The Lafayette Housing Authority audit delivered to 15th Judicial District Attorney Mike Harson in mid-January could be in front of a grand jury next month.
Harson told The Independent Weekly Thursday morning that he plans to let a grand jury decide if criminal charges should be pursued, possibly some time in February. “I think the public will prefer that,” he said. The state’s legislative auditor began a probe of the LHA’s operations in August and publicly released its troubling findings on Jan. 17. An ongoing federal investigation is being conducted by the FBI and U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s inspector general.
Harson said he is still reviewing the audit for possible violations of state law and declined to comment specifically on the red flags raised in the state’s review. “They have several issues,” he said, noting primarily the excessive (my word, not his) salary and raises for former Executive Director Walter Guillory, who was earning $186,000 (plus an estimated 26,000 in fringe benefits) when he resigned from the LHA in late October, having been given a $55,000 raise by the board of commissioners in late 2009 — about the time he was leaving the Opelousas Housing Authority. He was paid $80,000 a year to also serve as executive director in Opelousas when he was making $150,300 from the LHA — where at the time he got another $26,000 in fringe benefits, including a $5,000 business/clothing allowance and $19,000 in medical insurance premiums. When he was doing double duty, his salary alone from both agencies reached $242,000, the auditors noted. The Opelousas agency is also now under investigation.
State auditors said the LHA's management was unable to provide any documentation that Guillory received performance evaluations before his salary was increased or that the full board of commissioners ever approved the raises.
Another area of interest for Harson was money paid to Disaster Housing Assistance Program case managers, among whom was former Lafayette City-Parish Councilman Chris Williams. Auditors found 91 hours that overlapped between Williams' jobs at UL (where he works full-time and also teaches part-time) and his DHAP work. Williams' answer: He's not Superman — Employees of his nonprofit did the DHAP work. The problem with that explanation is everyone at LHA believed Williams was doing the work, and he was unable to tell state investigators which of his employees worked on the program and when. He has no such records.
Additionally, the audit notes instances where LHA employees or immediate family members appeared to have entered into contractual relationships with housing authority (in likely violation of state law), questions the use of state grant funds and credit cards and points out possible violations of U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development guidelines in hiring professional service vendors. The latter issues will be taken up by the feds.
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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