Players tight-lipped in Jeff insurance deal
by Stephanie Grace - Times-Picayune (excerpt)

If you were a public person and your name came up in a potentially stinky business deal, you'd probably be champing at the bit to explain yourself. If you were, say, a popular former Jefferson Parish president, or the parish's top administrator, or a prominent Parish Council aide, or even a private citizen who shares a name with his late college baseball star son who had a playground renamed in his honor, then you would probably care deeply about your reputation. If something threatened it, you'd surely try to convince people that things aren't what they seem. Or maybe not. When Times-Picayune reporter Richard Rainey tried to get to the bottom of just such a deal -- when he tried to find out why Wally Pontiff Sr., a broker for West Jefferson Medical Center's voluntary employee insurance plan, secretly shared his commission with Jefferson Parish Chief Administrative Officer Tim Whitmer and former Parish President Tim Coulon -- he found just the opposite. In fact, one of the really amazing parts of this story, other than the bold-face names involved and the utter secrecy over details of a deal let by a public agency, is that few of the players even tried to offer an honorable explanation. Pontiff, who landed most of the insurance plan's commission in 2007, didn't return phone calls. Nor did Barry Bordelon, an aide to Councilman Elton Lagasse, who authored the council resolution affirming the deal. Bordelon also sits on the hospital board and supported hiring Pontiff.