The new executive director of the Housing Authority of the City of Opelousas says it could take years to clean up the mess former ED Walter Guillory and his board left behind.
Like it did for the Lafayette Housing Authority, releasing its findings in January, the Louisiana Legislative Auditor reviewed a number of transactions and activities of the HACO under former director Walter Guillory’s stewardship as part of a compliance audit. And it ain’t pretty.
“I’m having a hard time just digesting these figures,” says Joe Ann Tyler, who took over the troubled agency in November 2009, after Guillory — who'd been double dipping as the LHA’s top official — left the Opelousas agency. “It may have taken three or four years to get into this, and it may take us three or four years to get out of it.”
As they did for Lafayette, the legislative auditors call into question the legality of Guillory serving as ED of both agencies, bringing down about $242,000 in salary and benefits. In Opelousas he used a housing rental unit as his office, auditors found, making it unavailable for rental. Particularly troubling for Guillory, who was ED in Opelousas from December 2005 until November 2009, is that he actually resigned in Aug. 1, 2009, but then entered into a consulting agreement with the Opelousas agency. According to the consulting contract, Guillory was to receive $55,000 per year for four years.
Guillory’s company, Housing Consultants LLC, was paid $43,867 for what his attorney, Frank Dawkins, describes as a severance package. The contract, however, had no provision for a severance payout.
When he resigned, Guillory was in the second year of a five-year contract; the contract included no provision for severance but did require a 45-day written notification to the board of the ED’s intention to terminate the contract (Guillory provided that written notice on June 11, 2009). The $43,867 payment is a violation of the Louisiana Ethics Code and may also be a violation of the state constitution because the contract did not call for severance, the auditors note: “Because Mr. Guillory contracted with his former agency within two years following his resignation, Mr. Guillory may have violated state law.” (It’s a similar post-employment provision that should have prevented consultant Greg Gachassin from working on low-income housing projects involving the Lafayette Public Trust Finance Authority after he left the board in late 2009; read “How Gachassin Games the System” here.)
Particularly disturbing in the auditor's findings is the HACO’s defunct home-ownership program. The program was created in anticipation of receiving low-income housing tax credits from the Louisiana Housing Finance Agency, yet those tax credits were never awarded. The HACO borrowed $144,000 (through a bank line of credit rather than obtain Louisiana Bond Commission approval) to buy 10 acres of land from Daniel and Lisa Mistric Jr. and for other expenses related to the development. In total, the housing authority spent $213,744 on the failed project — $88,000 for the land, $52,409 in development costs and $73,335 to a consultant. The HACO contracted with Vital Communications to develop and publicize what was called a “Pilot Program for Homeownership,” paying it $73,335 in monthly installments from December 2006 to October 2009. An addendum to one of the two contracts with Vital indicates one was implemented retroactively, the auditors point out. Vital Communications, like Guillory, used a housing rental unit as its office — both times without HUD’s approval.
The only information The Independent was able to obtain on Vital Communications is that it is located at 708 Evergreen Lane in Opelousas and also has done business as La Bonne Vie LLC; neither is registered with the Secretary of State. Its contact person is Tibberly G. Richard, whom state records indicate is director of the Louisiana Institute on Poverty Initiative and is president of the St. Landry Public Assistance Corp., two non-profits.
Like most other contracts the auditors reviewed, there was no competitive process involved in Vital’s contract. Also, auditors discovered that many contract employees were hired without written contracts.
Other key findings involved the HACO’s failed attempt to organize its own police force, buying five 2009 Dodge Chargers for $103,515 and spending another $127,558 for equipment. The state auditors also delved deeper into the band debacle uncovered by an independent audit of the agency, in which the HACO spent $88,000 to create a community band and another $36,495 on musical instruments and $3,800 on a bus. Again, none of these purchases or the contracts to hire band development program employees, who were paid $10-$30 per hour, was competitively bid. To date, 71 musical instruments remain missing from the defunct program.
“I think they just lost perspective,” Tyler says of Guillory and his board. “Their priorities were not in place.”
Two HACO board members who were present during Guillory's tenure, Mary Doucet and Linda Prudhomme, are still on the board. Three others are new. Read the full report here.
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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