Roberts Says Yenni Sexting Far From “Innocent”

In a note to his fellow JP Councilmembers, Council President Chris Roberts has called on the council to further investigate Yenni and his texts to a then 17-year-old boy.  

Roberts makes it clear in his memo that the texts are much more graphic than Yenni would like the public to believe.

“Additionally, I have been told by multiple sources that the text messages exchanged between the Parish President and the young man included solicitation to perform oral sex by the desire to place his tongue into the young man’s rectum. This to me is far more extreme than the portrayal to date that has been brushed off as innocent communication that went astray or simply were misunderstood.”

“I urge all of you,” Roberts continued, “to further investigate the content of the messages and determine for yourself whether this is how we want the face of our parish to be represented.”

To date, Yenni has simply called the texts “inappropriate”. He has not directly denied many of the allegations set forth by the boy including a proposed homosexual threesome involving Yenni, the boy and another 19-year-old male; Yenni’s suggestion that he and the boy cross state lines to engage in sex; Yenni’s pursuit of the boy and their kiss in a public restroom; and Yenni’s suggestion that he would give the boy a job as an aide to Yenni so the two could be close and not arouse suspicion, among other allegations.

At the time, Yenni was the 39-year-old Mayor of Kenner, a husband and father. The sexting occurred while Yenni was campaigning for Parish President.

Yenni was also involved in another batch of inappropriate communications with 8 adult males while he was the Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) of Kenner. Multiple emails were sent and received by Yenni on City of Kenner equipment. Those emails were also sexually explicit in nature. When the emails were disclosed, Yenni claimed that he was being extorted by political rivals and the FBI embargoed the emails, although many in Kenner had already read the emails or had copies of them.

Yenni has maintained that those emails from 2009-2010 were fabricated.

The Sexual Predator-In-Chief Takes On Education And The JP School Board That Banished Him

When Jefferson Parish’s Sexual Predator-In-Chief Mike Yenni named former Jefferson Parish School Superintendent Dianne Roussel as one of his top aides, I scoffed.

What was a former School Superintendent who failed miserably and was vilified by parents, teachers, administrators and School Board Members going to do in Parish Government? The Parish and School Board are completely separate entities and the Parish President has nothing to do with Education.

But, when you consider the stellar Leadership Team that Yenni has surrounded himself with, the selection of Roussel is really not surprising.

Yenni’s top 4 aides include:

-          The aforementioned Roussel.

-          A drunk former Police Chief, despite the Parish President also having no jurisdiction over the JPSO.

-          A bankrupt attorney and former JPSO Officer who left the force in a cloud of controversy surrounding an allegation of a cover up involving police brutality at a Mardi Gras Parade.

-          A former secretary turned uncertified City Auditor who rose swiftly to become Deputy CAO for Louisiana’s 6^th largest city despite having no municipal government experience (perhaps she has photos of Yenni with farm animals – young, male farm animals)

And, they are led by a Sexual Predator who has been banned from setting foot on any Catholic or Public School property or attending any school events.

Nice.

I’m sure we all sleep better at night knowing that Jefferson Parish is in such great hands.

While I’m not sure if it’s due to the fact that he is banned from schools and can’t troll for sexual conquests, but Yenni has found something for Roussel to get involved in: offering ideas to fix the public school system that she left in tatters.

When Roussel left the school system in 2011 citing a need to “rest”, JP schools were ranked 52^nd out of 70 Louisiana school systems.

I know what you’re thinking: she needed rest after getting us to a whopping 52^nd place?

And that 52^nd place finish came after the JP School Board was stacked with pro-business members and Roussel had virtual carte blanche to increase the bloated school bureaucracy with her highly-paid cronies at the expense of educating children.

Now, JP’s Sexual Predator-In-Chief has named Roussel to Chair a new Education Task Force.

And what exactly will this Task Force do?

Make suggestions that they can’t enforce or quantify.

Didn’t Roussel have 8 years as Superintendent with a supportive pro-business School Board to enact her “suggestions”?

Yep, and it got us all the way to 52^nd place!

Woo Hoo.

Can’t wait to hear her new suggestions now that she’s “rested”.

So, now that the people of Jefferson Parish have kicked out the failed pro-business majority on the School Board and Roussel has “rested”, what does Mike Yenni do?

He forms a Task Force filled with pro-business folks.

