Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Unrolling the Scroll of Inequity...

...otherwise known as the LSED Grant Master List.

For those of you who have followed the epic journey of the American Zombie blog (I refer to it in second person because I do not believe it belongs solely to me), you should remember when I published the LSED grant roadmap back during the entire Cedric Richmond con-profit days.

For those of you who don't know what that is, back around the turn of the century (so many years ago) the Louisiana Stadium and Exposition District had a "grant program" which can now go down as the quintessential slush fund in New Orleans' political history.  From 2000 to 2004, state and local legislators doled out gazamillions of smackeroos to non-profits, churches, special interest groups...even for-profit private schools... from the LSED fund.

I managed to track down the master grant list back then and it essentially serves as a skeleton key to special interests for just about every career politician in the city.  It is also a snapshot of the ridiculous amount of con-profits this city fosters and who some of the players are that have made a fine art out of living off the public teat.

Today, I decided to go back and look at the list to see who was sucking off then Louisiana Rep. Diane Bajoie's udder.

Some interesting discoveries:


It's worth noting that 12th Ward SOCO and its variations were the prime tit-suckler from Bajoie's breast.  In total, $230,597.91 was bestowed upon non-profits under the 12th Ward SOCO umbrella. I think the only politician who topped that amount was Cynthia Willard-Lewis who dumped over 620k into a non-profit called Family Advocacy Network (FANS).

One other thing I wanted to find out was how many non-profits I could associate with 2020 Jackson Avenue.  Besides the ones we already know, I found two more:

The Central City Housing Development Corporation which still appears to be active:


And the Central City Economic Opportunity Corporation which also still appears to be active:


I think we are officially up to at least five non-profits that are domiciled at 2020 Jackson Ave.

But what is really interesting is the sheer amount of private properties some of these non-profits own in the central city area.  All those properties are now tax exempt and I'm wondering what exactly is going on with them.  Are there people living in them?  Are those people related to the people running the non-profits?  Are they paying rent?  Is the rent going back to the non-profit or a private holding company?

So many questions.  I hope to get some answers, eventually.  

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good stuff.

It's been mentioned a couple of times, but one thing still unsolved is the vendor permit for 12th ward soco: http://wwwprd.doa.louisiana.gov/osp/lapac/vendor/vndrsrchdetails.cfm?locationseqno=490282&vndseqno=377722

Some suspicious things about that:

1. In SOCO's long history, they just became a vendor of those supplies after November 15, 2010, because they can't be found searching via Vendor Link (old system), only using LaGov (new system after Nov. 15)

2. Those supplies don't have anything to do with SOCO's program info per its most current funding request (http://www.legis.state.la.us/NGO/NgoDoc.aspx?NgoId=1080&search=)

3. Take a look at the list again:

42231500 ENTERAL FEEDING EQUIPMENT AND SUPPLIES
42231600 GASTROSTOMY AND JEJUNOSTOMY ACCESS DEVICES OR ACCESSORIES
42231700 NASOENTERIC TUBES
42231800 FORMULAS AND PRODUCTS FOR NUTRITIONAL SUPPORT
42231900 BREAST FEEDING EQUIPMENT AND SUPPLIES
42232000 TABLET CRUSHERS AND CUTTERS AND RELATED PRODUCTS

They're literally in sequential order and completely unrelated to each other. It's like they just picked five commodities in a row from the list and called it a day. Not to mention I'm not sure how many seniors are in need of breast feeding equipment ...

4. Where did Linda Batiste, the vendor contact, come from? She'd never been associated with SOCO until now.

Bear with me while I go on a bit of a goose chase. It may be a bit too elaborate and way off base, but it's interesting to think about:

Look at Linda Batiste's facebook friends: https://www.facebook.com/linda.batiste.35?sk=friends&ft_ref=mni. She's only got 9 of them. There's the usual suspects - DeLong, Laners, but there's also someone really interesting:

Dynetta Hadrick-Woods.

Run a Google search on her and you'll find this gem: http://theadvocate.com/home/2068138-125/three-people-health-care-firmindicted-in.html

Indicted on Medicaid fraud just four months ago? You don't say!

It's worth repeating that Linda Batiste has just NINE Facebook friends. Now, the number of Facebook friends isn't a measure of worth. But in this case, half of them are associated with SOCO, and this one, Dynetta Hadrick-Woods, is facing 100 years in prison. Yeesh.

Anyway, let's look up the organization Woods was involved with. Search the database for "Millennium Health Care Services" and you'll find a listing for Dwaine Woods (Dynetta's husband) and Ivory Wilson. Then run THOSE names, and you'll find two other orgs: "Millennium Outreach" and "BSW Medical Equipment and Supplies" ...

Who is Ivory Wilson? Well, he too is Dynetta Hadrick-Wood's Facebook friend. He's currently living in New Orleans. His Facebook page isn't too enlightening, but his LinkedIn page is:http://www.linkedin.com/pub/ivory-wilson/41/195/1bb

Disgustingly enough, the guy who was is/was a director of the sham Millennium Health Care Services/PCA is now a Program Manager at LA Department of Health and Hospitals.

Now, is it probable that Linda Batiste and SOCO are somehow connected to Ivory WIlson and that's where the scam comes in? I don't know ... it's a couple of degrees of separation. Still, there's some evidence given the sudden vendor permit, Linda Batiste popping up, Millennium PCA medicaid fraud, Wilson's current job with LA DHH, Facebook friends (of all things) ... it might not be probable, but I do think it's possible.

