The Wisner Trust - Grants get doled out along with a lot of misinformation

Mayor Landrieu doles out $1.13 million in Wisner fund grants

"The latest: a state 4th Circuit Court of Appeal ruling in September that Landrieu, as mayor, would remain the fund's sole trustee"

The 4th Circuit didn't declare the Mayor the sole trustee, he has always been the sole trustee.  But the real question is, "How can the Mayor be the sole 'trustee' if the trust itself is dissolved?"  If the trust is, in fact, dissolved then City Council now has total oversight over the grant money. It would seem the Mayor effectively sued himself out of the trustee position if the trust is actually dissolved.

In fact, he legally shouldn't even be doling out a dime of that money without City Council's approval.  CC just doesn't seem to have the will to challenge him on it.  I would humbly suggest they find the will soon because they are fiscally responsible for what is happening with the City's portion of the funds and I would humbly suggest there may be big problems with how those funds have been disbursed.

"The money is generated from 50,000 acres of lucrative coastal land that includes major land leases -- including the property under Port Fourchon -- to the oil and gas industry."

The bulk of the land bestowed in the Wisner donation is not coastal, only the Wisner Beach is technically coastal.  Here is a map:



"The City of New Orleans owns all the land that Port Fourchon sits on....." - Mayor Landrieu

No it doesn't...not even close.  The donation constitutes about 60% of Port Fourchon and includes Wisner Beach which is a small portion.  The importance of Wisner Beach is that the LOOP (Louisiana Offshore Oil Port) has piping which runs underneath it on its way in shore.  This particular lease generates a significant portion of the oil and gas royalties that comprise the fund but the primary money generators are the leases from the Port and Chevron.  And the city of New Orleans is not the sole owner of the land, there are currently four other owners:  LSU, Tulane, The Salvation Army and the Wisner heirs.

The sport fisherman's boat launch is on Wisner property but it certainly doesn't constitute "all the land that Port Fourchon sits on...".

It makes me wonder if Mitch is deluded or simply unaware of the reality.  It seems like he thinks he owns everything, including Port Fourchon, and he thinks he's going to do whatever he wants with it.  What he wants, as I suggested back at the beginning of this battle, is to sell the land while he's still in office using the proceeds however he sees fit.  And by the looks of many of the donation recipients he sees fit to pay off his peeps and lucrative voting blocs (I have more coming on that issue soon).

This article is the first time he's publicly admitted that intent (to sell), "Landrieu, who once considered selling the land, said his team is assessing the property's worth -- a study he compared to his administration's evaluation of the Public Belt Railroad."

Dream on.  He can't sell that land without the consent of the other four owners or by winning a protracted and vicious court battle that would run well past his tenure in office.  It's also worth noting that both the heirs and LSU filed writs regarding the 4th Circuit's decision to the Louisiana Supreme Court.

Wisner heirs writ to LA Supreme Court

LSU writ to LA Supreme Court

No surprise...the LASC denied the writs last week.

It's curious to me that neither The Advocate nor the TP bothered to ask the Mayor how much each of the recipients received out of the $1.13 million.  Last week I posted what I believe to be the allocation amounts to each respective organization, but I'm not sure this is 100% accurate.

If it is accurate the big winners are the mayor's pet projects: Ceasefire New Orleans ($348,600), Mayoral Fellows Program ($233,837), and a new organization created by Landrieu, the Network for Economic Opportunity ($250,000).  All totaled these three organizations, none of which arguably fit the definition of grant recipients, add up to $832, 437... about 3/4 of the entire grant allocation.

I've written extensively about the Ceasefire program here on AZ and some questionable accounting as to money that was disbursed to the organization's fiscal agent, the Urban League.  I've been digging deeper into some issues I've discovered with Ceasefire and some other grant recipients but I want to wait to publish that info as I think The Lens has done more extensive research and I hope to see a story from them soon.

The major increase in money going to the Mayoral Fellows Program from last year is curious as well. I published a post in August about how there was some screwy biz going on with how the program was listed in the municipal code.

I have no idea what the Network for Economic Opportunity is all about but I find it hard to believe that it even remotely fits the guidelines that were originally established for grant recipients.

More to come...





    

The Wisner Trust - What's in a name? An extra $163,837.

After a rather uneventful couple of months on the Wisner Trust battlefront, it seems the "cease fire" is over.  Or maybe it's not...first we have to figure out what the CeaseFire program even is and why it's getting the largest block of cash from Wisner next year.

(Forgive me, I couldn't resist the metaphor)

The 2014 Wisner Grant proposals have been out for a couple of weeks now and the two largest blocks of cash requested are going out to Mayor Landrieu's CeaseFire program ($348,600) and the Mayoral Fellows Program ($233,837).

