Proper Procedure: The Follow-Up

Last week, I pointed out two issues that should be cause for concern at the most recent friendly neighborhood Metro Council meeting: spending money without the benefit of a public hearing and an apparent lack of oversight over the boards and commissions of the Parish. This week, I wanted to delve a little more deeply into both of these issues for the public benefit.

Due Diligence, you say?
Quick recap on the first item: The Metro Council granted about $200K of your money to nonprofit organizations without allowing you to weigh in on their decision. If you want the full details, check out last week’s blog which has some links to news reports concerning the history of the funds in question. After Councilman Joel Boe tried to stop the vote by objecting to suspending the rules which is required to vote on the item without first introducing it/holding a public hearing, a number of his fellow council members took to the microphone to complain about his decision. They stated that the items had been previously discussed (in some cases, but somewhat irrelevant as those proposals had been voted down) and many of them stated they had performed appropriate due diligence on the nonprofit organizations receiving funds. Due Diligence is easily in my Top 10 list of awesome phrases; whenever I see “due diligence” I suffer a bit of synesthesia and hear heavy metal guitars rocking out in my head. For anyone unfamiliar with the term (“due diligence” that is, not synesthesia), it basically means to check something out to make sure everything is on the up-and-up and that what you’re seeing is what you’re getting. It’s actually a formal process in the business world that is usually undertaken prior to buying a business and includes checking out financials and performance measures. In this instance, it would presumably mean the council members had checked up on the nonprofit organizations and verified they were abiding by all appropriate rules and regulations and were succeeding at their mission.

If it’s true that these council members had performed appropriate due diligence on these nonprofit organizations, how come four* of the seven nonprofit organizations receiving funding from the City-Parish are currently NOT in good standing with the Secretary of State’s office? Retaining good standing with the SoS is pretty easy, typically only requiring an organization to “file their Annual Report” by certifying their information and mailing a postcard back or even filing online; very basic, very easy. It should raise at least one red flag if an organization can’t manage something as simple as that. Yet 57% of the nonprofit organizations who received your money can’t accomplish this? I don’t know if that bodes well for their ability to be good stewards of our money. I know of at least one large local foundation which will not fund grants to organizations which are not in good standing with the Secretary of State’s office. On top of that, I’m not sure what due diligence the Council actually did if they missed this basic check. It’s not like it’s difficult. Here’s the link where you can search the status of any organization. By the way, the four organizations not in good standing are: Louisiana Leadership Institute ($76,000), Camelot Career College Scholarship Fund ($25,000), New Hope Baptist Church of Baton Rouge, Inc. ($25,000), and Louisiana Elite ($5,000). NB: I am assuming Louisiana Elite is actually Louisiana Elite Basketball Club or Louisiana Elite Track & Field Club (neither in good standing) as the entity actually named Louisiana Elite, Inc. isn’t an active entity any longer (which would be a much bigger problem).

Boards to the left of me, Commissions to the right
The other big issue that was revealed at the last Council meeting is that the Metro Council has a very poor understanding of what the boards and commissions of the Parish are doing, to include whether they are meeting at all. Now, in some cases, the Council is acutely aware of the activities of boards and commissions. For instance, activities of the P&Z, BREC, ABC, CATS, and the Library Board are pretty well known and reported, but not so much with regard to the lesser known Boards and Committees. Checking the Parish website, there are somewhere north of 40 Boards and Commissions that have some governmental responsibility within EBR Parish. These range from some of the well known boards listed above to entities like the Animal Classification Appeals Committee, the Taxicab Control Board, and the Tree Commission. An argument could probably be made to de-authorize or consolidate some of the small boards and commissions into other related boards and commissions, but I doubt anyone really knows enough about their current activities to be able to make that determination. Councilman Trae Welch brought up his concern that the Council simply doesn’t have a good grasp of the activities of the boards and commissions and may be drafting a proposal to rectify that situation. At a minimum, it would probably be a good idea for the Council to require every board and commission to submit a report on a quarterly basis indicating if they had met (as some of the boards meet on an as needed basis, in some cases in reaction to other events) and providing copies of minutes taken at these meetings. In turn, the City-Parish should host those documents on their website so the public can have some kind of indication that these boards and commissions are performing their duties as required.

Next week’s a Council week; throw your hands up (either in joy or despair)! It should be a good one as the Council has requested the appearance of the Alsen – St. Irma Lee Volunteer Fire Department Board to account for their recent activities.

*Louisiana Arts and Entertainment was also on this list initially, as they were not in good standing at the time the grant was awarded, but have since filed their annual report (yesterday in fact) and are currently in good standing again. See, it’s really THAT easy. It appears they may have only been delinquent by a month or less.