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A FOX 8 investigation about the city's diminishing recovery fund has the attention of the Inspector General. Ed Quatrevaux told FOX 8 Wednesday, he's drafted his own review of at least one city contractor, MWH.
Quatrevaux said he's found some of the same concerns that ex-capital projects director, Bill Chrisman complained about before he got fired.
Four and a half years after Katrina, the city says 600 recovery projects are "active," and many of them are in the construction phase. City contractor MWH manages many recovery projects.
FOX 8 obtained Chrisman's February 20th memo to CAO Brenda Hatfield. In it, he said, "MWH will receive a windfall for doing absolutely nothing." Chrisman alleges in the memo that MWH is basically making money for work city hall employees are doing.
Chrisman wrote, while project reports have been done by his department at city hall, "the city has been billed in excess of $3 million for reports capital projects employees generated and for which they (MWH) had no involvement."
Chrisman claims MWH is currently charging a 3.5-percent fee to essentially "record project data and update a web page."
It's one of a few questions that Chrisman raises in the memo. Also in the memo to Hatfield he explained, consultants will be well-financed to "manage" the recovery, but projects will hit a roadblock, if there's no funding.
Quatrevaux told FOX 8 he provided the city with a draft report of MWH last week. He said he won't elaborate on the details of the report until the city responds, and it has less than 30 days to do, before April 15th. But Quatrevaux said his "report covers much of the same ground" as Chrisman's memo, but in much greater detail.
One of Chrisman's biggest concerns, according to his memo, was the rapid depletion of the fund the city uses as an advance for recovery projects.
Michael Diresto, spokesman for the LA Division of Administration, said as of February 28, 2010, the city had used about $122 million out of its construction fund, a pot of money Chrisman made sure FEMA was going to reimburse for certain professional services contracts.
Diresto said the construction fund's initial amount in 2007 was $194 million, but the account accrued $7 million in interest, adding up to $201 million. As of February 28, 2010, the balance, according to Diresto, had a little more than $79 million in it.
As long as FEMA has a project worksheet on a project, and it comes to the same terms as the city on a dollar amount for a project, FEMA reimburses the city, and Diresto said that money is deposited into what is known as the revolver fund. Diresto said the revolver fund balance as of Feb. 28th was $28 million. Add to that, what's left in the construction account, and the total amount available to the city is $107 million. It's unclear how much of the money that was spent out of the construction fund, if any, will not be reimbursed, meaning the city would assume the costs.
A spokesman for the Nagin administration told FOX 8 because of the hundreds of active projects (600), the revolver fund will be used and reused at a much faster rate, so the remaining balance could change in the next two to three days.
For more on this story from our partners at The Lens, go to www.thelensnola.org.

CBC.ca | David West's 33 points not enough to save New Orleans Hornets from suffering ... NOLA.com OKLAHOMA CITY – Despite an urgency to avoid setbacks, New Orleans Hornets forward David West has not been able to enjoy a ... NBA: Oklahoma City 98, New Orleans 83 New Orleans Hornets (32-32) at Oklahoma City Thunder (38-24), 8 pm Thunder eases past injury-depleted Hornets 98-83 |
NBA: Oklahoma City 98, New Orleans 83 UPI.com New Orleans lost for the fifth time in six games and fell a game below .500. The Hornets are 5 1/2 games out of the final playoff position in the West. ... New Orleans Hornets (32-32) at Oklahoma City Thunder (38-24), 8 pm New Orleans Hornets at Oklahoma City Thunder, in-game updates Thunder eases past injury-depleted Hornets 98-83 |
After waiting nearly 5 years, the possibility of a hospital has finally become a reality.
Councilman Wayne Landry says the Hospital Service Board and the Meraux Foundation have now agreed to the language in the donation documents.
Landry says, "Those documents, once they're signed will be forwarded to the state and we will be waiting for them to literally say go ahead and we can start building our hospital."
Construction could begin in as soon as 2 weeks on the 11 and half acres donated by the Meraux Foundation.
Phillip Wendling is the project executive. He says the new hospital will be a state of the art facility with an electronic medical recording keeping system and all digital equipment.
Wendling says, "This is going to be a 2 story 40 bed hospital. It will be about 104,000 square feet."
Tens of thousands of residents have not returned to the parish since the storm. Some believe a new hospital will give people a reason to come home.
Rita Gue with the Meraux Foundation says, "We're so excited about this becoming a reality. We really want to thank Parish President Craig Taffaro and Danny Dysart for their support on the project."
The lead investigator in the Michael Anderson capital murder case is the same NOPD officer to agree to plead guilty in a cover up at the Danziger Bridge shooting.
A judge ordered a new trial for Anderson earlier this week, but with the lead investigator's credibility in question, any re-trial would be a vastly different case.
A large part of the capital murder case against anderson was put in place brick by brick by then NOPD investigator Jeff Lehrmann.
