Sound Off Louisiana

Attorney Eric Haik, whom Billy Broussard indicated in a court filing of Thursday, May 11, 2023, may have been unable to successfully procure attorney’s fees in the matter of Billy Broussard v. Mendy “Mob Boss” Girouard and Melissa Dubroc as a result of “apparent attorney ineptitude” on Haik’s part in not filing to seek such attorney’s fees through LA CCP Article 971 prior to the 90-day expiration of time for doing so.

Well, we’ll say one thing for Billy Broussard:  he’s certainly not an advocate of the legal-equivalent of a football prevent defense!  Why do we say that?  Because, in his Opposition Memorandum to Mendy “Mob Boss” Girouard and Melissa Dubroc’s Motion for LA CCP Article 863 Sanctions, he literally sent both safeties, and even one of the cornerbacks, in an all-out blitz of the quarterback who, in this football analogy, would be attorney Eric Haik.

It is Haik whom Mendy “Mob Boss” Girouard and Melissa Dubroc chose as their defense attorney for Broussard’s defamation case against them.  On April 17, 2023, we published this feature wherein Broussard provided an update on both his defamation suit against “Mob Boss” / Dubroc and also his “identical” lawsuit (the word used by Eric Haik during an April 24, 2023 hearing before Judge Lewis Pitman) against Louisiana State Police (LSP) Trooper Scott Lopez and his son, Benjamin.

For brevity sake, the Lopez suit is now officially dismissed with prejudice at plaintiff’s costs (meaning Broussard pays all court costs but none of Lopez’s legal fees).

As noted at the bottom of the just-linked feature, Broussard filed a similar Motion to Dismiss With Prejudice at Plaintiff’s Cost on March 30, 2023 in the “Mob Boss” matter; however, unlike with Lopez, defense attorney Eric Haik chose to go to the wall entailing “Mob Boss” and Melissa Dubroc by scrambling and filing, within hours, this Motion for Sanctions Pursuant to LA CCP Article 863 on an “Expedited” basis to recover attorney fees in that matter.

Broussard contends that, pursuant to LA CCP Article 1671, he met the criteria for obtaining Judge Vincent Borne’s signature on his voluntarily dismissal order (i.e. with prejudice and him paying both parties court costs, which he supplied Borne with proof he’d paid.)

The St. Martin Parish Clerk of Court concurred with Broussard’s assessment and, accordingly, when it published this docket for April 3, 2023 noted that the case had been “dismissed.”  Nevertheless, Borne, having signed defendants’ Motion for an “Expedited Hearing,” on that April 3, 2023 date, was fully prepared to try the matter of sanctions with Broussard having all of three (3) days to prepare (two of which were weekend days), which would seem to run contrary to:  #1) effectuating service upon Broussard, and #2) providing a minimum of eight days in which Broussard be afforded the opportunity to file a Memorandum in Opposition as part of a Contradictory Hearing on the matter.

When Broussard failed to show up for Court on April 3, 2023, Borne did acknowledge that he was “uncomfortable” proceeding without Broussard present; furthermore, he stressed to Haik that he would only proceed forward after Broussard was properly served and that, if he was inclined to award “any” (which he stressed that word twice within seconds of each other) attorney’s fees pursuant to LA CCP Article 863, it would be only after a formal hearing on the matter.  Accordingly, the matter was reset for Tuesday, May 23, 2023.

Borne stressed that, “the only matter appearing unresolved is attorney’s fees” and appeared to hope the two sides could resolve that.  They have not, so the matter will be decided by Borne on May 23, 2023, after which we’ll obviously report upon his decision.  For now, however, let’s present what Broussard had to say right after filing the above Opposition Memorandum:

Broussard meets with Sound Off Louisiana to review the material in his Opposition Memorandum linked above.

At this time, let’s present some of the highpoints of Broussard’s Opposition Memorandum:

The Judge overseeing the Recusal Motion, First Circuit Court of Appeal Judge Walter Lanier III, whom the Louisiana Supreme Court appointed to hear the matter upon submission of the Motion by this Court, used the adjective of “artful” to describe Judge Borne’s repeated threats of sanctions made to Plaintiff as referenced above.  Just as Plaintiff requested to be added to the Judgment’s wording for that hearing (with that request having been made fully reflected in the Judgment filed in this matter), “artful” has the following synonyms listed in the Merriam-Webster dictionary (among others):  scheming, devious, deceitful, deceptive, dishonest, cheating, underhanded, untrustworthy, and unscrupulous.

