Louisiana continues to live down to reputation

Layafette Daily Advertiser:

We have defended Louisiana against claims that the state is too incompetent and too corrupt to be allowed to handle storm relief funds. Our earnest belief is that the broad political picture supports our view. Incidents surface all too often, however, that keep alive the perception so common in other parts of the country that corruption holds year-round high carnival in Louisiana and that the ultimate goal in every political race is to be first at the public trough.

As we write, the FBI is engaged in a multifaceted probe of post-Katrina spending in St. Bernard Parish. Being scrutinized closely are several contracts, including one for $370 million for debris pickup that, according to parish officials and competing firms, was granted without bids five days after the storm, then given to the same firm later despite lower bids from other contractors.

Parish President Henry "Junior" Rodriguez, who signed that original debris pickup contract as an emergency measure, helped to make the common perception of politics in Louisiana a little shabbier with his comment that "I don't give a (expletive deleted) if the FBI is investigating."

Here's another one for the books. (It would be prime joke book material, except that it may involve funny business with our tax dollars). Officials in the New Orleans area recently went to visit a company that is expected to receive the bulk of the money from a state contract to remove cars abandoned after Hurricane Katrina struck. They found that the address listed for the company, which could land the lion's share of the $62 million junk car removal contract, is a flood-ruined house in New Orleans' devastated Ninth Ward.

State Sen. Ken Hollis, R-Metairie, says the situation strains the credulity of the car-removal project. He told The Times-Picayune that he sent a staff member to the address listed for the company, L&L. "It's a house that had six to 10 feet of water in it," Hollis said. "I got a phone number for them and it's disconnected."

Wait, there's more. The company with which L&L is paired for the massive car removal project, TruSource of Douglasville, Ga., is listed on the Web as a specialist in janitorial services. The biography of the president of TruSource emphasizes a strong background in selling "candy, potato chips and snacks," according to the Picayune.

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Who would have thought it?