait! Sorry, we drifted off into fantasy land there for a moment.

Official trips in the state police helicopters other than routine patrol were significantly fewer than those taken by Jindal.

There were 39 non-patrol state police flights in the ‘copters in 2010 compared to Jindal’s 100 trips. The same was true in 2011 when Jindal took 93 trips and state police administrative personnel recorded only 32 flights.

But in 2012, 2013 and 2014, the numbers evened out considerably. In 2012, for instance, Jindal had use of the helicopters on 34 occasions and LSP administrative personnel took 33 flights. In 2013, it was 39 for Jindal and 40 for LSP personnel. The only year in which LSP personnel used the helicopters more than Jindal was during the first eight months of 2014 when state police took 21 flights compared to only 13 for Jindal.

One of the more curious flight log notations was when state police were needing the helicopter for pursuit of a criminal suspect on December 19, 2013, but Jindal apparently had the craft tied up on a flight to New Orleans.

Flight logs show that Jindal had use of the helicopter from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. and that state police then deployed the aircraft for the pursuit and subsequent felony arrest from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m.

Perhaps Jindal should have gone along on that chase. Then, in addition to running as the fiscal conservative who slashed government spending in Louisiana and as the family values candidate who vetoed anything resembling rights for those of different gender, skin color or lifestyle, he could also run as the straight-up law and order candidate.

He could have even worn that camo clothing he donned for his Christmas card for a much better political photo op.

Posted in Governor's Office, State Police | 4 Comments »

Secretary of State to furlough employees in effort to meet budget cuts ordered by Jindal that are ‘going to be brutal’

January 14, 2015 by tomaswell

It’s a good thing Gov. Bobby Jindal doesn’t have Vince Lombardi as a boss.

Whenever one of his players became prone to fumbling, the legendary coach would make the player carry a football everywhere with him—when he was eating or sleeping or even in the bathroom—as a reminder to hold onto the ball.

Jindal would look silly sillier having to carry a copy of the state budget with him everywhere he went.

But it would be an appropriate punishment for the way he has fumbled the state’s finances throughout his administration. To simply blame falling oil prices is the worst cop-out. He is now into his eighth year in office and he has had a budget crisis every year—and this is the first time since he took office that oil prices have experienced a major drop.

The fact is, Bobby Jindal is simply inept and an embarrassment to the state that has had more than its share of embarrassments.

After sell-offs of state property, privatization of state agencies, wholesale layoffs of state employees, raids on Office of Group Benefits reserve funds, devastating cuts to higher education and health care, and cutting state contracts, we now learn that at least one agency—there most likely will be others to follow—is instituting an employee furlough plan that will result in employees losing about a month’s pay projected over a 12-month period. Hopefully, the furloughs will last only through the end of the fiscal year (June 30).

Secretary of State Tom Shedler announced today (Jan. 14) that yet another proposed $3.8 million mid-year budget cut for his agency by the administration will force the implementation of an agency-wide furlough beginning next week. He said he has been advised to prepare an impact statement to the Division of Administration (DOA) by Friday outlining how the reduction would be facilitated.

“This level of reduction this late in the fiscal year is truly daunting,” Shedler said. “After holding the largest election our state has seen in decades just this past fall, my office’s resources are down to the bone. The administration is asking for us to give up bone marrow and it is extremely painful. You can’t cut enough pens, pencils and travel allowances to get to this number.”

Schedler shared the budget numbers with his senior staff Wednesday morning, telling them that if the Secretary of State’s office receives an executive order calling for the cuts, he will immediately seek Civil Service approval of a furlough to begin next Tuesday (Jan. 20), or soon thereafter.

Once approved, all Secretary of State employees, both classified and unclassified (including Schedler), will be required to take one day off per pay period (state pay periods are every two weeks, meaning that over a full year, employees would be required to take off 26 days, or nearly a full month, without pay) through the rest of the fiscal year.

If the furloughs last only through June 30, that would mean about two weeks’ lost pay to employees, still better than the previous Jindal method of wholesale layoffs.

“Furlough days will be staggered throughout the agency so that office hours can be maintained for the public,” Schedler said.

He said the one-day-per-pay-period furlough plan would produce an anticipated savings of $1.1 million through June 30. The administration has requested $2.6 million in state general funds that otherwise would be used for elections, he said. The remaining balance would be achieved from various savings in operational costs. With primary and runoff elections for governor scheduled for this year, $2.6 million would be a lot for the office to absorb.

