Red Light Camera News DOJ Investigation of Double Dipping PHOTO cop strongly SUGGESTED from Louisiana!!!!!!!!!!!!!
DOJ Investigation of Double Dipping PHOTO cop strongly SUGGESTED from Louisiana!!!!!!!!!!!!!
(Thanks to Matt from www.stpetecameras for making us aware of this!)
http://www.fox8live.com/news/local/story/NOPD-commander-under-scrutiny/9nJa4PjDTUu5WTFn5FSSEw.cspx
NOPD commander under scrutiny
Reported by: Kim Holden, Anchor
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Last Update: 4/29 12:18 am
NOPD commander under scrutiny
NOPD Commander Ed Hosli has had a tax break on on the Spain Street property for seven years. Homestead exemption law makes it clear a community cannot have multiple exemptions.
New Orleans- An NOPD commander under scrutiny for his ties to a high-paying NOPD detail faces more problems at city hall.
New Orleans Assessor Erroll Williams says he will go after 8th District Commander Ed Hosli for allegedly trying to skirt the state's homestead exemption law.
Hosli bought a house on Spain Street in New Orleans for $50,000 back in 1999.
According to the New Orleans Assessor's office, Hosli claimed a homestead exemption on the property from 2001 to 2007.
But records show Hosli's wife, Michelle Austin, was already claiming a homestead exemption on a home in Kenner that she purchased while they were married in 1993. It’s the home they still live in today.
Williams says double dipping happens a lot.
“Well the homestead exemption is worth about $1,000 nowadays, so people misrepresent the truth all the time, saying they live somewhere they don't. We've found people with as many as 3 homestead exemptions," Williams said.
In both recorded sales, Hosli and his wife declared they were purchasing the properties with their own separate funds and that the properties would remain separate.
Williams says the homestead exemption law is clear.
"The way the law reads is that a community, husband and wife are only entitled to one homestead exemption. It doesn't matter if he owns one house and she owns the other, it's part of the community and they're only entitled to one homestead exemption," Williams said.
All this comes as Hosli is also under scrutiny for a different financial controversy involving the city and its red light cameras.
“It’s probably the most lucrative detail in the police department right now, billing $96,000 to the city over a six month period of time," says Rafael Goyeneche with the Metropolitan Crime Commission.
He is talking about off-duty detail work, where NOPD officers got paid big bucks to review the red light camera tickets issued.
Anytime Solutions, a company just incorporated in September, was chosen by the the Public Works department to do the job.
That company is owned by Hosli.
Aside from Hosli, payroll records obtained by the Times Picayune, also show the body guard and the son-in-law of NOPD’s Superintendent Ronal Serpas were among the officers getting paid.
Serpas says, “I had nothing to do with that. It was part of the Department of Public Works choice when they selected the vendor. That issue never came before me."
“The police chief's driver and police chief's son in law have been cherry picked into this detail,” says Goyeneche. “How did that occur? We don't know the answer to that.”
The city's charter says no officer or employee of the city shall have a financial interest in any contract with the city.
PANO President Michael Glasser says the Anytime Solutions deal is suspect.
"That would not only be unusual, but likely unethical. At this point with the allegations going as high as they are- practically to the top, the attorney general’s office should look at it, or the Department of Justice needs to look at it," Glasser said.
Chief Serpas, who's also the godfather of Hosli's child, says the Public Integrity Bureau and the Inspector General's office are looking into the deal and that those investigations will be carried out, regardless of who’s involved.
Meanwhile, back at City Hall, the New Orleans assessor says his office will now void seven years worth of tax breaks on Hosli's Spain Street property, which today remains partially gutted.
Williams also send the NOPD commander a revised tax bill.
We were unable to reach Hosli for comment tonight.
Mayor Landrieu says the city has ended the red light ticket detail with Anytime Solutions.
However, Chief Serpas says Public Workd chose Hosli and another commander to handle the police detail for Jazz Fest.
Serpas must also submit a plan to Mayor Landrieu to overhaul the paid detail process by May 15th.
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