Contractor’s role questioned
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One of the four men tapped by the Governor’s Office in January to interview and recommend who should head the state’s juvenile prison system holds more than $5.9 million in contracts from that agency.
Collis Temple Jr., along with three others, interviewed seven candidates who applied to head the Office of Youth Development, the office that controls the state’s three juvenile prisons as well as awards contracts for such services as halfway houses.
Harmony House, owned by Temple, has a two-year contract for $5,946,896 with the youth office to provide halfway houses, according to the state’s Office of Contractual Review.
On Jan. 24 at the Governor’s Office, the four-man panel interviewed seven applicants, including Marlyn Goins-McCants. At the time of the interview, she was employed by Temple to coordinate counseling services for Hurricane Katrina victims in an $8 million federal contract, documents show.
Goins-McCants didn’t get the deputy secretary’s position; Richard M. Thompson did. He did, however, hire her as his chief of staff, a newly created position for which she will be paid $102,000 a year.
Gov. Bobby Jindal appointed Thompson, of Puerto Rico —who headed OYD from 1996-2000 — as deputy secretary of OYD in February.
The deputy secretary of OYD — unlike some with that title in other state offices — is a Cabinet-level position appointed by and reporting to the governor. Thompson’s salary is $123,613 a year.
Temple said Friday he doesn’t see anything wrong with his involvement with interviewing and recommending someone who will be in a position to approve his contracts when they come up for renewal.
He also said he doesn’t see anything wrong with having interviewed Goins-McCants.
“Mr. Teepell asked me to be on the committee,” Temple said of Timmy Teepell, Jindal’s chief of staff. “I didn’t ask to be on it. My concern has always been just with the youth.”
Temple said he had contracts with OYD for years and has provided halfway houses for adults and children in Baton Rouge for 30 years.
“It never struck me at all that I was doing anything wrong,” Temple said of interviewing the job candidates.
Teepell, during a telephone interview Monday, downplayed Temple’s role in the hiring of Thompson.
Serving on the committee with Temple were James LeBlanc, secretary for the Department of Public Safety and Corrections; Raymond Jetson, director of the Louisiana Family Recovery Corps; and state Sen. Donald Cravens Jr., D-Lafayette.
Teepell, who said LeBlanc spearheaded the effort to find a new leader for OYD, called Temple, Jetson and Cravens “community activists.”
“They were a group of community activists that wanted to meet the candidates and we facilitated that,” Teepell said of allowing the interviews to take place at the governor’s office.
“We got input from the community activists along with a variety of people, including legislators, district attorneys, judges and others,” Teepell said.
But candidates for the job who were interviewed for this story said the four-man panel was the only formal interview they had and, for some — including candidate Malcolm Myer, a legislative liaison for the state Attorney General’s Office — it was their only interview for the position.
Teepell said Thompson was not the activists’ first choice for the position, but their first choice turned down the job.
Thompson replaced former Gov. Kathleen Blanco’s appointee Simon Gonsoulin, who did not apply to retain the position.
Teepell said it wasn’t a conflict of interest for Temple to be involved in selecting the new head of OYD, even though that person will approve all contracts with the agency.
“Collis Temple has been involved with the juvenile justice system for decades and he’s got an understanding of it,” Teepell said. “We wanted to get as many perspectives as possible.”
Besides interviewing the candidates, Temple also took Teepell; Rolfe McCollister, who was Jindal’s campaign treasurer; and LeBlanc on an unannounced visit Jan. 16 to Jetson Youth Center, a state juvenile prisons near Baker where there have been escapes and allegations of brutality and sexual misconduct in recent months.
“That was a separate situation,” Teepell said of the visit. “Collis and Rolfe were telling me some problems with Jetson that were pretty disturbing, and I said I want to go see it.”
Temple and Thompson also met with a group of staff members of Jetson shortly before Jindal’s inauguration. Temple refused to discuss why that meeting was held.
While Teepell and Temple didn’t see a conflict of interest in Temple’s involvement with the hiring of Thompson, others did.
