Groups mobilize efforts, call for NOPD chief’s resignation

5th December 2011   ·   0 Comments

In a public display on the steps of New Orleans City Hall on Thursday, December 1, members from the United New Orleans Front, a coalition of community-based organizations, said they felt disrespected by Mayor Mitch Landrieu’s administration’s act of barring members of the New Orleans branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and other Black leaders from entering a press conference at Gallier Hall on crime late last month and also viewed the act as a violation of law.

Chief among the announcement, however, was the group’s request for local, state and federal agencies to investigate whether NOPD Superin­tendent or city employees misrepresented information in payroll documents.

The NAACP made similar requests two weeks ago and followed up with letters requesting that Orleans Parish District Attorney Leon Cannizzaro, Jr., U.S. Attorney Jim Letten and U.S. Attorney Eric Holder launch formal investigations. Other groups are expected to follow suit, and the United New Orleans Front which, in addition to the aforementioned agencies, has reached out to the New Orleans Office of the Inspector General Ed Quatrevaux and Louisiana Attorney General James “Buddy” Caldwell to investigate the matter.

The United New Orleans Front is comprised of the NAACP, Community United for Change, Safe Streets Strong Com­munities, Love and Power Outreach Ministries, Vote, Coalition to Free the Angola Three, Righteous Cause, Louisiana Justice Institute and other community organizations.

“As a coalition, the United New Orleans Front cannot accept the suggestion from the Landrieu Administration that this entire fiasco was simply a mistake. Politicians and appointed officials need to know what common people pay extensively for mistakes and need not believe that the mere suggestion that something labeled a mistake will quickly move the suspicious questions from necessary judicial review to a safe point of business as usual,” W.C. Johnson said on behalf of the group. “There have been far too many mistakes with the Landrieu/Serpas administration. There have been far too many complaints in the history of this administration for these acts to go unchallenged.”

Inspector General Quatrevaux’s office launched an investigation into the matter after the reports were made public and concluded that the allegations are either unsubstantiated or unfounded and warrant no further investigation based upon the following:

1.”Chief Serpas signed the forms on 05/06/2010 and first reported for duty on 05/10/2010. However, this is a standard practice and we found no violation of law or policy. The New Orleans City Attorney and Director of the Municipal Police Employees Retirement System (MPERS) both stated that the dates are meaningless because the Chief had a break in service and had never applied for or received benefits. They said the Chief would be eligible for the enhanced pension under any circumstances and that the date of his 50th birthday was irrelevant. The allegation is unfounded and no further investigation is required.”

2.”City payroll records demonstrate that Chief Serpas began earning pay as of 05/10/2011, not on May 6th as alleged. The allegation is unsubstantiated and no further investigation is required.”

3.”Chief Serpas signed an addendum to his retirement member enrollment form and dated it 05/06/2010. Assistant City Attorney Vic Papai indicated that he notarized it on that same date. As Chief Serpas was in Nashville, Tennessee on 05/06/2010, and Mr. Papai was in New Orleans, it is not possible that they both signed as indicated. Matters involving attorneys are under the jurisdiction of the Office of Disciplinary Counsel; the City Attorney has instructed Mr. Papai to immediately report his actions. The City Attorney has taken appropriate action, and this office has also referred the matter to the Office of Disciplinary Counsel; no further investigation is required.

Despite the widening divide between community groups and the city, the two sides have not yet met to discuss the snowballing concerns. When membes of the New Orleans branch of the NAACP and other groups were blocked from entering the mayor’s press conference on Nov. 2, an aide to Mayor Landrieu invited the group to schedule a future meeting. Neither party budged.

At a planning meeting that led up to the United New Orleans Front’s press conference, Danatus King, president of the New Orleans branch of the NAACP, told The Louisiana Weekly that Landrieu would be invited to attend the press conference and would also be invited to attend a meeting with the community-at-large at a later date.

Landrieu was not invited to attend the press conference, according to United New Orleans Front member W.C. Johnson. Landrieu’s staff confirmed.

Mayor Landrieu raised the ire of the New Orleans NAACP branch president when he told FOX 8 News late last month that “Danatus King and the NAACP have been against Chief Serpas since before he got here.”

King responded with an open letter last week to the community that read in part:

“It was disrespectful and insulting for the mayor to lock the NAACP and other community organizations out of last week’s meeting to address our city’s crime problem. It was disrespectful to our community to deny the NAACP and other groups the opportunity to contribute to the effort to ‘Save Our Sons.’ If the NAACP and other community groups do not have anything meaningful to contribute to saving our sons, who does?

“That statement by the mayor served no other purpose but to deflect attention away from the Serpas pension document scandal and discredit and dismiss me and the NAACP as irrelevant,” King continued. “Why single out me, a Black man, and the NAACP? It was a white TV station that broke the news about the Serpas pension documents scandal. It was a white reporter that reported on the investigation. It was a white criminologist that stated laws might have been broken. It was a white law professor that said ethics laws might have been violated. The mayor didn’t mention any of them. The mayor singled out the Black man and the organization that fights for the rights of Black people. Why? Whether intended or not, the mayor’s statement has racially divided our community.”

On Thursday, Dec. 1, Devonna Dolliole, director of communications for Landrieu’s office, said: “The mayor remains laser-focused on tackling this city’s most pressing challenge—reducing murder and Saving Our Sons. We are partnering with the community and the Department of Justice to reform the NOPD. We are establishing new, holistic and public-health models to reduce homicides. As was communicated to Mr. King and other community leaders last week at Gallier Hall, the mayor is always willing to meet with them and to discuss ways the NAACP and other community organizations can partner with the city to invest in the lives of our young men and turn this murder epidemic around. Today the mayor invited Mr. King to discuss these specifics. Unfortunately, Mr. King’s schedule did not allow for him to meet with the mayor today.”

This article was originally published in the December 5, 2011 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper