Louisiana news briefs

Marshal’s salary ‘insane’ says council member
AMITE (AP) — A Tangipahoa Parish councilman says the 7th Ward Court marshal’s annual income could reach $200,000 this year and that’s an “insane” amount.
On Monday, Nicky Muscarello asked the Parish Council to reduce the parish government’s share of the marshal’s salary to “the minimum allowed by Louisiana law.”
The council tabled the matter until more information can be obtained.
Council Attorney Cliff Speed said state law prohibits cutting the pay of an elected official to less than what the official earned when first elected or in 1986, when the legislation was enacted.
Parish Finance Director Jeff McKneely said the parish has been paying Anderson $1,215 a month since 1986. The city of Hammond pays the remainder of the marshal’s salary, which Muscarello says is $61,000 a year. Muscarello said the marshal is allowed to retain a percentage of the fees and fines awarded by the 7th Ward Court to use at his own discretion. With those fees, Muscarello said, Anderson in 2013 earned about $180,000 and that figure could rise to $200,000 this year.

Larose floodwall project to start
LAROSE (AP) — A project to protect 375 homes and 15 businesses in Larose, including North American Shipyard, from flooding and storm surge will begin in January.
Lafourche Parish government inked an agreement following its Oct. 28 council meeting to begin work on the $5 million Industrial Floodwall and Drainage Project.
In January, crews will begin construction on 2,648 feet of an 8-foot floodwall along Industrial Park Road near North American Shipyard. The project will also elevate a section of Industrial Park Road to 7 feet to improve drainage.
South Lafourche Levee District Manager Windell Curole said last summer the area where the floodwall will be built is the district’s “biggest weak point.”

Sheriff: Man shot, killed by fellow deer hunter
ALEXANDRIA (AP) — The Rapides Parish Sheriff’s Office says the fatal weekend shooting of an Alexandria man was the result of a hunting accident.
The victim was 37-year-old John Michael Haynes. The Sheriff’s Office said Haynes was shot around 7 a.m. Saturday by a fellow hunter who thought he was firing at a deer. Haynes was pronounced dead at the scene.
No charges have been filed and the shooting was ruled accidental.

Police: Woman tries to run
down fiancé
BATON ROUGE (AP) — Baton Rouge Police arrested a woman accused of trying to run over her fiancé with a car while their 1-year-old child sat in the car with her.
Police said the incident began when 24-year-old Mictissa A. Moseley was arguing with her fiancé, both of whom are active-duty military police officers. An arrest warrant says Moseley started punching the victim as he drove, and the man ultimately jumped out of the car and tried to call a ride.
But while that happened, Police say Moseley took over the wheel and tried to run over her fiancé.
Moseley was booked Tuesday on counts of attempted second-degree murder and cruelty to a juvenile.

Ex-health secretary says he did
nothing improper
BATON ROUGE (AP) — Gov. Bobby Jindal’s former health secretary insisted in testimony before a state grand jury that he didn’t do anything improper or illegal to help his former employer win a $200 million Medicaid contract, calling the evaluation process “squeaky clean.”
Bruce Greenstein’s comments came in a newly-released deposition taken in June before a state grand jury that later indicted him on nine perjury charges, accusing him of lying during his testimony to the jury and during a state Senate confirmation hearing.
The ex-health secretary hasn’t spoken publicly since he left office in 2013, so the deposition — filed into the court record this week — offers the first detailed look at Greenstein’s defense against accusations that he helped steer the now-canceled contract to a friend’s firm.
According to a deposition transcript, Greenstein said 11 teams with 60 different people scored the bids and selected Maryland-based Client Network Services Inc., known as CNSI. He said he wasn’t involved.
Greenstein is a former CNSI vice president who described himself as friends with both the company’s president Adnan Ahmed and another chief executive.
The Jindal administration voided the 10-year Medicaid claims processing contract with CNSI in March 2013 after details emerged about a federal subpoena seeking information about the contract award.
Greenstein said after the contract was voided, he was forced by Jindal’s then-chief of staff, Paul Rainwater, to resign from the Department of Health and Hospitals.
“They never asked me to come in and talk about it at all,” Greenstein said, according to the transcript.
A month later, the Jindal administration accused Greenstein of inappropriate contact with the company throughout the bid process, saying he exchanged hundreds of phone calls and thousands of text messages with CNSI officials.
“We have no tolerance for any wrongdoing. His resignation was clearly appropriate under these circumstances,” Jindal spokeswoman Shannon Bates said in a statement Tuesday.
CNSI has sued the state for wrongful termination in a civil lawsuit.
In his deposition, Greenstein described nearly all the phone calls and text messages with Ahmed and Creighton Carroll, CNSI’s vice president of government affairs, as social.
But a prosecutor with the attorney general’s office said Carroll and Greenstein had fewer than a dozen contacts in the months before Greenstein took the job as Jindal’s health secretary and 2,882 communications after that.
State lawmakers raised concerns when CNSI was selected. Greenstein acknowledged under questioning in a June 2011 confirmation hearing that a decision he made in the bid solicitation process made CNSI eligible to seek the contract.
Greenstein confirmed those details under oath before the grand jury, saying Ahmed called him about making the change. But he said the decision was approved by other health department employees and the governor’s Division of Administration.
“What happens is not a favoritism or benefit to any company. It just allows them to compete,” he said.
In the Senate confirmation committee Greenstein only mentioned a handful of phone exchanges with CNSI officials. In his grand jury deposition, he said he didn’t mention hundreds of phone calls and text messages because he was thinking of it as conversations with friends, not work talk.
Members of the grand jury seemed skeptical, asking about the exchanges several times.
“Hindsight is 20/20. It raises the appearance of suspicion. I feel sick thinking about it,” Greenstein said. “I wasn’t prohibited from doing it, but I would have been better off without doing it.”