College of Media

Investigative reporter interviews

Keith Darce, Times-Picayune

By Quynh Tran and Benji Feldheim

Working in the business bureau of the (New Orleans) Times-Picayune, Keith Darce became interested in the exclusive family-bound business of the Mississippi riverboat pilots.

The jobs paid well — more than $300,000 a year to start, and were self-governing. There was no state-mandated oversight to keep track of problems within the pilot associations, such as a pilot abusing drugs. Without a family connection, one would not be hired. A factor separating the riverboat pilot groups from other state-run businesses is that the pilot companies monitored the activities of their own boat pilots.

Of the 1,100 state pilots who work the nation's ports and inland waterways, approximately 230 work on the Mississippi River, representing the largest group of state-regulated pilots and among the highest paid in the country.

Job selection includes a formal application process, but the details of how to become a pilot were a family secret until Darce and fellow Times-Picayune reporter Jeff Meitrodt came along. The investigators knew of the pilot application, in general, but did not know if the application process was regulated by a private pilots association or the state board.

“We discovered that there were a lot of statutory references to pilots,” said Darce. “From that, we learned there was a whole web of pilot-controlled regulatory boards that oversaw the appointment and training and nominations of new pilots. Basically, they were just on paper because the boards were made up of pilots themselves. They just operated as part of the pilot organizations. The pilots themselves are individually commissioned by the governor as ‘state officials,’ but they operate as members of an association.”

The applications were public record but maintained by the pilot regulatory board, which acted like a closed group. Under state law, the pilots selected and trained their own apprentices. With no state oversight, the pilot associations policed and punished themselves, as well as investigated their own accidents. “I knew that the staff was in a very closed organization. Basically, you had to be related to get in. It was this very mythological, mysterious organization,” said Darce.

Darce and Meitrodt took a step unlike similar investigations and began interviewing and spending time with the riverboat captains. Out of the three main riverboat organizations, the smallest had hired a public relations specialist to handle queries into its business practices. After the first company let Darce and Meitrodt on board to speak with the riverboat pilots, the other two reluctantly conceded. Refusal to allow the reporters access would cast a shadow of doubt, especially with one local group establishing a precedent.

“We told them we were doing a series on what the life of a pilot is like,” said Darce. “We told them if they don't let us ride, number one, they won't be part of it, and number two, they'll look like they're hiding something. So they relented after about a week or so of negotiations.”

The reporters spent two weeks researching state statutes on any regulation related to pilots and pilots associations to ensure they had specific information in their Freedom of Information Act request. Darce stressed the importance of submitting a comprehensive FOIA request, not to rush for a generic and broad one.

“We tried to look for agencies where records of pilots might exist because of the specific requirements of law,” said Darce. “But we also tried to analyze the wording of the law to guess at what types of documents would exist. So we crafted very specific FOIAs looking for specific records and documents. We basically hit a gold mine. What we found was that, particularly, these so-called regulatory boards had existed because the pilots never thought much about them and because they felt like they were in control of them. When their lawyers got our FOIAs, their lawyers told the pilots that they had to give us these documents. What we quickly realized was that they didn't know what was in their files.”

Applications to become an apprentice pilot provided background on candidates, such as previous work experience, family members' names, birth certificates, test records, Coast Guard licenses, training documents and even drug records. Family information was used to establish the nepotism used to gain acceptance into the apprentice program, as it was not based on experience but rather, kinship. Of the 100 applicants selected to become pilots in recent years, 85 were related to nother working pilots. Others were relatives of state legislators or lobbyists in positions of influence.

While drug and medical records were not initially attached to the original applications, after acceptance to the apprentice program, such records were added to the application as part of the employee's documentation. But even these drug records were ignored in determining whether to keep a pilot.

“Not only did they give us these application folders that had personal information about each candidate — who their father was, where they were born, all critical information for linking nepotism — but in a lot of the folders were records of pilots who had undergone treatment for substance abuse, alcoholism,” said Darce. “Medical records, under state law, are private records (laughs). They shouldn't have been given to us! These guys have just been putting stuff in these files, never thinking anyone else would ever see them.”

As a consequence of the investigation, five to six pilots were removed after cocaine and prescription drug abuse was revealed. Two apprentices were booted for drinking and driving arrests, facts they had denied on their applications.

The government's investigation used the reporters' research as a guideline, said Darce. The U.S. Attorney General called a grand jury investigation into more than three dozen apprentices who allegedly forged Coast Guard documents. Through the investigation, Darce and Meitrodt discovered that pilot training documents were forged. The investigations also discovered campaign contribution fraud and pilots pocketing travel funds. By contributing hundreds of thousands of dollars to elected officials, the pilots became one of the most powerful groups in Louisiana.

To reform the riverboat pilot association, the group adopted new standards and qualification requirements. In addition, the state legislature planned to introduce a pilot reform bill. The Times-Picayune also established a news forum on riverboat pilots on their Web site — the first time one was created in response to a news investigation — which has become a sounding board for all types of pilots. According to Darce, previously there was no safe way for organizations to openly criticize their internal operations without repercussions.

Tran is former journalism student and Feldheim earned a master's degree in journalism in 2004 in the College of Media at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.