[BITList] inept and a liar!

[CT's]


      crooks in new orleans - eh? 
      bit strong isn’t it?
      ct 
      ps – is your city run like this?


      Former New Orleans technology chief Anthony Jones was not only inept and a liar -- he was also a crook: An editorial 
      Published: Saturday, December 18, 2010, 6:12 AM 
      By Editorial page staff, The Times-Picayune 

      New Orleanians knew that Anthony Jones, who served as chief technology officer during part of the Nagin administration, was an inept manager. Now Mr. Jones has admitted that he was also a crook. 

      CHRIS GRANGER / THE TIMES-PICAYUNE Former New Orleans technology chief Anthony Jones. 
      He pleaded guilty this week to taking more than $20,000 in kickbacks from City Hall vendor Mark St. Pierre in exchange for expediting and approving payments for Mr. St. Pierre's technology companies. Prosecutors said the payoffs were delivered between May 2006 and February 2007 through an employee of Mr. St. Pierre. 

      Mr. Jones could be sentenced to up to five years, and local judges have been appropriately hard on corrupt officials lately. Mr. Jones betrayed the public, and he deserves stiff punishment as well. 

      He's the second former official in the Nagin administration to plead guilty to the bribery scheme. Last month, former technology chief Greg Meffert confessed that he steered $4 million in city work to Mr. St. Pierre's firms in exchange for around $860,000 in kickbacks, including cash, credit card charges and other favors. 

      Mr. St. Pierre has denied that he bribed anyone and is set to go to trial in February. Both Mr. Meffert and Mr. Jones are cooperating with the government and presumably will be witnesses in that case. 

      Eddie Castaing, Mr. St. Pierre's attorney, expressed surprise about Mr. Jones' admission that he received bribes from Mr. St. Pierre. "We have no knowledge of this," Mr. Castaing said. "We don't know what they're talking about." 

      Mr. Jones' admission was not surprising to New Orleanians, considering that his troubled character was well established even before his guilty plea. 

      Then-Mayor Ray Nagin named Mr. Jones as the city's top technology officer in early 2007, and questions about Mr. Jones' qualifications soon marred his tenure. He had falsely claimed to have a college degree and had apparently exaggerated his college credits on a city job application. Coupled with his poor performance, that should've been enough for the city to fire Mr. Jones. Instead, the Nagin administration simply "demoted" Mr. Jones after 18 months to his previous job, an $86,000-a-year post protected by civil service rules. 

      In 2009, an audit of Mr. Nagin's failed crime camera program found that Mr. Jones had taken a "gratuity" in the form of travel expenses from Ciber Inc., one of Mr. St. Pierre's companies. Officials also said Mr. Jones had falsely filed invoices to cover up the high costs of the crime cameras, among other transgressions. 

      Only then did city officials suspend Mr. Jones. He finally was fired in July 2009. A few months later, however, the Nagin administration allowed Mr. Jones to collect several months of back pay and to have his termination expunged from his record in exchange for his resignation. 

      Evidently, Mr. Nagin valued loyalty more than honesty by that point. 

      When he was about to exit office earlier this year, Mr. Nagin famously proclaimed that, "There was no corruption under my watch." 

      The guilty pleas from Mr. Meffert and now Mr. Jones have demonstrated the opposite. 




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