New laws too late to fix left's fatal errors

If only some parts of Republican Gov. Jeff Landry’s and his legislative allies’ crime package had been in place prior to this year, likely at least one more person would be alive today, along potentially with reductions in many other crimes committed.

At the end of June, a woman who worked as tour guide was found shot dead early in the morning in the Vieux Carré. The next day, New Orleans police arrested Joshua Bonifacio-Avila, 19, Jerben Albarec, 17, and Kevin Nuñez, 15 for the robbery/murder with Nuñez as the alleged triggerboy.

That unhappy circumstance reflects poorly on Democrat Orleans Parish Juvenile Court Judge Candice Bates-Anderson’s decision-making, as Nuñez – despite his not being old enough to operate legally a vehicle – already had a record of seven counts of aggravated assault, illegal possession of a handgun, and domestic battery at his latest appearance earlier this spring. Bates-Anderson nevertheless sentenced him to home arrest and monitoring. Yet in another system failure, for some reason his ankle monitor was deactivated in May, allowing him to roam the streets that led to his alleged role in the robbery that escalated to murder.

Reforms may depoliticize future coastal plans

A faux ruckus raised over a recent reorganization of Louisiana’s Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority illustrates just how uninformed – aided naturally enough by oversimplistic if not mendacious publicity by special interests and subsequent stenography by news organizations – is the public about climate change and how it relates to the state’s management of coastal lands.

Last month, Republican Gov. Jeff Landry signed into law HB 806, which alters membership on the CPRA Board (note that the CPRA is divided into a policy-making arm, the Board, and an implementation arm, called the Authority which typically is denoted by the acronym). It removed six of the 23 and added three more.

This may be the first step in Landry’s planned overhaul of the CPRA as a whole. A transition committee of his recommended integrating it with the Department of Energy and Natural Resources. A bill to do that stalled in the past legislative session, perhaps over the perception that this attempt to make coherent a patchwork of quasi-independent entities that make coordination of conservation policy difficult instead somehow would deemphasize that function, if not degrade it.

Petition submission pressures BC establishment

It’s no accident that the collapse of Bossier City’s Charter Review Commission coincided with the successful conclusion of a citizen initiative to petition a city charter change introducing term limits. It leaves the political establishment, especially the elected officials part of it who would be devastated with subsequent enactment, clinging to lawfare as its only remote chance to derail an almost-assuredly ratification of term limits prior to next year’s city elections.

Heading into a scheduled Jun. 18 meeting after the previous meeting had seen the four Commission representatives generally favorable towards limits take advantage of two absences of establishment representatives, who were against the idea, to gain commission approval of a term limits measure like the one on the petition – three terms retroactively applied immediately – the establishment commissioners faced some tactical considerations in trying to reverse that outcome at the meeting, which would depend upon how many of their numbers they could muster. Apparently, they couldn’t maneuver enough to have presumably the last meeting of substance before forwarding all approved items to the City Council as they appeared to boycott without warning the scheduled meeting, leaving in attendance just three of the reform commissioners (one had announced previously his intended absence) and no quorum. (Determining whether the boycott was planned is now subject to a contested public records request.)

The non-meeting devolved into an acrimonious exchange between then-Chairman Preston Friedley and Assistant City Attorney Richard Ray over the agenda-setting process – an important point because what appeared on it would affect the numbers needed by the establishmentarians to try to overturn a past vote. Of particular concern to that faction was the past typical absences of one of them, Paderina Soumas, that if repeated would deprive them under most scenarios of the votes needed for the overturning.

LA judiciary could use paring, reorganization

A recent decision made by a little-known panel of elected Louisiana judges illuminates how with reorganization of the state’s judiciary taxpayers could save around $100 million annually.

Last month, the state’s Judicial Budgetary Control Board voted to give stipends in most instances representing almost 8.5 percent of a judge’s salary, out of an internal fund not dependent on taxpayer dollars that has accumulated a significant surplus, to judges on the bench as of Jul. 1. With this decision, which doesn’t appear to follow legislative intent to dole out periodically to active judges this bonus it authorized, if a judge does not serve the entire fiscal year he still receives the whole amount, even as this appears to be an unconstitutional donation of public funds.

The stipends came from the judiciary appropriation bill, following on pay raises in recent years recommended by the special panel created to evaluate these and legislative approval. It had been conditioned upon completion by a district or appellate judge of a workload study, but Republican Gov. Jeff Landry cast a line-item veto on that requirement, stating that the judiciary should evaluate its own members and the study would be completed with over half the fiscal year over.

NO officials enable politicized police missteps

Increasingly it seems necessary for the gutting and reconstitution of the New Orleans Police Department, given the escalating rogue behavior it exhibits throughout itself, but that might require accomplishing the more difficult task of exchanging city political elites.

The ongoing saga involving a member of the department once assigned to Democrat Mayor LaToya Cantrell’s security detail on the surface seemed isolated to the officer involved. Both are under federal investigation potentially for defrauding taxpayer resources. That officer was suspended in April and since has filed to retire from the department.

