In case you didn't see the comment left by lahistorymuseum, here is the Louisiana History Museum's The Historic Bentley.
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The Bentley Hotel on this blog
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
THE HISTORIC HOTEL BENTLEY WEBSITE
MAYOR ROY'S ADMINISTRATIVE BRIEFING OF 11-25-09
Alexandria, Louisiana Mayor Jacques Roy gave his Administrative Briefing on November 25, 2009.
Mayor Roy first gave a talk on the downtown hotel trip that the Mayor, Assistant City Attorney Trey Gist, Finance Director David Crutchfield, Greater Alexandria Economic Development Authority Executive Director Clifford Moller and District 4 City Councilman Harry Silver flew to Phoenix on Sunday and got back from yesterday.
I have several problems with the mayor's briefing today.
First, and foremost, was Mayor Roy's not wanting to tell the press, or we citizens of Alexandria whose business this deal is and whose tax money will be used to partly finance it, and wanting to discuss it first with Bob Dean, the owner of the Bentley Hotel, certain, but not all City Councilmen, and local attorney and the head of Historical Preservation Society, Charles Charrier. How dare OUR mayor not thinking that we citizens have a right to know the particulars of the deal.
Next, the City of Alexandria will put up millions of our tax dollars to enter into the deal, although the mayor wouldn't tell us how much it is.
Mayor Roy also bragged about staying in the Phoenix Sheraton, which is outright owned by the City of Phoenix, and how Alexandria wasn't doing anything that drastic.
He finished up the briefing by saying that the issue of the contracts not signed by the mayor was not put on next Tuesday's City Council Committee meeting by Mr. Silver, the chairman of that committee, but he didn't tell us who put it on there. My bet is that was the ethically challenged Council President Myron Lawson and or Councilmen Goins and Larvadain who put that item on the agenda to divert attention away from the investigations being conducted into Lawson's expenditure of $71,000 in food for the Council or his apparent violation of the Public Bid Law.
See the video of the briefing here:
Watch 11-25-09 Administrative Briefing.mpg in News | View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com
One good thing is that the mayor said the removal of the City Hall will not happen yet, although Mayor Roy said that it would be a good idea in the future. He said that this isn't the right time for such a move with the people.
When will our mayor ever learn that despite his high falutin notions of keeping the City's business a secret for us taxpayers, that ultimately must bear the costs of City expenditures. Like the hush hush backroom deals of the Cleco negotiations, it is about time that OUR mayor and City officials learn that the City's business is OUR business.
I also resent that the City of Alexandria is embarking upon pure socialism with these hotel deals, whereby the City is becoming financial partners in a privately owned which they will keep the profits for themselves. Will the City also give our tax money away for any business that cares to open? What about the businesses that are already opened?
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THE DOWNTOWN HOTELS and the posts linked thereunder
MORE PEOPLE OUT OF WORK IN LOUISIANA
"Louisiana employment in October of 1.911 million fell 44,000 jobs short of a year ago, according to Louisiana Workforce Commission data released late Tuesday." (See: "State loses ground in number of jobs").
"Employment typically grows in October, but is still being affected by a recession thought by national economists to have bottomed out in the third quarter." id. "Jobs in all eight state metros are down from October 2008." id.
And if you think those figures are bad, wait until you see the unemployment rates for December after the IP Mill closes.
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IT COST YOU MONEY TO STREAMLINE OUR STATE GOVERNMENT
The Commission on Streamlining Government cost Louisiana taxpayers "$17,000 in compensation while their private sector counterparts haven’t collected a dime". (See: "Streamlining lawmakers get per diem").
The Louisiana House and the state Senate are paying their per diem and mileage to attend the meetings, while the private sector members got nothing. id.
“We don’t get anything,” said Council for a Better Louisiana president Barry Erwin, a commission member and advisory group chair." id. “We did get certificates to hang on the wall,” he said." id.