Edward Wisner Donation 2014 Proposed Grants

Aside from muddy accounting issues, unclear objectives and the lack of performance measurements with the Mayor's NOLA for Life program The Lens has been reporting, you may also recall back in December of last year I made a post about some questionable accounting issues regarding the Ceasefire program:

American Zombie: The Wisner Trust - Are there missing funds from the Ceasefire New Orleans program?

In that story I posted a video of a Wisner Trust Advisory Committee Meeting where Wisner heir Michael Peneguy questions Mayoral appointee to the Trust and city attorney Erica Beck about the nature of the entities, NOLA for Life, CeaseFire New Orleans, and the Mayoral Fellows Program.

Start at about the 3:15 mark:

Wisner Advisory Committee Meeting - Nov. 26, 2013 from Jason Berry on Vimeo.

The main issue is that the Mayor's Office seemed to be shifting money from one program to another after the money had been allocated.  Beck attempted to explain the matter by stating that the Mayoral Fellows Program was simply an "outdated code" that had been changed....I still don't understand what that means or why it was "outdated".

At one point Beck tells Peneguy he is mistakenly conflating the two programs and Peneguy responds that he has to conflate them because the Mayor's office has purposely done just that.  After the meeting, Peneguy sent a series of questions to Beck including a further explanation of the budgetary relationship between CeaseFire and the Mayoral Fellows Program:

Peneguy: According to the proposed budget presentation to the City Council, the Mayoral Fellows Program is being renamed to something else and the program may not even currently exist.  My questions in respect to the $70,000 grant listed for this program are therefore:

A. What will the new name for the program be?

Beck:  The Mayoral Fellows program is not being renamed.  The budgetary fund code, which is named Mayoral Fellows, currently includes allocations for the Mayoral Fellows and Ceasefire.  The budget code may be renamed to accurately reflect everything contained therein.

B.  What is the actual intent of the current grant?

Beck:  The $70,000 Mayoral Fellows grant, which appears on 7 of the proposed grants, will be used to fund the Mayoral Fellows program.  The Mayoral Fellows program will continue to offer opportunities to young professionals who focus on mayoral priorities and gain experience in the public sector.  (The $108,180 CeaseFire grant will be used to fund CeaseFire.)

Got that?  Good because I sure don't from that explanation.  But there's a good reason why...she isn't telling us the whole story.

What Beck doesn't mention is what name they apparently renamed the fund in the municipal code. Look at this email exchange Peneguy was referring to in the video above:

So I suppose the question is what is "Fund 379" now named in the municipal code?  Are they changing the name of the Mayoral Fellows Fund to "Wisner" in order to funnel money to other programs?

Let's go back to Charles Maldanado's NOLA for Life story on The Lens:

In May, the city solicited applications. Early in July, before the participating organizations were announced, The Lens asked Landrieu spokesman Tyler Gamble how the process worked. A review panel made up of “community, educational, and philanthropic institutions,” would recommend applicants to the city, he wrote in an email. 

“There will not be a formal announcement of the review committee meeting,” Gamble wrote in the July 11 email. After the winners were announced, Gamble said the committee met on July 14 and named the participants. 

None of the Robert Wood Johnson money is being funneled to the groups, Gamble added. But the call for applications released in June mentions the possibility of “future funding opportunities.” Gamble said that refers to the pilot program.

"Future funding opportunities" is interesting fo' true.

What else is interesting is the amount o'cash being parked in the Mayoral Fellows program from Wisner in 2014...$233,837.  From my understanding of the program, traditionally a single person is awarded the grant to work with the Mayor's Office, essentially as a paid intern, and the amount paid to the fellow in the past has been up to $70,000.  Remember former appointee to the Wisner Trust Advisory Committee (predecessor to Erica Beck) Michael Sherman was a former recipient of the Mayoral Fellows grant.  Why are they now asking for $233,837 as opposed to the usual 70k?  Are they planning on increasing the single grant to that amount?  Are they going to name multiple grantees this year?

Or....are they planning on shuffling the extra $163,837 out to a different thingie altogether?

The other issue I want to point out is that the merits of the CeaseFire program are arguably just as questionable as the Nola for Life program if not more.  The New Orleans CeaseFire program was modeled off the one incorporated by the City of Chicago.  The Department of Justice audited Chicago's CeaseFire program and found it to be largely ineffective.

DOJ Evaluation of CeaseFire from Anti-Violence Strategy

This report was published in 2009, one year before Mayor Landrieu took office.  The program was already being questioned in Chicago when we decided to mimic it here in New Orleans.  In fact, the CeaseFire program was later scrapped by Chicago.

