Current News Items
Lafayette’s Downtown Shakedown
If Anita Begnaud has her preference, you’ll never find out that smack in the middle of Festival International she’ll be asking downtown for a fifteen-year, fifty-percent (for now) property tax hike. If approved, the new tax will collect $447,840. However, a whopping ninety-five percent (95%) of that money, will be going to pay “operational expenses,” such as salaries and operations; with the lion’s share (96%) of that going straight to employee compensation.
SUNSHINE WEEK – SHERIFFS AND LOCAL LAW ENFORCEMENT AGENCIES
The response to our Sunshine Week requests from Sheriff Offices in particular was tepid. One Sheriff in response to our requests for records claimed it was deficient because they don’t accept “electronic” requests. Another Sheriff, through his lawyer, refused to process our request which he admitted was directed to and received by the Sheriff. His reason? We did not “initiate a public records request” in accordance with the Sheriff’s policies and procedures. Other Sheriffs demanded that payment be made whether we purchased the records or just conducted an in-person inspection. I guess when you are the Sheriff you can flat out ignore or refuse to answer requests. After all, if a Sheriff gets sued, it will be the taxpayers on the hook for his defense.
SUNSHINE WEEK – SCHOOL SYSTEMS
Public education has again become a topic of interest for many parents in the state. The indoctrination of children with revisionist history and Marxist ideations, such as Critical Race Theory is alarming to parents. Despite the Legislature, State Superintendent of Education and State Board of Elementary and Secondary Education being ultimately responsible for the operation of the public education system it is most likely that your greatest influence will occur at the local level.
SUNSHINE WEEK – DISTRICT ATTORNEYS
While most District Attorneys were cooperative with our endeavor to seek out and evaluate public documents there is one worthy of mention. Upon receipt of our requests one District Attorney indicated: “Our office requires you personally appear to request records.” When questioned about the statutory authority and asked to provide the appropriate response he replied: “I’m not your law clerk. Look it up.”
SUNSHINE WEEK – REGISTRARS OF VOTERS
With all the recent talk regarding “election integrity,” a need to investigate and prosecute election fraud, as well as pushes for election reform, the Registrar of Voters offices seemed like a good place to probe. However, almost universally our requests to each of the sixty-four parish Registrar of Voters offices were rebuffed by a standard form letter response.
SUNSHINE WEEK – DISTRICT AND MUNICIPAL COURTS
Reports of luxurious automobiles and other abnormal expenditures by Lafayette City Court Judge Douglas Saloom from the judicial account led us to launch an investigation late last year. Shortly thereafter Judge Saloom retained counsel and even though our investigation is ongoing we do know that the disposition of judicial fees has also been under scrutiny by Lafayette Consolidated Government. Coupled with the use of judicial funds by Lafayette City Court Judges to pay for staff meetings, which included alcohol at fine dining establishments such as Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse, attendance at several conferences a year including remote destinations such as Canada, purchasing in-home security equipment and establishing the “Saloom Art Gallery” at Lafayette City Court, we were interested in knowing if Lafayette City Court was the only safe haven of judicial luxury. Sunshine week was an opportune time to explore whether these types of expenditures were being made by other Judges across the state.
SUNSHINE WEEK
Good Morning Sunshine! It’s your week. Citizens for a New Louisiana is celebrating national Sunshine Week and continuing on our mission of government transparency and accountability by reporting on the outcome of thousands of public records requests issued last month.
Glover Termination Upheld – What we have here is a failure to investigate
This evening, the Lafayette Police and Fire Civil Service Board upheld the termination of former Lafayette Chief of Police, Thomas Glover. Testimony regularly referred to findings from the months-long research work of Citizens for a New Louisiana. It was that research that established a pattern, practice and custom of former Chief Glover to fail to adequately and properly investigate allegations of employee misconduct.
BREAKING: Lafayette quietly removes spoil levee from St Martin Parish
Lafayette Consolidated Government recently carried out clandestine engineering operations inside St. Martin Parish. It may not have been by dark of night that Lafayette sent over an engineering team to remove a levee. However, it was certainly a lightning strike. The secret project was reportedly complete inside of two weeks, and without the customary notices to interested parties.
He sees you when you’re sleeping
We’re entering an era of non-stop video surveillance by our “big brother” government. Unfortunately, these “real-time crime centers” are not necessarily an effective use of taxpayer funds. These “easy” but expensive solutions aren’t even lowering crime rates. In fact, since their implementation in major cities, crime rates have steadily increased!
