Parish councilman seeks removal of chairman, censure of colleague

At the last St. Mary Parish Council meeting Nov. 17, the parish president was nearly escorted from the room by a sheriff’s deputy. The agenda for Wednesday’s council meeting is unlikely to restore a sense of calm.
Councilman Craig Mathews of Jeanerette plans to introduce resolutions calling for removal of Dean Adams of Morgan City from the council chairmanship and to censure Mark Duhon of Amelia, according to the agenda for the 6 p.m. meeting at the St. Mary Parish Courthouse in Franklin.
The council will also hold public hearings on the ordinances up for adoption to approve the combined budget and five-year capital outlay budgets at 5:30 p.m.; on a proposed charter amendment changing the way the council leadership is elected at 5:45 p.m.; and on a list of housekeeping ordinances at 5:50 p.m.
Resolutions
Mathews’ resolution calling for Adams’ removal as chairman is “due to failure to impartially administer his executive office,” according to the office.
The agenda item is no more specific than that. But the proposed resolution comes after the Nov. 17 meeting, when Adams intervened twice on issues put forward by Parish President David Hanagriff.
Hanagriff had tried to add to the Nov. 17 agenda a request for an ethics inquiry involving Councilman James Bennett of Morgan City, but Adams had the item removed.
Bennett has been critical of the operations of Gravity Drainage District 2A, which was created by merging separate districts serving Morgan City and Amelia. Hanagriff supported the consolidation as an efficiency and cost-cutting move.
Morgan City Mayor Lee Dragna has also been critical and challenged the legality of the consolidation. Hanagriff has characterized the criticism from Bennett and Dragna as an attack on the District 2A board. Hanagriff pointed to a state financial disclosure in which Bennett described himself as an employee and personal assistant to Dragna.
Hanagriff said later that he believes Bennett can’t be objective on issues involving Morgan City. Bennett responded that he works for Dragna only on a contract basis and that the personal assistant job never materialized. He moved to amend his disclosure Nov. 15.
At the same meeting, the council rejected the hiring of Geographic Planning and Demographic Services of Lafayette as a consultant on redistricting. A competitor for the work alleged that the owner, Mike Hefner, produced a plan in 2000 that would have reduced minority representation on the council.
When Hanagriff at-tempted to reply in Hefner’s defense, Adams tried to cut him off with his gavel three times, and then asked a deputy to take Hanagriff from the room. Eventually, Hanagriff was allowed to remain.
In a phone interview Monday, Mathews at first wasn’t specific about his reason for seeking Adams’ removal. Asked whether the two Nov. 17 disputes played any part, Mathews said, “As my grandma used to say, that was the straw that broke the camel’s back.”
Mathews seeks censure of Duhon “relative to improper conduct counter to the St. Mary Parish Council’s standard of behavior, specifically for interference with personnel functions of the Parish Council and Government.”
Mathews said he had never considered the possibility of using the word “harassment” to describe another councilman’s actions. But “I’m afraid we saw that even after being cautioned, it persisted,” he said.
Mathews said he respects Adams and Duhon and considers them to be friends. But he felt it was important to stand up on the issues.
Contacted Monday, neither Duhon nor Adams had comments about Mathews’ resolutions.
“Not till Wednesday night,” Adams said.

Ordinances
A proposed ordinance bearing Mathews’ name could have another kind of impact on the council leadership.
Acting in place of an absent J Ina of Franklin last month, Mathews introduced a proposed ordinance that would ask voters to open the council chairmanship to any of the council’s 11 members.
The St. Mary Home Rule Charter currently says that if any council members are elected at large, the chair and vice chair must be chosen from among their number. The council is com-posed of eight members representing geographic districts and three who are elected at large by voters parishwide.
If the ordinance passes, voters would have the chance to remove the language limiting the leadership to at-large members at a special election.
The council will also consider final passage of the combined budget and the capital outlay budget for 2022.
The general operation budget anticipates revenue and spending of about $13.7 million. Both are down from the 2021 budget.
The budget includes a 5% raise for parish employees, “which is in keeping with the Council’s and the Administration’s desire to provide competitive wages with the private sector in order to maintain a trained, experienced workforce,” Hanagriff said in his budget message.
The 2021 budget was amended to give employees another 5% raise. Together, the two raises would be the first for parish workers in more than three years.
The message also said the parish will transfer $1.2 million of the money it receives under the federal American Rescue Plan Act to pay for water and sewer infrastructure projects in unincorporated areas of the parish.
Other ordinances up for adoption Wednesday include a prohibition on parish board and com-mission meetings on the same day as council meetings; a requirement that board and commission members be registered voters and live in the districts they serve; setting the council clerk’s salary; and entering an agreement with the Teche Action Board to transfer ownership of tracts at 1113 and 1115 Weber St. in Franklin.
Among ordinances on the agenda for introduction:
—Councilman Scott Ramsey of Bayou Vista is trying again to have a stop sign removed from Jupiter Street at Columbus in Bayou Vista. The council rejected that move last month after discussion over whether better traffic flow or protecting people who live near the stop sign is the bigger need.
Ramsey will also introduce an ordinance “establishing a four-way stop sign at the intersection of Saturn Road and Universe Road and establishing stop signs only on Saturn Road at its intersection with Universe Street.”
—Duhon will introduce ordinances calling for a three-way stop sign at the intersection of Barrow and Tommie streets and a three-way stop sign at the intersection of Barrow and Arnold Street, all in Amelia.
Ordinances that are introduced can’t come up for passage for at least 20 days, and they require a public hearing.