If you’ve read ClickJefferson in the past, you know that I’ve
said for years that with Mike Yenni nothing is ever as it seems.
Sadly, it’s taken a sexting scandal with a teenage boy to
get some of you to believe me.
I don’t want to make any height jokes, but, perhaps it’s because
he has lived in Mike Yenni’s shadow since it appears that with Lyin’ Ben Zahn,
the apple hasn’t fallen far from the tree.
No, there haven’t been any allegations of Lyin’ Ben and
young boys, but, when it comes to deception and protecting the financial
interests of the Minister of Propaganda Greg Buisson, Zahn and Yenni are
identical.
In our last post, we discussed Lyin’ Ben’s ridiculous
statement that he wanted to wait for his election as Kenner’s Mayor to be “certified”
before he resigned his JP Council seat. Delaying his resignation would result
in an Interim Councilman being appointed and seated for almost a full year
before an elected Councilman could take over the remainder of Zahn’s unexpired
term.
If Zahn would have resigned last week, an election could
have been held in the Spring rather than next Winter.
At first glance, it appeared that Zahn wanted to approve an
Interim Councilman to take his seat and have another friendly Pro-Yenni vote on
the Council before allowing voters the right to choose his successor.
But, is that really the reason?
After my post, I received a few emails suggesting otherwise.
Could helping our old friend Greg Buisson be the true motivation
behind Lyin’ Ben’s delay?
Let’s jump back to 2014.
After his defeat of the Pro-Buisson Machine candidate Louis
Congemi, JP Councilman-At-Large Chris Roberts put forth an ordinance that would
ban political campaign managers like Buisson from receiving funds from NGOs
that received Parish funding.
As we’ve discussed in the past, Greg Buisson has his money
grubbing paws in several lucrative Parish honeypots including JEDCO, the
Jefferson Convention & Visitor’s Bureau; fairs and festivals like Family
Gras; fishing rodeos; and Buisson also has the contract to put up Mardi Gras
parade reviewing stands.
Buisson, not wanting to lose his multiple spots in the JP
Tax Payer trough, cried “Foul!” and filed a lawsuit against Roberts and the
Parish.
Buisson claimed that he was being singled out.
So what.
Roberts’ ordinance was long overdue.
Buisson has exerted his influence over those he has helped
get elected and leveraged his relationships with elected officials to profit
himself at our expense for years.
The Buisson Tax Payer Gravy Train should have ended long
ago.
Instead, rather than do the honorable thing and recuse
themselves from votes involving Buisson, those that Buisson has relationships
with have continued to vote to approve tax dollars for Buisson-affiliated
organizations.
And you wonder why Louisiana has a poor reputation when it
comes to political ethics.
Recently, the spineless JP Council backtracked on the
Roberts ordinance and allowed Buisson to keep his Mardi Gras stand contract.
The Council said that no other company bid on the contract.
What the Council should have done is secure multiple bids on
the contract. Surely there are enough
businesses out there that would have
jumped at the chance to replace Buisson.
Why was there no outreach to minority or Disadvantaged
Businesses?
Because Buisson has several members of the JP Council like
Lyin’ Ben along with JP’s resident Sexual Predator-In-Chief Mike Yenni in place
to protect him.
But let’s get back to the Buisson connection and Lyin’ Ben’s
resignation delay.
Sources have told ClickJefferson that, behind the scenes and
away from the TV cameras and the public, Lyin’ Ben has been pressing the
Council to settle the Buisson lawsuit regarding the Roberts ordinance.
The settlement would involve a cash payment (from YOUR tax
dollars) and payment for Buisson’s legal expenses.
We are told that Yenni has also been involved in discussions
regarding the settlement amount which Yenni would approve.
And when is the JP Council scheduled to discuss the lawsuit
settlement?
If you guessed at their next meeting, you would be correct.
Thus, Lyin’ Ben’s delay would mean that he will be in his
Council high chair casting yet another vote to help line the pockets of Greg
Buisson at OUR expense.
Of course, the Council may take up the lawsuit settlement in
Executive Session which means we will never know which of Buisson’s Council
lackeys will join Zahn in giving your money to Buisson.
The fact is, regardless of whether it’s a public vote or a
vote in Executive Session, anyone that has utilized the “services” of Greg
Buisson and his company should recuse themselves from voting.
I know however, that it’s wishful thinking to believe that
our elected officials are actually there to represent the best interests of the
people of Jefferson Parish.
If all goes according to Lyin’ Ben’s plan, Greg Buisson gets
richer (at YOUR expense) and Zahn helps his (and Yenni’s) campaign manager in
the process.
Once again, everyone wins – except the tax payers of
Jefferson Parish.