In addition to Roussel and Natalie Newton from his office, Yenni’s Task Force includes many of the usual suspects:

-          Former State Rep. Tony Ligi, an attorney who quit the Legislature to, in his words, spend more time with his family. At least he didn't say that he needed to "rest". Ligi became a lobbyist for business as the head of the Jefferson Business Council. He is also the President of the Elmwood Business Association.

-          Henry Shane who helped elect the failed pro-business School Board and is a political supporter of Yenni and Ligi. Shane is a member of the Jefferson Business Council and heavily involved in the Jefferson Chamber.

-          Dr. Vinicio Madrigal who heads the fake endorsement group HISPAC. Yenni called Madrigal “instrumental” in the formation of the Kenner Discovery and Health Sciences Academy. As an alleged Hispanic leader, perhaps someone should ask Madrigal (who is a Dr. in name only) why Kenner Discovery has such a disproportionately low percentage of Hispanic and Minority students compared to Kenner’s population.

-          Todd Murphy, President of the Jefferson Chamber. The Chamber worked hand-in-hand with Shane and the Jefferson Business Council to propagate the failed pro-business School Board that worked with Roussel and led JP Schools to their amazing 52nd Place.

-          State Senator Conrad Appel, a staunch supporter of Common Core. Appel will act as an “Advisor” to the Task Force.

Look, no one disputes that Education in Jefferson Parish doesn’t need improvement. However, it is NOT the role of Parish Government or the Parish President to intervene in Education.

If Mike Yenni has suggestions to improve public education, other than have more events so he can hookup with students, he should discuss those suggestions with the current School Board and Superintendent.

I predict that this Task Force will work like all of Yenni’s other political committees (The Kenner Streamlining Government Committee; the Kennere Economic Development Committee; the sub-committee on The Esplanade Mall – yeah, how did that work out?): they will meet and talk. There will be a press release from the Minister of Propaganda Greg Buisson and it will accomplish nothing.

For his part, Jefferson Parish Council President Chris Roberts wants no part in Yenni’s Education Task Force.

In a Facebook post, Roberts said, "I want to be clear that I have not submitted a name for this Task Force nor do I plan to do so.”


The other JP Council members should follow Roberts’ lead and steer clear of any involvement in another of Yenni’s shams.


In fact, the best thing that Yenni could do for Education in Jefferson Parish  would be to resign and allow our parish to move forward with a new Parish President.


At least then our children could have a Parish President that they could look up to.

  

JP Council Denies Lyin’ Ben’s Big Buisson Payoff

Did you ever have one of those days?

You know the one.

You wake up in a fantastic mood knowing that it’s going to be a great day. The sun is shining. The birds are chirping.

Sure, you have to go to work but you know that your day looks great and you will get everything accomplished.

The stars are truly aligned in your favor.

Then, it all turns to mush.

For Lyin’ Ben Zahn, Wednesday was one of THOSE days.

Zahn, who delayed taking the oath of office as Kenner Mayor so that he could have one more JP Council meeting, his last JP Council meeting didn’t quite turn out as he planned.

I’m certain that, being the pompous ass that he is, Lyin’ Ben thought his last JP Council meeting would be a victory lap, an opportunity to funnel even more JP tax dollars to his campaign contributors and, of course, his campaign manager, the Minister of Propaganda Greg Buisson.

But, the best made plans seldom are.

To be fair, Lyin’ Ben did throw a lot of taxpayer money around. In fact, he probably did more for Kenner in one meeting than he has in the past five years on the council (and, I’m sure we will ALL be hearing about it next year when Lyin’ Ben runs for reelection).

Funding for Laketown; for the Italian Heritage Festival (run by his Campaign Manager’s former client Louis Congemi); money for Kenner’s City Park.

But, since the real reason for Lyin’ Ben’s last meeting was to author a big payoff for his campaign manager Greggo, Lyin’ Ben’s day was a failure.

Buisson, the campaign manager for Zahn, JP’s Sexual Predator-In-Chief Mike Yenni, and countless other area elected officials, sued Jefferson Parish and Councilman-At-Large Chris Roberts over an ordinance authored by Roberts to ban political operatives from receiving contracts with the parish.

Buisson claimed that the ordinance was targeted at him.

As you probably know, I could care less what Greg Buisson thinks, the Roberts ordinance was good for Jefferson Parish. If it hurt Buisson, that’s a win-win in my book.

