The last time we had occasion to talk about Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries Grand Poo-Bah Jack Montoucet, it was thanks to his agency’s attempts to purloin a pet nutria from the purveyors of seafood at a restaurant in Metairie. The saga of Neuty the Nutria was a bit of a minor sensation and it made Montoucet and his chief deputy Rob Shadoin, both of whom former bad state legislators who parlayed relationships with John Bel Edwards into cush gigs at LDWF, look like tyrants..

But it turns out something utter unsurprising, which is that abuse of government power usually masks rancid corruption under the surface, is also at work. We knew that going in.

Because we now learn there’s a scandal implicating Montoucet at the agency and as of this morning he’s gone…

The head of the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries resigned Friday after he was implicated in an apparent kickback scheme involving a contract the agency signed with a private contractor, according to a report from The Advocate.

LDWF Secretary Jack Montoucet who abruptly resigned Friday, is believed to have signed that contract in October 2021.

The allegations emerged this week after Dusty Guidry, who was appointed by Governor Edwards to the LDWF Commission, pleaded guilty to bribery-related charges in Lafayette. Two of those counts stemmed from claims that Guidry would refer accused criminals in the Lafayette DA’s office to specific private companies where the defendants would pay for classes in exchange for having their charges dismissed, and a portion of that money would go back to Guidry.

Court documents also said Guidry conspired with a high-ranking LDWF official on a similar scheme that involved sending contracts to a specific company that would handle hunting and boating licenses and resolve legal violations. Court documents alleged that officials would receive kickbacks upon their retirement and also get an ATV worth roughly $14,000.

New documents released this week appeared to link Montoucet to the scheme, according to The Advocate. Montoucet, 75, earns about $125,000 in his role as LDWF secretary, which is appointed by the governor.

Bye, Jack. You won’t be missed.

LDWF has been an utter eyesore of a state agency ever since Edwards took office and gave its mantle to Charlie Melancon, the tired old former congressman from the then-7th district. Melancon was a disaster, and Montoucet has been worse.

And now he’s gone and presumably Shadoin, a RINO Republican who shilled for Edwards in the Legislature and took a job as LDWF’s Number Two man rather than lose re-election to his Ruston-area House seat, will take over.

And that’s unlikely going to signal much of a change.

This is one more data point in the obvious fact that Louisiana needs the most aggressive change agent imaginable in the governor’s mansion in January. Agency after agency in our bloated state government is populated with stupid, unethical and incompetent leaders like Jack Montoucet, and they’re going to have to be cleared out and in many case the agencies need to be shaken out and repurposed.

Vote accordingly.