Chicago Drops CeaseFire from Anti-Violence Strategy

CeaseFire Cuts Back As City Grant Runs Out

Curious that the Mayor's administration is questioning the effectiveness of Nola for Life but not CeaseFire.  Neither program seems to have any real level of performance evaluation built in to the grant process so there's no way to judge the effectiveness of either one.

UPDATE:  Maldonado just published this story about the approval of the grants this morning on The Lens.  I did not realize Ceasefire was under the Nola for Life "umbrella".  Regardless, it adds more credence to my 2nd point about the merits of the program.  The article also states that last year the Mayoral Fellows program received the same amount as this year, $233,837 and that a single fellow received a $40,000 grant as opposed to $70,000 I stated had traditionally been paid to the recipient.  If correct that further exacerbates the question of where the money in the program is actually going.

CORRECTION:  The Mayoral Fellows grant amount has traditionally run between about $150,000 to $180,000.  Apparently only last year was it lowered to $70,000.    

The Wisner Trust - Are there missing funds from the Ceasefire New Orleans program?

Last Tuesday, November 26th, the Wisner Trust Advisory Committee met and voted to approve the Mayor's list of grant recipients for 2014.  The vote went down exactly as one would expect with LSU and Tulane going along with Mayoral appointee to the Wisner Trust Advisory Committee, Erica Beck.

The three committee members, LSU, Tulane, and the Mayor, voted to rubber stamp the grants to the recipients as a whole.  They apparently saw no need to look at the recipients, individually.

The heirs and The Salvation Army cast dissenting votes, with two of the heirs making verbal objections to the process of lumping all the recipients together.  They expressed concern that the recipients weren't being examined individually to make sure they meet the philanthropic objectives Edward Wisner intended for the trust.

Wisner Advisory Committee Meeting - Nov. 26, 2013 from Jason Berry on Vimeo.

I think most of the grant recipients the Mayor has chosen are kosher but problems arise when it comes to his pet projects.

Beck was questioned about how the City is funding three programs:  The Mayoral Fellows Program (incidentally of which Michael Sherman was a former recipient), the Ceasefire initiative and Nola For Life.  It seems as if there is some confusion as to how the money is being channeled through the Mayoral Fellows Program to the other entities.

Beck offers an explanation around the 5:40 mark (video) by stating that funds are being disbursed through the "code" named "Mayoral Fellows" and subsequently disseminated to the other two entities: "CeaseFire New Orleans" and "Nola For Life".

 At the 7:09 mark (video), Mark Peneguy (Wisner heir) questions Beck about an email from the Mayor's "Innovation Team " leader, Charles West, to Deputy Mayor Judy Reese Morse about money that was supposed to be disbursed to the Ceasefire New Orleans initiative from the Mayoral Fellows program that may not have actually made it to the Ceasefire coffers.

I'm not sure what Peneguy was referring to, exactly, but I have been looking into the Ceasefire program myself.  I've found some accounting issues regarding the program's two fiscal agents, the St. Thomas Health Center and the Urban League of New Orleans that I think need some answers.   I believe there appears to be an issue with money that was disbursed from the Wisner funds to these entities...money that may be unaccounted for.

I have three memorandums (public record) issued from the Ceasfire program director, Johnetta Pressley, spanning from February 2012 to October 2012, that provide some detail as to how the program was laid out and also highlight an issue that occurred in October of 2012 when the program was suddenly notified of a shortage of funds from their newly acquired fiscal agent, the Urban League of New Orleans:

* You can blow the images up on Google drive by double clicking the image.

February 26, 2012 memorandum about St. Thomas Health Clinic's inability to serve as a fiscal agent and the suggestion that the Urban League of New Orleans become the new fiscal agent for Ceasefire New Orleans

October 17, 2012 memorandum (draft) requesting that Deputy Mayor Judy Reese Morse sign an amendment that increases Wisner funds by $155,000 to meet a budgetary shortfall of $15,000

October 24, 2012 memorandum notifying Mayor staff that fiscal agent Urban League of New Orleans has reported a shortage of funds to meet payroll and the existing budget for Ceasefire New Orleans

From what I've been able to glean from the public records I have, the original fiscal agent for Ceasefire New Orleans was The St. Thomas Health Clinic and it appears that at least some Wisner funds were disbursed to this entity.

However, in February of 2012, the St. Thomas Health Clinic informed Johnetta Pressley that they were unable to fulfill their role as the fiscal agent.  Upon former CNO Crime Commissioner James Carter's suggestion, Ceasefire then chose the Urban League of New Orleans as their new fiscal agent replacing the St. Thomas Health Clinic.

I am not sure how funds were transferred from one entity to the other but according to the February memo, St. Thomas did disburse at least some of the funds they originally received from the city to Ceasefire employees....therefore they served as a fiscal agent in some capacity.

