Event in eastern New Orleans brought together hundreds of potential customers with grant money to spend
As their $750 million home-elevation program took off this year, Louisiana officials joined with churches and other nonprofits to run information sessions to help homeowners through the maze of getting a grant and finding a qualified contractor. But the event at a church in eastern New Orleans on June 25 was different.
View full sizeA home-elevation company that asked to have a booth at the event was told it was only for shutter companies. These storm shutters were photographed in May 2006. Kurt Wiltshire, a former state official who left the elevation grant program in 2009 to start his own grant management company, managed to use state staff and resources to plug an event to help contractors who worked with his firm.
Records and interviews show Wiltshire and a storm shutter manufacturer got the state to use private homeowner information and state-paid postage to help them target thousands of potential new clients. Wiltshire and the shutter maker then gave away a free television at the event as they sought business from the hundreds of homeowners in attendance.
With the state sending invitations to more than 3,000 homeowners, with promotional ads not mentioning any private sponsors and with state officials speaking at the event, the meeting had the feel of an official state function. Gov. Bobby Jindal's top appointee, Commissioner of Administration Paul Rainwater, acknowledges that, and says the state was duped. Partnering with certain contractors for the event was a mistake, he added.
"We were told that all contractors were going to be invited, but other contractors were not invited," Rainwater said. "Later on, I found out that there were incentives and all these things happening. I was disappointed. After this event, we had other requests by other contractors (to do similar events) and decided, you know what, it's just not good policy."
Rainwater said the event was held before the state heard allegations that certain contractors were paying off program officials in exchange for favorable treatment. But a whistleblower lawsuit making some of the most explicit fraud allegations was filed more than three weeks before the outreach event.
The state sent letters to about 3,400 families in eastern New Orleans who had received $7,500 storm-proofing grants but had yet to select a contractor, inviting them to meet shutter installers and learn more about home elevation. Homeowners who got the storm-proofing grants as a part of the Road Home program also tended to qualify for the separate house-raising grants.
The Jindal administration actually balked at the idea of sending out the invitations until the state's most famous high school football coach, J.T. Curtis Jr., intervened. Curtis is a partner in the shutter supply company that split the costs of the event with Wiltshire.
Curtis emailed state Sen. John Alario on June 17 complaining that the state was about to renege on its promise to handle the invitations. Curtis wrote that his firm, American Building Products, had spent $20,000 to rent the huge City Church in eastern New Orleans and to advertise the event. His partner, Sam Ethridge of Mandeville, who actually runs the firm, said the total cost of $24,000 was split between him and Wiltshire.
Ethridge said he was encouraged to hold the event by the state Office of Community Development.
Curtis told The Times-Picayune that his role in the shutter company is limited, but he got involved in this event.
"I was just trying to help them get the facility and let Mr. Alario know that there was some question about whether the state would be sending out 3,000 letters after we had spent all this money to help" the state Office of Community Development hold the event, Curtis said.
Alario said he simply passed Curtis' email along to Rainwater as a constituent service and had no further interest in the event's success.
Someone who did, however, was Wiltshire. The phone number of his company, New Path Recovery, was listed in advertising for the June 25 event, including several "Public Notices" that appeared in The Times-Picayune, as well as in television and radio spots.
Curtis' email to Alario stated that every commercial had been vetted and approved by the state, but state spokeswoman Christina Stephens, who approved the letter the state sent to 3,600 targeted homeowners, said she never approved any of the ads. She also said Curtis' assertion that the state had requested the event was not true.
Rainwater has confirmed that Wiltshire is under investigation for allegedly peddling lists of protected homeowner information to contractors that hired New Path Recovery in hopes of getting a bigger slice of the grant-financed elevation work. On Monday, the state announced new policies for protecting private homeowner data.
Wiltshire has denied ever accessing the state's data or selling any homeowner information. Four elevation firms that he consulted for participated in the event.
One company that wasn't invited to the eastern New Orleans event was Orleans Shoring, the firm with the largest share of the grant-financed elevation work. Orleans' general manager, Kim Reeves, said when her staff heard radio ads for the event, she called the number listed and got New Path Recovery. She asked Wiltshire if Orleans could have a booth at the event and was told it was only for shutter companies.
The event did address the state's $7,500 storm-proofing grants for shutters, and included a speech from an official at the International Hurricane Protection Association about how to protect a home for hurricane season. But the state's letter clearly stated the event was to help homeowners with all of the state's various hazard mitigation grants, including the ones for house-raising.
Orleans' owner, Christian Cancienne, believes his firm got left out because he had refused to hire New Path Recovery.
"Mr. Wiltshire visited my office and requested $5,000 per homeowner in order to 'push' our files through at the state faster," Cancienne said. "I knew that he had worked for the elevation program and had just left, and it seemed like extortion. I politely declined. In turn, however, I was not allowed to have a booth at the state's meeting with homeowners, while Wiltshire's other clients were."
Even though Orleans wasn't invited, Cancienne sent Reeves to attend the event in her Orleans Shoring uniform shirt, along with two of her salesmen. When the invited contractors saw her, Reeves said she heard one say, "I can't believe she walked in here."
Reeves said she was shocked to see one of the state's top Hazard Mitigation officials, Bill Haygood, on the stage in a rugby shirt and jeans, directing homeowners to program staffers who could look up their grant status, and then send them to the exclusive group of contractors.
She said Haygood was followed on stage by Wiltshire, who told homeowners "once you find out your status, come to our booth at New Path Recovery, and we will direct you to a contractor that can help you."
"I went up to Kurt Wiltshire and asked him, 'What's it going to take for us to belong to your little club?'" Reeves said. "He said, 'I can't talk about that here, but why don't you call me the first of the week?' I never followed up."
Wiltshire did not respond to requests for comment for this story. Ethridge took up for him, though, saying that most of the people who showed up had responded to the ads Wiltshire paid for, not the targeted letters, and were not there seeking to raise their homes.
"Had people showed up wanting elevations, that would have been one thing," Ethridge said. "But that didn't happen, so he didn't benefit from having his four elevation companies there."
The event was emceed by WDSU-TV reporter Travers Mackel, who introduced the guest speakers from the state and the hurricane protection association and pulled the winning raffle ticket to give away the free TV. WDSU station manager Jonathan Shelley said the station sent Mackel as a public service. Neither the station nor Mackel had any financial interest in the event, he said.
"Our understanding was that it had to do with the accessibility of government grants, not that it was done by a specific company or group of companies," Shelley said. He said on-air news personalities often host events that are for the public good.
"Travers does about 100 of those a year," He said. "He wasn't compensated for it. ... Sometimes Travers might get a gift card (for appearing) and he didn't even get that this time."
Rainwater said that after the event, Cancienne asked him to hold a similar meeting for Orleans Shoring but Rainwater declined, saying it would be a conflict of interest to do any more contractor-sponsored events.
David Hammer can be reached at dhammer@timespicayune.com or 504.826.3322.