Tag: Transparent Government

Let’s meet the Heebe legal team…….

Any discussion along those lines must begin with Kyle Shonekas. He pops up in some of the most gosh darnest of places. 😉

William Henry Shane
v.
Jefferson Parish; State of Louisiana; Jefferson Parish Economic Development Commission
2/1/2013 723485

Those of you wanting to catch up should click here to read a good example of why the Goatherders have and are still actively trying to knock this blog offline.

Welcome back Kyle. 😉 The complaint itself is below the jump. Continue reading “Let’s meet the Heebe legal team…….”

Enter now into Slabbed’s House of Pain as my gabby cousin Slabb O’Leak sez they ain’t no damn figment of my imagination!

Indeed folks Slabb O’Leak lives! Click the pic to get the PDF because when the subject is garbage, “transparency” was not in the middle name…..

Mayor Half Moon to squander scare tax dollars appealing Judge Medley’s public records decision. A case study in official assholery.

That’s right folks, Mayor Half Moon’s quest to hide the cooking of crime stats by NOPD has hit a new low with news he’ll be appealing Judge Medley’s decision in the Times Picayune’s PRR lawsuit.  Worth noting is Brendan McCarthy now works for Channel 4 so I reckon the T-P will have to assign a new reporter to the story.

Also worth noting is the Mayor is putting the City on the hook for the Times Picayune’s legal fees as well as the legal position being taken by the City is completely without merit.  And at the end of the day the cooking of crime stats by the NOPD will all come out despite the squandering of scare tax dollars on lawyers fighting this case.

sop

Anne Marie Vandenweghe wins again in her quest to gain access to public records: A Judge Ross LaDart is so fucked update.

Old ways die hard folks but Friday I received word that the Louisiana Supreme Court denied writs in the matter of the Parish’s appeal of the bitch slap given crooked 24th JDC Judge in Ross LaDart in the matter involving whistleblower Anne Marie Vandenweghe’s public records request for her own emails.  This means the case comes back to LaDart, who was pretty much mandated on exactly how to rule in it by the Louisiana 5th Circuit Court of Appeals. The denial of writs was a loss for the Parish’s law firm Phelps Dunbar who simply can seem to win a public records case unless it is fixed in advance.  Also losers are the taxpayers of Jefferson parish who see their hard earned tax dollars squandered in legal fees fighting an open and shut case.

Stay tuned folks.

sop

That ain't doughnut glaze on Judge Ross LaDart's Chin! Louisiana 5th Circuit Court of Appeals bitch slaps the inept judge, reverses shithouse public records opinion. A Jefferson Parish Political Corruption Scandal update.

OK folks if you want to catch up on the myriad of ways Jefferson Parish strives to continue doing business in smoke-filled rooms with no accountability or transparency you can catch up by clicking here. The long and short of it is that former Assistant Parish Attorney Anne Marie Vandenweghe sued to make the Parish honor her public records request for her own emails generated before she was fired for whistleblowing on corruption in the Jefferson Parish Attorney’s office. The case was assigned to Judge Ross LaDart, a jurist that either incredibly lazy, inept, corrupt or a combination of the three because his swift opinion kicking the case to the curb was just kicked back to him via appeal in a published opinion released today that is not kind to the Judge.

So today Team Vandenweghe wins big and the Parish will likely be forced to give her own emails, which rumor holds contains evidence of additional criminal activity in the Parish Attorney’s office as it relates to the payroll fraud portion of the political corruption scandal. This in turn explains why the perpetrators still employed by the Parish have fought Team Vandenweghe tooth and nail on this. We shall see before this is done IMHO.

There are several clear losers today. First is the firm of Phelps Dumbar and their lawyers assigned to the case who evidently can’t win in the courtroom unless the fix is in via Judges like LaDart. The taxpayers of Jefferson Parish lose because not only are there still alleged criminal perpetrators on the Parish payroll, they also get stuck with the legal tab defending shithouse double dealing on part of parish employees and certain elected officials. John Young loses too Continue reading “That ain't doughnut glaze on Judge Ross LaDart's Chin! Louisiana 5th Circuit Court of Appeals bitch slaps the inept judge, reverses shithouse public records opinion. A Jefferson Parish Political Corruption Scandal update.”

Team River Birch beclowns their clowns: A putting in the fix on the inside for River Birch update.

