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| Chris Williams |
Former Lafayette City-Parish Councilman Chris Williams has filed suit against the Lafayette Housing Authority seeking back wages, penalties and attorney’s fees. The suit, filed late last week in state district court in Lafayette, accuses the LHA of breach of contract between the federally funded housing agency and Williams’ non-profit Lafayette Training and Career Development Center, Inc., which was hired in January of 2008 by the LHA to provide training to Hurricane Katrina evacuees through the federal Disaster Housing Assistance Program.
Williams, through the LTCDC, was initially hired at a rate of $16.08 per hour working 80 hours bi-weekly for a $1,286 paycheck every two weeks plus a $300 car allowance. The contract was renewed in December of that year to extend until March 31, 2010, increasing Williams’ hourly take to $30 and his bi-weekly paycheck to $3,260 — this while Williams was working a full-time job in the Special Services Department at UL Lafayette.
Williams’ herculean work load — simultaneous “full-time” jobs — was brought to light as a result of an independent audit on the LHA, an audit that led state and federal officials to investigate DHAP. In August of 2010, as the LHA saga spiralled out of control — its top executives would soon resign their positions amid intense federal scrutiny and unflattering media coverage — the agency terminated DHAP and canned Williams.
Williams claims in his suit that in the spring of 2010, the LHA extended DHAP through October of that year and that Williams “consented to the extension and Williams and LTCDC continued to provide case manager services for LHA,” according to the suit, although the lawsuit makes no claim that Williams and his non-profit had a contractual relationship with the housing authority beyond March 31, 2010.
Williams cites a clause in the contract with LHA stipulating that the housing agency was required to give him 30 days notice for terminating the DHAP contract.
For more on the Williams-LHA case, click 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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