Daniel Stanford, the Lafayette Housing Authority’s attorney, says he was notified by LHA Executive Director Walter Guillory that the Disaster Housing Assistance Program case managers fired in August say they were improperly discharged, in that they were not given the 30 days’ written notice required by their contracts. They contend they are owed for 30 days of work — which would amount to $5,920 plus $600 in car allowance for each of them.
But there’s a glitch.
After repeated public records request for the DHAP case managers’ current contracts in the wake of their firings, The Independent Weekly received this statement from LHA Deputy Director Jonathan Carmouche Aug. 27: “Because of the continual extensions of the DHAP-Ike/Gustave [sic] program and the recurrent needs of the families, time did not permit to update the contracts with each extension.” The contracts, it turns out, all expired earlier this year without having been renewed.
“The one who is really pushing the issue is Porsha Evans,” Stanford says, though it’s his understanding the other four case managers also want to be reimbursed. The case managers were fired by the LHA board in a special meeting Aug. 13. Their terminations came on the heels of a critical independent audit of the LHA, which pointed out several problems with how the housing authority was administering and managing the Department of Housing and Urban Development/FEMA housing program, which was designed to help families displaced by hurricanes. At the time, Guillory told the board HUD officials had pored over the program for three days and were unhappy with “the files, the record-keeping. The conclusion is we were not satisfied with that, as far as the record-keeping of the program.”
But The Independent Weekly's review of the program, along what the auditors found, revealed much more than just sloppy record-keeping. Over the past 2.5 years, the DHAP case managers’ pay increased from about $11 an hour to $37; each was paid for 40 hours of work and got a $600 monthly car allowance without turning in time sheets or any other records noting the work the were doing. What’s more, some had additional jobs in the community. In the case of former Lafayette City-Parish Councilman Chris Williams, he had at least one other full-time job at UL Lafayette and even billed the program while he was teaching a class at the university. Others working the DHAP were Charlie Esie, Linda Jefferson and Myra Parker.
The auditors also noted that Carmouche, who was in charge of the DHAP, was himself getting a piece of the DHAP action, inspecting homes in the program “on Saturdays” for $75 a pop. Carmouche, who earns $85,000 a year, got an extra $20,000 from the LHA for inspecting homes in 2009 and had already been paid $11,300 when he stopped conducting inspections this year after the audit.
The auditors further noted that rent reasonableness documentation in the case managers' files, if it was in the file, appeared to be fabricated and that some of files themselves had zero supporting documents. That audit prompted a visit from the Louisiana Legislative Auditor and led to a federal investigation of the LHA, which is ongoing; HUD officials are now working alongside LHA management to address the problems.
At the time the case managers were fired, Guillory explained that the residents on the program would continue to be serviced by the LHA’s existing staff. The program, which had an annual budget of $1.8 million, was slated to expire Oct. 31 but has once again been extended.
Evans, who confirms she has written to the housing authority seeking 30 days of pay, says while the contracts themselves were not renewed, she is confident that HUD’s earlier extension of the program while they were still working as case managers was also an extension of her contract. Evans, who maintains she worked tirelessly for her clients, says she has consulted with an attorney and plans to pursue legal action if necessary. She declined to name her attorney.
“We were sent amendments to the contract,” says Evans, whose real name is Beatrice Wilson. “The amendments came, actually, from HUD.”
That’s not the way Stanford sees it.
The most recent contract for Evans (though each differs slightly) had an effective date of Aug. 1, 2009, through March 31, 2010, the attorney explains. The contract’s “duration” clause stated that the contract would be effective through March 31 of this year “or the date of the termination of the DHAP funding if earlier.” That contract could have been renewed 45 days prior to March 31, approximately Feb. 15, with the consent of both parties.
“That did not happen,” Stanford says.
The “termination” clause states that the LHA shall provide the DHAP worker with written notice of termination 30 days prior to the effective date and shall specify “the nature, extent, and effective date of termination.” Because the contract was not current, the clause does not apply, according to Stanford. He says after March 31 the DHAP workers were operating as independent contractors without a contract and subject to termination at any time, with or without cause.
On Oct. 15 Stanford notified the LHA staff in writing that only the LHA board can take up the matter (three of whose members, ironically, have filed legal action to get their posts back; they were dismissed by City-Parish President Joey Durel a few days after they fired the DHAP workers). However, the board itself appears to have little power to make a decision on whether the case managers are owed any money, as HUD this week made it crystal clear the board cannot approve a single penny of expenditures without its authorization.
