It's costing you money - a lot of money.
The story is from Bloomberg News and is shocking. Everyone knows of the problems with the golf courses, but this is an account from the beginning to the present time, and explains the bad judgment and criminal activity that have contributed to a very serious problem.
Municipal contributions to MPERS have skyrocketed in a time of severe budget cuts. Bossier City and other municipalities now pay 25% of police payrolls into the the system, as opposed to 11% last year. According to the article, it is expected to rise to 28% in the new fiscal year beginning July 1st.
- “It was like a gigantic playhouse,” says Nick Congemi, 68, chief of the Greater New Orleans Expressway Police in Metairie, who for years criticized the system’s leadership and investments. “These people have taken the futures away of good, decent law-enforcement officers who thought they could depend on this for the rest of their lives.”
Sounds like some people need to go to jail
ReplyDeleteA disgrace for the Police personnel now retired or those that will.
ReplyDeleteThank God Bossier had the gut to say enough is enough. I feel bad for ignoring their comments that the pensions were eating them alive.
ReplyDeleteIt seems to me that the taxpayers are the ones being fleeced, with pension costs going up more than double.
ReplyDeleteThanks Mike and Bill
ReplyDeleteOk I want to know who all besides the names listed in this article have done business with and received benifits from these two golf courses. I suspect plenty of other people are involved.
ReplyDeleteIs this an investigation that is ongoing?
Jim why has Marty Carlson not mentioned any of this till now?
She has written plenty of articles, in fact it seems like every other week, never that i can recall talking about any of this but more in my opinion blaming the rank and file which obviously is not the cause of this.
What ya think? :)
Well, Jim. People often comment on exactly what the definition of the "Good Ole Boy" system is. After reading that article, I would have to say that it the best definition yet, not to mention that some of the most unintelligent law enforcement officials that I have ever known of were seated on that board. Halphen and Fields? Seriously? Don't stop at Zinna. Put them all in federal prison.
ReplyDelete"Jim why has Marty Carlson not mentioned any of this till now?"
ReplyDeleteAsk her. I know she has written about the increase in contributions in the last year or so. This has been going on for quite a while, I imagine she has addressed it at some point.
why didn't she include Stonebridge
ReplyDeleteGulf Course in her investigation?
Anon at 12:29 she didnt do this article or an investigation to my knowledge.
ReplyDeleteSorry for hijacking the blog a bit, but i was simply pointing out that she has wrote numerous articles in reference to the increased contribution rates but I never recall her pointing to any of this activity as the cause but more along the lines of the rank and file being the ones responsible. She has been defended on this issue and her reporting as being fair and unbiased. It will be interesting to see where she lays the blame, now that this is out there a bit.
Bill Fields certainly should be in jail. Hal Sutton should be investigated too.
ReplyDeleteJim,
ReplyDeleteFor the past few months several people posted as anonymous about underhanded activities going on in Bossier City city hall and in various parish agencies. These anonymous people are people who see crooked stuff going on day in a day out, but they can't post their own names because they would lose their jobs and it would be Hell for them to pay if their names were ever revealed.
What is so sad is that when these people were telling you and the readers about the good old boy system and who the good old boy are, they were scoffed at and ridiculed.
Anon at 9:54, you're right, this is a definition of the
Good Old Boy System.
But from the reaction to the warnings that were being sounded during the city marshal's election, it is quite evident that most people in Bossier really don't care.
Sammy Wyatt was on the board. What does he have to say?
ReplyDeleteI can tell you this, there were people who were former members of the board trying to keep Sam Wyatt off the board. The corruption had already occurred before Sam was elected to the board.
ReplyDelete"What is so sad is that when these people were telling you and the readers about the good old boy system and who the good old boy are, they were scoffed at and ridiculed."
ReplyDeleteI understand your point very well, but answer this - who elected the members of the MPERS board?
