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| Councilman Brandon Shelvin |
[Update: SB 195 passed the full Senate unanimously and has been assigned to the House & Governmental Affairs Committee.]
Among the roughly three dozen bills the state Senate will consider when it convenes at 4 p.m. Tuesday is a proposal by state Sen. Lydia Jackson, D-Shreveport, that could have implications for Lafayette City-Parish Councilman Brandon Shelvin, assuming he seeks re-election this fall.
Jackson’s Senate Bill 195, if passed into law, would require that a person running for office in Louisiana cannot qualify to run until all outstanding fines levied by the Louisiana Ethics Board are paid in full. Among the many hundreds of people on the board’s website identified as owing collectively hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines is Shelvin, who, according to the board, was fined $2,000 in 2007 in connection with his successful bid for the District 3 council seat but has only ponied up $100 toward settling his debt; Shelvin still owes the board — and by extension Louisiana taxpayers — $1,900. The councilman was fined, according to the website, for failing to file a supplemental campaign finance report.
Shelvin’s financial woes have been well chronicled by this newspaper over the last couple of years. He has been the target of numerous lawsuits, typically for defaulting on bank loans. Read more about that here, here and here.
SB 195 has already cleared the Senate & Governmental Affairs Committee. If the full Senate approves it, the bill would then move to the House.
Also listed on the Ethics Board’s website as owing fines for filing campaign finance reports late are Marcus Allen and Chris Obafunwa; both were primary election candidates in the 2003 election for Lafayette city-parish president — an election Joey Durel won in a runoff. According the board, Allen owes $4,240; Obafunwa is on the hook for $1,800. Neither has made any payments to the board to resolve the debt.
The fines levied against Shelvin, Obafunwa and Allen pale in comparison to many other candidates, notably former Orleans Parish School Board member and perpetual office seeker Jimmy Fahrenholtz, who owes more than $31,000 in fines. JoAnn Gines, a Shreveport attorney and former unsuccessful candidate for district judge, owes more than $23,000 dating all the way back to 1994.
JUNE 17 If anyone ever wonders why Saints fans hate Atlanta with a capital H, here's a good indication. Radio "professionals" at an Atlanta station created an entire segment around making fun of former Saints player Steve Gleason, who is now paralyzed by ALS. Listen, nobody's ever accused DJs of being rocket scientists. But how could someone think it is amusing to pretend to ask a man with a degenerative, fatal disease if he will be alive next week? The DJs have been fired, and are now whining about how gutless their former bosses are. Wow.
JUNE 18 Here's the latest from the Advocate on the fatal hit-and-run accident allegedly involving the president of the Livingston Parish School Board. He's accused by police of hitting a 21-year-old man on a highway early Sunday and driving away. The man died at a hospital later. On Monday, police seized the president's truck and towed it away. But he's available for board meetings: apparently a $500 bond is sufficient for this type of thing over in St. Helena Parish.
JUNE 18 Former broadcast journalist Griffin Scott has posted this plea on his blog for financial assistance from his readers. Scott, who says he was fired after he wrote something fairly innocuous (for Facebook) on his wall, is suing a media giant for his job back. He's framed himself as David going after a bloated media giant, and he's probably not far off.
JUNE 18 Here's a fairly absurd column posted on DIG Magazine about the completely absurd practice of naming killer storms. Tornadoes don't have names. Blizzards don't have names. But hurricanes do, and there's a big process to bestow them, Jacques Cormery writes. He's right about the crazy assemblage of names -- this year, there's everything from Tanya to Humberto -- and his idea that we don't waste good names on killer storms is a good one.
JUNE 17 Political columnist John Maginnis has some advice for Louisiana Republicans: grow up. After the schism that occurred in this past session - fiscal hawks teaming up with Democrats to spank the Republican "majority" and hand Gov. Jindal his, er, aspirations for continued solon control -- they need to figure out how to get along with each other, Maginnis writes.
JUNE 17 Here's the Picayune's obit story for Dorothy 'Miss Dot' Domilise, the lady who made poboys at the uptown restaurant that bears her name. Miss Dot moved to New Orleans during World War II, where she met and married her husband Sam. When she passed away Friday she was 90, and had spent more than 60 of those years working at the restaurant on Annunciation Street.
JUNE 17 This editorial in the Advocate speaks in favor of the consent decrees that have federal judges overseeing police operations and the sheriff's parish prison in New Orleans. Mayor Landrieu and Sheriff Gusman can't get along, so outside forces, like the Inspector General and the judges, are needed to make sure things run right, the editorial opines.
JUNE 18 Here's a post from Manny Schewitz on Forward Progressives that is good for a chuckle. Manny had an epiphany back in November, and is sharing it with us today: he believes that Fox "News" is killing the GOP by pandering to right wing nuts. Now, don't get it twisted: Manny's not broke up about it. He says he enjoys watching the downward spiral with a shot of whiskey and "a schadenfreude chaser."
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