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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Daniel Stanford, the Lafayette Housing Authority’s attorney, says he was notified by LHA Executive Director Walter Guillory that the Disaster Housing Assistance Program case managers fired in August say they were improperly discharged, in that they were not given the 30 days’ written notice required by their contracts. They contend they are owed for 30 days of work — which would amount to $5,920 plus $600 in car allowance for each of them.
But there’s a glitch.
After repeated public records request for the DHAP case managers’ current contracts in the wake of their firings, The Independent Weekly received this statement from LHA Deputy Director Jonathan Carmouche Aug. 27: “Because of the continual extensions of the DHAP-Ike/Gustave [sic] program and the recurrent needs of the families, time did not permit to update the contracts with each extension.” The contracts, it turns out, all expired earlier this year without having been renewed.
“The one who is really pushing the issue is Porsha Evans,” Stanford says, though it’s his understanding the other four case managers also want to be reimbursed. The case managers were fired by the LHA board in a special meeting Aug. 13. Their terminations came on the heels of a critical independent audit of the LHA, which pointed out several problems with how the housing authority was administering and managing the Department of Housing and Urban Development/FEMA housing program, which was designed to help families displaced by hurricanes. At the time, Guillory told the board HUD officials had pored over the program for three days and were unhappy with “the files, the record-keeping. The conclusion is we were not satisfied with that, as far as the record-keeping of the program.”
But The Independent Weekly's review of the program, along what the auditors found, revealed much more than just sloppy record-keeping. Over the past 2.5 years, the DHAP case managers’ pay increased from about $11 an hour to $37; each was paid for 40 hours of work and got a $600 monthly car allowance without turning in time sheets or any other records noting the work the were doing. What’s more, some had additional jobs in the community. In the case of former Lafayette City-Parish Councilman Chris Williams, he had at least one other full-time job at UL Lafayette and even billed the program while he was teaching a class at the university. Others working the DHAP were Charlie Esie, Linda Jefferson and Myra Parker.
The auditors also noted that Carmouche, who was in charge of the DHAP, was himself getting a piece of the DHAP action, inspecting homes in the program “on Saturdays” for $75 a pop. Carmouche, who earns $85,000 a year, got an extra $20,000 from the LHA for inspecting homes in 2009 and had already been paid $11,300 when he stopped conducting inspections this year after the audit.
The auditors further noted that rent reasonableness documentation in the case managers' files, if it was in the file, appeared to be fabricated and that some of files themselves had zero supporting documents. That audit prompted a visit from the Louisiana Legislative Auditor and led to a federal investigation of the LHA, which is ongoing; HUD officials are now working alongside LHA management to address the problems.
At the time the case managers were fired, Guillory explained that the residents on the program would continue to be serviced by the LHA’s existing staff. The program, which had an annual budget of $1.8 million, was slated to expire Oct. 31 but has once again been extended.
Evans, who confirms she has written to the housing authority seeking 30 days of pay, says while the contracts themselves were not renewed, she is confident that HUD’s earlier extension of the program while they were still working as case managers was also an extension of her contract. Evans, who maintains she worked tirelessly for her clients, says she has consulted with an attorney and plans to pursue legal action if necessary. She declined to name her attorney.
“We were sent amendments to the contract,” says Evans, whose real name is Beatrice Wilson. “The amendments came, actually, from HUD.”
That’s not the way Stanford sees it.
The most recent contract for Evans (though each differs slightly) had an effective date of Aug. 1, 2009, through March 31, 2010, the attorney explains. The contract’s “duration” clause stated that the contract would be effective through March 31 of this year “or the date of the termination of the DHAP funding if earlier.” That contract could have been renewed 45 days prior to March 31, approximately Feb. 15, with the consent of both parties.
“That did not happen,” Stanford says.
The “termination” clause states that the LHA shall provide the DHAP worker with written notice of termination 30 days prior to the effective date and shall specify “the nature, extent, and effective date of termination.” Because the contract was not current, the clause does not apply, according to Stanford. He says after March 31 the DHAP workers were operating as independent contractors without a contract and subject to termination at any time, with or without cause.
On Oct. 15 Stanford notified the LHA staff in writing that only the LHA board can take up the matter (three of whose members, ironically, have filed legal action to get their posts back; they were dismissed by City-Parish President Joey Durel a few days after they fired the DHAP workers). However, the board itself appears to have little power to make a decision on whether the case managers are owed any money, as HUD this week made it crystal clear the board cannot approve a single penny of expenditures without its authorization.
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