Business Report Slams COA Ads

The Baton Rouge Business Report said today the East Baton Rouge Parish Council on Aging is using taxpayer funds to purchase full-page newspaper ads thanking voters for their support of the COA property tax, which was narrowly approved back in 2016.

The Council on Aging is a non-profit organization not subject to the control of the State of Louisiana or the City-Parish government. Yet, it now collects and spends $8 million a year in taxpayer dollars levied as a result of a 2.2-mill property tax.

Metro Councilman Buddy Amoroso was quoted as saying, “This was a gloat ad telling how great they are.” Councilman Matt Watson said, “This doesn’t feed one senior or take anyone to the doctor.”

Accepting the ads were the Baton Rouge Advocate and Central Speaks.

Some elected officials have called the Council on Aging a corrupt organization because it used taxpayer funds to haul more than 2,000 voters to the polls to vote for the 2016 tax during early voting.

At one point, the COA hired school buses with Central Community Schools painted on their sides to haul large numbers of voters to early voting, until then-Supt. Mike Faulk learned what was going on and put a stop to it.  First Student is a private company that provides bus transportation to the Central Community School System on a contract basis. At the time, First Student told Faulk the local office of the company was not aware how the buses were being used.

The Business Report also cited criticism by Councilman Dwight Hudson of the Council on Aging using taxpayer funds to place thank you ads for a tax increase.  “Hudson was not alone in his criticism today of the agency, which came under fire in the wake of the tax election for violating its nonprofit status to campaign for the tax and was also cited for financial mismanagement, board conflicts, and a disputed will that a COA board member was involved in drafting for a COA client.”

With regard to the will of 95-year-old Helen Plummer, the executive director of the Council on Aging, Tasha Clark-Amar, had herself named executor and was scheduled to receive virtually all of Ms. Plummer’s estate, instead of the heirs.

On January 3, 2018, the Advocate reported, “The family of Helen Plummer finally hashed out a settlement agreement Wednesday that leaves Plummer’s money to her daughter and great-grandchildren, cutting out administrative fees that Council on Aging Executive Director Tasha Clark-Amar stood to collect under the will as originally written.”

“Plummer died at age 95 in March 2017. A will that she signed in July 2016 at the Southern University Elder Law Clinic named Clark-Amar as the executrix and trustee of Plummer’s estate, which allowed Clark-Amar to collect around $120,000 in administrative fees over the course of 20 years. Plummer was a client of the East Baton Rouge Council on Aging.

THE BUSINESS REPORT raised questions about this full page newspaper ad for the East Baton Rouge Parish Council on Aging, which appeared in the Advocate and Central Speaks. The ad was paid for with proceeds from a property tax passed by the COA last year. The Council on Aging is a private, non-profit organization — not a government agency — but it now levies and collects property taxes of $8 million a year. The director of the COA was criticized for trying to swindle the heirs of a senior citizen out of a $120,000 inheritance. The tax has been called into question because the COA used taxpayer funds to haul more than 2,000 voters to the polls to vote for the tax in early voting.