Legislative Auditor Daryl Purpera has already delivered a copy of the much-anticipated audit of the LHA’s operations to District Attorney Mike Harson for possible criminal prosecution. Harson was out of the office Friday and unavailable for comment.
The audit is expected to be made public on the legislative auditor’s website next week and is likely to be critical how LHA managed the federal Disaster Housing Assistance Program and, in particular, Williams' role as a case manager. HUD and FBI investigations into the troubled agency are ongoing.
Williams has declined numerous requests by this paper to speak about his role as a case manager for the federally funded program, which was administered by LHA. Williams and four other case managers were fired in August after an independent audit found that their $37 per hour pay was excessive and that they were each paid for 40 hours of work per week without turning in time sheets or any other documentation for services provided.
Williams’ attorney, Harold Register, declined to comment Friday morning.
KJCB executive J’Nelle Chargois could not be reached to confirm whether Williams will be a guest Monday morning, and we were unable to leave a recorded message because her box was full.
An Independent Weekly investigation has already uncovered overlapping hours Williams claimed to have worked at both UL Lafayette, where he is employed full-time, and for the DHAP. Sources with knowledge of the audit tell The Independent Weekly the investigation uncovered more than 90 overlapping hours between DHAP and UL work.
Williams is expected to claim that the DHAP contract was with his non-profit Lafayette Training and Career Development Inc., not with him, and that some of the hours claimed on the time sheet were worked by his employees. That will be a tough sell, as all time sheets reviewed by this newspaper were signed by Williams, and the LHA’s Jonathan Carmouche, who managed the program, has said in the past that Williams himself was the only person authorized to do the work. Additionally, none of Williams’ employees would have had legal access to the federal database where information on cases was uploaded.
Read more about Williams and the DHAP here and here.
MAY 20 This post by blogger CB Forgotston draws parallels between Gov. Bobby Jindal and two individuals he probably doesn't want to be aligned with: President Obama and former governor Edwin Edwards. CB says Jindal's trying to jack up the debt ceiling (an Obama play, according to CB) and buy votes from GOP leges who normally wouldn't go for that (an Edwards play, CB says).
MAY 20 Here's a post in the Baptist Message from an alumnus of Louisiana College. The author, Larry Burgess, calls on the leadership of the private school to take care of some pressing problems. Physical plant issues are critical and unaddressed, some faculty make so little they need government health care, and there is an atmosphere that does not encourage honest discussion, he writes. It's time to get things back in order, he says.
MAY 20 This post in Gambit tells of a benefit concert scheduled to raise money for the 19 people shot during a Mother's Day second line on Frenchmen Street in NOLA. Among them was Gambit blogger Deb Cotton, who spoke frequently about violence in the city and reported on the city's second line culture. Gambit's foundation, along with other NOLA non-profits, also is selling t-shirts to raise money for the victims.
MAY 20 Blogger Robert Mann is critical of the personal interest some legislators take in their work here, sharing the comments one NOLA solon made in explaining his decision to vote against a bill that would require people to stop discriminating against female workers. His wife might lose some salary, so he was going to have to vote against the equal pay bill, Conrad Appel said. Appel and everyone who heard him should have been ashamed, but they weren't, and that's what is wrong in that building, Mann argues.
MAY 20 American Press columnist Jim Beam writes about the budget again here, urging kudos for the House and its efforts to try to fix the budget as opposed to passing on a flawed and messy rubber-stamped document as it usually does. The Senate already is poo-pooing the effort, but instead Senators should be trying to find a way to improve it as well, Beam argues. He also has some predictions in here from LABI and CABL.
MAY 20 Here's a link to the photo gallery from Tulane's graduation this past weekend. Dr. John and Allen Toussaint played together and received honorary degrees. The Dalai Lama was so entranced by their performance he got up from his seat and walked across the stage to stand next to them. He even participated in a second line with his own personal, saffron-colored umbrella. To the graduates, he urged them to think about creating a peaceful, hopeful life and society.
MAY 20 This Picayune story questions the rhetoric of NOLA officials who say the city, aside from having a "murder problem," is safe. The talking points generally are that the criminals are killing each other, but everything else is OK. The police chief there says that even Lafayette is more dangerous than NOLA. But crime experts interviewed here say that NOLA's numbers indicate one of two things: either people are so used to violence they don't report it, or somebody's "fudging the numbers."
MAY 20 The Advocate's Mark Ballard writes about some of the background maneuvering that took place during the development of budget alternatives in the Legislature. From Rep. Joel Robideaux being called a "tax and spend liberal" to robo-call influence, Ballard lets us in on some of the work that happens behind the scenes but usually doesn't make it into the Advocate's daily coverage of the session.
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