Washington Mayor Joseph Pitre was in the hot seat at the state Capitol Monday morning to address the more than $200,000 his town failed to turn over to the state last year for speeding fines along I-49.
The Independent Weekly reported in its June 1 cover story “Need for Speed” that Washington, a small St. Landry Parish town of about 1,000 people known for antiques and speed traps, exempted itself from a 2009 state law requiring that money collected for speeding violations of 10 mph or less above the posted speed limit be redirected to the state. The town’s 2009-2010 audit revealed that the town kept more than $200,000 in speeding fines that should have gone to the state treasurer’s office.
Those fines, however, must have been collected before the fall of last year, when the town held an election and voted in favor of a home rule charter, i.e. a loophole in state statute that allows the town to legally continue to keep money for all speeding fines. The state law only applies to towns that govern without a home rule charter and only pertains to tickets issued along interstates.
The Legislative Audit Advisory Council, a joint legislative committee comprising 10 state lawmakers, addressed the issue with Pitre Monday morning, though it wasn’t immediately clear this morning whether the mayor is trying to repay the money or if he’s still arguing that the law is racially discriminating and unfairly targeting a black mayor.
“I, as mayor, believe as other state officials believe at all levels of government, that the intent of the code was specifically directed toward me as both Mayor of this Town, and as an African American,” Pitre says in the town’s response to the audit findings. “The hypocrisy and the negative effects of this legislation not only threaten public safety, but it infringes on the very rights of the people of whom we serve. In addition, sadly citizens of this Town and others of similar size, have the perception that state legislature is discriminating against them. People feel as though state government is trying to eliminate small town governments in the state of Louisiana and the implementation of LA R.S. 32:266, by state legislature is dissuading them from enforcing existing laws passed by that legislative body.”
State Rep. Ledricka Johnson Thierry, an Opelousas Democrat who sits on the committee and whose District 40 seat includes the town of Washington, says the committee meeting was held to hear from the mayor on why he hasn’t yet paid up on the town’s debt to the state. She says she’s unsure whether Pitre is trying to repay the state or if he’s still asking for the state to forgive the debt, as he did when the audit report first came to light. After some discussion with the mayor Monday morning, the committee rescheduled the meeting without any action taken.
Read The Ind's June 1 cover story here.
MAY 21 Gambit columnist Clancy DuBos writes about the Mother's Day shooting, and how the stages of shock and blame and healing mirror those traveled by the same city following Hurricane Katrina. The city will recover, just as it did following the storm, by reaching out to help the people injured most seriously by the event, DuBos writes. It's how we heal, he says.
MAY 21 Here's a post on the Advocate (but buried on a subpage, not on the front) that reports something Louisiana Voice reported some time ago: a top DOE official lives in Los Angeles and "commutes" to Baton Rouge. The positioning of the story caused a stir on Facebook Monday, with several posters asking if the Advocate was covering someone's hiney. Sentell's stories on DOE are notoriously soft, and this one is no different: don't expect any hard questions in here.
MAY 21 Here's another post from blogger Tom Aswell about the "course choice" program. He's already reported on kids being signed up without their consent or knowledge, and has more here: For example, he tells of a six-year-old who was signed up for high school Latin. He also digs a little deeper into the sister companies of the main one operating in Louisiana; all of them seem to have complaints against them. Stinky.
MAY 21 Given the 80 percent cut in higher ed funding since he's been in office, it's clear Gov. Jindal would rather give tax cuts to out of state companies than have a functioning system, blogger Dayne Sherman argues in this post. The cuts have been such a disaster, Sherman says, that it will take 30 years to fix what's been broken. He says he believes the aim is to shut down most of the schools before Jindal leaves in 2016.
MAY 21 Blogger CB Forgotston says there are too many elections in Louisiana, and they're costing us too much money. The proof is in the pudding: turnout for most of these nonsensical pollings gets worse and worse, CB opines, even as millions of dollars that could be spent on health care or higher ed go down the tubes. The legislature must take action to stem the tide of pointless elections, he says.
MAY 21 Here's an interesting investigative piece by WVUE on the retirement benefits of some Jefferson Parish public employees. According to the story, the taxpayers are paying 100 percent of the retirement contributions of employees who started work prior to a certain date in April 1986 -- and have done for more than 30 years. It costs the parish millions annually, and might not be legal, the story reports.
MAY 21 This post on Bayou Buzz provides insight from Louisiana's intrepid pollster, Bernie Pinsonat, on the winners and losers from this year's legislative session. But to hear Bernie tell it, there's almost nuttin but losers: Jindal, the Republican party, the Fiscal Hawks all get big goose eggs in his win column.
MAY 20 This post on The Lens takes a look at a huge (either $500K or $250K) bill that one NOLA charter now has for school lunches. The RSD says the charter group didn't fill out the proper paperwork for federal reimbursement, but the story details how the RSD didn't ensure the people running the charter had the proper training, despite requests from hapless charter employees trying to fill out forms. Either way, somebody's asleep at the wheel.
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