Mike Edmonson

Background

A native of Alexandria, Louisiana, Edmonson graduated in 1976 from Holy Savior Menard Central High School, where he played on a state championship baseball team. He then attended Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. He was a walk-on baseball player at LSU but was permanently sidelined by a knee injury while playing basketball. Edmonson recalls with humor that he, a Roman Catholic, was playing basketball on a Southern Baptist team at a Methodist church when the accident occurred.

Edmonson was first married to the former Helen Owens (born July 1964), daughter of Francis "Fritz" D. Owens (1934-2013), a piano player, music teacher, and a graduate of the University of Notre Dame, and the former Virginia Lynne Gardiner of Zirconia in Henderson County in western North Carolina. From this marriage, he has two grown children, Brittney and Michael Edmonson, Jr. Helen is now married to Wyatt Joseph Achord (born November 1970); the couple resides in Livingston near Baton Rouge. In 2014, Edmonson traveled to Boston, Massachusetts, so that his son could run in the 118th Boston Marathon.

Edmonson's second wife, Suzanne Maglone Edmonson (born January 1964), with whom he resides in Baton Rouge, has two children, Casey LeBlanc and Cade LeBlanc, from a previous marriage to Gordon Ray LeBlanc (born March 1960) of Baton Rouge.

Edmonson is a survivor thus far of squamous-cell carcinoma, a cancer that normally appears on parts of the skin frequently exposed to sunlight. As part of his job duties, he spent years outdoors and neglected to wear a hat to shield him from the rays of the sun.

Law-enforcement career

While he attended LSU, Edmonson also worked as a security guard at the former Goudchaux's department store in Baton Rouge, he caught a shoplifter and decided on a career in law enforcement. Edmonson attended graduate school at LSU and subsequently completed the FBI National Academy in Quantico, Virginia, and the FBI National Executive Institute.

In January 1981, at the age of twenty-two, Edmonson joined the Louisiana State Police. In 1982, he was assigned as the bodyguard and confidant of all LSU Tigers football coaches from Jerry Stovall to Les Miles. He stood with Nick Saban, when LSU won the 2003 championship. From 2004 to 2006, Edmonson was also the commander of Capitol Detail and Physical Security and managed two Department of Public Safety command sections. His LSU duties ended when he became superintendent. In 2007, he was named the state police training command inspector. He also managed the State Police Training Academy and the Joint Emergency Services Training Center, a 1,500-acre, $42 million law enforcement and first responder training facility.

As police superintendent with the highest rank in the organization, Colonel Edmonson was also the deputy secretary of the Department of Public Safety, an agency with more than 2,900 employees and a budget of nearly $500 million. In September 2012, Edmonson assumed the chairmanship of the International Association of Chiefs of Police, an organization in which he remains an officer.

Controversies

In July 2014, on the last day of the legislative session, State Senator Neil Riser of Columbia in Caldwell Parish introduced a measure, subsequently known in the media as the "Edmonson Act", which would have increased the retirement pay of Colonel Edmonson by $55,000 annually - from $79,000 to $134,000. At least one other unnamed state trooper, later identified as Louis Boquet of Houma in Terrebonne Parish, would have been unintentionally similarly affected by the provision. Legislative rules prohibit a conference committee report from being considered on the last day of a session. However, both chambers voted by the two-thirds majority to suspend the rules and pass Riser's amendment. Then-Louisiana State Treasurer John Neely Kennedy (now U.S. Senator) urged that the state police retirement board, of which the treasurer is an ex officio member, litigate the constitutionality of Senate Bill 294, which was promptly signed into law by Governor Jindal.

Although he had first denied authorship of the "Edmonson Act", Riser said that he was asked to submit the measure to the full legislature by Charles Dupuy, the deputy police superintendent. Riser said that he understood that the bill addressed the rights of law enforcement officers and "broad retirement issues", not specific individuals who could benefit from its provisions.

Treasurer Kennedy and government watchdog C. B. Forgotston, a lawyer in Hammond, claimed the "Edmonson Act", officially Act 859, would have applied to "hundreds of thousands" of current and future retirees in all departments of state government and therefore increased taxpayer liability by "millions of dollars" in accrued expenses. Forgotston said that Riser, a defeated candidate for Louisiana's 5th congressional district in the 2013 special election, flatly lied to him in first denying the authorship of the amendment: "Riser has now said, ‘Yeah, it was me...' He should have apologized to the public. He should have apologized to the other five members of the conference committee. He threw them under the bus. He definitely owes an apology to his staff member - he threw her under the bus."

