Hundley resigned as chief of police last month, shortly after a grand jury indicted him on three counts related to surreptitiously intercepting oral communications within the police department ("The Rise and Fall of Randy Hundley," JULY 12). He and three other officers are scheduled for arraignment July 18.
In his letter, Hundley claims city administrators and his detractors within the department conspired to force his resignation. He says he is innocent of the criminal charges he is facing; the charges stem from a complaint filed with the district attorney's office in March by Hundley's secretary, Jeanette Luque. Hundley says Chief Administrative Officer Dee Stanley told him that if he retired, the state police investigation into Luque's complaint would "go away." Stanley called the allegation "ludicrous," noting that he cannot order state police to halt an investigation.
Hundley also writes that an FBI probe of the bugging allegations ' conducted prior to the state police investigation ' found that no laws were violated and that the charges were part of a "political ploy to remove me from office."
If the civil service board grants Hundley's request, it would be a first. Because Hundley is now retired and no longer a civil service employee, the board may not have jurisdiction to rule on his appeal. Hundley's letter cites two Louisiana laws (which either do not exist or were incorrectly noted) related to coerced retirements. Fire and Police Civil Service Board Chairman Jason Boudreaux could not be reached for comment.
Hundley has already cashed a $38,000 check of retirement benefits to pay attorney's fees and wrote that he is motivated by his concern for community safety. "With the increase in criminal activity in our city under the current administration," he says, "I am concerned for the citizens of my city and am anxious to resume my post to combat the criminal elements plaguing our community."
So Hundley's now blaming increased crime on Joey Durel? Or is that a shot at interim chief Jim Craft? However you slice it, the whole saga's only getting more bizarre.
MAY 21 Gambit columnist Clancy DuBos writes about the Mother's Day shooting, and how the stages of shock and blame and healing mirror those traveled by the same city following Hurricane Katrina. The city will recover, just as it did following the storm, by reaching out to help the people injured most seriously by the event, DuBos writes. It's how we heal, he says.
MAY 21 Here's a post on the Advocate (but buried on a subpage, not on the front) that reports something Louisiana Voice reported some time ago: a top DOE official lives in Los Angeles and "commutes" to Baton Rouge. The positioning of the story caused a stir on Facebook Monday, with several posters asking if the Advocate was covering someone's hiney. Sentell's stories on DOE are notoriously soft, and this one is no different: don't expect any hard questions in here.
MAY 21 Here's another post from blogger Tom Aswell about the "course choice" program. He's already reported on kids being signed up without their consent or knowledge, and has more here: For example, he tells of a six-year-old who was signed up for high school Latin. He also digs a little deeper into the sister companies of the main one operating in Louisiana; all of them seem to have complaints against them. Stinky.
MAY 21 Given the 80 percent cut in higher ed funding since he's been in office, it's clear Gov. Jindal would rather give tax cuts to out of state companies than have a functioning system, blogger Dayne Sherman argues in this post. The cuts have been such a disaster, Sherman says, that it will take 30 years to fix what's been broken. He says he believes the aim is to shut down most of the schools before Jindal leaves in 2016.
MAY 21 Blogger CB Forgotston says there are too many elections in Louisiana, and they're costing us too much money. The proof is in the pudding: turnout for most of these nonsensical pollings gets worse and worse, CB opines, even as millions of dollars that could be spent on health care or higher ed go down the tubes. The legislature must take action to stem the tide of pointless elections, he says.
MAY 21 Here's an interesting investigative piece by WVUE on the retirement benefits of some Jefferson Parish public employees. According to the story, the taxpayers are paying 100 percent of the retirement contributions of employees who started work prior to a certain date in April 1986 -- and have done for more than 30 years. It costs the parish millions annually, and might not be legal, the story reports.
MAY 21 This post on Bayou Buzz provides insight from Louisiana's intrepid pollster, Bernie Pinsonat, on the winners and losers from this year's legislative session. But to hear Bernie tell it, there's almost nuttin but losers: Jindal, the Republican party, the Fiscal Hawks all get big goose eggs in his win column.
MAY 20 This post on The Lens takes a look at a huge (either $500K or $250K) bill that one NOLA charter now has for school lunches. The RSD says the charter group didn't fill out the proper paperwork for federal reimbursement, but the story details how the RSD didn't ensure the people running the charter had the proper training, despite requests from hapless charter employees trying to fill out forms. Either way, somebody's asleep at the wheel.
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