What Defendants are now attempting is an effort to recover from the apparent ineptitude of their Defense Counsel in failing to file a Special Motion to Strike Under Louisiana Code of Civil Procedure Article 971 at the outset of this litigation.  Had they done so, this Honorable Court certainly could have granted the Special Motion to Strike and then had the sound statutory authority by which to award “reasonable attorney’s fees” which are plainly stated as being recoverable by the prevailing party upon the filing of such a Motion.

Defendants certainly could have asserted LA CCP Article 971 (Special Motion to Strike) and thereby utilized its statutory provision to formally seek reasonable attorney fees from Plaintiff Under LA CCP Article 971(B).  That subsection states, in pertinent part:  “In any action subject to Paragraph A of this Article, a prevailing party on a special motion to strike shall be awarded reasonable attorney fees and costs.”  Defendants simply failed to file such a Motion, and this Court cannot bail Defendants out from their own attorney’s apparent ineptitude!  Plaintiff literally counted the 90 days from Defendants being served in full anticipation that Defendants would file a 971 Motion, but they did not.  Now, the 90-day window from the time of service of the Petition upon Defendants has long since passed.  Accordingly, they are now simply utterly desperate in filing the present utterly laughable Motion for Sanctions Pursuant to Louisiana CCP Article 863.

Broussard then reiterated the fact, just as he’d done in his Opposition Memorandum on the Lopez Peremptory Exception, that he relied heavily upon Sound Off Louisiana and its revelations of Shane Evans’ (former Office of Inspector General Investigator) award of $9,700 in attorney fees against Murphy Painter pursuant to a Special Motion to Strike Under LA CCP Article 971, as well as that of  Louisiana State Police’s award of $50,376.25 in attorney fees against former LSP Commissioner Calvin Braxton also pursuant to a 971 filing (both awards are presently under appeal).  Let’s take a look:

Perhaps if ever sued for defamation again, Defendants may contact Ben Mayeux (337-272-0346 or [email protected]) or Amy Groves-Lowe (225-381-0280 or [email protected]).  Further, had Defendants followed Sound Off Louisiana as Plaintiff had, they would have seen the success of these two attorneys in procuring attorney’s fees the proper way through a filing of a Motion to Strike pursuant to Louisiana CCP Article 971 rather than throwing out an absurd “suggestion” to this Court that it “consider” awarding attorney’s fees without even attempting to properly posture such a request for attorney’s fees to this Court.  As Plaintiff stated in his Opposition Memorandum to the Peremptory Exception, he indicated that this Court should, “not even dignify” Defendants’ request for the Court to “consider” awarding attorney’s fees, yet the Court chose to go the route that it did notwithstanding Plaintiff’s own suggestion to the Court that the request to consider “not even be dignified.”

Let’s take a look at the next section of Broussard’s Opposition Memorandum:

Plaintiff now directs this Court’s attention to the bottom of Page 3 of MOS-1, where, quoting Defense Attorney Haik, the following statement was made before Judge Pitman:

There’s video being posted about Mr. Broussard, basically making a mockery of the Court, that if he is cast with cost and expenses and attorney’s fees that he’s not going to pay them.

This is further evidence that Defendants and their Counsel say whatever they want to say irrespective of what the facts are!  In the video in question, what Plaintiff said, upon being asked what he would do if this Court does award attorney’s fees, is to state that, “I will appeal the Court’s decision,” which Plaintiff most certainly has every right to do, and he will most certainly exercise that right, and Defense Counsel, despite his distortion of what was said on the video, is well aware of Plaintiff’s right to appeal any decision of this court.  For Defense Counsel to indicate that Plaintiff is, “making a mockery of the Court” is an outrageous and wholly unsupported allegation, especially when it is he who is consistently making a “mockery” of the Court in saying a judge can, “do whatever he wants to do irrespective of what a Statute says,” and further making the “suggestion” to the Court that attorney’s fees be awarded on a Peremptory Exception when he fully knows such an award cannot be substantiated by any statutory provision.  Further, it’s utterly absurd for Defendants to even make the argument that Plaintiff will not pay Court Costs, when they know the reality is that Plaintiff has ALREADY PAID Court Costs, which prompted the Clerk of Court of St. Martin Parish to declare the matter “dismissed” and so note that fact on the Docket, yet this Court chose to proceed on with an April 3, 2023 hearing anyway, a transcript of which is included with this Opposition Memorandum as MOS-5.  Further, this Court is well-aware of Plaintiff’s payment of those Court Costs as proof of same was supplied with a Motion to Voluntarily Dismiss the instant matter with prejudice at Plaintiff’s Cost, which is what prompted Defendants’ mad scramble to seek an “Expedited Hearing” on the present Motion for Sanctions under Louisiana CCP Article 863 for which this Opposition Memorandum even became necessary.

