Attorneys for Redflex Traffic Systems, the vendor for camera traffic enforcement programs in Lafayette and Baker, have filed a slew of legal challenges to a ruling last week from the Louisiana State Board of Private Investigator Examiners. At a May 13th hearing, the LSBPIE ruled that Redflex’s SafeSpeed program van operators are acting as private investigators and therefore must be licensed under state regulations. On Friday afternoon, Redflex filed a motion for judicial review asking the 19th District court to rescind the ruling. “We’re not doing P.I. work,” says Redflex attorney Max Kees. “And we’re not holding ourselves out to offer our services to the public. We offer services only to governmental bodies.” Kees says the LSBPIE took the position that by contracting with representative governments, Redflex was thereby offering services to the public. “Well, I respectfully disagree with that position,” Kees says. This morning, a 19th Judicial District Judge ordered that the LSBPIE's ruling be stayed, pending court review. Redflex is continuing to operate its SafeSpeed vans.
In addition, Redflex has also filed a lawsuit against the LSBPIE alleging that its ruling was made in a closed executive session, in violation of the state’s open meetings law. The suit alleges three violations of the sunshine law, stating that the board never held a public vote, went into executive session for the purpose of deliberations, and conducted a secret ballot. Redflex attorney Charles Patin says that when he inquired as to the purpose of the executive session at the meeting, board member and hearing officer Paula Clayton, an attorney, stated that it was for deliberations. Patin also says he has an unofficial transcript from the meeting’s court reporter confirming this. Reached this morning, the board’s executive director Pat Englade says that no official transcripts or minutes are available yet from the meeting. “The board went into executive session toward the end of the hearing to discuss some legal issues,” he says. “But the meeting was all held as a public hearing.” Englade qualified his answer by noting he is not a board member and was not present throughout the entire meeting. He could not recall whether the board held a public vote. In its suit, Redflex is seeking the max $100 penalty for each of the three alleged open meetings violations – a $300 fine for each the five board members present at the meeting.
The P.I. board first took up the Redflex issue last year, after a complaint from Lafayette resident Denise Skinner. Redflex then obtained a Temporary Restraining Order from the 19th District Court that prevented the P.I. board from holding a hearing over whether it could issue a Cease and Desist order to Redflex. That restraining order was then modified to allow the P.I. board to hold a hearing solely on whether it had jurisdiction over Redflex. Attorney Kees says the board went beyond that legal authority at its recent hearing. “The temporary restraining order allowed them to have a meeting for one purpose only,” he says, “to determine jurisdiction. They went beyond that one purpose. They said, 'yes we have jurisdiction and so therefore you have to be licensed as a P.I.'”
MAY 24 Blogger Robert Mann posts this entry about the Baton Rouge Chamber's recent report on Louisiana's higher education system. It's critical to economic development, and yet our system is facing a "funding crisis" with no way to resolve it, the report says. The Chamber says control of tuition and fees must be returned to the higher ed governing boards.
MAY 24 Here's a NBC33 story about Tyrann Mathieu. He has signed with the Arizona Cardinals, inking a $3 million, four-year deal. He gets a signing bonus of $265K, but gets another, larger bonus if he doesn't get cut from the team for doing drugs. The deal reportedly includes mandatory tests and meetings for the player.
MAY 24 Jarvis DeBerry posts here about the redonkulus rhetoric that would have us believe NOLA is a safe city with a murder problem. Maybe the city's crime stats don't compare with its murder stats because you can't manipulate a murder, he says: a dead body's a dead body. It just doesn't make sense, he says, and his readers agree: a poll asks if they believe the city is safe, and more than 90 percent say no.
MAY 24 Jindal administration officials announced Thursday that the privatization of public health care is going to cost a lot more than they budgeted for, the Advocate reports here. "I'm so surprised," said no one. Anywhere. The cost they're projecting now is more than $1 billion - a lot more than the $626 million budgeted for it. And, it's more than it cost the state to operate those hospitals. So why are we doing this again?
MAY 24 Blogger CB Forgotston ridicules the recent PR campaign by the state GOP in the wake of a legislative auditor's request to both major parties. The GOP (apparently unaware that the Dems got the same request) started yammering about being targeted because it had "killed" a tax increase. CB finds that laughable, but it's also pretty funny that the GOP was comparing this episode to the IRS scandal (Because the President has so much to do with our state auditor. Right?).
MAY 24 Politico details some recent fund-raising efforts by Sen. David Vitter, which have raised the question of his future political plans. This time, it is a $5,000 per head "bayou weekend" that includes "Cajun cooking" and an all-caps "alligator hunt," the story reports. Funds raised go to a super PAC that can spend money to support Vitter in federal or state races, the story points out.
MAY 24 The pink building on Royal in the quarter was sold at a sheriff's sale Thursday, this Picayune story reports. An injunction that would have halted the sale wasn't enforced because the family failed to post a $150,000 bond, the story reports. So the owner of the mortgages on the building bought it, for nearly $7 million. Now the feuding family will have to negotiate with that company to get a lease on the building that has housed their business for close to 60 years.
MAY 23 This post in Louisiana Voice tells us about a bill by a Winnsboro lege that would require all public high school students to take at least one Course Choice online class in order to graduate. (What?) Blogger Tom Aswell says it's a monument to "waste and corruption," especially in light of the problems he's exposed with the program in recent weeks. Idaho had a similar program, but voters removed it by a 2-1 margin, Aswell says.
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