"He was the lead detective. He is the one who arrested Michael Anderson. He is the one who interviewed Torrie Williams, the supposed eyewitness. He's the one who got the version out of her that she then contradicted when she was interviewed by the DA's office. He is the one who rejected the FBI investigation that pointed to Telly Hankton. His credibility is central," says Anderson's attorney Richard Bourke.
Bourke thinks the involvement of the former NOPD officer about to plead guilty to turning a blind eye to the alleged Danziger Bridge cover-up, plus political pressure are responsible for Michael Anderson's conviction for killing 5 Mid-City teens in 2006.
"This is how wrongful convictions happen. This is what happens. You have a corrupt investigation. You have a trial corrupted by prosecutorial misconduct because of the political pressure to bring a prosecution. The re-indictment of Michael Anderson after the case was dropped was a political decision, not a legal decision," Bourke says.
With multiple DA's and multiple office moves after Katrina, District Attorney Leon Cannizzaro hailed the Anderson conviction as marking a turn around for the city's criminal justice system.
"There was no political pressure, I disagree with that as far as the political pressure. We have been trying to establish a confidence in our criminal justice system and when law enforcement officials get indicted and they plead guilty, it hurts that confidence," he says.
Cannizzaro won't talk specific strategy in the Anderson case, but says generally, when a witness' credibility is questioned, you call in other witnesses or investigators to make the same claims.
"It hurts the case there is no question about that. It is not devastating to the case. It is not a reason in which we would say we cannot go forward with this case," Cannizzaro says.
Asked if a questionable lead investigator will make his office dramatically rethink the case or look at other suspects, Cannizzaro says his office is convinced that Michael Anderson is responsible for the 5 killings.
Lehrmann was an NOPD officer for one year, but served with the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office for almost a decade.
He is due to be arraigned in federal court tomorrow morning.
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) - Kevin Durant scored 29 points, Russell Westbrook added 17 points and came up just shy of a triple-double, and the Oklahoma City Thunder beat the injury-depleted New Orleans Hornets 98-83 on Wednesday night.
The Hornets got off to a hot start in their latest return to the building they called home for two seasons following Hurricane Katrina, but it was short-lived with Peja Stojakovic joining All-Star point guard Chris Paul on the team's injured list.
Stojakovic is expected to miss at least two weeks with a lower abdominal strain.
Oklahoma City took the lead for good in the second quarter and never got much of a challenge in the second half as New Orleans shot 43 percent.
David West scored 33 for the Hornets, who recorded their highest total of the season two days earlier in a 135-131 shootout win against Golden State, but struggled to get anything going except when their power forward had the ball.
West hit his first six shots and was able to maneuver inside for baskets with regularity, but little else was working for New Orleans. By the time West was lifted with 7:41 to play and the Hornets down by 18, he had scored 33 of his team's 69 points.
Darren Collison and Marcus Thornton, the rookie tandem that kept the Hornets competitive despite Paul's absence following knee surgery last month, combined for 19 points on 7-for-27 shooting in the team's seventh loss in the last nine games.
Collison has scored in double figures in all but two of the 27 games he's started in place of Paul - both meetings against the Thunder. He also had his streak of seven straight games with at least 18 points and nine assists snapped. It was the longest string by a rookie since Oscar Robertson set an NBA record with eight in a row in 1960-61.
Oklahoma City had lost 10 in a row against New Orleans before winning the last two with Paul on the sidelines.
Westbrook also had nine assists and eight rebounds, and had those totals entering the fourth quarter. He didn't add to either in 4½ minutes of playing time before being pulled with the game out of hand. He has two career triple-doubles, one each of the past two seasons.
Reserve Serge Ibaka added 12 points and nine rebounds for the Thunder, and Jeff Green and Nenad Krstic scored 10 apiece.
Thornton had 11 points and Julian Wright, staring in place of Stojakovic, scored 10.
New Orleans scored 11 of the game's first 13 points and maintained its nine-point lead halfway through the first quarter while riding West's 6-for-6 start from the field. Oklahoma City then reeled off 10 straight points to go up 20-19 on Westbrook's jumper.
The Hornets took a brief 33-32 lead after Wright's driving layup early in the second quarter, but the Thunder charged right back to take the lead for good. Oklahoma City built its own nine-point following an 8-0 run that included Emeka Okafor airballing a pair of free throws for New Orleans.
Durant's driving, right-handed jam put the Thunder up 48-39.
NOTES: Hornets coach Jeff Bower said the two-week prognosis for Stojakovic's return was a "minimum timeframe." He expressed hope that Wright, a 2007 first-round draft pick, could use the extra playing time to build on his game. "It's full of energy and athleticism and full of possibilities," Bower said. "What we need to do is turn those possibilities into production." ... D.J. White, recalled by the Thunder from the NBA D-League a day earlier, played for the first time since Dec. 14. He had surgery to repair a broken right thumb in January. ... Attendance was 18,203 as Oklahoma City recorded its 18th sellout in 31 home games. That matches last season's total, when the Ford Center's capacity was 19,163.
(Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

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New Orleans - The former Orleans Parish School Board President who admits she took bribes, will face sentencing tomorrow.
Ellenese Brooks-Simms could get up to five years in prison for taking cash in exchange for supporting a school computer software program.
Brooks-Simms sentencing has been delayed for over two years.
Her attorney has not said why the sentencing continues to get pushed back, only that she has cooperated with the feds from the beginning.
Do you sense a bit of an ill wind in the air, a foreboding gloom on the horizon that accompanies the final days of the Nagin Era?
It’s getting plain weird. I mean, you heard, the other day, when the Mayor finally weighed in on the expanding police controversy and the deeply embedded culture of corruption within?
"If his has probably been going on for many years," he said. "Then we should probably get to the bottom of it."
Umm. YEAH?
Wow! I mean, what’s next? Tell the city council: "The city’s out of money, y’all. We should probably look into that."
As oddly therapeutic as it is, we all can’t all just sit around and armchair quarterback this Nagin thing to death.
First of all, it’s not healthy. It’s gotten so that when I hear the daily news dispatches from City Hall, I must follow a strict regimen for my own safety.
I make sure that I am not alone in the house, that no children are present, that all firearms and prescription medicines have been removed from the premises and that all cleaning products, detergents and motor oils are kept in locked closets for which I have no key .
You know, sociologists, behavioral specialists, clinicians and theologians agree, that the primary cause of such anti-social thinking and aberrant behavior is the loss of hope. And so it is I worry that I may have lost hope, at least as far as city government goes.
So I have a proposal I’d like to offer, something to give a little hope and hold us over until the newly-elected officials finally take office and set their plans in motion.
Actually, I should give credit where it is due. Fact is, Ray Nagin is actually the original author of my idea; I simply took his proposal and tweaked it a little.
The idea came to me when the Mayor announced a mandatory four-day work week for all city employees. I’m sure it was unintentional, but by making four days of work mandatory, he probably as much as doubled his own personal workload.
So that’s my idea, one way to maybe slow down the Mayor’s suddenly urgent need to solicit high-dollar bids and contracts. Not so fast, Mr. Mayor. You’re not supposed to be at work today.
That’s right. That’s my proposal: A mandatory two-day work week for all city employees.
Imagine the savings! Imagine the Implications!
New Orleans - The New Orleans Archdiocese is preparing to alert parishioners about a cleric indicted on charges of sexually abusing a 10-year-old boy.
The priest hasn't worked in New Orleans for decades but some say he could still have victims here.
Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests held a press conference about the case Wednesday morning.
"To alert the general public and to alert the Archbishop of New Orleans, Gregory Aymond to the fact that a cleric who once served, a priest who once served in New Orleans, Louisiana is under indictment in West Virginia for the sexual abuse of a 10 year-old boy in 1991," said SNAP's Michael Kuczynski.
Father Robert Poandl pleaded not guilty and is out on bond. A website for the catholic society Poandl belongs to says the allegations were made last June while he was serving in Georgia.
Since then, Poandl's been moved to Glenmary Home Missioners headquarters in Cincinnati.
"It's a sin. There's no way we can justify this. It's just very, very sad," said Archbishop Aymond.
Poandl worked in New Orleans at the Glenmary House, which no longer exists, from 1973 to 1975.
Aymond says he will print the information about Pondal in all of the church's publications.
Aymond first heard of the allegations last June when the Cincinnati's office sent him a letter asking if Poandl had any allegations here.
"We checked the file. There are no allegations of anything that took place during those years," says Aymond.
SNAP wants the Archbishop to release the names of accused abusers involved in last year's $5 million settlement with victims. Aymond says that's against church policy, but he did confirm that one church employee implicated in the case once worked at St. Louis Cathedral.
"They've identified this individual as Roland Boisvert, known to children at the time he was conducting his abuse at the cathedral at the school simply as "Doctor Bob." Roland Boisvert is deceased but he led boys’ choirs across America and therefore if he is in fact, or was a sex abuser he may have had many other victims," said Kuczynski.
"There are many allegations of pedophilia in all religious denominations including the catholic church but the studies that have been done by the professionals indicate very clearly that they are no higher in the church than they are in families or they are in organizations for young boys and girls or in other dimensions of society," said Aymond.
Aymond admits the Catholic Church hasn't always responded appropriately to abuse allegations.
"In the past, when we knew a lot less about pedophilia and the behavior, the church as well as society in general, made a lot of mistakes. For the church's part these priests were sent away for treatment and then if the treatment center said they re ready to go back to ministry they were placed back in ministry," said Aymond.
Aymond says the church has changed its ways and that he is ready to listen to anyone who may have been a victim.
SNAP has a confidential hotline set up for anyone who wants to report abuse.
The number is 881-3226.
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