Tag: Jefferson Parish Citizens for Good Government

Jefferson Parish Citizens for Good Government: Campaign Contribution Report for the May 14, 2014, Parish Council Meeting

Supporters of Good Government:

The Jefferson Parish Council will meet this Wednesday, May 14th at 10 a.m. on the East Bank in the Yenni Building. Citizens for Good Government will once again present summary information from our Campaign Contribution Table shown below.

With campaign contributions of $66,600, Councilman Chris Roberts was once again the councilman with the largest amount of campaign contributions, while Councilman Mark Spears was in second place with $53,808 in campaign contributions. The total campaign contributions made to all seven councilmembers during the past four years by contractors and subcontractors on whom they are scheduled to vote at the April 9th council meeting was $259,547.

Click to obtain scalable PDF
Click to obtain scalable PDF

At the council meeting Citizens for Good Government will be taking issue with the use by our government of the Request for Proposal (RFP) process, rather than the sealed bid process, for grass cutting contracts. We believe that sealed bids should be used, since this process REQUIRES contracts to be awarded to the lowest responsive and responsible bidder, while the winners of RFP contracts are selected by the councilmembers, and there is NO requirement for them to select the highest-ranked firm by the evaluation committee or the firm offering the lowest price. Continue reading “Jefferson Parish Citizens for Good Government: Campaign Contribution Report for the May 14, 2014, Parish Council Meeting”

Jefferson Parish Citizens for Good Government: Campaign Contribution Report for the April 30, 2014 Parish Council Meeting

Supporters of Good Government:

The Jefferson Parish Council will meet this Wednesday, April 30th at 10 a.m. on the West Bank at the General Government Building in Gretna. Citizens for Good Government will again present summary information from our Campaign Contribution Table shown below. Total campaign contributions of $619,972 were made during the past four years to our councilmen by contractors and subcontractors on whom the councilmembers are scheduled to vote at the April 30th council meeting.

Click to obtain scalable PDF
Click to obtain scalable PDF

Once again the issue on the agenda of greatest concern to Citizens for Good Government is the twice-deferred proposed ordinance which requires our lnspector General to request in writing information and documents from our own government, even though our Code of Ordinances currently provides him unrestricted access to this information. Unfortunately, this terrible ordinance would alert those whom our Inspector General is investigating and would thereby compromise his ability to effectively perform his investigations. Continue reading “Jefferson Parish Citizens for Good Government: Campaign Contribution Report for the April 30, 2014 Parish Council Meeting”

Jefferson Parish Citizens for Good Government: Campaign Contribution Report for the April 9, 2014 Parish Council Meeting

Supporters of Good Government:

The Jefferson Parish Council will meet this Wednesday, April 9th at 10 a.m. on the East Bank in the Yenni Building. Citizens for Good Government will once again present summary information from our Campaign Contribution Table shown below. Total campaign contributions of $347,672 were made during the past four years to our councilmen by contractors and subcontractors on whom the councilmembers are scheduled to vote at the April 9th council meeting.

With campaign contributions of $92,675, Councilman Chris Roberts was once again the councilman with the largest amount of campaign contributions, while Councilman Ben Zahn was in second place with $59,579 in campaign contributions. The total campaign contributions made to all seven council members during the past four years by contractors and subcontactors on whom they are scheduled to vote at the April 9th council meeting was $347,672.

Click to obtain scalable PDF
Click to obtain scalable PDF

Although the hospital issue will be of great importance at the April 9th council meeting, Citizens for Good Government is also extremely concerned about and vehemently opposed to Councilman Spears’ Ordinance on the April 9th agenda to limit the investigative powers of Inspector General David McClintock, by requiring a written request from him to obtain information and documents from our government. Such written requests would be extremely detrimental to our Inspector General’s ability to conduct investigations, since for one thing, they would alert the objects of his investigations and would thereby limit his effectiveness. We need the council to vote NO on this ordinance. Continue reading “Jefferson Parish Citizens for Good Government: Campaign Contribution Report for the April 9, 2014 Parish Council Meeting”

Jefferson Parish Citizens for Good Government: Campaign Contribution Report for the March 19, 2014 Parish Council Meeting

Supporters of Good Government:

The Jefferson Parish Council will meet this Wednesday, March 19th at 10 a.m. on the West Bank at the General Government Building in Gretna. Citizens for Good Government will again present summary information from our Campaign Contribution Table shown below. Total campaign contributions of $489,672 were made during the past four years to our councilmen by contractors and subcontractors on whom the councilmembers are scheduled to vote at the March 19th council meeting.

