Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Councilman Brandon Shelvin appears to have had a helluva good time at last year’s Bayou Classic — all on LCG’s nickel. By Heather Miller
Picture a three-night stay at a luxury hotel along the river in New Orleans, coupled with the added ambiance of football fanfare that fills the Crescent City every year when rivals Southern and Grambling meet at the Superdome for the Bayou Classic.
If you’ve never experienced that kind of getaway, City-Parish Councilman Brandon Shelvin could tell you about the hot spots to enjoy during this weekend filled with rich tradition for both universities’ scores of fans.
In late November of last year, Shelvin spent three nights at the Hilton Riverside Hotel in New Orleans — all paid for with a Lafayette Consolidated Government-issued credit card in Shelvin’s name, according to City-Parish Council travel records obtained by The Independent Weekly. The reason behind the four-day, three-night trip? Attending the 26th annual Bayou Classic Scholarship Jazz Brunch, an hour-and-a-half Louisiana Legislative Black Caucus event held Nov. 27, the Saturday after the Southern-Grambling match.
In terms of cost, Shelvin’s $900 taxpayer-funded trip with no recorded LCG purpose other than the short brunch could pale in comparison to other council member adventures, such as City-Parish Councilman Don Bertrand’s $2,500 week in Switzerland in October, representing the city with two area state lawmakers at the International Association of Francophone Mayors’ annual conference.
But the District 3 councilman, amid a long list of legal battles stemming from his financial troubles, is one of only two councilmen to possess an LCG credit card — and the only one to have made charges on it for a non-LCG sanctioned trip.
City-Parish Council Chairman Kenneth Boudreaux is the other cardholder on the council, though an Independent Weekly review of council members’ travel charges for the last three months of 2010 showed no irregular charges for Boudreaux or any other members. Boudreaux’s only travel charges were incurred on his trip to the National League of Cities conference in Denver, which also was attended by other councilmen.
So why opt for an LCG credit card instead of the reimbursement system used by other council members?
“I think sometimes it’s a principle issue,” Boudreaux says. “Some individuals probably don’t think they should be available or allowed; some do. To me it’s the simplest thing. It keeps my council business separate from my personal business. Hopefully the person is in a position to properly manage what he or she is doing with it.”
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| City-Parish Councilman Brandon Shelvin, right, has offered no explanation or documentation for why he charged a weekend in New Orleans to local government last November. “Accounting determines what’s acceptable,” says Council Chairman Kenneth Boudreaux, left. |
A resolution passed by the previous council in 2005 actually prohibits council members from possessing their own LCG-issued credit cards. Boudreaux says the resolution has not been amended since then, but maintains that a meeting with the city-parish attorney, the chief financial officer and the former council chairman concluded that changing the language to allow credit cards for council members was not necessary — as long as the outlined travel policies were followed.
Shelvin’s three-night trip violated the council travel policy adopted in 2005, which states that lodging expenses are only reimbursable for the night before a government-related event is scheduled and departure from the activity the day after it concludes. His third night in New Orleans, according to the resolution, should not have been charged to LCG.
The councilman also swiped the card at a Henderson gas station to fuel up for the getaway, representing another minor infraction, according to the travel policy. Fuel prices are reimbursed by submitting mileage for the trip and cannot be charged directly to the card. The council clerk’s office promptly subtracted Shelvin’s inappropriate fuel charges from his per diem meal allowance in the overall expense report.
The finance department reviews the expenditures of LCG-sanctioned trips to ensure they coincide with travel policy, says City Parish CFO Lorrie Toups, but no one on the council or within the administration can approve or deny the expenditures based on the purpose of an elected official’s travel. Say what?
Each council member is allotted $4,000 per year for travel, plus an additional $1,000 a year for conference registration costs, but Boudreaux says out-of-town travel procedure typically calls for accommodations to be booked in advance through the council clerk’s office. It’s unclear whether Shelvin even requested the travel expenses and hotel reservations before heading to New Orleans, or submitted the receipts to LCG after the charges were made. The council clerk’s office declined to answer those questions.