Sam Wyatt was not wanted on the board, he had several, for lack of a better word "altercations" with Halphen. The one constant about Halphen was that in his mind he was never wrong.If you said something about him or questioned the golf courses at all, your life at the department became hell. Many people got moved via text message at night. The best thing that ever happened was Halphen and his two administrative assistant to the chiefs leaving. People can say what they want about the new chief, his deputy chiefs etc. I have three questions for them. How many times have you recevied a text message from them that was threatening? How many times have you heard them on the radio out of control? How many times have you heard one of they yelling and cursing at someone. Bossier City is not perfect but it is a heck of a lot better off now. One last thing, Sam Wyatt was in reality the most honest person on that board. That is why he was so disliked by the ones named in this report
ReplyDeleteThis does not even go into the Sutton Boot Ranch deal.
ReplyDeleteCan't blame your list of good ole boys on this one. All they did was pay the bills that were sent to the city. By the way, this is not new. The only paper that would print it was the Baton Rouge Business Report.
ReplyDeleteDon't forget the fire pension with similar numbers for the municipalities
ReplyDeleteDon't forget the fire pension with similar numbers for the municipalities
ReplyDeleteBaton Rouge Business Report story
ReplyDeleteMPERS Triple Bogey
Sounds like Hal Sutton needs to pay some money back or go to jail with Fields, Halphen and the others
ReplyDeleteJim,
ReplyDeleteIn reference to who voted for the representatives, everyone knows the representatives are voted by the police officers.
If I recall, these elections aren't very secretive. The envelopes the officers send in have to be signed by the officers sending them in. So after, the little visits and encouragements as to who to vote for, the officers would either vote for the candidate they were visited about or not vote at all.
Not a great way to hold an election, is it?
ReplyDeleteThe investigation is not over!
ReplyDeleteAs an officer my thought regarding MPERS are as follows: most officers when they join the department in their 20's know that a retirement system is in place but care very little about how it works. It's not until Peter in their careers that they start thinking about how the retirement system affect them. As far as the elections, you get a ballot in the mail and are ask to vote. Usually the candidates are two people you've never heard of before. It's not a good system but I'm not sure how to make it better.
ReplyDeleteAs far ad the golf courses, I wasn't opposed to them initially. They were investments. Everyone knows on investments you assume a risk. The problem I have is they have known for quite some time now that these are bad investments and they continue to sink money into them. I don't like the fact that the taxpayers and officers have to cover bad investments. As an officer and taxpayer, I get hit twice. These "investments" should have been sold long ago. The fact that Bill Fields is involved in this also makes me think there is something crooked with all this.
You noticed all the people involved in is retired now. They left and got there retirement and now we are here wondering if we will get one. It's a bad situation for the taxpayers and officers. I personally believe some got a cut in the purchases of these golf courses.
When I lost some of my retirement when the market went down, I had to take the hit. You are telling me that as a taxpayer I have to take their hits too?
ReplyDeleteWhy would you worry about bad investments when it cost you nothing?
ReplyDeleteWhy would you worry about bad investments when it cost you nothing?
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDelete5:18 - Read #2 unless you can point me to a criminal conviction.
ReplyDeleteRules of the road:
1. No personal attacks or insults.
2. No accustory statements about wrongdoing or criminal acts against anyone.
3. Say all you want about the pros and cons concerning the candidates and the issues, or the general subject of the blog post, just follow Rule #1 and Rule #2.
Jim,
ReplyDeleteGood job on the removal of that one, I know for a FACT, that was not true.
As for the other it makes me sick.
This is sickening... Especially being a P.O. and relying on this system for my retirement. I hope a lot of people go to jail over this. I'd love to say more but also want to keep my job...
ReplyDeleteDo understand that the cost to the taxpayers on this stuff is double. The fire pension has gone up almost as much. Reckon the taxpayers would pass a tax for this mess or just stomach layoffs.
ReplyDeleteRegarding tax payers: You need to be worried about what the Bossier Parish Sheriff Departmemt is costing the taxpayers with all of Deen's church and political appointments are costing with those over the top salaries.
ReplyDeleteForget the sheriff - what about the city?
ReplyDeleteI would say all of this amounts to unethical behavior but in Bossier how can you tell?
