Lets change the rules again for these home elevation contractors

Yep they changed the bonding requirements again.  I’d like to add at this point that residential construction and homebuilders rarely, if ever, are required to post performance bonds which is why imposing a performance bond requirement on home elevation contractors effectively shuts so many out of the market.  You see sureties require things to make their credit underwriting decisions such as CPA audits or reviews that can’t be done overnight.  This limits competition.   Now if performance bonding requirements had been put in up front you’d have none of these problems now.

Particularly disturbing is the rumors I’m hearing of inexperienced contractors being exempted from the contractor’s license testing requirements if they paid consulting fees to the right people.

The state Office of Community Development’s handling of this whole deal has been a disaster. Dysfunctional corrupt government, brought to you by Bobby Jindal.

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Broussard Indictment Links: “This is the end of the beginning” as Val Bracy shines on….

One of yesterday’s top search strings to Slabbed  yesterday was “Val Bracy fired”.  I was curious about the source of the googles and found it on Fox 8’s own website as they ran large segments of the Aaron Broussard extended interview, parts of which are subject to a libel suit against Fox 8 filed by Trout Point Lodge  and its owners Broussard legal associate Danny Abel, Charles Leary and Vaughn Perret as they evidently did not like the end result of what Broussard had to say on his ownership of a vacation lodge in Nova Scotia run by (and since sold to) Trout Point Lodge.  Unfortunately Fox 8 updated their video archives for the late newscast reports but the newer story still has excerpts of Val’s Broussard interview sans the credit. Speaking of Fox 8, their segment with Margie Seemann can be found here.

Channel 4 has 2 stories up on their website.  They garnered reaction from Aaron Broussard’s criminal lawyer Robert Jenkins, who does not get high marks from Slabbeds legal team. The Gambitman also chimed essentially saying Aaron, Tom and Karen, you guys are so fucked. Folks if you think Aaron Broussard crying on NBC after Katrina was bad wait until he reports to the federal pen.  BoP may need to start a tissue drive now to stock up.

Channels 6 (NBC) and 26 (ABC) also had coverage.

Over at the Times Picayune the editorial board tackles the newest legal strategy used by the Parish to void the shithouse deal Broussard cut with the River Birch Landfill.  They also covered yesterday’s recusal from the case of every federal judge in the LAED. I pair these two stories as a commenter to each exposes the logical flaws in both.  That recusal in particular stinks in that if these judges can’t deal fairly with the brother of a Magistrate, WTF is Ginger Berrigan doing presiding over the related case involving the son of a senior federal judge Fred JR Heebe, a jurist she once clerked for that also presided over a curious case involving Carlos Marcello back in the day? This makes absolutely no sense given Judge Vance’s started reasons for the enbanc recusal.

The T-P also filed stories on Broussard’s marriage to his former council aid that ended in both divorce and indictment. Curiously absent from Rainey’s coverage is former journalist Ken Trahan who was being paid by the Parish while he worked at the Saints Museum or drunken Constable Antoine “Tony” Thomassie who likely drank to his paycheck.  The T-P’s coverage of the indictment can be found here.

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