city government

CityBusiness magazine, independent blogger continue questioning councilwoman’s legislative earmarks

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A reporter for New Orleans City Business and an independent blogger continue to raise questions about the use and propriety of earmarks secured by District B’s interim City Councilwoman Diana Bajoie during her legislative career. Reporter Ben Myers of New Orleans City Business has been questioning the connection between earmarks approved by Bajoie’s Senate Finance Committee several years ago and the funding for a position held by her niece at Southern University. “Nicole Bajoie-Ford was paid more than $60,000 in 2009 for a part-time job at Southern University at New Orleans, a job for which she was paid $25,000 annually in subsequent years,” Myers wrote Tuesday. “Bajoie-Ford’s aunt, District B Councilwoman Diana Bajoie, helped to fund the position by pushing for earmarks when she served in the Louisiana Senate.” Meanwhile, blogger Jason Berry of American Zombie and his ranks of anonymous contributors have been examining how many nonprofits are housed at a Jackson Avenue address where at least one nonprofit connected to Bajoie earmarks is located.

city government

Interim council member’s connections to Jefferson-family charities questioned

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Diana Bajoie, appointed earlier this month by Mayor Mitch Landrieu to represent Uptown-based District B on the City Council until a replacement can be elected in the fall, may have been one of the local politicians who “steered public money to sham charities run by members of then-U.S. Rep. William Jefferson’s family,” based on testimony by a government witness in last year’s trial of Renee Gill Pratt, reports Michelle Krupa of The Times Picayune. Bajoie has never been charged with any crime and denied “any wrongdoing,” but declined to answer specific questions about the case, Krupa reports, and a spokesman for Landrieu said Bajoie was chosen based on her record and instead questioned her service on a charity run by the Times-Picayune.