Suchergebnisse

From clown show to freak show, perhaps only the Cypress Black Bayou Recreation and Water
Conservation District Board of Commissioners could pull off such ignominy
in a span of just over a week.

The regular Jun.
21 meeting featured comedy, doubtlessly unintentional on the part of those
who provided it, that for most viewers in Bossier Parish turned surreal upon realization
this was their tax dollars at work. It occurred a couple of months after the
Louisiana Supreme Court ruled that lower
courts had to judge whether Executive Director Robert Berry, who also serves as
the appointee of the Bossier Parish Police Jury to the Board, was in violation of dual officeholding
law by having both posts – with the majority opinion issuing stern instructions
that made clear any lower court would have to rule that he was.

That meeting demonstrated several things:

The Board's other members – Walt Bigby, Jerry Fowler,
Kelly Long, and Gary Wyche, parish political insiders all – had little clue as
to what actually has been going on, or even the rules and regulations they are
in charge of, in the district. Their general vacuousness reflected an unhealthy
reliance on Berry to perform as their agent, reversing the intended flow of authority
where instead of him acting on the orders of the Board its members followed his
directions. One resident who had interacted with Berry on a matter even stated publicly
that Berry bragged how he led the Board around by the nose.In over her head was its counsel Alex Vozzella
from the politically-connected Ayres, Shelton, Williams, Benson & Paine
firm, who kept stumbling particularly on statute and administrative law relating
to contracting. This led to her needing backup at the Jun. 29 special meeting
in the form of the firm's senior partner Lee Ayres. Keep in mind that the District
spent in 2020
and 2021
nearly a half-million dollars – or about 13 percent of total district expenditures
– on legal fees.As for Berry, citing the dispute over his
officeholding, he withdrew from the meeting just after its start, despite his
obligation to act as an appointed representative of the Bossier Parish Police
Jury, because of what he knew was coming.Which was Republican District 3 Police Juror Philip
Rodgers launching a lengthy harangue alleging mistreatment over permits and
their enforcement, which illuminated the cluelessness of all concerned except
the escaped Berry. Throughout, it became clear Rodgers had received special
treatment from Berry partially with Board compliance and who now alleged political
reasons for adverse action the Board seemed poised to take against him. In the
process, not only did Rogers make it appear Berry dispensed favorable treatment
without Board knowledge and in violation of rules, but also that Rodgers' privileged
political insider status allowed him to reap the benefits of that.







This set the stage for the special meeting, with
Berry skipping it completely because, well, as the Board noted, someone had to
work the front gate to let people in – even though the park officially closed its
entrance 15 minutes before the meeting even started. Perhaps because the last
meeting exposed how permit processing – necessary for property owners to secure
variances to existing rules and to carry out the necessary construction –
almost solely resided in the hands of Berry, the Board heard a proposal from
Manchac Consulting Group to oversee contractually the process.

Manchac is the entity to which Bossier City has contracted
public works services with a series of no-bid deals, despite it having no other
experience in running local government affairs and a spotty record with Bossier
City, such as botching
permit arrangements that forced a permanent closure of a stretch of
semi-busy Shed Road. This also would be a no-bid deal.

But where the meeting took on an aspect of a train
wreck occurred when the Board brought up a request for the Police Jury to
reappoint Berry for another five-year term at the end of July. Friends of
Cypress Black Bayou director, long time resident, and long time critic of
certain Board actions Renee Hall addressed the Board with text from the Supreme
Court decision, including reading the interpretation rendered by the Court to
guide lower courts that Berry was in violation of the dual officeholding statute.

Commissioner Long, a lawyer specializing in family
law, then invoked every negative stereotype of lawyers as bending the truth to
support their positions by trying to argue with Hall that the decision merely said
lower courts erred in granting a summary judgment in favor of Berry without a
trial, without acknowledging that the Court's opinion instructed lower courts
to rule that Berry was in violation and even contradicting Hall on that point when
she pressed her on that.

Then, District counsel Ayres tried to bail out
Long further by calling her comments "absolutely correct" and noting a petition
for rehearing had been brought to the Court. This is merely a delaying tactic,
as the Court is highly unlikely to change its mind mere weeks after its
judgment, to buy time to keep a lower court from ruling Berry in violation,
giving him cover to his reappointment possibility.

Thereupon followed Hall's husband David, who made an
absolutely cogent comment: with so much uncertainty legally regarding Berry, discretion
would be the better part of valor by not recommending his retention. He also elicited
from Ayres that the District was ponying up litigation costs on all of this
continued legal wrangling.

Nonetheless, the Board voted unanimously to ask
the Jury to reappoint the conveniently-absent Berry. This meant they advocated
for keeping among themselves somebody who has been accused publicly of playing
fast and loose with District rules and alleged to have said he dictates to his fellow
commissioners what to do, and who the highest court in the state has said
violates dual officeholding law.

