July 11, 2016 Louisiana Auctioneers
Licensing Board (LALB) Meeting Highlights
CLICK HERE to View LALB Financial Statements @ 7/11/16 Meeting
LAPA President Rev. Freddie Lee Phillips breaks his silence entailing
alleged efforts by the LALB and/or its employees/contractors
as well as
many LAA members to torpedo Gov. Edwards'
appointment of Rev. Phillips to the LALB of 4/20/16 (Edwards caved to
those appeals and rescinded Phillips'
appointment at 11:58 a.m. on May 5, 2016.
Phillips:
"We're [LAPA] not here to kill the industry. Ya'll [LALB] do
enough of that
already."
Despite the release of this
Sound Off Louisiana post two days prior to this meeting
depicting
repeatedly-hostile treatments and badgerings of Phillips, LALB attorney
and
convicted felon Larry S. Bankston, close friend
and political ally of Louisiana
Gov. John
Bel Edwards, continues his repetitive episodes of harassment of
Phillips when
Phillips seeks to make a simple comment right before a vote
of the LALB
members (which the board voted unanimously to permit audience
members to do
at its March, 2016 meeting).
Phillips openly confronts LALB Chairman Jacob Warren entailing Warren's
steadfast
refusal to approve his agenda item calling for a reduction
in in-state license renewals from $150 to $5 until the LALB's cash hoard is
reduced
to 150% of the average of the prior three years' operating expenses.
LAPA Vice President Robert Burns and LALB attorney
and
convicted felon Larry S. Bankston, close friend
and political ally of
with Louisiana Gov. John
Bel Edwards, spar over Burns & Phillips'
public records requests to the LALB.
CLICK HERE for past Louisiana Voice article entailing
Bankston's absurd
guidance to the LALB to balk at LAPA's examining
of individual auctioneers'
files.
Auctioneer Nick Hardy is to serve as the
sponsoring auctioneer
for
apprentice Edward Heaston, a convicted Arizona felon
sentenced to
prison for fraudulent schemes and 3rd degree
burglary.
CLICK HERE
(beginning on page 3) for the complaint from a lady
fleeced for $25,000
after the LALB permitted Mark Brister to
obtain his license back without
POSING ANY QUESTION on
how he was to "make a millions dollars overnight."
[See from the 0:37 - 0:53 mark of the video above].
LALB discusses counter-offer on proposed stipulation entailing
Bryan
Hammock,
an auctioneer based in Virginia. Hammock balked at
the totality of
charges ($2,900 in administrative costs + $1,000
fine, for a total of $3,900)
entailed in the LALB's stipulation agreement.
It may be possible that Hammock
may be short on cash in
having to
defend against this apparent 4/1/16 arrest for 1st offense DWI.
As LAPA Vice President Robert Burns
points out at the end of the video, the LALB his historically never
pursued
EITHER auctioneers OR consumers for administrative
expenses; however, LAPA
has distributed far and wide
auctioneer
Keith Babb's threatening letter to a complainant against him
and LAPA's
handwritten notation that Babb would be hard-pressed
to provide A SINGLE
INSTANCE wherein the LALB has sought
administrative expenses against a
consumer. Burns states that
it's "no coincidence" that the LALB
suddenly has a hard-on
for recovering administrative expenses from the losing
party.
Entailing Burns' comments about the sheer
number of auctioneers
who have lied on their applications, consider
this
episode in which
Barbara Bonnette READILY ADMITS that she lied on her
application
about being disciplined in Texas for conducting an unlicensed
auction
and further admitted that the signature on her application was
forged.
CLICK HERE for past
lies on Jean Vidos (New Orleans Auction Galleries)
application wherein
she said she was not subject to any lawsuits when,
in reality,
Massound Pouratian has sued NOAG
years before entailing
paintings auctioned for six figures that were
fakes and had Christie's
rejections stickers on them when they arrived at
NOAG's facility, yet
NOAG auctioned them anyway.
Also, compelling evidence has surfaced
that former LALB Chairman Tessa Steinkamp may have lied on her
applications
entailing her residency which would have disqualified
her for LALB
membership, much less Chairmanship!
As Burns points out above, the LALB has no
qualms "throwing the book"
at an out-of-state auctioneer while letting
absolutely egregious statute
violations by in-state auctioneers (including
members of the LALB themselves)
get swept under the rug.
LALB attorney Anna Dow
proposes pursuing auctioneer bond claims
to recover administrative
expenses and/or fines in cases in which such auctioneers
fail to pay.
Ms. Dow specifically mentions Mark Brister & Sean
Leteff.
If the LALB does in fact file bond claims to recover these funds, it
will continue
a practice of readily filing claims against auctioneers who
either no longer
practice or are dead:
Gary & Randy
Hayes (who quit the auction business);
Sean Leteff
(who also quit the auction business and on whom
a bond claim
already filed on behalf of victim), and
Bruce Miller
(who is deceased). All these claims will have been filed while
the LALB
has
steadfastly refused to file a bond claim against Mac Buhler,
as the party
responsible for Ken Buhler, who continues to be an ACTIVE auctioneer!
LALB discusses alleged problems with online real estate auctions and
forming
a "study group" to ultimately propose legislation to regulate the industry.
CLICK HERE to return to the chronological master listing of LALB videos.