Jindal was compelled to advocate repeal of the "Edmonson Act" which he had earlier signed into law. Like Riser, Jindal said he was unaware that the legislation applied only to two persons and urged legislators to rewrite the measure. On September 16, 2014, Forgotston and Kennedy were vindicated when Janice Clark, judge of the 19th Judicial District in Baton Rouge, declared the "Edmonson Act" unconstitutional. The suit challenging the law was brought forward by State Senator Dan Claitor, an unsuccessful Republican candidate for Louisiana's 6th congressional district seat in the November 4, 2014 primary election. The Louisiana State Police Retirement System Board offered no rebuttal, and the provision of the law impacting Edmonson and Boquet was quickly struck down by the judge.

Before the court hearing, the retirement system board had already denied the future extra benefits to Edmonson and Boquet. Democratic former Governor Edwin Edwards, another unsuccessful candidate in the 6th congressional district in 2014, sided with Republican opponent Claitor in voicing his own objections to the "Edmonson Act". Although Edmonson claimed on several occasions that he would not accept the additional funds at retirement, had the amendment been left intact it would have remained state law. Treasurer Kennedy testified before the court that "special interest legislation" of this kind could cause trouble with bond-rating agencies regarding the solvency of the state's four retirement systems, which have an unfunded accrued liability of some $19 billion.

Retirement in 2017

In 2016, Edmonson announced plans to retire with thirty-five years of service with the state police."I've had an incredible career. I'm so blessed, and I feel blessed every day", Edmonson said. Prior to the retirement controversy, he had been considered a potential candidate for lieutenant governor to succeed Jay Dardenne, who is running for governor in 2015 to replace the term-limited Jindal.

However, Edmonson did not retire in 2016 but was held over by Democratic Governor John Bel Edwards and given a one-third pay hike of $43,000 annually along with his retention. Early in 2017, as a newly-elected U.S. senator, John Kennedy called for Edmonson's resignation as state police superintendent after disclosure that Edmonson took seventeen of his high-ranking personnel, with one guest each allowed, to San Diego to attend a conference and to observe Edmonson's receiving a lifetime achievement award from the International Chiefs of Police. The trip cost state taxpayers $70,000 and also included a stay for four troopers at the Grand Canyon and the gambling mecca, Las Vegas, Nevada. Kennedy said that he personally likes the superintendent, "but he has demonstrated that he is intent on being the tallest hog at the trough. And this is all taxpayer money." Kennedy said that he initially had doubts that anything would happen to Edmonson, whom he calls "part of a club down there in Baton Rouge. You see him at every get-together. He does a lot of favors for a lot of legislators. He's one of the good ole' boys. But this is just disgusting. And if John Bel Edwards is serious about being a reform governor, he will ask for the superintendent's resignation."Statewide radio talk show host Moon Griffon joined Kennedy in calling for Edmonson's removal on grounds of abuse of taxpayers.

In addition to the Las Vegas and Grand Canyon side-trips, the Federal Bureau of Investigation is examining potentially improper political contributions from state police officers. There is also revelations that troopers earned thousands in overtime in 2016 and billed costly hotel rooms to state credit cards while they attended the law enforcement conference in San Diego which honored Edmonson. Despite the controversy, a department spokesman said shortly before Edmonson stepped down that the superintendent was keeping his regular schedule.

Amid the controversies, Edmonson submitted his letter of resignation to Governor Edwards on March 15, 2017, effective on March 24. He indicated that he had been considered retiring as much as ten months previously. Edmonson will assist Edwards in selecting an interim superintendent from among the current state troopers. Edmonson said that his own future is uncertain as he explores the options before him.

Edmonson will receive $128,559 annually in state retirement benefits. Had he remained through the Edwards administration, his retirement check would have been considerably higher, as the amount is based on the average of his highest-paid three years in the system. He will also be compensated for three hundred hours of unused sick and annual leave.

On March 22, 2017, Edwards appointed as Edmonson's interim successor Maj. Kevin Wayne Reeves, (born December 1968), a native of Baton Rouge who has resided most recently in Jackson Parish, where he is registered as an Independent voter. Reeves joined the state police in 1990 as a motorcycle patrolman. By 2008, he was the Troop F commander in Monroe and in 2013 became the commander of Region III.

After he left the state police, Edmonson took a position with The Powell Group in Baton Rouge as a consultant for one of its subsidiaries, the social media company called Chatterkick.