NEW ORLEANS -- Eyewitness News spent the morning reviewing stacks of Jefferson Parish public records requested in the on-going ethics and criminal investigation involving parish Chief Administrative Officer Tim Whitmer.
Previous documents reveal Whitmer's private insurance company Lagniappe Industries may have been secretly sharing commissions in a lucrative contract at the parish owned West Jefferson Medical Center.
Tuesday's records include several federal subpoenas, seeking information about the West Jefferson contract and another involving the parish's sole landfill provider.
Documents reveal Lagniappe had a health insurance contract with the River Birch landfill.
The subpoenas ask for records concerning the insurance contracts and more than a dozen companies and public officials including Whitmer, parish President Aaron Broussard, former parish President Tim Coulon and on the River Birch subpoena, parish attorney Tom Wilkinson.
"When you see the parish president, the chief administrative officer for the parish and the former parish president mentioned in this and it's involving contracts awarded by Jefferson Parish and a facility owned by Jefferson Parish, of course it speaks to the potential of corruption at the higher levels of parish government," said the Metropolitan Crime Commission's Rafael Goyeneche.
The River Birch documents are due before the grand jury Jan. 8.
The newly released documents also included a subpoena from the state attorney general's office to Tim Whitmer.
The parish council appointed the AG's office to conduct Whitmer's Jan. 6, disciplinary hearing.
The council called for the hearing after President Broussard refused to fire Whitmer.
"I think the parish president as of today can still act under the charter and still has the authority and the obligation, in my opinion to act," said JP Councilman At-Large John Young. "But, because he's refused to act or failed to act then the council has taken that obligation. That's why we're the hearing."
Young says the hearing will likely be held behind closed doors.
"Personally, I'm in favor the hearing being held open and in the public," said Young. "However, we're going to have to defer to the attorney general who's been retained to represent us. That's the top law enforcement agency in the state as to how we proceed."
The assistant attorney general handling the Whitmer matter told Eyewitness News that it will be up to Whitmer to decide whether to waive his right to a secret disciplinary hearing.
Specific administrative law provisions shield employees from having to answer job related questions in public.
Councilman Young said the fact that Whitmer refused requests to disclose his outside business interests and potential conflicts of interest is grounds for his immediate dismissal.