Click to obtain scalable pdf
Click to obtain scalable pdf

The overriding issue under consideration at the March 19th council meeting is the council vote on the ordinance in Agenda Item 63 to limit the ability of Jefferson’s Inspector General to conduct investigations without alerting those in our government who are being investigated. If this ordinance passes and becomes law, the IG would be required to request information for his investigations in writing, thereby tipping off those under investigation and compromising his ability to obtain needed evidence. Continue reading “Jefferson Parish Citizens for Good Government: Campaign Contribution Report for the March 19, 2014 Parish Council Meeting”

Guest Post | Jefferson Parish Citizens for Good Government: Campaign Contribution Report for the February 19, 2014 Parish Council Meeting

Supporters of Good Government:

The Jefferson Parish Council will meet this Wednesday, February 19th at 10 a.m. on the East Bank in the Yenni Building. Citizens for Good Government will once again present summary information from our Campaign Contribution Table shown below. Total campaign contributions of $246,306 were made during the past four years to our councilmen by contractors and subcontractors on whom the councilmembers are scheduled to vote at the February 19th council meeting. For the first time since CFGG has been presenting our campaign finance reports, Councilman Chris Roberts was NOT the councilman with the largest amount of contributions, but Councilman Mark Spears has this honor with campaign contributions of $56,091. Councilman Roberts was in second place with campaign contributions totaling $47,950.

TOTAL CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTIONS FOR 021914 JP COUNCIL MEETING
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Citizens for Good Government feels the need to speak again in support of Inspector General David McClintock. Our IG has been aggressively investigating possible wrongdoing in our government for which it is essential for him to have unlimited access to the Jefferson Parish email servers, and we are extremely grateful to Parish President John Young for reversing Continue reading “Guest Post | Jefferson Parish Citizens for Good Government: Campaign Contribution Report for the February 19, 2014 Parish Council Meeting”

Guest Post | Jefferson Parish Citizens for Good Government: Campaign Contribution Report for the January 15, 2014 Parish Council Meeting

Supporters of Good Government:

The Jefferson Parish Council will meet this Wednesday, January 15th at 10 a.m. on the East Bank in the Yenni Building. As we have been doing for over three years, Citizens for Good Government will again present summary information from our Campaign Contribution Table shown below. Total campaign contributions of $602,507 were made during the past four years to our councilmen by contractors and subcontractors on whom the councilmembers are scheduled to vote at the January 15th council meeting.

TOTAL CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTIONS 011514 JP COUNCIL TABLE
Click to obtain pdf

Because there is a resolution on the agenda to select the winner of the lease for Jefferson Parish’s publicly-owned hospitals, East Jefferson General Hospital and West Jefferson Medical Center, Citizens for Good Government will speak on this issue. Continue reading “Guest Post | Jefferson Parish Citizens for Good Government: Campaign Contribution Report for the January 15, 2014 Parish Council Meeting”

Wednesday Omnibus: Jefferson Parish Pay to Play gets scrutiny, Miller reviewing offshore drilling regs plus the Rocks, Lucky Coin and more

I’ve been having some technical difficulties but finally knocked those out yesterday afternoon. I’ve also spent some time lately improving technical back office issues here at Slabbed including a better security perimeter as Slabbed has been subject to at least one denial of service attack in the past 6 weeks. The streets of information dissemination aka the news biz are mean indeed.

That has worked out OK though since the local news cycle has been slow but today the dam has broken and we have links galore.  In the interest of time I’ll do this in one post so let’s start with Margie Seemann of the Jefferson Parish Citizens for Good Government.  Margie, her sister and the gang at CFGG are true public servants and today the issues with campaign finance so often highlighted by CFGG go front and center in the NOLA.com series Louisiana Purchased. Let’s start with a video interview of Margie:

Companies seeking no-bid contracts dominate Jefferson Parish campaign contribution list ~ Manuel Torres

Campaign finance transparency not enough to fix Jefferson Parish’s contracting problems, groups say ~ Manuel Torres

Who to believe? The likes of Chris Roberts and Mark Spears or our own lying eyes? It’s not even close folks.