Of course, settling or not settling the lawsuit is a crapshoot. JP tax payers may end up on the hook for more than $120k. Since it’s in Federal Court (instead of the 24^th JDC), I think JP’s odds of winning are good.

In the end, the Council voted 5-2 against settling the lawsuit. Only fellow Buisson Acolyte Paul Johnston voted with Lyin’ Ben.

BTW, what happened to you, Paul Johnston?

I always thought you were a decent guy, even when we disagreed.

Now, you’re attacking citizens that speak out, going behind the backs of volunteer firefighters, and acting like Lyin’ Ben.

After the Aaron Broussard scandal, there was a groundswell of support for stronger ethics in Jefferson Parish and for all of Louisiana for that matter.

The Republican led state legislature, with the approval of then-Governor Bobby Jindal, offered some mild ethics reforms that they called “The Gold Standard” of governmental ethics.

As you know, they failed miserably.

The Republicans in state government actually weakened ethics for themselves and made the State Ethics Board a group of clerks sending out late notices instead of a strong compliance office.

You still have legislators like Kenner State Senator (and a candidate to replace Lyin’ Ben on the JP Council) Danny Martiny taking excess political contributions from PACs and other legislators and elected officials like Yenni and Zahn using campaign donations to enhance their personal lifestyles while the State Ethics Board gets paid to date and time stamp campaign filing forms rather than issue strong penalties to real violators.

In JP, Roberts and others on the Council, prodded by Margie Seemann and Margaret Baird, put forth some modest ethics proposals but none had the teeth to significantly improve ethics in JP government.

The Parish even brought in an Inspector General to add another layer of protection although the JP IG doesn’t monitor the Parish’s largest city (Kenner) and the Yenni Administration has done it’s best to provide obstacles to the IG.

Regardless of his motivation, the Roberts ordinance was a step in the right direction.

You shouldn’t have the campaign manager of elected officials also receiving parish contracts and using his influence to derive even more tax dollars from NGOs like the Jefferson Convention & Visitors Bureau, JEDCO, and many others that receive tax payer funding.

I mean really, what Councilman that wants to get reelected can refuse to help his campaign manager?

For the past several weeks, Lyin’ Ben has been working behind the scenes to push his fellow council members to settle the lawsuit with Buisson. The Council already scuttled the Roberts ordinance and backtracked on a Buisson contract for Mardi Gras parade stands.

At Wednesday’s meeting, Zahn offered an ordinance to settle and pay Buisson $120,000 of YOUR tax dollars for “legal fees”.

You don’t need to be a Rocket Scientist, or even an Unlicensed Florist, to know that some, if not all, of that $120k would have wound up in Buisson’s pocket.

Claiming that the Parish had already spent several hundred thousand dollars defending the lawsuit (why can’t our Parish Attorneys litigate again?), Lyin’ Ben claimed that it was a good deal.

Despite calls for those Councilmembers that had a previous relationship with Buisson to recuse themselves, Zahn relied on Parish Attorney Mike Power’s claim that, since Lyin’ Ben didn’t have a “current” contract with Buisson, he could vote on the settlement.

Buisson worked with Zahn during his Kenner Mayoral campaign. Buisson claimed that, despite having meetings with Lyin’ Ben to discuss Zahn’s inauguration and the mayoral transition, his “work” for Zahn ended when Zahn won the runoff.

Buisson claims that he was not paid for his meetings with Zahn after the runoff.

Right.

As everyone knows, whores don’t do anything for free.

And, in Metro New Orleans, there is no bigger whore than Greg Buisson.

When civic activist George Peterson took to the podium to discuss the Zahn conflict of interest, Zahn fired back asking if Peterson was an attorney.

No, George Peterson is not an attorney.

He’s not an Unlicensed Florist either.

Buisson himself took the podium to urge the council to settle.

After he was finished patting himself on the back as a champion of free speech, the man who complained about citizens making Public Records Requests, spoke to WDSU’s Travers Mackel.

“This is all about politics,” Buisson said.

And that’s the problem.

Look, if Greg Buisson wants to be the campaign manager for almost every elected official in Jefferson Parish, fine, go for it.

But, don’t use your relationships as a campaign manager to extract (or extort) tax dollars.

That’s not right.

And, if we had any ethics in Jefferson Parish, we wouldn’t be discussing this.

Of course, we wouldn’t have a Sexual Predator as Parish President and a pathological liar soon to be Kenner’s Mayor either.