Paul Rioux at the Times Picayune checks in today with a report that is masterful in its nuance as Team River Birch has the full court PR press on and one again they manage to put egg on their own face as well as the Parish, specifically Public Records.  There is lots of fodder for discussion in Paul’s lengthy story but since I am time strapped I’m going to focus in on 2 items the first being that thanks to Steve Theriot and John Young it appears Jefferson Parish no longer has a cohesive, functioning public records department. Taken a step further I’ll add Paul conveys the obvious without saying it as it certainly appears the Parish Attorney’s office is simply an adjunct legal department for Freddie Heebe, Jim Ward and the River Birch Landfill. This snippet illustrates that point:

River Birch obtained the notes and other parish documents about the draft study Monday through a public records request and in turn provided them to The Times-Picayune. Parish attorneys denied a similar request by the newspaper for the preliminary study in December, citing an exemption in the state’s disclosure law for documents prepared “in anticipation of litigation or in preparation for trial.”

I will point out that normally newspapers are big on access to public records so the silence on the major problems with public records in Jefferson Parish, well reported here, means the T-P sucked on it in silence for at least the past 3 months.  I’ll add that while Jefferson Parish was stonewalling the Times Picayune while giving it all up for Freddie Heebie they also continue to retaliate against the whistleblowers and John Young is ass deep in it right along with his political blowbuddy Tom Capella and their puppets Peggy Barton and Louis Gruntz.  As long as the Parish Attorney’s office, at the behest of elected officials work for the River Birch Landfill instead of the taxpayers expect to see more such clusterfucks as the many Paul Rioux details today. Continue reading “Team River Birch beclowns their clowns: A putting in the fix on the inside for River Birch update.”

And the word for the day is Transparency…….

Transparency: trans·par·en·cy

The full, accurate, and timely disclosure of information. Example: The disclosure of a relevent and ongoing federal investigation.

Hopefully, since the gang at Team River Birch is suddenly now interested in doing their business dealings with the Parish “publicly and openly” Continue reading “And the word for the day is Transparency…….”

Tom you ignorant slut part deux: James Gill joins the party.

There is nothing new under the sun but there are lots of old things we don’t know.

No one can say James Gill hasn’t been around for a while as he checks in today with a great column on the campaign finance disclosure ordinance that is well worth the read.

sop

Slabbed News Miscellany: A week’s worth of Jefferson Parish news we broke on Slabbed plus the continued fight against conflicts of interest.

There have been several area news stories which touched upon topics we cover, including 2 stories we broke this past week in the request for resignations from unclassified Parish employees and Anne Marie Vandenweghe’s disappointing day in court. In going back through the week in news I thought WWL TV (Channel 4) was “there with the most” on these news items so it is with them we stop first. Dominic Massa filed a report on Anne Marie’s day in Ross LaDart’s courtroom which was very good. This story ran at 5 last Tuesday but unfortunately the companion video was not posted online. It contains one good nugget of information, Anne Marie has lawyered up with Northshore attorney Bobby Truitt.  Truitt’s selection is meaningful, especially as it relates to LaDart and his curious public records rulings, as it appears he was instrumental in bringing down crooked 24th Judicial district court judge Alan Green of Operation Wrinkled Robe infamy.  My own opinion is that AMV’s tastes in lawyers is very good.  I’d be remiss if I did not add that the women of Truitt Law not only appear to be highly intelligent, professional and “sophisticated” but also are hotties too.

On the same topic Rich Rainey at the Times Picayune filed a short report Friday which falls into the category of several days late and relies upon their own prior stories on this general topic as illustrated by the fact that neither Mr. Truitt’s name or the fact AMV now has outside council is not mentioned.  I’ll add this appears to be round 1 of a 3 round fight and to that extent the headline over Rainey’s story is a bit misleading IMHO.   I suspect we have not heard the last of AMV and her public records suit against the Parish.

Finally I’ll add the file photos of AMV used in both reports are hideous.  I’ll see if I can get the Slabbed Nation a better pic besides wind blown AMV and car door AMV. Continue reading “Slabbed News Miscellany: A week’s worth of Jefferson Parish news we broke on Slabbed plus the continued fight against conflicts of interest.”

Yes I can verify we have a tough crowd here….

The comments to my earlier post on the rumored indictments in Jefferson Parish and  Bill Hubbard’s sentencing tell that tale.  You gotta be tough to mud wrestle with the slimy alligators that populate Parish Government.  And never take your eye off ’em either because if you do there no telling what the Parish Council will try, even repealing an ordinance they claimed to be in compliance with.

Me thinks the gang is trying to clear the way for Chrissy’s campaign fundraiser.  Is there a Kass-Connick and a landfill in this picture? You betcha there is.

sop