The payments made to OUR Legislators were:
"State Rep. Jim Morris, R-Oil City, has collected the most — nearly $5,946 associated with some 15 meetings and the travel from his home in north Louisiana. Morris’ expenses associated with each meeting run in excess of $450.
Commission chairman Jack Donahue, a Republican state senator from Mandeville, ranks next with $3,886 associated with 16 meetings of the commission and its advisory groups.
Other lawmakers receiving reimbursements are state Rep. Brett Geymann, R-Lake Charles, $2,716; Sen. Mike Michot, R-Lafayette, $2,682; Rep. Mike Danahay, D-Sulphur, $1,018; and Rep. Kevin Pearson, R-Slidell, $800.
State Rep. Karen St. Germaine, D-Pierre Part, recently became a member of a commission advisory group. The House had no record of any payments made to her. id.
Isn't it great to know that we have such self-sacrificing Legislators, who get paid for serving on the Commission while private citizens do not.
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STREAMLINING COMMISSION WANTS STATE TO REVIEW CONSULTING CONTRACTS
LOUISIANA'S VEHICLE FLEET MAKES US THE JAY LENO STATE
STATE DOES NOT MANAGE VEHICLE FLEET PROPERLY
STATE OFFICIALS DRIVE GAS GUZZLERS
COMMISSION ON STREAMLINING STATE GOVERNMENT MIGHT DO AWAY WITH SOME STATE EMPLOYEES
JIM BROWN: "JINDAL AND INDIA; A RARE OPPORTUNITY FOR LOUISIANA"
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
HEALTH COSTS AREN'T THE SAME NATION WIDE
Medical costs are not the same nation-wide.
See this NBC News video on the nation's medical costs, and how they differ from area to area:
Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy
See these maps that show how much medical costs are, and how they differ (The Dartmouth Atlas of Health Care).
- AND -
(Click on the Maps to Enlarge)
You will note that Louisiana is among the highest in the nation for health care costs.
As you can see from the video, fraud and abuse, by hospitals, account for much of this cost differential.
LAWSON AND CREW WILL BRING UP MAYOR ROY'S CONFLICT OF INTEREST AGAIN
If the ethically challenged and possible Public Bid Law City Council President, Myron Lawson didn't look stupid enough at the last City Council meeting, along with his ilk Councilmen Goins and Larvadain, they are going to bring up Mayor Jacques Roy's conflict of interest allegation yet once again.
Since the Cleco vs. Sam Sansing lawsuit is a totally different lawsuit from the City of Alexandria vs. Cleco lawsuit, THERE IS NO CONFLICT OF INTEREST.
I guess that Lawson, along with Goins and Larvadain, want to look even more idiotic on Channel 4. Lawson is simply trying to divert the attention away from himself from being caught, a few weeks, ago at spending $71,000 for Council food. Myron is also hoping the the Attorney General, the Legislative Auditor, and the Rapides Parish District Attorney do not find that he violated the Public Bid Law by purchasing over $60,000 from Boutte's catering without a scap of paper or a public bid.
See the December 1, 2009 agenda HERE
Maybe Myron and the boys finally figured out that one of them will have to request an opinion, if not the full council, from the Ethics Board. That is of course that Jacques himself doesn't do the work for the Council.
Maybe it is a ROC plot to get the mayor.
See Also:
THE TRUTH ABOUT MAYOR ROY AND SAM SANSING and the posts linked thereunder
JUDGE BENGE REMOVED FROM THE BENCH IMMEDIATLY
Judge Joan Benge's request for a rehearing -- her final attempt to hang on to her 24th Judicial District seat and avoid removal from office -- was denied by the state Supreme Court, officials said Monday, and Supreme Court spokeswoman Valerie Willard said that Benge's removal was effective immediately. (See: "Judge Joan Benge's removal from bench is effective immediately").
