When Jay Batt first ran for office, he promised to end "consultant contracts," where friends of politicians are hired to lobby for government contracts. However, once Batt was in office, his associates began receiving consulting contracts. Now, the TP has revealed that Batt buddy Bryan Wagner has a contract to receive 3.2% of all fines collected from motorists caught by red light cameras installed in Jefferson Parish. Wagner, who has been joined at the hip with Batt in everything from Bruno’s Bar to society balls, is a former City Councilman and insurance executive who has a history of earning large fees by selling insurance contracts to public entities. In 2005, the State Ethics Board condemned the practice of splitting fees from insurance contracts, a practice that earned an 11-member "commission," of which Wagner was a member, a total of $500,000 in 2005. Wagner has now apparently moved into the traffic camera business.
Big Profits from Camera Contract
On January 26, 2010, the TP reported that Wagner was hired by Redflex Traffic Systems of Phoenix, AZ, to lobby the Jefferson Parish Council for a contract to install and manage traffic cameras at nine Jefferson Parish locations. Wagner had his associate, Julie Murphy, wife of Jefferson Parish Judge Robert Murphy, lobby for Redflex in meetings with various Jefferson Parish Councilmembers. Wagner’s 3.2% of the $19.7 million dollars in fines collected thus far adds up to over $600,000, and if the revenues continue at the current rate, Wagner can expect to take in approximately $300,000 a year.
Bryan Wagner="Batt-Buddy"... even if his name has mysteriously disappeared from Batt's campaign website
Bryan Wager was elected to the District A seat in 1980. He was Batt’s predecessor as Orleans Parish GOP Chairman. Shortly after he was elected in 2002, Batt nominated Wagner to the City’s Alcoholic Beverage Control Board. While on that Board, Wagner appeared before the City Planning Commission and the Council in support of Bruno’s bar, owned by Batt’s childhood friend, David Melius. Wagner argued that failing to approve a new ABO license for Bruno’s would send the message that the City does not support economic development. Wagner is considered Batt’s mentor and is listed as a "Batt Buddy" in a 2006 Batt Fundraiser invitation and was a major contributor. Though Wagner was on hand when Batt rolled out his 2010 campaign at the City Park Casino, his name is now mysteriously absent from Batt’s website after the red light camera revelations.
Wagner has long profited from insurance contracts sold to public entities
For years, the City of New Orleans purchased insurance from extra-legal "Insurance Committees" appointed by the Mayor, and the committee members would split the Commissions. In 2004, the health insurance committee, of which Wagner was a member, split a commission of $500,000. None of the meetings of these committees were publicly noticed or held as open meetings. In a deposition, a member of one of the committees testified that they met once or twice a year for an hour or two. In November, the TP revealed that Wagner also had a piece of an insurance contract with West Jefferson Medical Center until 2007, when the contract was awarded to B&A Insurance Agency, which secretly split fees with a firm owned by JP CAO Tim Whitmer, and which has resulted in a federal investigation and a string of resignations, including Whitmer, Aaron Broussard, and Ronnie Burke.
Pay-to-Play?
Membership on the committees was apparently on a pay-to-play basis. The Health Insurance Committee was named by Nagin, and, together, twelve of the brokers on the Committee contributed $57,300 to Nagin’s 2002 campaign. Wagner admits giving Nagin $3,000 in 2004 and to having sent out direct mail in support of Nagin.
Ethics Board Decision
A 2005 ruling by the state Board of Ethics ended the insurance committees, finding it was a conflict of interest for the committees to advise the City on the purchase of insurance and then to share in the commissions from the sales. The ruling prohibits Wagner from sharing commissions for the sale of insurance policies to the City with other politically-connected brokers. The Ethics Board found that the committees violated the law against a public official accepting money for performing public duties.
Wagner Works the School Board
Wagner also worked hard to get his hands in the school board cookie jar. According to the Louisiana Weekly, Wagner’s 2002 proposal to provide health insurance to the school board would have carried a commission of $725,000. Wagner didn’t get the dough that year, but he didn’t give up. In the 2005 school board election, Wagner and his wife crossed party lines to contribute a total of $5,250 to five of the seven members of the Board (only Cynthia Cade and Phyllis Landrieu lacked support from Wagner).
Batt and Good Government
It’s hard to reconcile Batt’s pose as a good government advocate with his close association with patronage players like Wagner. While Batt was promising to end "consultant contracts," his buddy Wagner was consulting for the City on insurance, attempting to sell insurance to the School Board, and, more recently, was revealed to have a piece of the Jefferson Parish red light camera contract. Batt Buddy Bill Kearney also had consulting contracts with Churchill Downs and a public relations contract with the City. Batt’s campaign coffers are stuffed with money from engineering and construction firms seeking to do business with the City, as well as from bar owners and condominium developers. Batt cannot serve two masters, and these large contributors are not looking for good government. All of this reinforces one of our campaign slogans:
Batt Means Business (for his friends!)