By October 24, 2012, as detailed in the memo, the Urban League informed Pressley that they did not have the money to make payroll for the rest of the fiscal year.  Pressley sent an email denoting this to Deputy Mayor Judy Reese Morse:

I'm trying to put this all together from random puzzle pieces I have through public records and I fully realize I don't have a complete picture...yet I'm concerned about the budget discrepancy.  In an effort to understand what happened with this discrepancy of funds, I emailed Johnetta Pressley the following questions:

- How was the St. Thomas Community Health Center originally chosen as the Fiscal Agent for Ceasefire and was this process vetted publicly?

-  Why was the St. Thomas Community Health Center not able to fulfill their duty as the "fiscal agent" after they had verbally committed?

- Were any funds, particularly Wisner Funds, transferred to the St. Thomas Community Health Center and did they make any payments to Ceasefire employees as the February 26, 2012 memorandum suggests?

- How were funds transferred from the St. Thomas Community Health Center to the Urban League of New Orleans when they took over as the new fiscal agent?

- What happened with the balance discrepancy outlined in the October 24, 2012 memo when the Urban League informed you that they were not able to meet payroll from existing funds that had been transferred to them as the fiscal agent? 

- Exactly how much money constituted the discrepancy between the City and the Urban League?  

- If there was a shortage in the funds from the Urban League to meet the payroll on October 31, 2012, was it the fault of the Urban League, the St. Thomas Community Health Center, the City of New Orleans, a budgeting mistake....what happened?

- If there was a budget shortfall, as other records I have indicate, specifically in respect to the salary of the Resources Manager position, how was the budget shortfall dealt with?  

- In an October 17, 2012 memorandum you suggested $20,000 in Wisner Funds be utilized to support the salaried position, Resources Manager, from Nov. 1, 2012 - February 28, 2013 by increasing the cap in funds in the CEA between the Urban League and the City of New Orleans through an amendment to be approved by Deputy Mayor Judy Reese Morse.  In the memo you suggest that Morse's action item is , "Approval of an amendment to the current CEA between the Urban League and the City of New Orleans to raise the cap by $20,000 to $115,000", followed by a second action item, "Approval of disbursement of $20,000 to the Urban League per the Amended CEA".  Why did you suggest the cap should be raised to $115,000 when only $20,000 was required?  Was this amendment approved by Morse and for what amount?  

According to other records I have, the amendment was executed by Deputy Mayor Judy Reese Morse and the amount requested by Pressley was disbursed.

It's also important to note that these funds were disbursed before the Wisner hearing in September of this year and without the approval of the Advisory Committee.  Also, the "amendment" was signed by a Deputy Mayor, Judy Reese Morse, not the Mayor, himself.

I sent these questions out Monday and I haven't received a response...shocking, right?

When I first started writing the Wisner story, I was told by former Mayoral Press Secretary Ryan Berni that all I had to do was ask the administration for information and they would be happy to comply in an effort to increase transparency with the Wisner grants.  I've made repeated requests that have gone unanswered since that initial commitment by Berni...I suppose we can add this one to the list.

I want to point out that I'm not even questioning the merits of the Ceasefire New Orleans program, although I could considering it was based on the Ceasefire Chicago program that has been highly criticized as being mostly ineffective and a waste of funds:

Chicago Drops CeaseFire from Anti-Violence Strategy

CeaseFire Cuts Back As City Grant Runs Out

If you have 5 hours to waste...this is a comprehensive evaluation of CeaseFire-Chicago by the Department of Justice:

Evaluation of CeaseFire-Chicago

Aside from the fact that the Wisner grant money was never designed to fund crime-fighting initiatives, I do recognize we have a problem of epidemic proportions in our city in respect to violent crime.  I wouldn't even mind money being diverted to our crime problem so much if it was actually effective.

However, diverting funds to PR campaigns while we're facing a major shortage of "boots on the ground" with NOPD, is a jagged little pill I simply can't swallow.

But hey... it's not all bad news....at least 3 peepmeisters scored $1500 "smart phones" from the CeaseFire New Orleans program:

Jesus Homer Christ....I want to see those badass schwegcoms in action.  I just bought the Mrs. a gold iPhone that I thought was pretty amazing for a fraction of that cost so at $1500 a pop I'm assuming these suckers must have a direct line to Scotty in the transporter room.  I hope these Ceasefire Execs. join Chewbachhus and flash that bling.

Don't hold your breath on anything coming of this...City Council shirked their oversight responsibility and our MSM resources are simply waiting to repost the next press release from the Mayor's office.  At least I feel good for Ryan Berni knowing he isn't being plagiarized by Nola.com on a weekly basis anymore since he left his post as the Mayor's press secretary.

Meanwhile...the beat goes one....the murders stack up....NOPD numbers dwindle...and tourism futures are so bright I have to wear shades.