To see how LCG's travel and credit card policies compare with other cities around the state, check out The Independent Weekly's blog, "The road less traveled."
The councilman’s most recent questionable expenses add to an already lengthy list of financial and ethical issues uncovered by The Independent Weekly over the past year (see The Ind’s March 2010 cover story, “The Problem with Brandon Shelvin”). The coverage also cast doubt on whether he met the residency requirements outlined in the parish’s home rule charter when he ran for office in 2007.
“No one council member, even the chairman, controls the behavior, actions or activities of another,” Boudreaux says. “When it comes to approval of travel, that’s between the council members and what they share with the accounting department. Everything’s monitored through our policies on purchases. Accounting determines what’s acceptable; if not, you’re going to be held accountable. I would encourage you to call [Shelvin].”
The Independent Weekly did call Shelvin on his cell phone. When reached, he hung up — again.
JUNE 19 Former Saint Steve Gleason, who is paralyzed by ALS, released a statement Tuesday in response to the Atlanta radio station's skit making fun of him and the disease, this Picayune post reports. What did he say? He said he'd accepted the apology of the DJs who did it, notes that at least the incident has got people talking about ALS, and asks anyone who is burning to take action about it to do so -- by helping him fight ALS.
JUNE 19 Blogger Ian McGibboney takes a look at the Gleason incident in this post. He makes a good argument about the difference between having free speech and being free from consequences for your speech (which none of us is). He also admits that many of us got upset before we listened to the skit -- but lets us know that the reality is far worse than we can imagine. It was the incredibly bad judgment, even more than the actual speech, that probably got those DJs fired, he opines.
JUNE 19 Washington Post blogger Aaron Blake writes about Sen. Guillory's switch to the GOP in this post. He writes what most political watchers in Louisiana know: Guillory was a Republican before he decided to run for the senate seat in a mostly-D St. Landry district, and has switched back now that he plans to run for Lt. Gov. in a mostly-R state. But how come Blake missed Guillory's appearance on a TLC pageant show? Now that is a video we'd like to see. (Again).
JUNE 19 Here's another Washington Post blog post about a Louisiana politician, and it's just plain scathing. Ezra Klein says Jindal's Politico post was "insulting" to the intelligence of voters, and adds that Jindal is personifying the "stupid" he's railed against, by being an "elite" who convinces GOP activists of "things that aren't true." Me-ow.
JUNE 19 Here's Gov. Jindal's post in Politico, in which he asks the GOP to get over losing to Obama (again) and stop "the bedwetting." (Uh, what?) He gives his Republican buddies what is probably a nerd's idea of a coach's motivational talk, which starts with a list of accomplishments that they can't seem to exploit and ending with an absurd description of liberals that sounds like a character treatment for a Fox "News" movie scripted by Gordon Liddy. Sure, he's preaching to the choir, but even the choir's not this gullible.
JUNE 19 Lamar Parmentel read Gov. Jindal's post on Politico, but thinks it was so dumb it probably was published in the wrong paper. This post by Lamar on the Daily Kingfish opines that possibly Jindal's post was destined for the Onion -- because the governor couldn't possibly be serious here. If you listen closely, you can hear the staff of the Kingfish giggling.
JUNE 19 Blogger Robert Mann posts from Turkey, a country he has visited several times in the past few years. Mann gives an interesting overview of the current political and societal climate of the country, which -- if you're living under a rock and don't know -- is experiencing protests and turmoil these days. Mann promises to post as much as he can during his trip, which should be fascinating reading.
JUNE 19 Blogger CB Forgotston says the legislature is keeping the vicious cycle going with its funding of new buildings for the community college/technical college system. Universities across the state need maintenance and improvement on existing buildings, and the solution is to build new buildings at other schools? By the time the bonds are paid off, those buildings will be falling down, too, CB says.
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