NEW ORLEANS — As federal investigators closed in on building inspector Randy Farrell and his alleged conspiracy with Mayor LaToya Cantrell to commit fraud, one former city official was conspicuously silent.
But now, he’s speaking out in an exclusive interview with WWL Louisiana about Friday’s grand jury indictment, which he said was partly unsurprising to an insider like him, and also, in some respects, “exceptionally shocking.”
Zach Smith was director of the city’s Department of Safety and Permits in 2018 and 2019, just as federal prosecutors filed a series of bribery cases against members of his staff. And as Friday’s indictment alleges, Smith was in charge when Farrell was hatching his plan to shower Cantrell with almost $10,000 in gifts to get her to fire an employee who was investigating him.
Smith’s deputy director at the time, Jennifer Cecil, was closing in on Farrell in the summer of 2019, uncovering hundreds of checks Farrell had used from the accounts of his inspection firm, IECI, to pay for permits for a single electrician to do jobs that Farrell and IECI would then inspect and approve as safe and up to code.
As WWL Louisiana uncovered details of that alleged scheme, including emails and secret audio recordings showing Farrell and his associates pressing Mayor Cantrell to get rid of Cecil, Smith kept quiet.
The records all showed Smith was supporting Cecil’s investigation of Farrell; was helping the Office of Inspector General in its probe of Safety and Permits; was taking action to ban inspectors working for Farrell who were caught falsifying inspections; and was trying to get his own safety inspectors to actually show up at construction projects for inspections, as required by city policy.
Deputy Chief Administrative Officer Chad Dyer told Cecil that Cantrell wanted her fired on Aug. 22, 2019, according to records obtained by WWL, but Dyer refused to do so. A week later, Dyer was out too. And yet, records show Smith kept trying to pursue the Farrell investigation, sending an email to CAO Gilbert Montaño on Sept. 9, 2019, urging him to open “a further, more exhaustive investigation.”
Montaño responded, “I and the Administration take these issues very seriously. I will meet the City Attorney’s office tomorrow and begin the next stage of investigation and/or disciplinary proceedings.”
Smith didn’t see any signs of an investigation.
In September and October 2019, Smith took action against Charles “Chet” Pierson, the electrician who had collected about 1,000 permits in a year. Most of them paid for with IECI checks and then inspected by Farrell and other IECI inspectors.
He sent emails to Pierson’s attorney, former State Rep. Julie Quinn-Summerville, asking about his many permit applications, his employees who helped him do so many jobs and contract documents for those jobs.
The indictment alleges Pierson and Farrell met at IECI and created fake documents to make it look like Pierson had worked on more than 50 properties where he didn’t actually perform any work. The indictment alleges Farrell caused Quinn-Summerville “to provide the fake documents” to Smith.
Quinn-Summerville, who is now running for office in the Baton Rouge area, was also representing Farrell at the time on civil matters. She no longer represents Pierson or Farrell and isn’t accused of any wrongdoing.
“I represented Randy Farrell and, for a brief moment, I was asked to represent Chet Pierson,” she told WWL. “In the course of that representation, I was asked by the city to produce documents. I requested my clients to provide such documentation and in turn, sent those documents to the city. I would be very disappointed if those clients or any of my clients over the years provided me with falsified documents.”
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Pierson's current attorney, Sam Winston, issued a statement on behalf of his client, suggesting Farrell took advantage of Pierson and expecting the government to present more facts favorable to Pierson as the case against Farrell proceeds.
“I caution anyone from drawing any conclusions about Mr. Pierson," Winston said. "There’s a reason Mr. Farrell has been indicted and Mr. Pierson has not been. It is understandable that Zach Smith wants to protect his name but he should be a lot more careful in the accusations he makes against others, including Mr. Pierson, because he doesn’t have all the facts."
On Oct. 4, 2019, Smith pressed forward with his efforts to crack down on fraud inside his agency. He presented the department’s 2020 budget proposal to Montaño, asking for an extra $194,836 for “increased auditing capability to ensure compliance with laws, rules and policies by all (Safety and Permits) employees.”
That, too, was rejected.
The Hard Rock Hotel collapsed a week later, on Oct. 12, 2019, killing three construction workers. It wasn’t long after that Montaño decided it was time for a “complete overhaul of Safety and Permits” and in late February 2020, he demoted Smith.
“And not necessarily because Zach had any level of, as far as the investigation goes, corruption,” Montaño told WWL on March 2, 2020. “But (for) the overall success and progress of the agency, it’s going to be vital to have new leadership in place.”
The only reason Smith wasn’t fired was because he was the only certified building official in city government, and the agency couldn’t have continued doing inspections without someone holding that certification.
Smith, who now owns a private architecture and project-design consulting firm, said he and Montaño never got along, but he always assumed they just had different management styles. He didn’t want to believe Montaño could have been on the take until he saw it alleged in Friday’s indictment, which identifies Montaño as “Public Official 2.”
“The most shocking part was that… Public Official No. 2, who seemed to have a hand in all sorts of high-up oversight of our department, seemed to be soliciting and then receiving things of value from people that may have been actively trying to undermine what we were doing,” Smith said.
The indictment alleges Farrell bought Montaño three tickets to a Saints game in December 2019, worth $1,160. And it alleges Montaño repeatedly asked for, and eventually received from Farrell, tickets to the January 2020 College Football National Championship Game, worth $3,600.
“This department is going into absolute chaos, you're losing key members of the office, you're losing key supervisors that you rely on for guidance and counsel, and all the time the CAO is asking for and taking tickets and going to games?” Smith said. “You know, it's just … disgusting in a lot of ways.”
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In a phone interview with WWL on Friday, Montaño acknowledged he "wound up in a suite” at the National Championship Game, but said that’s something that tends to happen at major local events.
“I typically go and… I represent the city in some ways and then I socialize and have all these different places,” he said. “So yeah, often it's in a box or wherever. But to compare that there would be some exchange for a value … or a quid pro quo, that is so preposterous and so far from anything that I've ever done.”
Montaño addressed the media outside the City Council chambers Tuesday, as he went to present the mayor’s 2025 budget.
“For the people that know me, know my integrity. I'm here to deliver the budget,” he said. “And as far as the other items and reports and conversations, there is the right time and the right place and the right venue. And right now, I'm here to discuss the budget.”
We asked him about Smith’s email five years ago, asking him for a deeper investigation of Farrell’s alleged scheme, but he walked away without answering.
Ironically, the city’s Inspector General just announced the day before the indictment that he’s embedding an investigator and other watchdogs inside Safety and Permits. Montaño told WWL last Thursday that he welcomed the OIG’s presence.
“Yeah, five years later,” Smith said. “Five years later, when the OIG forced it upon the administration.”
NOTE: This story from Tuesday, Oct. 1, was updated Friday, Oct. 4, to include new comment from Chet Pierson's attorney.
