[Editor's Note: This story has been updated to reflect new information that Gachassin also signed as a witness on another AOC property transaction in May 2009].
Development consultant Greg Gachassin stands to make almost $1 million on the controversial downtown housing development Joie de Vivre, a project partially funded by the Lafayette Public Trust Financing Authority. The LPTFA’s once-limited involvement, however, has changed in recent weeks, as the public trust is set to take over the entire $16.5 million project from the beleaguered Acadiana Outreach Center. Court records reveal that when he was chairman of the board of trustees for the LPTFA in May 2009, Gachassin appeared at the signing for the sale of 119 Olivier St. and 123 Olivier St. in Mills Addition to Urban Ventures, a limited liability corporation that was buying property on behalf of Acadiana Outreach. At that time, Acadiana Outreach was in the early stages of planning the low-income downtown apartment project Joie de Vivre.
Gachassin signed the property transactions on two separate days, May 11 and May 13, as a witness, presumably present due to his affiliation with LPTFA, which provided a $1 million loan to Acadiana Outreach to purchase some of the properties. Or was he already working for Outreach? Therein lies the potential conflict of interest.
At some point after that property purchase, and well shy of two years since his resignation from the LPTFA board, Acadiana Outreach officially contracted with Gachassin as the project consultant.
His appearance at the May 2009 signing reveals that he had an inside track on Acadiana Outreach’s plans and did not wait the mandatory two years before getting financially involved in a project financed by the very public agency for which he had just served. Created in 1979, the public trust's original documents note that it is subject to the “Public Contracts Law, Public Records Law, Public Meetings Law, Code of Ethics and the Bond Validation Procedures Law."
And, according to Louisiana Code of Ethics: “No legal entity in which the former public servant is an officer, director, trustee, partner or employee shall, for a period of two years following the termination of the public servant’s service, assist another person, for compensation, in a transaction, or in an appearance in connection with a transaction in which the former public servant participated at any time during his public service and which involves the agency with which he was formerly employed or in which he formerly held office.”
That restriction involves a broad range of proceedings: application, submission, request for a ruling or other determination, contract, claim, case, or other matter that the public servant or former public servant knows or should know is the subject of action by the governmental entity, or is one to which the governmental entity is or will be a party.
At least two Lafayette residents have filed formal ethics complaints against Gachassin, and his own attorney, former Ethics Board Chief Administrator Gray Sexton, confirmed to the The Independent that an investigation is under way.
Up until this point, Gachassin’s potential conflicts of interest appeared limited to Cypress Trails Apartments, an LPTFA project he orchestrated and took over less than a month after his Nov. 17, 2009, resignation as its chair, and Villa Gardens, a single-family residential development partially funded by LPTFA while he was on the board. All three of the aforementioned projects — along with a fourth, Villas at Angel Point — were awarded highly competitive low-income housing tax credits from the Louisiana Housing Finance Agency, another public board Gachassin served on from January 2005 to October 2007. Read more about all of those projects here.
Records from the Louisiana Housing Finance Agency indicate that Gachassin’s fee on Cypress Trails, Villa Gardens and Villas at Angel Point was a combined $1.5 million. Joie de Vivre has a development fee of $1.9 million, which Gachassin will split with the agency he once chaired.
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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