Bonus points to anyone who can make a stronger connection between the parties.

Anonymous said...

Or perhaps instead of the Ivory WIlson connection, the plan was for Batiste and SOCO to sell the supplies to Millennium Health Care/PCA, but that plan is busted now because of the indictments.

It's a lot simpler and neater than getting Wilson involved.

Still - can someone please report the scumbag to DHH and point out his history? If you notice, Millennium isn't on his LinkedIn profile. WONDER WHY.

Matt said...

You should be hitting the city permitting database for info on what's going on with properties:

https://aca.accela.com/nola/Welcome.aspx

Jason Brad Berry said...

"Or perhaps instead of the Ivory WIlson connection, the plan was for Batiste and SOCO to sell the supplies to Millennium Health Care/PCA, but that plan is busted now because of the indictments.

It's a lot simpler and neater than getting Wilson involved."

You know that for a fact, Anon 2 or are you just applying occam's razor?

I think there may be a lot more to this than SOCO simply selling the supplies to Millenium.

I know some of the basic services that Charity provided to the community were absorbed by local non-profit entities and hence the medicaid/medicare business along with it but I don't know which non-profits picked up those services and what the requirements were to do so.

I want to pursue this further because it stinks to high heaven, especially after Anon 1's connections he found to Millenium but I think my time is better spent looking at the real estate issues at the moment.

One thing I want to point out to you guys that still has my spidey sense tingling is that $306,251 that City Business reported was transferred into a Medicaid program last year.

Keep in mind that that money was appropriated by the state treasury from 2007 to 2010 (100k a year) for the purpose of it being distributed to the New Orleans Urban Tourism Hospitality Training and Economic Development Foundation. For some reason I am not sure of yet, the org. failed to meet the contract requirements with the state in order to receive the money. Now that could be chalked up as simple incompetence but who in their right mind would piss away 100k a year for three years because they simply failed to do the paperwork?

I ponder, what EXACTLY happened to that $306,251 and was the money simply compiled into a general Medicaid fund or was it earmarked for a specific Medicaid purpose?

I just have trouble believing that these people were so damn incompetent that they let 100k a year slip away for three years in a row. But then again if you apply occam's razor....never assume conspiracy when incompetence will suffice.

Anonymous said...

It's pretty easy to search the assessor's office database, and you can pull up a property's assessed value. Strangely enough, I can't find anything for 2020 Jackson.

Here's the listing for Loyola University, for example.

http://qpublic4.qpublic.net/la_orleans_display.php?KEY=6363-STCHARLESAV

It shows 0 assessment, as you'd expect for a non-profit in Orleans.

Twelfth Ward SOC at 2708 Gen Pershing was taxed at 0 for 2010 & 2011, but is showing a taxable assessment for 2012.

http://qpublic4.qpublic.net/la_orleans_display.php?KEY=2708-GENPERSHINGST

Never mind the ridiculousness of non-profits not paying property taxes. Just because Loyola buys a house uptown doesn't mean it shouldn't be taxed, or for Tulane purchasing an office building in the CBD that is totally exempt.

Anonymous said...

Also on 2708 Gen. Pershing:

http://services.nola.gov/service.aspx?load=treasury&Type=1&TaxBill=614334318

3435 Magnolia St:
http://qpublic4.qpublic.net/la_orleans_display.php?KEY=3435-MAGNOLIAST
http://services.nola.gov/service.aspx?load=treasury&Type=1&TaxBill=614333715

Nothing on 2020 Jackson or 2101 Philip ...

But go here http://www.qpublic.net/la/orleans/name.html type in "central city" and have a ball.

Jason Brad Berry said...

Bingo. yup.

Enter real estate sage.

Anonymous said...

Did you know this existed?

http://property.nola.gov/

Looks new. Nice tool, Mitch.

Curiously, if you type in 2020 Jackson Ave, you're taken to 2000 Jackson Ave ... that doesn't happen if you type in, say, 2002 Jackson Ave, 2010 Jackson Ave, 2030 Jackson Ave, etc. Try it out.

Still no 2101 Philip, but 2121 Philip is awfully big ...

I think there's some trickery being done with those two addresses.

Jason Brad Berry said...

And thank you, St. Anon, for pointing out that I didn't know that saucy little city-funded search engine had....reappeared.

I think we just hit rock bottom.

Jason Brad Berry said...

I can't wait to see this version of that squirrely, little database.

Anonymous said...

More on Ujamaa...The organization existed before Katrina for first time homebuyer/low income families in Treme and, in fact, built the two houses on the uptown side of Ursulines right past Miro. They (essentially director Amy Brown) were located in St. Peter Claver Church on Ursulines and seemed to be able to deal with what few can do...get properties from NORA.

I was working with them under the first time home-buyer program, frankly have no complaints about working with Amy, and would be in one of their new houses (the lot had been cleared) if not for the flooding aftermath. Now, after Katrina, it seemed, at least for awhile, that the funding had dried up, I never heard from Amy again, and then all of a sudden she and the church were back in the news. Money was coming in and allegedly there was some skimming, if it hadn't been going on all along. She seemed completely honorable initially, just like everyone else dealing with a frustrating process, but she was breaking through the bureaucracy. After the storm, maybe the $$$ got tempting.

Anonymous said...

Councilwoman Stacy Head's neighborhood liason is the head of the Central City Economic Opportunity Corporation. I believe it's a real thing, with meetings and all.