Another Coco Puff Piece

Last weekend, I reposted a series of questions I asked Police Juror and potential Mayoral candidate Steve Coco from my post Cuckoo for Coco Puffs.

I simply wanted to remind Mr. Coco that nearly two weeks ago, he challenged me to provide documentation he was not a paid employee of Cenla Broadcasting. I responded that very day with a list of questions and links to Mr. Coco’s personal financial disclosures from 2008, which, notably, does not list Cenla Broadcasting as a source of income.

I decided to take that particular repost down, because, frankly, it was simply a recapitulation of another post that, at the time, was already on this blog’s front page. I was not, in any way, rescinding the questions I asked Mr. Coco.

Apparently, however, that is what he believed.

On his blog today, Mr. Coco accuses me, without even a shred of evidence, of scrubbing my website of these questions (again, they’re all still online, in the original post) because I was “ordered” to by Mayor Roy. Quoting:

Why did mayoral assistant Lamar White remove a story about me from his blog concerning financial disclosure? Probably because of an order from his boss.

That is a flat-out lie. The questions still stand, Mr. Coco. No one ordered me to respond to you, and no one ordered me to remove a REPOST.

Lamar was questioning my financial disclosure report with the Louisiana Board of Ethics in Baton Rouge. Well it seems that could be a “squirmy” situation for Lamar’s benefactor, Mayor Roy. All politicians in Tier 11, representing 5-thousand or more people are required to file a financial disclosure report by May 15th OR get an extension.

A couple of important points, Mr. Coco.

You file your reports with the Louisiana Ethics Administration, not the Ethics Board, and there’s no such thing as “Tier 11” reporting.  Those are roman numerals, Mr. Coco; it’s Tier 2.

Official documents from the Ethics Board show Mayor Roy did NOT file his financial disclosure until November 13th 2009. It’s unknown at this time if an extension was granted. Documents also indicate Roy received income from his private law practice while acting as mayor. The COA budget shows Lamar White receives a salary of $51,000 a year, PLUS fringe benefits.

Mr. Coco, you claim it is “unknown” whether or not Mayor Roy filed for an extension, implying that he may be guilty of some sort of ethics violation. That is a reckless and easily disprovable accusation.

This is what appears when you search the Ethics Administration’s website for Jacques Roy:

Read what is directly under the link to his report (which was, in fact, filed): Extension filed pursuant to LSA-R.S. 42:1124.2(B)(2).

Once again, you are misleading your readership.

As I said earlier, my original questions still stand, but I have a couple more I would like to add. Considering your interest in becoming the next Mayor of our City, I’d hope you would take them seriously:

1. Isn’t it true that you sometimes post on your own website as “Anonymous”?

2. Aside from being fired from KSYL, have you ever been terminated or fired from any other job? If so, what’s the story?