If this Court is inclined to award attorney fees, Plaintiff will follow the examples provided in the Calvin Braxton litigation and:  #1) file notice of intent to lodge a Devolutive Appeal, then #2) require of this Honorable Court that it issue its Written Reasons for Judgment (just as Braxton, who contends LSP is entitled to no attorney’s fees and that, if they are ultimately awarded upon appeal, should approximate no more than $5,000 rather than the $50,000+ awarded via the Judgment on MOS-3, did).

Further, this Court readily acknowledged (see the bottom of Page 6 of MOS-5) that the only issue that remains unresolved is whether this court is inclined to grant “any” (see middle of Page 6 of MOS-5) attorney’s fees (with the word “any” stated twice within seconds of each other).  Plaintiff contends that this case fails miserably to meet the criterion of being “frivolous,” and he further states that Defendants are well of that fact.  Plaintiff bases that assertion upon:

#1) The numerous Facebook posts which were published by Defendants (many of which have already been recorded into the public record on this matter), and Plaintiff is now in possession of far more such posts to include Defendant Girouard (a/k/a “Mob Boss”) removing 10+ members for “lurking.”  Lurking is someone who is a member but fails to contribute to the group.  Given that the group SHOULD be a mere medium for transmitting benign and useful material to Members, there should be nothing wrong with “lurking.”  However, because Defendant Girouard was concerned that someone may be a member of the group and provide damning material to Plaintiff about her and others’ Facebook posts, her paranoia over such an action by a member would prompt her to remove Members for mere inactivity.  Fortunately, as a result of this litigation and the stir created within the Facebook Group, a Good Samaritan has provided Plaintiff with a plethora of such posts.  That particular Facebook post (about removing Members for “lurking”) is included with this Opposition Memorandum as MOS-6.  Interestingly enough, a week after this suit was filed, any reference to Plaintiff or his property ceased and has never been resumed!  Plaintiff can only wonder why there was such fear of it being uncovered that Defendants were posting lies and untruths about Plaintiff if such a fear wasn’t justified.  In other words, why not just keep on doing what you’re doing if you weren’t publishing false and defamatory material about Plaintiff?  Defendants don’t seem to reference that or provide any explanation for it in the subject Motion for Sanctions in their filing under LA CCP Article 863.  In short, Defendants know full well that they do not even remotely come close to clearing the bar for an award of sanctions pursuant to Louisiana CCP Article 863, but they’ve insisted upon the Motion being filed (even on an “Expedited Hearing” basis) for fear this Court would sign Plaintiff’s Voluntary Motion to Dismiss With Prejudice at Plaintiff’s Cost as nothing short of a last-ditch, desperation, Hail Mary in the hope that this Court will once again be gullible enough to act upon it!  Who knows?  Perhaps Defense Counsel Haik overpromised his clients on his sway with this Court and is now having to scramble to overcome the fact that his clients know he apparently had such ineptitude regarding defending defamation lawsuits that he didn’t have a clue about Louisiana CCP 971!

#2) Defendant Girouard actually threatened her entire Membership that she would uncover the culprit who, “took screenshots” of the Facebook posts and, “report that individual to authorities.”  That Facebook post, which Girouard subsequently deleted but which nevertheless was screenshot and is provided as MOS-7, resulted in Defendant Girouard losing 33 of her 101 Members overnight!  As previously demonstrated, Defendant Girouard (a/k/a “Mob Boss”) was narcissistic to the point of having a custom-made T-shirt with the lettering “Mob Boss” on full display on the shirt’s right sleeve which she made it a point to wear at the Council meeting of early March, 2022 entailing Plaintiff’s variance.  Beyond that, as evidenced by MOS-8, Girouard also greeted her Facebook group members on April 17, 2022, with the post of “Happy Easter to you all from…” followed by a custom-made coffee mug also with the words, “Mob Boss” on prominent display.

