Duxie Scott submitted his resignation as Director of Bossier Parish EMS today.
I haven't seen a copy of the investigation which Patrick Jackson was releasing today or tomorrow, but I will try to get a copy.
Jackson had said that the report would 'shock the conscience of the public'. According to the account at KTBS, the report "raised questions about a business trip Scott made to an EMS conference at a Mississippi casino earlier this year. Scott paid for some of the expenses of his son, who works for the Bossier City Fire Department, the report said, and his expense account also included charges for alcoholic drinks. It also appeared Scott also used his agency credit card to buy flowers for his mother-in-law's funeral, the report said."
While that may be true, it doesn't exactly 'shock my conscience'. I will attempt to get a copy of the released report and publish it on My Bossier.
KSLA also has a story on their website, along with this link to the letter and to a copy of an Ethics Board finding that Scott had not violated any rules in hiring his son.
According to the letter, Parish Attorney Jackson had stated that he was found in violation and fined $2,500.
Scott's attorney alleges that the problems began when Scott questioned payroll payments he was making from a non-payroll account to people on the instructions of the Police Jury. I will also try to get answers to this, and find out who the people were and why they were being paid in this manner.
I apologize that I don't have more information at this time, I've been a little 'out of the loop' for the last week or so.
Once again I believe most of this is Parish politics at its best. Someone somewhere got their feelings hurt (maybe by getting fired or their child getting fired)so this is a way to get back at Duxie Scott and the organization. If the card was used to purchase flowers was the money paid back in some form? There are still a lot of open ended questions that need to be answered.
ReplyDeleteIf he did indeed break the law charges should be filed. If they said he did something criminally wrong and no charges are filed then I will have my doubts about the whole situation. I wonder if this will this be like the Chubby Knight debacle in Bossier where all they got was a resignation,no charges were filed, and that was the end of it?
ReplyDeleteI would take what Patrick Jackson says with a grain of salt given his most recent credibility issues surrounding the Air Repair scandal (representing both Air Repair and the School Board). Time will tell if his "shock the conscience" comment holds water-I think that phrase better characterizes his role in the most recent school shenanigens.
ReplyDeleteWhat happened with the air repair deal? Didn't everyone get fired? Felons in the schools that must have caused many firings right? I haven't heard anything else about this, just assumed everyone that let the felons in the school were fired and that Bossier was beefing up its security for sub contractors. Didn't this happen? Jim should know.
ReplyDeleteif anyone uses a public credit card for personal purchases (alcohol) or funeral flowers, I don't know how that can be anything but criminal
ReplyDeleteJim - call the police jury at 9652329 and get them to email you the entire package - that is what I did and it's ugly
ReplyDeleteAnon @May 11,2011 9:48AM
ReplyDeletei agree. It has to be at least a charge of malfeasance by a public official.
Bossier Press has the entire packet online
ReplyDeleteFinally, Someone asked a question if the money was paid back or not. Mr Scotts son stood in front of the EMS Board meeting this morning with receipts for both the hotel room and the meals that were in question. Both of them have been paid in full. It did not appear that the Board cared that it had been paid. Not the first one asked to see the receits nor did they want a copy of them. Why not?
ReplyDeleteHe paid it back yesterday - 6 weeks after the conference and 2 days after he was told that the lack of reimbursement was an issue - hard to give much credit for paying it back after you are caught
ReplyDeleteAnon @ 9:22
ReplyDeleteIt's my understanding that they were pretty much all canned. Pretty large number of fired folks if I recall.
The D.A's office or the Sheriff's Dept. will never hold anyone accountable for their actions. They need to go to jail for theft plan and simple. It will be swept under the rug since they paid it back.
ReplyDeleteI hope Mr. McConnell becomes the new sheriff... all these white collor criminals will stop their foolishness.
Can someone look into Halphen's company vehicle to see if it was purchased through the EMS budget. Surely there was a vehicle somewhere in the fleet he could have used, without having to have a new vehicle purchased.
ReplyDeleteThis has got a civil suit for slander written all over it. The police jury and Mr. Jackson (as well as Mr. Berry in the original letter to Mr. Altimus) have made allegation after allegation without even checking first for evidence of wrongdoing on the part of Mr. Scott.
ReplyDeleteIn every other investigation of misconduct I have ever seen, the investigation comes BEFORE you drag someone's name through the mud. On top of this, so far almost all of the allegations have turned out the be half-truths or outright lies. They can be refuted with documentation, but the police jury literally refuses to look at the evidence in Mr. Scott's favor. He has not been allowed to defend himself, and I hate to think that my tax dollars are paying for the police jury's dog and pony show. When word gets out that an allegation is false, Jackson cooks up some more.
This whole thing is transparently a political coup to remove Mr. Scott and replace him with a "yes man" who will do whatever the police jury asks without question.
I want to know more about why Mr. Scott was being asked to cut checks from a separate fund, and for whom the checks were intended.
Sounds like we need a new police jury.
Duxie Scott has built up BPEMS from a single room with a file cabinet to a multi-million dollar entity, and now that the hard work has been done, and he is close to retirement age, the police jury wants to hand pick who will be in charge of the service, and obviously they do not care about ruining someone's name in doing so.
I will remember this when the police jury members come up for re-election, and I hope everyone else does as well.
Anyone who doesn't think that this removal of BPEMS members smells fishy needs a reality check.
Anonymous said...
ReplyDeleteif anyone uses a public credit card for personal purchases (alcohol) or funeral flowers, I don't know how that can be anything but criminal
May 11, 2011 9:48 AM
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IF it is true it IS criminal.