“It sets a very bad precedent when you have a state contractor involved in any way with hiring the person who awards his contract,” said Lynda Sadler Gavioli, of Monroe. “It’s very suspicious, it’s a conflict of interest and it raises ethical questions.”
Gavioli, appointed by the Jindal administration to the temporary position of chairman of the Crime and Public Safety Transition Advisory Council for Youth Development, said Monday she doesn’t know Temple.
“I don’t think I’ve ever met him, but it doesn’t matter. No one with a state contract with an agency should be involved with hiring the head of the agency that awards it,” she said.
“We were told by the governor’s staff that we would not be involved in any way with selecting the new deputy secretary of OYD,” Gavioli said. “And we weren’t. When we asked who was going to be involved in that selection, we weren’t really given an answer. It was all very murky, very cloudy.”
Gavioli said she believes there also is a conflict with Goins-McCants getting a job at OYD.
“It’s messy, sticky and it doesn’t appear to be very transparent,” Gavioli said.
Thompson said he didn’t think the interviewing committee played a key role in his getting a job.
“But when I was interviewed, it seems like Mr. Temple never asked a question,” Thompson said. “It seemed like he was observing rather than influencing.”
Thompson said he met with the District Attorneys Association, the Sheriffs Association, and state senators and representatives. “I guess I thought that’s where most of the interviewing was taking place,” he said.
Thompson would not address if there was a conflict in Temple interviewing him, but the new juvenile prisons chief did admit he is responsible for OYD contracts.
“That’s exactly right that I am the person who awards OYD contracts,” Thompson said.
Thompson also said he didn’t know Goins-McCants worked for Temple before he hired her.
“I know she worked for the city but I didn’t know she worked for Collis,” he said.
Goins-McCants served as director of the city-parish department of juvenile services for about two years, her résumé shows. Goins-McCants could not be reached for comment at her office Monday.
Thompson said he met Goins-McCants, a licensed social worker, a little over a month ago, but after talking to her he discovered the two agreed on many issues regarding juvenile justice.
“I feel she’ll do very well at the job of chief of staff,” Thompson said.
Collis Temple Jr., along with three others, interviewed seven candidates who applied to head the Office of Youth Development, the office that controls the state’s three juvenile prisons as well as awards contracts for such services as halfway houses.
Harmony House, owned by Temple, has a two-year contract for $5,946,896 with the youth office to provide halfway houses, according to the state’s Office of Contractual Review.
On Jan. 24 at the Governor’s Office, the four-man panel interviewed seven applicants, including Marlyn Goins-McCants. At the time of the interview, she was employed by Temple to coordinate counseling services for Hurricane Katrina victims in an $8 million federal contract, documents show.
Goins-McCants didn’t get the deputy secretary’s position; Richard M. Thompson did. He did, however, hire her as his chief of staff, a newly created position for which she will be paid $102,000 a year.
Gov. Bobby Jindal appointed Thompson, of Puerto Rico —who headed OYD from 1996-2000 — as deputy secretary of OYD in February.
The deputy secretary of OYD — unlike some with that title in other state offices — is a Cabinet-level position appointed by and reporting to the governor. Thompson’s salary is $123,613 a year.
Temple said Friday he doesn’t see anything wrong with his involvement with interviewing and recommending someone who will be in a position to approve his contracts when they come up for renewal.
He also said he doesn’t see anything wrong with having interviewed Goins-McCants.
“Mr. Teepell asked me to be on the committee,” Temple said of Timmy Teepell, Jindal’s chief of staff. “I didn’t ask to be on it. My concern has always been just with the youth.”
Temple said he had contracts with OYD for years and has provided halfway houses for adults and children in Baton Rouge for 30 years.
“It never struck me at all that I was doing anything wrong,” Temple said of interviewing the job candidates.
Teepell, during a telephone interview Monday, downplayed Temple’s role in the hiring of Thompson.
Serving on the committee with Temple were James LeBlanc, secretary for the Department of Public Safety and Corrections; Raymond Jetson, director of the Louisiana Family Recovery Corps; and state Sen. Donald Cravens Jr., D-Lafayette.