#3) One former Member of the group informing Plaintiff that he posted on the Facebook group a comment favorable to Plaintiff, and the result was that his post was immediately removed, and he was banished from the Group immediately!  Defendant Girouard reportedly told other Facebook Members that she was not going to tolerate any such favorable posts about Plaintiff.

#4) Defendant Melissa Dubroc posting that the neighbor across the street from Plaintiff’s property, Chris Decuir, who has been very supportive of Plaintiff and even provided him with useful details about the circulation of the “Petition” by Defendants, is a “snake” and that he is, “not on our side.”  That Facebook post is included with this Opposition Memorandum as MOS-9.

Plaintiff could continue with FAR more examples of the reckless publications made by Defendants on the Facebook Group, but he believes these should suffice for purposes of easily defeating Defendants’ Motion for Sanctions for attorney’s fees, which is itself laughable and nothing short of a misguided attempt by Defendants to recover from the fact that they failed to do as other Defendants in defamation cases (such as Louisiana State Police and the Louisiana State Office of Inspector General) did, perhaps through employing more astute attorneys when it comes to defending defamation cases than the attorney representing Defendants, and simply file a Motion to Strike Pursuant to Louisiana CCP 971 just as they did and now have judgments (albeit both of which are being appealed) for an award for attorney’s fees pursuant to their astute filings in representing their clients.

We’ll go ahead now and provide the Facebook posts which Broussard references above (we’re just going to place them in the order Broussard references them above and simply provide their identification reference):

MOS-6 (Lurker purge)

MOS-7
(Threat of legal action against Facebook post leaker which Broussard asserts was subsequently deleted.  Broussard reports that “Mob Boss” lost a third of her membership overnight as a direct result of the above threat, with membership declining from 101 members to 68 members in the 24-hour period after the post was made.  Obviously, the post had little impact as the leaker obviously continued to maintain membership on the Facebook group!  We assume the loss of a third of her membership is an indication that people don’t take too kindly to threats of the nature “Mob Boss” made above).

MOS-8 (Mob Boss vanity coffee mug).

MOS-9 (Melissa Dubroc warning to members to “beware of Chirs Decuir …he is a snake……He is NOT on our side!”

Broussard also chose to make it clear that his reason for dismissing the suit dealt with his unease of the judge presiding over it combined with the fact he indicated that he made an, “economic decision that I would be throwing good money after bad” entailing any ability to collect upon a judgment handed down against either “Mob Boss” or Dubroc.  He then cited the fact that “Mob Boss” resides in a house trailer on her parents’ property and may be unable to possess the financial capacity to satisfy any such judgment.

Broussard also supplied the material we’ve previously provided entailing all of the extensive past problematic filings available at the St. Martin Parish Clerk of Court’s Office entailing Melissa Dubroc or her husband, Blake.  We’ll repeat those the table itemizing those filings at this time:

All right.  Let’s give a tad more of Broussard’s Opposition Memorandum as we wrap up this feature:

If this Court was inclined to grant a hearing (which clearly it was), that Hearing date should have been set for a date sufficiently far enough in the future to afford Plaintiff the opportunity to draft an Opposition Memorandum and have that Memorandum filed at least eight (8) days prior to the Hearing date in order to be afforded due process of evening (sic) being able to make oral arguments in open Court opposing the Motion.  That apparent indifference to Plaintiff’s right of due process simply further demonstrates the uneasiness of Plaintiff concerning the judge overseeing this case, and it is why he insists that he would have been an idiot to have shown up on April 3, 2023 under such circumstances.

Like we said, Broussard isn’t a fan of the legal equivalent of football’s prevent defense, no?  He called an all-out blitz.  We’ll report soon after May 23, 2023 on how his play calling for this situation turned out (assuming there isn’t resolution reached prior to then to avoid just what may be an embarrassing episode for Judge Borne and attorney Haik).  After all, if Borne may have been initially running a bluff on February 15, 2023 and merely wanted the matter off his docket as quickly as possible and chose the threats of attorney’s fees if Broussard opted to amend his petition, then Broussard has now pushed all his chips to the center of the table and emphatically said, “I call!”

