Parish Council stalls on interim CAO, budget fix

The St. Mary Parish Council emerged from contentious back-to-back meetings Wednesday without an interim chief administrative officer and without additional progress toward solving a looming budget shortfall.
CAO Jean Paul Bourg, whose office is responsible for the day-to-day operations of the parish government, submitted his resignation earlier this month, effective Thursday. Meanwhile, the administration and council are looking for ways to avoid a $2.5 million budget shortfall later this year after making large debt repayments this summer.
Finance Director Paul Governale appears likely to become interim CAO, and he said he’s willing to fill in provided that he can return to the finance director post when a permanent CAO is appointed.
“This is not the kind of can we can kick down the road,” Councilman the Rev. Craig Mathews said.
But Parish President Sam Jones, who must appoint either a permanent or an interim CAO with council approval, pushed back against an attempt to appoint Governale on Wednesday, saying he wanted to talk with him about the appointment first.
The interim CAO will have work to do on the budget. At a budget committee meeting before the regular council meeting, the council voted 6-5 against accepting the administration’s latest round of proposed cuts.
The administration had identified revenue enhancements — but no tax increases — and cuts that officials said would come within $300,000 of the $2.5 million goal. Now it’s unclear which reductions and how much the council is willing to accept.
The proposed cuts included 50% cut in allocations to nongovernmental agencies, festivals and local fire departments.
Mathews, who chairs the budget committee, suggested that the administration will have to go back to the drawing board on the budget.
“There is no drawing board,” Jones replied. “This is it.”
But Bourg said other ways to fix the budget can be found.
“I told Sam we can come up with some other proposals,” Bourg said, although the other ideas are likely to be more painful than those already put forward.
Representatives of some of the agencies that would see the 50% cuts talked about the pain at Wednesday’s budget committee meeting.
Almetra Franklin, CEO of the St. Mary Community Action Agency, said the parish allocation is used to match a federal grant for a transportation program that serves, among others, dialysis patients.
“The council should be looking out for the elderly, the disabled and the children,” Franklin said.
Chuck Autin spoke against the cut on behalf of a program that provides $80,000 worth of food to residents of west St. Mary.
Morgan City Assistant Fire Chief John MacDougall said cutting aid to fire departments could force his department to divert money that could be used to hire new firefighters to other needs.
“These cuts are going to be detrimental to the provision of service,” MacDougall said.
Also at Wednesday’s meeting:
—The council welcomed members of the Franklin Senior High boys basketball team, which won the LHSAA Non-Select Division IV state championship earlier this month.
Each of the athletes introduced himself to the council. Pictures from the team’s Sunday parade and celebration appear on Page 12.
—Bourg gave what turned out to be a sometimes tearful farewell during the budget discussion.
Bourg, who served 11 months as CAO, rejected the ideas that former President David Hanagriff and former CAO Henry “Bo” LaGrange left the parish in a budget mess or that Jones lacks good ideas for moving forward.
“If he conveys his plan to you, you’ll go along with you if it makes sense to you,” Bourg said.
“It’s been difficult, but I’ve learned a lot.”
The council and the audience stood and applauded Bourg’s remarks.