Teepell, who said LeBlanc spearheaded the effort to find a new leader for OYD, called Temple, Jetson and Cravens “community activists.”
“They were a group of community activists that wanted to meet the candidates and we facilitated that,” Teepell said of allowing the interviews to take place at the governor’s office.
“We got input from the community activists along with a variety of people, including legislators, district attorneys, judges and others,” Teepell said.
But candidates for the job who were interviewed for this story said the four-man panel was the only formal interview they had and, for some — including candidate Malcolm Myer, a legislative liaison for the state Attorney General’s Office — it was their only interview for the position.
Teepell said Thompson was not the activists’ first choice for the position, but their first choice turned down the job.
Thompson replaced former Gov. Kathleen Blanco’s appointee Simon Gonsoulin, who did not apply to retain the position.
Teepell said it wasn’t a conflict of interest for Temple to be involved in selecting the new head of OYD, even though that person will approve all contracts with the agency.
“Collis Temple has been involved with the juvenile justice system for decades and he’s got an understanding of it,” Teepell said. “We wanted to get as many perspectives as possible.”
Besides interviewing the candidates, Temple also took Teepell; Rolfe McCollister, who was Jindal’s campaign treasurer; and LeBlanc on an unannounced visit Jan. 16 to Jetson Youth Center, a state juvenile prisons near Baker where there have been escapes and allegations of brutality and sexual misconduct in recent months.
“That was a separate situation,” Teepell said of the visit. “Collis and Rolfe were telling me some problems with Jetson that were pretty disturbing, and I said I want to go see it.”
Temple and Thompson also met with a group of staff members of Jetson shortly before Jindal’s inauguration. Temple refused to discuss why that meeting was held.
While Teepell and Temple didn’t see a conflict of interest in Temple’s involvement with the hiring of Thompson, others did.
“It sets a very bad precedent when you have a state contractor involved in any way with hiring the person who awards his contract,” said Lynda Sadler Gavioli, of Monroe. “It’s very suspicious, it’s a conflict of interest and it raises ethical questions.”
Gavioli, appointed by the Jindal administration to the temporary position of chairman of the Crime and Public Safety Transition Advisory Council for Youth Development, said Monday she doesn’t know Temple.
“I don’t think I’ve ever met him, but it doesn’t matter. No one with a state contract with an agency should be involved with hiring the head of the agency that awards it,” she said.
“We were told by the governor’s staff that we would not be involved in any way with selecting the new deputy secretary of OYD,” Gavioli said. “And we weren’t. When we asked who was going to be involved in that selection, we weren’t really given an answer. It was all very murky, very cloudy.”
Gavioli said she believes there also is a conflict with Goins-McCants getting a job at OYD.
“It’s messy, sticky and it doesn’t appear to be very transparent,” Gavioli said.
Thompson said he didn’t think the interviewing committee played a key role in his getting a job.
“But when I was interviewed, it seems like Mr. Temple never asked a question,” Thompson said. “It seemed like he was observing rather than influencing.”
Thompson said he met with the District Attorneys Association, the Sheriffs Association, and state senators and representatives. “I guess I thought that’s where most of the interviewing was taking place,” he said.
Thompson would not address if there was a conflict in Temple interviewing him, but the new juvenile prisons chief did admit he is responsible for OYD contracts.
“That’s exactly right that I am the person who awards OYD contracts,” Thompson said.
Thompson also said he didn’t know Goins-McCants worked for Temple before he hired her.
“I know she worked for the city but I didn’t know she worked for Collis,” he said.
Goins-McCants served as director of the city-parish department of juvenile services for about two years, her résumé shows. Goins-McCants could not be reached for comment at her office Monday.
Thompson said he met Goins-McCants, a licensed social worker, a little over a month ago, but after talking to her he discovered the two agreed on many issues regarding juvenile justice.
“I feel she’ll do very well at the job of chief of staff,” Thompson said.
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