Louisiana First Circuit Court of Appeal Chief Judge John Michael Guidry, who was the keynote speaker of the Engagement 2023 The Future of the Law in Louisiana forum held on Tuesday, May 9, 2023.

It was our distinct honor to be invited to attend and cover the Engagement 2023 The Future of the Law in Louisiana forum yesterday (May 9, 2023) at the City Club of Baton Rouge.  Our invitation was graciously extended by Ms. Lana Venable, Executive Director of The Louisiana Lawsuit Abuse Watch.

The sponsors for the forum were:  The Louisiana Motor Transport Association, The Louisiana Legal Reform Coalition (formerly the Louisiana Coalition for Common Sense), The Pelican Institute, and The Louisiana Association of Business and Industry (LABI).

Our longer-term subscribers may recall our extensive coverage of Louisiana’s tort reform initiatives in the 2020 Legislative Session [Note:  CLICK HERE for a follow-up to the preceding article], so we very much appreciated the invitation to this event as we fully expect more tort reforms after the elections later this year. Furthermore, there’s one initiative (to be presented shortly) in the current Legislative Session sponsored by Louisiana State Sen. Barrow Peacock (R- Bossier City) which we feel is very crucial to be passed and hopefully signed by Gov. Edwards.

Let’s take a look at what all the speakers had to say at yesterday’s event, with particular focus on an incredible presentation from Judge John Michael Guidry, who serves as the Chief Judge of the Louisiana First Circuit Court of Appeal:

Lana Venable, Executive Director of The Louisiana Lawsuit Abuse Watch, provided an overview of the costs of lawsuit abuse in Louisiana.
CLICK HERE for the LLAW push card for the event, and CLICK HERE for the LLAW press release of yesterday, May 9, 2023.

Karen Eddleman, Executive Director of The Louisiana Legal Reform Coalition,   provides an overview of SB-196 by Sen. Peacock, which would require third-party entities providing funding for litigation to disclose their financial interests in the outcomes of the litigation (more details below).

Chief Judge of the Louisiana First Circuit Court of Appeal, John Michael Guidry, gave a fascinating presentation on civic engagement entailing governmental operations.

Sen. Peacock receives the Legal Reform Award for 2023 for his efforts entailing SB-196.

We visited with Sen. Peacock after the presentation concluded, and he directed us to this fascinating article entailing some of the abuses which prompted the need for his proposed legislation.  From the feature:

A restoration contractor that helped finance an effort by McClenny Moseley & Associates to file thousands of hurricane-damage claims in Louisiana wants its $3 million investment back.

Access Restoration Services US filed a lawsuit in a Texas state court in Houston that accuses MMA and founding partner John Zachary Moseley of selling unregistered securities. The suit says Moseley promised a 429% return on its investment in nine months. ARS says it wired $3 million to MMA in December 2021, but hasn’t received any of that money back.

“Upon information and belief, MMA is not registered to sell securities in the state of Texas,” the complaint says. “Nevertheless, MMA and Moseley solicited and obtained the investment agreement from plaintiff. Said investment agreement constitutes a security, and upon information and belief MMA did not register such security, in violation of the Texas Securities Act.”

The lawsuit, filed April 21 in Harris County District Court, is the latest in a series of legal actions taken against MMA. A Louisiana Circuit Court judge and US District Court judges in Lake Charles and New Orleans have barred the law firm from prosecuting any of the hundreds of lawsuits its lawyers have filed against insurers. The Louisiana Supreme Court has also suspended the law license of MMA’s managing attorney in Louisiana, William R. Huye III.

During hearings before District Court judges, MMA lawyers revealed that they had paid Velawcity, an Arizona-based legal services marketing firm, $13.9 million for “pre-screened client leads.” The law firm filed lawsuits on behalf of clients who had already hired other attorneys, forcing federal judges to sort out who actually represented the claimants.

We believe that, as Eddleman stressed (and as her organization used to be named) passage of this legislation ought to be “common sense,” and we’d encourage everyone to contact House Members of the Committee on Civil Law and Procedures and encourage them to support this legislation.

