An interesting ordinance was passed last week by the
Jefferson Parish Council and since it didn’t merit much press coverage, I
wanted to make sure that some of you were aware of it. More on the ordinance in
a minute.
If you’re a faithful CJ reader, you know that I have long
railed about the greedy sack of ____ that is Greg Buisson. If a non-elected
official could step forward and prove to me that Greg Buisson has done one
thing to positively benefit Jefferson Parish for the millions of tax dollars he
has reaped, I would love to hear about it.
Buisson has skillfully managed to get candidates elected at
all levels of government in Jefferson Parish so that they are beholden to him.
From Mike Maunoir/Yenni and most of the Kenner City Council to most of the
Jefferson Parish Council with stops in other places as well.
In return for getting them elected, these elected officials
push money into entities affiliated with Buisson.
In addition, Buisson has also garnered some other tax
dollars from his clients that have benefited his family.
Along the way, Buisson has tried to take some shots at me.
Some, like this Nola.com article have failed badly. Yeah, let’s stop citizens from making Public Records Requests. Great idea Greg! Keep trying to hide your
tax dollar plundering from us.
Still shaking my head that the clueless New Orleans Advocate reporter called Buisson a "media expert".
When Kenner faced abuses with the Kenner Convention and
Visitor’s Bureau, rather than replacing the Board (which included then Kenner
Councilman Ben Zahn and current Councilwoman-At-Large Maria DeFrancesch),
Kenner Mayor Mike Yenni disbanded the KCVB entirely. Did he put together
another group to promote Kenner? Why would he when he could simply funnel
Kenner’s Hotel/Motel Tax to the Jefferson Convention and Visitor’s Bureau
(which sould be promoting Kenner anyway since they receive Parish tax dollars
including some from Kenner). Since the JCVB has a relationship with Greg
Buisson (who just happens to be the campaign manager for Zahn, DeFrancesch,
Yenni and others on the Kenner Council) and since the money goes to the JCVB,
which then passes through the money to Buisson in the form of advertising
placement or production costs, the State Ethics Board sits idly by and says
there is no conflict of interest.
And what does the “Media Genius” Greg Buisson do for his
money? He advertises Kenner on New Orleans Television Stations.
Cut to a dinner table conversation in New Orleans:
Man: “Honey, instead of going to the Quarter this weekend,
why don’t we go to Kenner and count the people shopping at The Esplanade?”
Woman: “What a fantastic idea! We can have lunch at the
Chic-Fil-A. No, wait a minute. I heard they closed.”
The list of Jefferson Parish NGOs and events that receive
money from the Parish and have a relationship with Buisson include:
-
Jefferson Convention and Visitor’s Bureau
-
JEDCO
-
Grand Isle Tarpon Rodeo
-
Family Gras
-
Lafreniere Park (spearheaded by the
aforementioned Zahn)
-
Louisiana Tourism Coastal Coalition
(headquartered in the Coastal City of Metairie)
-
And many others.
Aside from being headquartered in Metairie, the Louisiana
Tourism Coastal Coalition’s web site also directs visitors to try the many Jefferson
Parish Seafood-based entrees at such restaurants as Raising Cane’s Chicken
Fingers and Ralph & Kacoo’s (in New Orleans, not even the correct parish).
In addition to sending Kenner tax dollars to the JCVB, Yenni
also sends more Kenner tax dollars annually to JEDCO, which also should be
promoting Kenner to business interests because their funding comes from
Jefferson Parish tax dollars too.
In fact, during his 5 years as Kenner Mayor, Yenni has funneled
over $1 Million in Kenner tax dollars to entities affiliated with his campaign
manager Buisson.
Buisson is also deeply entrenched with business groups
including the Jefferson Chamber and the Jefferson Business Council. He also has
done work with Bridging Progress (the Pro-Toll group) and the group thrown
together to support Yenni’s plan to double Kenner’s property taxes (for which
Buisson wrote off over $12k in debt).
Buisson also wrote the report for Yenni’s Streamlining
Budget Committee, held a press conference and distributed the report to the
public before many committee members had even seen it and authored reports for
the Yenni’s Economic Development Committee, each of which included several
members from the Jefferson Chamber and the Jefferson Business Council.
Buisson also has his sticky little fingers in several
endorsement groups like Crimefighters, which make their endorsement meaningless
to anyone with half a brain (I said half, not a quarter, Mike).
Now that you know some background, let’s cut to last week’s
JP Council meeting.
When Louie “Mr. Irrelevant” Congemi entered the Jefferson
Parish Council-At-Large race against Chris Roberts, many believed that Congemi
was placed there in retaliation for Roberts supporting Elton Lagasse instead of
Buisson-client Yenni in the Parish President race.
Congemi, who has long battled health issues, hasn’t been a
factor in Jefferson Parish politics since 2011 when tried to bequeath his
Council seat to his wife after he was term-limited. In the end, she dropped out
early and Congemi supported Ben Zahn over me. Congemi even did not one but two
robocalls in the same day supporting Zahn. Why two in one day, you ask? Because
Congemi couldn’t remember the election day on the first one.
But that’s in the past.
I have no issue with Louie supporting Zahn, reading
robocalls against me (he was doing what he was told to) or running against
Chris Roberts. In fact, I was happy to hear that he was healthy enough to
campaign.
Of course, Louie’s campaign manager was none other than…wait
for it…Greg Buisson.
Well, at the last JP Council meeting, Chris Roberts decided
to step up and do the right thing – stop contracts that are awarded to
political operatives like Buisson.
No, he didn’t go all the way (that really doesn’t sound
right but you know what I mean) and stop NGOs that receive tax funding from
having the pass through relationship with Buisson that the JCVB, JEDCO and
other do.
But stripping Buisson of the contract to supply reviewing
stands for Mardi Gras Parades is a start.
Of course, Ben Zahn voted against the Roberts ordinance
claiming that it unfairly targeted Buisson.
Sit down Ben.
Oh, sorry, you were already sitting.
To be fair, no tax dollars should go to any NGO that employs
a political operative like Buisson and his company. How can elected officials
that have a working relationship with Buisson vote against funding an NGO that
employs his company? They should recuse themselves but, since this is pass
through money, even the State Ethics Board turns a blind eye to the conflicts
that any ordinary citizen could see.
Buisson claims that the ordinance is unconstitutional.
Curious that I couldn’t find anything related to greedy political operatives
who leech tax dollars in the Constitution.
Hopefully, this is the first step to riding Jefferson Parish
of corrupt leeches like Buisson (c’mon. I can dream, can’t I?).
You know what? I don’t care.
Anything that stops a tax dollar from getting into Greg
Buisson’s pocket is a win for me.
Now you know that Chris Roberts and I haven’t always seen
eye-to-eye. But, even when we disagreed, Roberts would never duck a question or
an issue. When you can agree to disagree and act like adults, that’s a good
thing.
Others may not have had the same experience with Roberts,
but that’s mine.
Hopefully, Councilman Roberts will continue this small step
and clean up more conflicts of interest in Jefferson Parish.
Since Jefferson Parish still has the stench of Aaron Broussard (who also worked with Buisson) on it, Lord knows that with Mike Maunoir/Yenni moving in as Parish
President, his greedy BFF Buisson won’t be far behind.
And that will mean more JP tax dollars funneled into Buisson’s
pockets.
Unless we and Roberts stop it from happening.
In the meantime, we can all relish the fact that Chris Roberts
stepped up and helped lighten the pockets a bit of the greedy, tax-dollar
sucking leech that is Greg Buisson.
To paraphrase Neil Armstrong, “It’s one small step for JP
tax payers…”
You know the rest…
