Parish Council takes another look at 2018 charter panel's work

Maybe the committee that proposed 26 home rule charter changes in 2018 didn’t toil in vain after all.
The St. Mary Parish Council will meet in special session at 5 p.m. Wednesday to consider the charter committee recommendations that the council passed over, rather than passed, six years ago.
That action comes as the council is scheduled to take a final vote on an ordinance creating a full-fledged charter review commission at the regular meeting that follows at 6 p.m. Wednesday at the St. Mary Parish Courthouse in Franklin.
In the context of recent council discussions, the distinction between “committee” and “commission” is important. The commission would be empowered to propose changes directly to voters rather than rely on the council to decide which or whether to put amendments on the ballot.
Some of the 26 changes recommended by the 2018 committee amount to housekeeping details, such as bringing into line with state law the rules about when a council vacancy must be filled by a special election.
The most significant recommendations deal with the powers of the parish president and the chief administrative officer.
“The charter should limit (as much as practicable) the power and authority of the CAO,” according to the recommendations.
The home rule charter creates a part-time parish president, paid $1,000 a month, while giving broad responsibility for personnel decisions and day-to-day operations to the full-time CAO, who is appointed by the president with council approval.
One of the motivations for proponents of charter review has been to make the parish president post full-time and with a full-time salary.
In 2018, the committee recommended setting the president’s salary at an undetermined amount comparable to that of other parish officials with similar power and responsibilities. It recommended doing away with the economic developer position.
The recommendations would also place limits on the CAO’s personnel authority.
“The authority to terminate the department heads is the responsibility of the council composed of elected officers,” the recommendations said.
And the committee wanted the charter to be clear that the operating and capital improvement budgets are developed at the direction of the parish president and not the CAO, as the charter now says. The budgets must be approved by the council in either case.
The committee’s unease with a powerful CAO also shows in its proposal for changing rules about an absent parish president.
The current charter says that if the parish president is unable to discharge the duties of the office for six months or more, the Parish Council can declare the office vacant. In the meantime, the CAO has the powers of the president in the meantime.
“The committee perceives the danger that for more than 6 months, a person who was not elected to the office of president will be discharging the responsibilities and duties of the president,” the recommendations say.
The committee did recommend one limit on the parish president’s power. It wanted to eliminate the president’s line item veto, the power to reject individual appropriations without rejecting the entire budget.
Another focus of charter change discussions has been minority representation on the council, which currently has two Blacks among its 11 members.
The recommendations didn’t address African American representation directly, but it does recommend a change in the way new district maps are drawn after each U.S. Census.
“Under the present provisions, the council has final authority over whether [redistricting] is even necessary,” the recommendations say. “The committee recommends that [redistricting] should be explored by a committee with the assistance of a qualified demographic expert.”
The charter revision committee included Oray Rogers, Nick LaRocca, Ricky Armelin, Deborah Price, the Rev. Allen Randle Sr., current Councilman Mark Duhon, Chris Lipari, Logan Fromenthal and Stan Robison.
Through a link on this story at StMaryNow.com, you can download a .pdf version of the recommendations prepared for the Parish Council.