"Benge's removal stemmed, in part, from the 2001 investigation into corruption at the Jefferson Parish Courthouse, dubbed "Operation Wrinkled Robe." id. "Benge's colleague and mentor, Ronald Bodenheimer, was a subject of that investigation and would later plead guilty to charges unrelated to Benge or the case that led to her removal." id.
Judge Benge was found to have:
"In 2001, Benge inherited a personal injury case involving plaintiff Phillip Demma, who was involved in a car wreck and seeking more than $20,000 in compensation. At the time, Demma was conspiring with Bodenheimer, in hopes of swaying the case in his favor.
As part of their investigation, FBI agents taped an exchange between Benge and Bodenheimer, in which she discussed the Demma case. Benge said were it not for Demma's attorney, John Venezia, she would award Demma nothing. She ultimately awarded Demma $4,275 and later told Venezia that he was the only reason she granted the award.
The Judiciary Commission, which investigates judicial misconduct on behalf of the Supreme Court, said that Benge's ruling was not based on evidence but out of loyalty to Bodenheimer or to maintain Venezia's political support.
Once again, the Louisiana Supreme Court has disciplined a crooked judge, and should be proud for doing so.
See Also:
WHAT'S WRONG WITH LOUISIANA JUDGES? and the psts linked thereunder
A COUPLE OF SHREVEPORT VIEWS ON HEALTH CARE
The Shreveport Times carried a couple of good articles on the nation's health care debate currently raging.
The first one is by Mrs. Del Brennan entitled "Reform a question of values". In it, Mrs. Brennan wrote:
"First of all, unlike the enormously expensive TARP, the health-reform package will not add to the deficit in any significant way — and not at all if a modest portion of taxes are reinstated on the wealthy who benefitted from the huge Bush tax cuts.
Second, health care reform with a public option will finally help those who need it most. It will save over 30,000 lives per year and prevent needless suffering, bankruptcies, and home foreclosures caused by exorbitant medical bills not covered by private health insurance.
In no other industrialized democracy do such deaths and bankruptcies occur (See The Healing of America by T. R. Reid for thorough documentation.).
The excuses being offered by Republicans and "blue dog" Democrats for not supporting universal health care are comparatively trivial and can easily be addressed in the final bill before the Senate. id.
Lieutenant Jackson, of Shreveport, a former insurance executive and member of The Times Community Board, wrote that:
"According to a study by The American Journal of Medicine —»62.1 percent of all bankruptcies in 2007 were medical." And further, the study noted that "Most medical debtors were well educated, owned homes, and had middle-class occupations. Three quarters had health insurance."
At the national level, millions of Americans who are now out of work have lost their employer-sponsored health coverage, if they had it in the first place." (See: "Even incremental reform can save some households from ruin").
See Also:
PUT HEALTH CARE REFORM ON A PERSONAL LEVEL and the posts linked thereunder
WOMEN HUNTERS ON THE INCREASE
13,548 Louisiana women have hunting licenses, and that's an increase of more than 12 percent over the 2007-08 number of 12,037. (See: "State sees increase in women hunters").
"The Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries issued hunting licenses to more than 13,000 women this year. 1. Ouachita 838 2. Rapides 822 3. Calcasieu 574 4. Caddo 573 5. Vernon 436." id.
"According to the National Sporting Goods Association (2005) there are 3.3 million female hunters (16 percent ) out of the 20.9 million hunters in the United States." id. "More than 859,000 females hunt frequently (20 or more times per year) and 786,000 women bow hunt." id.
"An estimated $3.4 billion is spent annually on the sales of firearms, ammunition and hunting accessories with women accounting for about $500 million of that total." id.
The definition of "culture" is:
"a : the integrated pattern of human knowledge, belief, and behavior that depends upon the capacity for learning and transmitting knowledge to succeeding generations b : the customary beliefs, social forms, and material traits of a racial, religious, or social group; also : the characteristic features of everyday existence (as diversions or a way of life} shared by people in a place or timec : the set of shared attitudes, values, goals, and practices that characterizes an institution or organization d : the set of values, conventions, or social practices associated with a particular field, activity, or societal characteristic." (See: "Culture").