On its current course, this is where it's going to
lead: if Berry is reappointed, the Board will spend potentially hundreds of
thousands of taxpayer dollars in a fruitless defense, compounded if the rendered
decision ends up fought all the way back to the Supreme Court. At most, this
will buy Berry perhaps another year in both positions – and if he holds out to
the bitter end will lose
the executive directorship and have to pay back the District six months' salary
(if he voluntarily resigned his commissioner job prior, he would owe nothing).

Such a professed desire to waste wantonly taxpayer
dollars by Berry, Bigby, Fowler, Long, and Wyche is dereliction of fiduciary
duty beyond disgraceful. Yet even more remarkable is, why? Why is Berry so keen
on keeping both offices when the directorship is far more important and
lucrative? Why are the other commissioners so keen to go to the mattresses for
Berry despite the enormous costs and bad publicity that will end in futility?

This behavior tempts the explanation that there is
a whole salacious back story out of public view that if revealed might bring to
light considerable liability for the District and all involved. Let's hope it's
just a matter of small people acting stupidly  – and who
will have to face voters next year for renewal of the 1.56 mil property tax
providing most of the funding for the District.

Shifting the responsibility for a necessary but costly action to someone else is often called Passing the Buck. Examples of such behavior in politics are environmental and budget problems which are left to future generations. Small group examples are (not) washing the dishes or (not) dealing with a difficult customer. Under the assumption of altruistic preferences, rational behavior in this game is derived and confronted with experimental data. By comparison, the sequence of possible decision makers in the normal Passing the Buck game is substituted with an expert who alone is competent to fix the problem. It turned out that the marginal probabilities of shifting the responsibility are in good accordance with the theoretical model, although with completely different parameter distributions for experts and non-experts. The structure of the individual decisions, however, is best described by a random parameter model (Cox et al., 2007).

A commemoration book honoring Harry Crowe Buck. This volume was published by the alumni association of the YMCA College of Physical Education in Saidapet, India, and edited by L. K. Govirandarajulu, director of Physical Education of the Annamalai University. ; Harry Buck received his Bachelor in 1910, and a Master's Degree in Physical Education in 1917 from the International YMCA College (now Springfield College), with an endorsement "worthy of very high praise". After successful physical education work in Wichita High School, Fairmount College, public schools in Springfield, MA and Galesburg, Illinois, Mr. Buck accepted a YMCA position to take up work in Madras, India, as Physical Director. As a pioneer in the field of Athletics in India, Mr. Buck founded the YMCA College of Physical Education in Madras. Afterwards he was involved with the Madras Olympic team contributing to the Indian Olympic team overall. Mr. Buch also took charge of organizing games to entertain Allied forces during World War II, and performed as an Adviser to to Government in Physical Education. He was also remembered for his social work in Saidapet. Mr. Buch was considered one of the greatest pioneers in Health and Physical Education in India.

ON 29 SEPTEMBER 1995 OXFAM UK ORGANIZED A SEMINAR IN LONDON ENTITLED "MULTILATERAL DEBT IN THE POOREST COUNTRIES: WHICH WAY FORWARD?" THE CENTRAL PROBLEM THIS SEMINAR ADDRESSED WAS THE INCREASING DEBT BURDEN OF THE 32 SILIC'S (THE SEVERELY INDEBTED LOW INCOME COUNTRIES), OF WHICH 25 ARE IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA. THE DISCUSSION FOCUSED ESPECIALLY ON UGANDA, A COUNTRY THAT HAS BEEN POSTPONING PAYING OFF DEBT, RECYCLING AID TO MAKE REPAYMENTS, AND BEING GIVEN MORE AID TO ACCUMULATE MORE DEBT. IN ADDITION, UGANDA'S DEBT PAYMENTS ARE EIGHT TIMES ITS CURRENT EXPENDITURE ON WATER AND SANITATION PROVISION. MUCH OF THE DISCUSSION WAS THEREFORE CENTERED ON THE NEED TO REDUCE THE MULTILATERAL DEBT STOCK. THE SEMINAR ALSO DISCUSSED THE TECHNICAL MEANS WHICH CAN BE EMPLOYED TO REDUCE THE DEBT STOCK. HOWEVER, THE QUESTION THEN TURNED POLITICAL; IS IT IN THE INTERESTS OF THE RICH MEMBER STATES TO ALLOW DEBT STOCK REDUCTION FOR THE SILIC'S? THE INTERNATIONAL MONETARY FUND AND THE WORLD BANK ALSO WANT TO CONTINUE THEIR CAUTIOUS APPROACH TO THIS FINANCIAL SITUATION.

What the arms trade needs is regulation not registration