State Rep. Julie Emerson (R-Carencro) prepares to ask the author of HB-458, State Rep. Mary DuBuisson (R-Slidell) a question during final House passage of a bill that would raise in-state cosmetology licensing fees by sixty (60) percent.  In posing her questions, Emerson would easily (and likely unintentionally) demonstrate that she (Emerson) knew far more about HB-458 than did DuBuisson, who came across as nothing short of a full-blown buffoon in her presentation of the bill to her colleagues in the Louisiana House of Representatives on Thursday, April 27, 2023.

UPDATE:  Monday, May 8, 2023 @ 8:00 p.m.

It appears that The Senate Commerce Committee Agenda for Wednesday, 5/10/23 actually won’t reflect deliberations of either HB-458 or HB-470.  Maybe, as the old saying goes, “the heat got too hot in the kitchen.”  If so, get ready for the butane tank to get cranked up a bunch more as more time passes!!

Our subscribers and site visitors by now know that we are not happy at all with Gubernatorial candidate State Rep. Richard Nelson (R-Mandeville).  In our post of six days ago, we openly chastised him for voting “yes” on a fee increase for in-state licensed cosmetologists from $25 to $40 (out-of-state licensees, meanwhile, get a break with a fee drop from $50 to $40).

The previous link shows a plethora of problems that the Louisiana State Board of Cosmetology has caused over the years for small businesses, particularly Vietnamese nail salon owners and those who wish to practice hair braiding for a living.  The amount of money the Board has spent on legal fees oppressing both groups’ ability to simply earn a living and pay taxes in the process is absolutely staggering!

In today’s feature, we want to demonstrate just how buffoonish the author of the bill, State Rep. Mary DuBuisson (R-Slidell), was in her presentation of the bill before the full Louisiana House of Representatives.

Let us begin our series of short video clips with State Rep. Julie Emerson (R-Carencro), who has the battle scars to prove that she likely knows more about the Cosmetology Board than anyone else in the entire Louisiana Legislature.  Let’s take just a couple of minutes for Emerson to clearly demonstrate that she (Emerson) knew more about DuBuisson’s bill than did DuBuisson herself!  The following video would truly be comical if it were not for the fact that any State Representative can be on the Floor of the House of Representatives and be as clueless as DuBuisson comes across in the following short video:

Rep. Emerson easily demonstrates that she knows FAR more about the content of HB-458 than does the bill’s author, Rep. DuBuisson, who can’t even keep straight whether she (DuBuisson) is speaking on HB-458 or HB-470 and must furthermore seek assistance from House staff for what should be the simplest of questions!  In the above video, DuBuisson wins the video award for any video dictionary describing the word “buffoon!”

We are going to present a brief video of Rep. Nelson’s vote in just a moment but, before we do that, we actually had a few of his supporters (although most people asked us, “Richard who?”) who felt Nelson had been “deceived” about HB-458 and that he was unaware he was voting for a fee increase!

Well, here’s our thought on that:  Richard Nelson begins every forum he attends by saying, “Hi, I’m Richard Nelson, and I’m running for Governor of Louisiana.  I grew up in Louisiana, and I graduated Valedictorian of my class, and I also graduated near the top of my class at LSU and also at LSU’s law school.”

O. K.  Now, that would be someone pretty smart, no?  So is the contention of those who say Nelson was “deceived” that he can’t even read the fiscal note on a bill?  Also, can he not understand his colleague,  State Rep. (and candidate for Attorney General) John Stefanski (R-Crowley) as he quizzed DuBuisson on, “the $500,000+ this raises,” and what that money will be used for?:

DuBuisson again appears buffoonish in indicating, “I didn’t ask them for a breakdown,” of what the $500,000 will be used for.  She follows that up with the absurd contention that $500,000 a YEAR is needed to, “maintain a website” to process license renewals and accept online payments.

The caption beneath that video is NOT a joke!  Sound Off Louisiana reached out to two (2) IT specialists, both of whom said the cost of maintaining a website and enabling it to process online license renewals and accept online payments would be (their exact word), “miniscule,” with one of those experts indicating that the Board would save money because bank fees should be substantially reduced!  We will point out that the Board has an IT staffer (William Bunch) making more than anyone else in the office at $92,000/year.  That salary is what it is despite the fact that the Board still insists it must take down its website EVERY Friday and put it back up on Monday mornings because of a “fear of hacks” if nobody is present in the office to monitor the site!  So, $92,000 for someone who cannot even keep a website up over a freaking weekend!  Folks, you can’t make this stuff up!