“I recognize that this kind of reduction is unsustainable in the long run,” he said. “So, as I have my entire career, I plan to be fiscally responsible. As we await an executive order and Civil Service approval, immediate action was necessary to maximize savings while continuing to look for a more permanent solution if the budget picture does not improve.”

Secretary of State Press Secretary Meg Casper added that some state museums may have to close additional days in order to meet the required spending cuts.

Casper said has not heard how other state agencies will handle the pending executive order from Jindal to reduce spending but an official of one other agency, asked if he knew of the pending executive order, replied, “Oh, yeah. It’s coming…and going to be brutal.”

Of course, as the fiscal crisis worsens in Louisiana, Jindal is nowhere to be found. The last we heard, he was planning to bash Hillary Clinton in a speech in London next week—before returning to his home base of Iowa.

We’re as yet unclear on how the London speech relates to Louisiana’s fiscal woes. Maybe it’s just us, but it seems he was elected governor of Louisiana and should be in Baton Rouge minding the store—especially when it seems the store is going bankrupt.

 

Posted in Budget, DOA, Economy, Elections, Finances, Governor's Office, Jobs, Layoffs, Privatization, Revenue, State Agencies | 13 Comments »

Environmental Compliance head McNeeley once worked for GOP Rep. Luetkemeyer who leads the way in science denial

January 14, 2015 by tomaswell

Loath as we are to beat a dead horse, we keep coming up with more information or our friend Chance McNeely and his appointment as the new $102,000 per year Assistant Secretary of the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ), Office of Compliance.

A couple of our readers googled the 26-year-old wunderkind to see just who he worked for during his stint as a legislative assistant for the U.S House of Representatives and found that he worked for Missouri Republican Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer.

But then another reader googled Luetkemeyer and up popped his web page and what do you suppose the first item on that page?

Never one to keep our readers in suspense, here it is:

Luetkemeyer Introduces Legislation to Combat President’s Global Warming Agenda

Here’s the full text of that announcement which was dated today (Jan. 14):

            “Responding to the president’s pledge to give $3 billion in taxpayer funds to the United Nations’ Green Climate Fund, U.S. Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer’s (MO-03) first piece of legislation he introduced in the 114th Congress would prevent American’s dollars from being used for any of the U.N.’s global warming schemes.

            “‘For far too long, American tax dollars have been sent to the United Nations to produce controversial science and feel-good conferences. Now the president is pledging to pony up billions more to implement these ill-gotten policies,’ Luetkemeyer said. ‘American taxpayers should not foot the bill for an unelected organization that is fraught with waste. The president has already spent an estimated $120 billion on climate change policies since coming to office in 2008. I hope my legislation makes it to the floor quickly to ensure that no future taxpayer dollars are spent to advance the United Nations’ global warming agenda.’

            “Luetkemeyer has introduced legislation since he’s been in Congress to prevent taxpayers’ dollars from being used to fund the UN International Panel on Climate Change, Framework Convention on Climate Change, and the Green Climate Fund.”

http://luetkemeyer.house.gov/

You may recall that Jindal recently referred to Obama as a “science denier.”

Yet the consummate science denier, who ironically enough, just happens to hold a biology degree from Brown University, has appointed a designated science denier to head up compliance for DEQ at just the time when officials are considering lighting a match to 15 million pounds of M6 artillery propellant near Minden.

People who are true scientists were on hand at a meeting last night in Shreveport to warn against the proposed open tray burn, saying that the emissions could spread cancer-causing contaminants from Shreveport to Monroe as well as into southern Arkansas. That would include the city of Magnolia, Ark., less than 20 miles from the Louisiana line and home of Southern Arkansas University.

While opponents of the burn brought scientists with them to warn of the dangers, neither DEQ nor the Environmental Protection Agency saw fit to counter with scientists who could back proponents’ claims that the proposed burn was safe.

The only thing we can say about the decision to appoint someone with such limited experience (read: none) as McNeely who, at best, is said to be a lame duck since word is he plans to resign to enter law school in September, is that Jindal and DEQ Secretary Peggy Hatch have completely lost their minds as well as their moral compasses.

Posted in Congress, DEQ, Ethics, Governor's Office | 3 Comments »

Auctioneer Board attorney Larry Bankston advises denial of inspection of auctioneer files that clearly are public records

January 14, 2015 by tomaswell

By Robert Burns

Special to LouisianaVoice

As many Louisiana Voice readers are aware, I am a former auctioneer and was appointed by Gov. Jindal to the Louisiana Auctioneer Licensing Board (LALB) during the early months of his first term. What I encountered was corruption both on the board itself and among auctioneers in the industry. I sent regular emails to the head of boards and commissions routinely expressing my shock and dismay. In less than two years, Jindal terminated my services, providing no other explanation other than, “things just aren’t working out.”

