The Hits Just Keep Coming

The Whole Crime Camera Saga just keeps getting better and better.

The there was a story on Nola.com that said;

Randy Smith (Meffert's Lawyer), also said Meffert was paid "hundreds of thousands of dollars" in consulting fees by the firm, NetMethods, in the months following his departure from City Hall in July 2006.

The credit card and the money were given in recognition of what Smith described as "$10 million dollars or more" in business landed by NetMethods with Meffert's help across the country. He said Meffert's compensation amounted to "a pittance compared to what NetMethods made."

In an email yesterday I wrote;

This sounds like compensation for a salesman. Typically a sales commission might be 4-7 % on those kinds of deals, depending on the responsibilities after the sale. So 5% would be $500,000 on $10,000,000. Not bad for a part time job.

Today we find out I was prophetic;

"Wow, " was Nagin's response when his questioners showed documentation that Meffert made $67,000 a month from NetMethods immediately upon leaving his city job in July 2006.

During the deposition, Jones (Lawyer for plaintiffs Southern Electronics and Active Solutions) said NetMethods' payments to Meffert in the 10 months after his departure from City Hall totaled $589,238.

Wow indeed!

If Meffert were using his official position to tout NetMethods isn't that unethical?

Nagin has been fond of saying he's been a "good steward of public funds". He's said that more than once as I recall. It's one of his 'talking points", along with "busting his butt" on recovery.

Yet we find that a city official , former CIO and self styled "Deputy Mayor" who had time while moving the city from "worst to first" in technology and, after Katrina, working on the recovery to help his buddies at NetMethods sell $10,000,000 in contracts and collect nearly $600,000 in commissions.

When confronted all the Mayor can say is "Wow!". He didn't know anything, never saw anything and had no idea. I wonder what else he didn't know.

I keep thinking of Her grandmother who always said "A little lie can keep you out of plenty trouble".