Louisiana

AG Staffer Retires Rather Than Face Hearing

AMY WOLD / The Advocate 5apr2005

	To help, see Action Alert Mindfully.org note: Fontenot has indeed been forced to retire. Anyone seeing this differently is either from the AG's office or industry. And the two are probably not far apart.  Photos below are of Willie Fontenot being detained and verbally harassed for an hour as they filled out police reports on us for 'Homeland Security' folks and the Attorney General's office.  All photos by Stephen C. Kowal

After 27 years with the state Attorney General's Office as its environmental outreach specialist, Willie Fontenot will retire at 10 a.m. today. Fontenot said he was given the choice Monday between retiring or having a hearing to appeal the decision with an indication that an appeal could result in him being fired.

Hired in April 1978, Fontenot is well known in the environmental community for his work helping people deal with environmental problems and being the public ear of the Attorney General's Office.

Fontenot, 62, said Monday he doesn't know the exact reason why he was given the choice to either retire or have a hearing held.

"When I started in this job, I knew I served at the pleasure of the attorney general," Fontenot said. "I've always understood that."

Fontenot will officially retire at 10 a.m. today.

Kris Wartelle, public information director with the Attorney General's Office, said Fontenot has not been forced to retire. Because this is a personnel issue, she said, she can't comment on specifics; however, she said, "There's way more to it than you're hearing."

Fontenot said that it wasn't much of a choice.

"I was advised that taking retirement was a better way to go," he said. "I don't have any ill feelings about it. I've enjoyed the work I've done in the attorney general's over the last 27 years."

Fontenot said he thinks the suggestion to retire stems from an incident several weeks ago while he was touring industrial areas of Baton Rouge with environmental advocacy students and instructors from Antioch New England Graduate School in Keene, N.H.

After talking with East Baton Rouge Mayor-President Kip Holden, the group traveled by van to an area between Scenic Highway and Interstate 110, where homes around industrial facilities were purchased and the residents relocated, according to the professor on the trip, Abigail Abrash Walton.

At one point, students wanted to take some photographs of an industrial plant along Scenic Highway and of a home whose owner had refused to relocate.

Security personnel, including off-duty police officers and those with the plant, arrived soon after students started taking photographs and asked for identification, according to Walton.

She said that while they were getting their identification together, she asked if there would be a report filed on the stop and, if so, where it would be filed. She said the security officer "basically blew his top."

There was more talk between the leaders of the group, Fontenot and the security officers until the group was cleared to leave about 45 minutes to an hour later, Walton said.

Steve Chase, program director of the Environmental Advocacy and Organizing Program at Antioch, said he took a call recently from a representative of the U.S. Coast Guard who was following up on a report on the incident.

Chase said that when he asked if it appears the students did anything illegal by taking photographs while standing on public property, he said the Coast Guard representative said no. The group had a similar experience at another industrial site they had stopped at the day before, in another parish.

Fontenot said that the day following the security stop in East Baton Rouge Parish, he was interviewed by someone with the Attorney General's Office and, about 30 minutes later, he was asked to go on annual leave. Then last week, Fontenot said, he was asked to return to the office Monday.

He said he was told Monday he should either retire or go through a hearing.

Fontenot said he decided to retire.

Wartelle said she couldn't specifically comment on the incident, but noted that Fontenot had applied for retirement some time ago.

"They're not forcing him," she said.

Fontenot said he didn't apply for retirement.

Representatives of several organizations who have worked with Fontenot over the years said he'll be missed.

Adam Babich, director of the Tulane Environmental Law Clinic, said Fontenot has allowed people in communities across the state to feel that their concerns are being heard by state government.

"Frankly, I think Willie's a hero to a lot of people," Babich said.

"We acknowledge and appreciate Willie Fontenot's good work and service to the community while working for the Attorney General's Office for the past 27 years," said Mary Lee Orr, director of Louisiana Environmental Action Network. "He is held in high regard and loved by the many people he has helped."

source: http://www.2theadvocate.com/stories/040505/new_agstaffer001.shtml 5apr2005