Hanagriff denied board post (or was he?)

Some old resentments have worked their way into meetings of the newly sworn St. Mary Parish Council.
In a meeting Monday, an attempt to appoint former Parish President David Hanagriff to the Port of West St. Mary board failed to get six votes from the 11-member council.
But Hanagriff said Tuesday in a phone interview that the five votes he received while three members were absent were enough to put him on the port board. He’s seeking legal advice.
Also Monday, the board adopted a series of proposed budget amendments that take care of more than half the $2.5 million shortfall projected for the 2024 budget.
The Hanagriff appointment was challenged immediately, starting with a claim by Hanagriff’s successor, President Sam Jones, that it may run afoul of state ethics rules.
Council Chair Gwendolyn Hidalgo of Bayou Vista read Section 3-07 of the parish charter, which says the parish president is forbidden from accepting any paid appointed position for a year following the end of his term. The port board members are not paid for their service.
Jones also criticized Hanagriff for what he said was the former president’s role in the budget problems the council is now working through.
Dean Adams of Morgan City said he couldn’t vote for Hanagriff for the same reason.
But “don’t single [Hanagriff] out …,” Councilman Rodney Olander of Franklin said. “We all voted for it.”
Adams also said that after he’d been on the council for a year, Hanagriff threatened to file charges because, Adams said, he was attending public meetings.
Councilwoman Dr. Kristi Prejeant Rink of Centerville and Adams said Hanagriff also threatened to file charges with the District Attorney’s Office when they sought financial and other information about a parish drainage district. No prosecution resulted.
“I can’t vote for a man like that,” Adams said.
“We’ve been attacked as a council,” Rink said. “Why would I want someone on that board, which we’re supposed to be overseeing, who has already attacked us from a higher level and will think that it’s appropriate to function as he wants on the board? …”
On Tuesday, Hanagriff said he didn’t take action against the council members because they sought public information. He said he believes they were meddling with the operation of the drainage district.
“My belief is Dean Adams and Dr. Rink overstepped their boundaries and interfered …,” Hanagriff said.
“They clearly have issues to this day. I think voting against my appointment to the board the based on a personal grudge is not a right thing.”
Three council members – Mark Duhon of Amelia, the Rev. Craig Mathews of Jeanerette and J Ina of Franklin – were absent Monday, leaving eight members of vote on Hanagriff’s appointment.
Olander, David Hill of Bayou Vista, Patrick Hebert of Berwick, Hidalgo and Jimmy Davis of Morgan City voted for the appointment. Adams, Rink and Les Rulf of Patterson voted no – a 5-3 outcome in Hanagriff’s favor. But the motion was ruled to have failed because it didn’t get six votes, which would be a clear majority on the 11-member council.
Hanagriff argued Tuesday that the six-vote requirement applies only to votes on matters such as resolutions and ordinances. Purely procedural matters such as appointments need only a majority of the members present to vote, he said.
“I believe I was appointed to the board,” Hanagriff said.
Budget
The budget amendments approved Tuesday improved the 2024 budget outlook by $1.6 million, leaving the administration and council to find $900,000 to fix the projected deficit.
The administration found $416,000 in revenue, more than three-quarters of it raised by the decision to pass on all the costs of trash pickup to residents.
On the expense side:
—The parish will put off $351,000 in spending for new equipment, most of it for cutting grass.
—$209,000 in building expenses related to Fairview Treatment Center will be deferred.
—Three positions will be left vacant or folded into other positions for a savings of $94,000.
—Overtime will be reduced by $150,000.
—A new house count reduced the number of trash pickups for which the parish is charged by 385 per month, a savings of $100,000.
The council decided not to cut $4,000 for employee safety awards. And members decided not to commit completely to a 25% across-the-board cut in allocations to outside agencies, a potential savings of $191,000.
The agencies include fire departments and public service groups such as the Council on Aging and ARC/Center of Hope. The council will pay 75% of allocations to those agencies with hopes of finding the money to pay all that had been budgeted later.
Charter review
Acting on a motion by Rink, the council voted to resurrect a charter review committee for the first time in six years. Each council member will be able to make an appointment to the committee.
Hidalgo said the committee that met six years ago came up with 35 recommendations, none of which were enacted.
More recently, other proposed charter charges, notably by Ina and Mathews, have been rejected by voters or by the council. They include an attempt to raise the president’s pay to about $50,000 a year as a step toward making the job full time; eliminating the rule that limits the council leadership positions to representatives from the three at-large districts; and redrawing council district maps to eliminate the at-large districts all together.