When we think of "culture", we often think of the symphony, art museums, plays or even golf as a sport.
But what our culture actually is must include hunting, especially here in the "Sportman's Paradise". If we truly want to promote OUR culture, we would build more fishing tanks, archery and firearm ranges, and hunting activities. Those things are more of our local culture than the so-called arts.
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STREAMLINING COMMISSION WANTS STATE TO REVIEW CONSULTING CONTRACTS
"The state Commission on Streamlining Government voted 6-4 to recommend requiring the Legislature’s joint budget committee to receive detailed reports from agencies justifying the need for contracting private firms to outsource government work." (See: "Panel wants supervision of contracts").
The Commission wants the Legislature to sign off on the many state consulting contracts of $50,000 or more approved each year. id. "State officials have said that government agencies have close to 14,000 outsourced contracts." id.
According to the recommendation, each report to the joint budget committee must include:
"Why the consultant is needed, how the services fit the agency’s mission, why the services cannot be done in-house, how the consultant was chosen, what will be done if the contract is rejected, the head count of employees working under the contract and the number of hours worked and dollars paid to all of the aforementioned employees." id.
Some of these contracts are necessary, but others are not.
The outside consulting contracts could possibly be a way to reward friends with political patronage.
COLISEUM IS OUT OF DATE
Officials with the Louisiana Baptist Convention say that the LBC Youth Evangelism Conference is holding its last conference is Alexandria this week and will next year hold it in the Cajundome in Lafayette, Louisiana. (See: "Conference to leave 'out of date' Coliseum").
"The Alexandria/Pineville Area Convention and Visitors Bureau estimates the 2009 event resulted in about 3,000 hotel rooms being rented, with an overall estimated economic impact of $1.4 million." id.
Besides the dilapidated condition of the Rapides Parish Coliseum, Derrick Gentry with TMF Lighting said that one of the main problems with the building is that it is:
"probably 25-30 years out of date.
To get what Gentry calls "clean" feeds, audio and video equipment will be plugged into a single, isolated transformer that serves a building.
At the Coliseum, power is spread over multiple transformers. That leads to static and interference in the audio and video, Gentry said
At the Cajundome, Boles and Gentry said, high-quality sound systems and video screens are already up and ready to be integrated into the show, and power is not an issue. "We can just plug in and go." id.
"Other problems conference organizers have at the Coliseum include not being able to hang equipment from certain parts of the ceiling and a loading area in the back of the building that can turn into a mud pit after a rain." id.
Since the recent failure of the Coliseum tax, we are stuck with an outdated Coliseum that the Police Jury cannot afford to maintain or upgrade.
If the City of Alexandria truly wants to do something with its SPARC money, it can buy the Coliseum and remodel it or completely build a new one. It could be a real money maker for the area. Or maybe the City could even buy Cowboy Town.
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Monday, November 23, 2009
IS IT MARY LANDRIEU OR MARY SNELLINGS?
Some political commentators, and a few bloggers who think it looks cute in print, refer to U.S. Senator Mary Landrieu as Mary Landrieu Snellings, after her marriage to Monroe, Louisiana attorney Frank Snellings.
For those of you that didn't know it, either because you are too stupid or don't care what the truth is, Louisiana Civil Code Article 100 states:
"Marriage does not change the name of either spouse. However, a married person may use the surname of either or both spouses as a surname."Additionally, Louisiana Code of Civil Procedure Article 3947(A) says the same thing.
So Mary Landrieu is the name she was born with and it is up to her to keep it or not.
This is just like those that persist is referring to President Obama as "Barky" or Sen. McCain as "McMadman".
