Thunk Tanked

So I think this story about Garland Robinette's $250,000 bribe from River Birch Landfill owner Fred Heebe gets really interesting right about here.

At one point, Robinette visited the newspaper to warn editors of the environmental dangers the landfills posed. Robinette met with editors Jim Amoss and Peter Kovacs and told them he was passing along his concerns because the newspaper employs reporters while he, as a radio talk show host, did not have the wherewithal to practice investigative journalism. Amoss and Kovacs said they found it unusual for a representative of one news organization to pass on a tip to a competitor. Both said they did not act on Robinette's visit because The Times-Picayune's reporters were already covering the landfill issues.

The Times-Picayune reporter covering the dispute, Gordon Russell, said he regularly received tips and information about the landfills from Heebe and Rick Michaels, an environmental consultant for Heebe. At one point, Russell said, he and a photographer flew over the landfills with Michaels in a helicopter River Birch's owners chartered. Russell told Michaels to bill the newspaper for its share of the helicopter ride, but the newspaper's records do not indicate that an invoice was ever issued. Russell also visited Heebe's home to pick up documents, and when Heebe asked him to stay for lunch, he accepted.

Russell, now the newspaper's city editor, said federal investigators told him that his name was on the list of River Birch lobbyists seized in the raid. Ciolono confirmed Robinette was on the list as well, but he said the talk show host had never been a lobbyist for the company.

It seems pretty clear that Heebe intended to buy people through these transactions. Just going by the facts presented in this story I can't say Russell did anything inappropriate. Garland, on the other hand.. well he would be dumb enough.

Anyway all of this begs the question of who else Heebe bought. And, well, that's where we take off down the rabbit hole. Right now it's late and I'm about to turn in but if you're looking for where this is going, a good place to start is here where we learn about Heebe's contributions, bribes, and helicopter rides given out to environmental advocates, state administrators, various lawmakers and lobbyists... well pretty much everybody, in other words.

Fred Heebe and Ward engaged heavy hitters in the lobbying industry as River Birch sought tax incentives for its methane gas collection business and hunted for ways to navigate the federal bureaucracy after President George W. Bush declared Katrina's aftermath a major disaster, records show. The company counted former U.S. Rep. Bob Livingston, R-Metairie, and Joe Allbaugh, the former director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency during the Bush administration, among its consultants.

Livingston's shop, The Livingston Group, signed on in 2005 primarily to focus on landfill gas collection legislation, a firm representative said. After paying the firm $820,000, River Birch ended the arrangement in 2010, records show.

The Allbaugh Co., came aboard in 2006 after David Dewhurst, the Texas lieutenant governor, introduced Allbaugh and Heebe, Allbaugh said. His firm helped River Birch deal with the various federal agencies involved in Katrina clean-up.

"Because if they were just shooting in the dark, then they weren't navigating the federal bureaucracy so well," Allbaugh said.

For its work, which ended in January 2008, the Allbaugh Co. was paid $160,000 records show.

I like that Allbaugh didn't pull down as much money as Garland somehow. And then there are the political contributions which also seem to touch everybody in sight.

Beyond hiring consultants, Heebe and Ward have long been involved in state and federal politics. Heebe sent $438,013 to candidates from 1999 to 2010. His wife, former Jefferson Parish Council member Jennifer Sneed, donated $159,716 to others' campaigns, plus $186,000 to pay debts from her own political career.

Donations to state and parish campaigns also were made through River Birch as well as Willow Inc. and Shadowlake Management Co., companies associated with Ward and Heebe, to the tune of $83,350 since 1999, records show.

As major donors in GOP circles, Heebe and Sneed gave a total of $125,000 between 2008 and 2009 to the Republican Party of Louisiana.

"They really didn't ask for anything special," state GOP Chairman Roger Villere said. "Just really supportive of our efforts."

In contrast, Ward and Heebe's sister, Adrea, tended to favor Democratic candidates and causes, records show. Ward donated $3,000 to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee between 2006 and 2010, and another $12,400 to the Democratic National Committee between 2004 and 2010, records show. Adrea Heebe contributed $12,000 between 2006 and 2009 to the March for Progress, a political action committee associated with the late Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass.

Heebe, Ward and their wives, along with Heebe's sister, all donated to U.S. Sen. David Vitter, R-La., who took an active role in trying to close the Old Gentilly Landfill after Katrina and was one of the 17 senators targeted by Mouton's letter-writing campaign against the dump. They contributed $27,800 to Vitter's campaigns between 2000 and 2010, records show, and Vitter argued publicly against reopening Old Gentilly.

Are you starting to see how big this is? Oh and those of you who don't like to read the NOLA.com comments, you'd be surprised at the stuff you can miss that way. Here's comment number 2 under that article.

Jennifer Sneed's sister Emily Sneed is Mayor Mitch Landrieu's Deputy Mayor, Mike Foster's chief of staff Andy Kopplin is Mitch Landrieu's CAO chief of staff, Mitch Landrieu hired two additional people who spoke out against the Old Gentilly Landfill (Nannette Jolivette and Ann Duplessis), and Mitch Landrieu also received tons of campaign money from Ward, Heebe and River Birch related relatives and entities . Somewhere, somehow it would be good to see the TP do a final tally on just how much.

And oh yeah: the ONE sanitation contract out of four NOT renegotiated by the Landrieu administration? River Birch.

All this money going to lobbyists, bureaucrats, politicians at all levels, political activists, and at least two major media outlets. I'd say maybe somebody should pay some attention to Fred Heebe. Well you'll be happy to know that our friends at Slabbed actually have been doing just that for some time now. I'm going to link you over to there now so you can do some browsing.