ReplyDeleteI mean it seems like everyone is involved in some unethical or illegal behavior. From the Mayor on down. What is funny is that we seem to keep the same group of people in power and expect them to clean up their act. INSANITY. We can actually change things if people would actually get out and go vote.
Fool, the city has nothing to do with any of this.
ReplyDeleteAll I can say for 1:35am is that is a shame when cousins marry.
ReplyDeleteWhy would you worry about bad investments when it cost you nothing?
ReplyDeleteDo you not realize thst the officers contribute 10% of their paycheck. They lose money also.
Police only contribute 7.5% of their pay not 10%. The City currently contributes 25% and this is projected to increase to close to 40% by the year 2016.
ReplyDeleteperhaps they should change the name from MPRS to Enron
ReplyDelete4:32
ReplyDeleteI don't think it's taken effect yet but the officers contribution will go up to 10 percent.
8:23 how can you say the officers lose money when their investments are completely covered by the city. Their retirement goes unchanged.
ReplyDeleteShould we begin to list the names of those who live on either of these golf courses in office and who performed services or bought things from them?
ReplyDeleteAlso this problem didnt begin just yesterday. This has been in the making for many years with the knowledge of those who are probably posting on this board.
The article mentions that Bill Fields is retired from the police department, which is a true statement. ONE of the things I find amusing about the whole thing is he is NOW working for the Bossier Parish Coroner's Office! Still drawing taxpayer's money! Hmmmmm!
ReplyDeleteWhat's sad is the officers in Bossier still working will be the ones that may become victims of this racket masterminded by some of their own that have retired. They are receiving their retirement but do you think they were concerned about the still working officers retirement funds they were trusted to safeguard and be prudent with? Obviously not. Most citizens respect and are thankful for our Police and when this fiasco becomes known by more the public will try to take care of our Police when they retire, even if it means a few more dollars in taxes. But they will also want those that created this situation punished.
ReplyDeleteAnon at 9:17:
ReplyDeleteOf course the police officers lose. They first have to pay in a higher percentage of their pay into the system which reduces their sad little checks even further. Secondly, if the MPRS system runs out of money there will be no retirement.
The tax payers lose, because the city then has to use tax revenues to make up the difference and our city already seems to have a hard enough time counting our money. The bottom line is the board has not only been negligent but has stolen money out of the pockets of their brothers left to patrol our streets.
just t throw this out, it affects the officers greatly. I moved from the p.d. to the sheriffs off about the time the system collapsed and got a whole 4,000 dollars for 3 years which knocked me back to one year at the S.O. My portion was around 12 grand that I paid in. I lost 2/3 of it.
ReplyDeleteThe investigation into the MPERS started in 2003 by Baton Rouge Advocate reporter Penny Brown. She has done a tremendous effort into who initiated the purchases of the golf courses and who got the biggest benefit. I spoke with her before she left the Advocate a few years back and she sent me all of her work. I never saw a ballot from the Board asking for a vote on the purchase of the courses, and I would have voted no if I did. I know that some of the membes mentioned in the blogs received a free trip to Ireland to play golf. I'm sure this invitation was sent to all of the members of the retirement system. Cost of living adjustment? Want to know why we can't get one? The money that was supposed to be dedicated to retirees went to "connected" board members, probably under the table. Why aren't they asking about COLA's?
ReplyDeleteFirst, I agree this pension in in trouble, that it should be investigated. I believe criminal acts have taken place and if so people need to go to jail. In reference to your comment on losing your money. If you were not vested in the system, twelve years. When you left at three years you got every dime that you paid in. You did not get the part paid by the city which would be the majority of the money. In fact the city does not get that back, the system keeps that. Your part was in reality somewhere around the amount you noted. The employee only pays 7.5 percent at this time. No way YOU paid in that much money in three years
ReplyDeleteIn regards to ANNO, 9/20, 9:38pm. You need to also take note the millions of dollars we are spending to give the mayor a new road to his mansion in Stonebridge( on one of the golf course involved.)
ReplyDelete