Next up in that pesky FBI investigation into former St Charles DA Harry Morel, a story Slabbed pioneered beginning over 2 years ago. Continue reading “Wednesday Omnibus: Jefferson Parish Pay to Play gets scrutiny, Miller reviewing offshore drilling regs plus the Rocks, Lucky Coin and more”

Jefferson Parish Council Jackassery Miscellany: Mini-me and Zahn lead the way with Noodles on top

One thing I’ve learned is you don’t mess with the M&M sisters or the CFGG and the reason for that is simple: The CFGG’s message is pure, without hint of hidden agenda.  Councilman Ben Zahn will learn that in time but first:

Jefferson Parish Councilman Ben Zahn disagrees with citizen group ~ Adriane Quinlin

The headline was charitable because the story makes it clear that Zahn was more of a garden variety ass than anything IMHO.

Next up the gang is taking illegal straw polls as Slabbed will continue to assume there is double dealing galore in the shadows of these specious public hospital “negotiations”.

Jefferson hospital lease suitors to present in public; secretive conduct called into question ~ Ben Myers

Of course, when I write posts about the Jefferson Parish Council and Chris Roberts in particular, I generally get the warm fuzzies thinking about the pictures.  🙂

Slabbed takes the Ignatius challenge and writes one wayyyyy to the inside Part Deux

As Davichy55 would say on finance back in the the olden days

STRAWMEN EVERYWHERE AND NOT A DROP TO DRINK! RUIN!!!!!!

Now for a round of double jeopardy:

Question: Who else stepped financially for the former Goatherder in Chief back in February, 2011?

Answer: Same guy that was given the no bid legal services contract by the Jefferson Parish Council.

Jefferson Parish Council awards contract to lowest-ranked firm that gave most money ~ Adriane Quinlan

Must read folks as Chris Roberts waxes nonsensical justifying this sweetheart deal.

Next question: Is there a story behind the story on the selection of Bruce Burglass’ law firm by Roberts and company?

Answer: Oh yeah.

H/T: The Jefferson Parish Citizens for Good Government

Stay tuned.

Good Government Saturday: CFGG Celebrates a Victory for Good Government and No-bid Contracts

Supporters of Good Government:

In response to the urging of Citizens for Good Government and to Councilman Chris Roberts’ prodding of Jefferson Parish Attorney Deborah Foshee at the June 26th council meeting, Ms. Foshee agreed to give the public access to the scores and rankings of contractors by the Parish Evaluation Committees, prior to the selection by the council of contract awardees for no-bid parish contracts. And President John Young also stated that he is in full support of this action. CFGG considers this an important victory for good government in Jefferson Parish.

CFGG has long expressed our serious concern with the fact that councilmembers are permitted to award no-bid contracts to firms which are significant donors to their campaigns and from whom they have even solicited campaign contributions. It is particularly disturbing to us that the council is generally permitted to disregard the rankings by the Evaluation Committees and to select any firm that they so desire for these no-bid contracts.

Although the well-researched, well-documented report by the Bureau of Governmental Research entitled, “Reforming Jefferson Parish’s Unusual Approach to Service Contracting,” recommends awarding these no-bid contracts to the top-ranked firms by the Evaluation Committees, the council apparently has no intention of giving up its power to select the no-bid contract winners. Citizens for Good Government came to the conclusion that if we could obtain the scores and rankings of firms which are in contention for Jefferson Parish no-bid contracts BEFORE the council selected the winners, we could make our own recommendations of the top-ranked firms by the Evaluation Committees PRIOR to the council vote, and, if practical, we could also provide the campaign contributions made to the councilmembers by the companies competing for the contracts, since we have this information on campaign contributions in our files.

Therefore, at the June 12th council meeting Margie Seemann urged the council to pass an ordinance requiring information on the scores and rankings of the companies which are in contention for no-bid contracts to be made available as additional attachments to the contract award resolutions on each council agenda, which is available online a week before each council meeting. Margie said that this would permit watchdog groups like Citizens for Good Government to make recommendations on the award of the contracts prior to the selection of the winners and to monitor the actions of the council in selecting the contract winners.
Continue reading “Good Government Saturday: CFGG Celebrates a Victory for Good Government and No-bid Contracts”