Of course, as we’ve already indicated, the REAL need for the money is to continue to oppress small business operators like nail salon operators and hair braiders.

Based on Stefanski’s stellar line of questioning, he sure is looking like an EXCELLENT choice to be Louisiana’s next Attorney General to us!

Okay.  Next up we have State Rep. Joe Stagni (R-Kenner), who sought to merely confirm that the State Cosmetology Board checks for “sanitation.”  Let’s take a look:

Rep. Stagni seeks to confirm that the Cosmetology Board checks for “sanitation.”

How about we check out what prominent cosmetologist Chris Guidry, an Aveda school alumnus, had to say about the Board entailing “sanitation,” shall we?  Here’s what he posted to an online Cosmetology publication:

In Louisiana, our students are required to complete 1500, at a cost of around $20,000. Upon completion they have to wait several weeks/months before getting their test date. The large majority of students fail the state board on the first test date.

Our state board requires NO continuing education, does not check for cleanliness (for the guest of the salon ), and only makes sure that our cosmo license is up to date. Basically state board is a straight money grab! They have no regard for the guest or the craft!! It’s disgusting…

I certainly don’t want to hurt the craft that I love dearly, but I’m yet to see the benefit of state boards or a license. You become better by practicing and passion not by a piece of paper.

It sure is refreshing to have an insider (and Aveda school alumnus) speak the truth!  So, with all due respect, Rep. Stagni, it sure doesn’t appear the State Board of Cosmetology is fixated at all on “sanitation” based on a knowledgeable insider like Guidry’s commentary, no?

Okay.  We’re about to present Nelson’s key vote on the measure.  First, however, we want to stress the following previous efforts in prior years for the Cosmetology Board to increase the license fee from $25 to $35.  Here they are:

2015:  Louisiana State Rep. Stuart Bishop https://house.louisiana.gov/H_Reps/members?ID=43.  The measure failed to ever get a full House vote because he knew he lacked the votes for passage.

2017:  Louisiana State Rep. Sherman Mack https://house.louisiana.gov/H_Reps/members?ID=95.  The measure again failed to ever get a full House vote for the same reason Bishop’s measure didn’t.  Note:  CLICK HERE for Mack and Board Chairman Edwin Neill’s slick little maneuver of six years ago.

2018:  Former Louisiana State Rep. Robert Johnson (D – Marksville, but who was term limited and no longer a state representative).  The measure failed to ever get a full House vote for the same reason as Bishop and Mack’s bills didn’t.

2022:  Louisiana State Rep. Rhonda Butler (most recent effort in 2022, and she was targeted to sponsor the 2023 version of the bill this Legislative Session https://house.louisiana.gov/H_Reps/members?ID=38.  Butler’s measure failed to get a full House vote for the same reason as Johnson’s, Bishop’s and Mack’s didn’t.

So, many folk may ask, how did the buffoonish DuBuisson manage to not only get a full House vote, but to get one that got the SUPERMAJORITY (2/3) vote with a full nine (9) votes to spare?  Well, the answer would be simple.  She, combined with Board Chairman Edwin Neill and Jeremy Adell, who owns Sportclips franchises in Louisiana, simply negotiated behind-the-scenes for “over a year” wherein they threw out a bone to these so-called conservative Republicans:  deregulation in requiring 300 less hours to obtain a cosmetology license (from 1,500 to 1,200).  That is to say, they blackmailed them.  They essentially said, “We’ll give you a small taste of deregulation (though Gov. Edwards just may veto it), but you’ve got to shower us with a half a million dollars a year to get that tiny bit of deregulation!”  That behind-the-scenes maneuver got some small school owners and their supporters fuming mad!

Many long-time Sound Off Louisiana subscribers know that founder Robert Burns has a good friend, Rev. Freddie Lee Phillips, who was Louisiana’s first (and for a long time, only) African American auctioneer.  He’s also the one whom Gov. John Bel Edwards yanked from the Louisiana Auctioneer Licensing Board a mere 20 days after appointing him.  Phillips has a saying he likes to use when he knows someone grasps a concept others may not grasp.  He says, “He (she) knows what time it is!”