But a twist to the apparently sordid affair, which includes alleged assignations between Cantrell and the officer on the taxpayer dime as she lived unauthorized on city property, a privilege recently revoked by the City Council, Cantrell filed for a protective order against a neighbor at that location supposedly out of pique that the woman had provided video recordings of Cantrell at a public venue that ended up in media reports and possibly as evidence in the looming federal indictments that could involve Cantrell. According to the woman, almost the entire filing was bogus, to which a civil court judge agreed in tossing the entire thing.

Independence Day, 2024

This column publishes every Sunday through Thursday around noon U.S. Central Time (maybe even after sundown on busy days, or maybe before noon if things work out, or even sometimes on the weekend if there's big news) except whenever a significant national holiday falls on the Monday through Friday associated with the otherwise-usual publication on the previous day (unless it is Thanksgiving Day, Independence Day, Christmas, or New Year's Day when it is the day on which the holiday is observed by the U.S. government). In my opinion, in addition to these are also Easter Sunday, Memorial Day and Veterans' Day.

With Wednesday, Jul. 4 being Independence Day, I invite you to explore the links connected to this page.

Political shuffling to benefit Court, maybe NSU

The political musical chairs that may commence with a new Northwestern State University presidency in the near future could lead, with voters ratification, to a quality lineup in the state’s Supreme Court – but at the cost of refreshing a questionable tendency in governance of Louisiana’s higher education institutions.

At the end of May, NSU Pres. Marcus Jones announced he accepted an offer to be kicked upstairs in the University of Louisiana System. The ULS just prior to statewide elections last fall swiftly moved to put former Grambling State University Pres. Rick Gallot into the system presidency, but then hit the brakes when Republican incoming Gov. Jeff Landry asked to meet with Gallot prior to any final contract offering.

Landry has no control over such a hiring decision. But he does have control over appointments to the ULS Board of Supervisors, almost half of whom come up for that at then end of the year, and most of them before Landry’s term is up (and all of them if he serves another). While because of the political allegiances of some they will not return, many have a decent chance of reappointment and not acquiescing might have mooted that.

LA must support efforts to bring EPA in line

Either by legal action or election results, the run of politicization of science that has marked the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s regulatory regime on emissions looks to wither away, bringing relief to a major Louisiana industrial concern punished for political reasons.

As of the middle of last week, things weren’t looking great for Denka Performance Elastomers in LaPlace, the country’s only producer of neoprene. For over a decade, Denka and its predecessor have been in the crosshairs of the EPA that alleges production of neoprene emits too high levels of chloroprene that supposedly causes cancer. The EPA has tried to impose emission strict standards even as the company has instigated a huge decrease in these amounts.

That battle escalated in a rule proposed in April and made final in May that broadly changes the emission regime, but specifically for Denka creates a level that the company has said is impossible to meet by an Oct. 15 deadline. It has gone to court to suspend this implementation.

Next Ellis term may feature choppy waters

Fresh off a successful four years and convincing reelection, Monroe independent Mayor Friday Ellis looks to face a different – and possibly less tractable – set of challenges through 2028.

This week, he took the oath for a second term, along with new terms for Republican Councilors Doug Harvey and Gretchen Ezernack and Democrat Juanita Woods. In 2020, Ellis, who is white, shocked the political world when in a city with black voting majority and Democrat voting majority as a novice candidate he defeated black long time mayor Democrat Jamie Mayo.

Proving this no fluke, he overcame Mayo again earlier this year, more than doubling up on him with 63 percent of the vote, an improvement of about 10 percent in the rematch. Ellis credited his victory to taking largely a service-oriented approach deemphasizing ideology that focused on attention to constituents, which seemed to resonate among black voters as he captured at least a quarter of the vote in a number of supermajority black precincts.

Consequential election frees Bossier legislators

Persecuted in past years, if not attacked for reelection purposes, Bossier Parish-based legislators saw their efforts flourish this year.

The 2023 Regular Session of the Louisiana Legislature brought adversity for the likes of Republicans state Sen. (then Rep.) Alan Seabaugh, Raymond Crews, and Dodie Horton, as well as GOP state Rep. Danny McCormick who prior to reapportionment that took effect this year also represented parts of the parish. That’s as they advocated reining in spending, favoring the use of surplus dollars to pay down unfunded accrued liabilities and other measures to stabilize state finances, which meant leaving in place a spending cap.

By contrast, Democrat former Gov. John Bel Edwards wanted to lard up the budget as much as possible in an attempt to bake in larger government prior to his departure at year’s end, knowing as soon as he left office his legacy of bloated government and redistribution to favored special interests would start to crumble. He found willing allies in a legislative Republican leadership of House former Speaker Clay Schexnayder – himself running for higher office where higher spending could leverage him more campaign support – and Sen. former Pres. Page Cortez who wanted to spread largesse to legislators, many of whom were running for election.