GLEN PARKER OF SUDDENLINK AND DALE GENIUS ON CHANNEL 4
On October 9, 2009, I had this telephone conversation with Mr. Glen Parker, of Suddenlink, about Channel 4. As you can hear Mr. Parker say, the Rapides Parish Police Jury, the City of Pineville, and the Town of Pollock have equal rights of the use of Channel 4 with the City of Alexandria. However, only the City of Alexandria has the media production facilities required for the operation of Channel 4.
Mr. Parker definitely said that Channel 4 is a PEG channel, as opposed to a public access channel.
Listen to Mr. Parker HERE
Additionally, you can hear Mr. Dale Genious and his comments on Channel 4. Mr. Genius is a former talk show host of KALB TV and of KSYL Radio, and is the current director of the Alexandria Historical Museum.
Mr. Genius agrees with me that the City of Alexandria needs some servers (hard disc drives) to store the videos of the City Council meetings upon, so that people can watch them at their leisure from the City's website. That is a relatively cheap proposal.
Listen to Mr. Genius HERE
As I have previously pointed out, the things I would like to see done with Channel 4 are:
- Will they develop rules and procedures for the operation of Channel 4 as was suggested by Councilman Everett Hobbs and avoid the non-showing of the Bridgett Brown controversy from a City Council meeting of June 12, 2007? (Alexandria City Council Declares Open War on the Citizens and the Mayor! Part One);
- Why all of the emphasis on the Peabody High School programs, which when I called its teachers I was given a one word answer to my request for information, "No". While Peabody has the best production equipment, I also hear that ASH has a media production program. I have also heard that Peabody cannot do the job without some supervision from a private media company or a dedicated and qualified City employee;
- Why should a private club such as the Central Louisiana Chamber of Commerce be given air time on Channel 4, when that is sort of like the advertising that is not allowed?
- Will Channel 4 have some servers to allow the retention of City Council meetings videos for a period of time to allow the citizens to look at them at their convenience on the City's website?
- Will there be any access to Channel 4 by the other public entities in Rapides Parish, such as the Police Jury, School Board and the City of Pineville?
I think that, if the City of Alexandria truly wants a top notch Channel 4 facility and website, some attention must be paid to these suggestions.
See Also:
ALEXANDRIA MOVES FORWARD WITH CHANNEL 4
ALEXANDRIA CITY COUNCIL INTENDS TO EXPAND CHANNEL 4 and the posts linked thereunder
THERE ARE MORE POLITICAL APPOINTEES AND THEY ARE HIGHER PAID AMONG STATE WORKERS
The number of better-paid, politically appointed, fire-at-will Louisiana government employees has climbed dramatically in recent years, according to the Louisiana Department of State Civil Service, but meanwhile, the number of lower-paid, rank-and-file, classified employees generally has been declining. (See: "State’s worker makeup shifts").
As can be seen from the above chart, there are 31,427 unclassified workers in state government, which means that they are subject to the firing of their employers in the state. Louisiana government’s employment agency reports that the number of the state’s unclassified employees has risen by 22 percent between 2002 and 2009, and the classified work force has dropped 8 percent over the same eight-year period. id.
The jobs of classified employees are legally protected from the politics of changeovers in governors’ administrations, but unclassified employees have no similar job protection. They can be hired and fired at will and many of those posts are found in executive offices and on college campuses. id.
Public Affairs Research Council President Jim Brandt said:
"I’d like to know why … the dramatic shift from classified to unclassified,”...
The unclassified are usually the political appointed members of the state work force.
“It does raise some interesting questions,” id.
The average salary for classified workers is $40,988, but for unclassified employees it now totals $60,854. id.
This is but one of the signs, along with his weakening of ethics laws, allowing nepotism for his friends, and making Louisiana last place in the nation in transparency within the governor's office, that our imperial governor, Bobby Jindal, is hard at work on consolidating his power.
See Also:
JOHN MAGINNIS SAYS LOUISIANA ETHICS LOOKS BETTER FROM A DISTANCE and the posts linked thereunder
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