Well, State Rep. Jean-Paul Coussan (R-Lafayette) certainly appears to, in the words of Rev. Freddie Lee Phillips, “know what time it is” entailing Neill’s likely motivation for supporting DuBuisson’s so-called “companion bill,” HB-470, which would call for that 300-hour reduction in hours to obtain the cosmetology license.  Furthermore, he had the guts to lay it out there on the line whereas many of those small school owners and their supporters may have been very reluctant (for obvious reasons, as Neill can be extremely vindictive, even to someone he readily admits was his “financial savior,” ) to be as blunt as Coussan was on April 27, 2023.  Let’s take a look at what he had to say:

Rep. Jean-Paul Coussan appears to, as Rev. Freddie Lee Phillips would say, likely, “have a good idea what time it is!”

All right.  We always save the best for last, huh?  As everyone can tell, we’ve had our eyes, ears, and, much to their chagrin, CAMERAS on the Louisiana State Board of Cosmetology Board for a long time.  Our focus all started when one Vietnamese manicurist contacted us and told us all of the pure hell this Board puts them through year after year after year.  We gradually gained the trust of this community, which is comprised of EXTREMELY hard workers, all of whom are in this country LEGALLY!  What we observed were families working 90-95+ hours every week and working hard.  In short, they don’t even know the meaning of the phrase, “taking a day’s vacation.”

What Nelson did in joining with other so-called “conservative” Republican state representatives is take the faces of these hard-working people, which attempt to emerge from the mud and sludge that the Cosmetology Board slams those faces into using the Board’s jackbooted heel, and he literally took his own jackbooted heel and slammed their faces right back into that sludge and mud as they slowly rose!  That action on Nelson’s part, folks, is why we had such a strong reaction to his vote, and why, as we stated in our last feature, we can, under no circumstances, support his candidacy for Governor going forward.

We want to conclude this feature by authoritatively demonstrating just how little care or concern Nelson showed for their hard work.  We’ve already shown that, at best, this gentleman who brags on how smart he is, at best, failed to pay attention during the discussion of the bill.  Well, whenever representatives aren’t near their desks because they’re likely busy talking with colleagues about other matters, they will signal to the Speaker of the House how the master vote board should be cast for them since they are away from their desks.  Let’s take a look at Nelson’s vote so all of those hard-working Vietnamese manicurists can remember it when they head to the polls this October.  Here’s the video:

Nelson’s vote on HB-458 is called out by Speaker Clay Schexnayder.

The only word we can use to describe the above video entailing Nelson is “pathetic.”  It’s really incredible that he wants to tout, “If Louisiana can just be average………” then would proceed to cast a vote that would drive Louisiana even further away from “average.”

There is one other candidate for Governor who will not be happy with this post, and that will be Attorney General Jeff Landry.

Why is that?  Because Nelson has no chance whatsoever of becoming the next Governor of Louisiana!  None!  Nevertheless, his presence in the race is extremely valuable to Landry.

Why?  Because Nelson helps syphon off votes from any other Republican who may be able to knock Landry out of the runoff.  Hence, the last thing Landry wants is for votes to go away from Nelson because he knows they’re very unlikely to go to him but rather to one of his other opponents (State Sen. Sharon Hewitt, State Treasurer John Schroder, or former LABI President Steven Waguespack).

That places us in the awkward position of hoping Nelson plummets in the polls (though at 3 percent at present, that wouldn’t be much of a fall) and that his campaign contributions dry up to nothing to cause his impact in the race for Governor to be as minimal as possible.  After all, even three percent (3%) is going to be crucial in deciding which Republican makes the runoff with former Transportation Secretary Shawn Wilson.  Ideally, we’d like to see Nelson withdraw from the race, but we view that as unlikely.

Now, the Senate Commerce Committee is supposed to take up both HB-458 and HB-470 on Wednesday morning.  We know there will be many upset ladies who, in our opinion, have every right to be fuming mad at how this whole process was handled.  We too are mad, so don’t be surprised if Sound Off Louisiana‘s Burns also appears for testimony in firm and adamant opposition to HB-458.  Only time will tell if Louisiana’s Senators succumb to the same blackmail to which their House colleagues so easily succumbed.