The next meeting after my termination, I began videotaping auctioneer meetings and have continued to do so to this day. I also have made occasional public records requests to view auctioneer files. My purpose in reviewing those files is that often times consumer complaints are filed and LALB attorney Anna Dow works with the complainant and the auctioneer to work the complaint out.  These solutions, however, are never even referenced to the board itself and even board members themselves are in the dark as to their existence.  Basically, Dow keeps the board members on a “needs to know basis,” and it was my experience as a board member that she deemed me to “need to know” very little. Hence, the only way anyone (board member or member of the public) can know of these complaints and other auctioneer issues is to examine the auctioneers’ files.

Louisiana Association of Professional Auctioneer (LAPA)’s founder and President, Rev. Freddie Lee Phillips, and I have been concerned about the sheer number of such complaints and some troubling details of these “workouts.”  Examples include:  One auctioneer, William Jones,  deceiving the LALB for eight years about his state of residency; National Auctioneer Association (NAA) Hall-of-Famer Keith Babb threatening a complainant against pursuing a complaint against him, and complainant Robert Kite alleging collusion and shill bidding entailing NAA Hall-of-Famer Marvin Henderson and NAA Past-President Joe Wilson. None of this type of information is available anywhere but in auctioneer files. Accordingly, we decided the best thing for us to do is conduct an audit of all auctioneer files. Because the LALB is a one-person office (with the individual almost never actually working in the office but rather working from home), we knew this should be a project extended out over a 2-3 year timeframe so as not to impose too great of a burden on the office.  Accordingly, I made this simple public records request of 12/4/14 for the first 10 files. Material gleaned from the files is incorporated into this indexed webpage of auctioneers having issues with the LALB.

The one-person executive director of the LALB, Sandy Edmonds, balked at the public records requests associated with the project.  Edmonds is the same one who has been cited by the Inspector General’s Office for payroll fraud and lying about it to investigators. Specifically, she reported both to the LALB and the Interior Design Board that she was “on the clock” even though she actually was on vacation. They subpoenaed her cell phone records, after which she refused to answer any more of their questions.

Edmonds is paid $32.67/hour, or $25, 480 for the LALB and $25/hour, or $32,500 for the Interior Design Board ($57,980 total). She received numerous pay raises which Legislative Auditor Daryl Purpera characterized as illegal.

In a meeting on January 3, 2013, Inspector General Lead Investigator Tom Boulton said, “There is no such thing as a performance-based employee.  It’s illegal.” Both he and Inspector General Investigator Rob Chadwick said that they found it inconceivable that the office for both boards (it’s a shared office) is almost never occupied, and both men wanted to know how much rent was being paid for an essentially-unoccupied building.

Purpera, whose office also investigated the work setup, issued this damning report, and referred the whole matter to East Baton Rouge Parish District Attorney Hillar Moore for possible prosecution of Edmonds for payroll fraud. When Vice Chairman James Sims asked what the LALB should do about the Legislative Auditor report, Board Attorney Anna Dow relayed “nothing,” and Edmonds added, “Welcome to politics,” and indicated that Jindal himself said they were not to worry about it and that the board “cannot” recover funds which Edmonds had been overpaid. Board Chairman Tessa Steinkamp said, “We have to follow the Governor.”

Why re-hash old news?  Well, at the LALB meeting of Tuesday, January 15, 2015, Board Attorney (and convicted felon) Larry S. Bankston asked the Board to deny future requests from me and to seek “legal instruction from the court.” Notice how vague he is about the timeframe of the project (i.e. he neglects to inform the board that this is a 2-3 year project.

The board did not respond to Bankston’s request for it to resist my public records requests, but in light of Edmonds’ past employment reports issued by the Inspector General’s Office and the Louisiana Legislative Auditor’s Office, we feel the public has a right to full disclosure about auctioneer problems, and clearly this is a legal requirement Edmunds has no intention of meeting.  She has even insisted that public records requests be subcontracted out to the Attorney General’s Office, which charges $50 per hour for that service.

Just another episode of typical Louisiana political chicanery.

 

Posted in Auditor, Boards, Corruption, Ethics, Governor's Office, Politicians, Public Records, Transparency | 11 Comments »

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