Rink, Hidalgo elected to Parish Council leader posts

FRANKLIN — A change in the St. Mary Parish Council’s leader-ship made history Wednesday, while another kind of leadership change didn’t happen. Nor did a handful of other contentious proposals.
The council elected Dr. Kristi Prejeant Rink of Morgan City to be its chairwoman for the coming year. Councilwoman Gwendolyn Hidalgo of Bayou Vista was re-elected vice chairwoman.
Rink becomes the first woman to chair the council. She and Hidalgo were the first women elected to the council when they ran in 2019.
Rink has a claim to being the first female elected council member because she won her primary outright on Oct. 19 that year. Hidalgo won a runoff 35 days later.
Rink, Hidalgo and outgoing chairman Dean Adams of Morgan City were all elected in 2019 from parishwide at-large districts. The other eight council members are elected from geographic districts, but the home rule charter limits the chair and vice chair posts to members elected at-large
Councilmen J Ina of Franklin and Craig Mathews of Jeanerette tried to change that by opening the leadership jobs to any member of the council. They proposed a charter amendment to that effect, but an ordinance that would have put the measure before St. Mary voters failed Wednesday.
The ayes outnumbered the nays 6-5, but a call for an election on a charter amendment requires a two-third majority.
Three ordinances, two dealing with Bayou Vista stop signs and another proposing an expansion of an east St. Mary drainage district, didn’t make it to a vote.
Councilman Scott Ramsey of Bayou Vista had proposed ordinances that would remove stop signs from Jupiter Street at the intersection with Columbus and removing stop signs from Universe at the Saturn-Universe four-way stop.
Hidalgo presented petitions signed by residents of 13 addresses asking to keep the Jupiter Street stop sign, and residents of six addresses who want to keep the Universe stop signs.
Glenn Elliott, a Myrtle Street resident who lived on Jupiter Street for 12 years, and Kim Rhodes, a 20-year resident of Columbus, spoke at a public hearing in favor of keeping the Jupiter stop sign on safety grounds. They said speeding vehicles are common near Walmart in that area.
David Hill of Delmar Street spoke in favor of stop sign removal, saying they do little to make the streets safer.
Ramsey withdrew his ordinances from consideration. He plans to submit an alternative ordinance that will require requests for traffic sign changes to be reviewed by an engineer.
Ramsey cited federal and state traffic control guidance saying that stop signs shouldn’t be used to control speeding and that too many stop signs may encourage drivers to disregard them.
The council passed two ordinances from Mark Duhon of Amelia setting up a three-way stop at the Barrow-Tommie intersection and at Barrow and Arnold.
Also Wednesday, and for the second straight meeting, Councilman Patrick Hebert withdrew his proposed ordinance expanding the boundaries of Consolidated Gravity District No. 2A to include Avoca and Bateman islands.
The district currently includes Amelia and Morgan City.
Hebert believes expanding the district will result in lower property taxes for those currently in the district as a result of a revenue-neutral reduction in the millage. Critics say it’s wrong to tax the mostly swampy and marshy islands for drainage
Hebert said the ordinance may come before the council again.
“It probably will,” he said after the meeting. “It’s just there’s a lot of confusion and a lot of contentiousness.”
The drainage district was the subject of another controversy, which resulted in Rink’s first tough call after taking the chairwoman’s gavel.
Although the council voted two years ago to consolidate the drainage districts serving Amelia and Morgan City, voters rejected an attempt to consolidate the millages imposed by the separate districts. So separate boards representing Morgan City and Amelia meet once a year to set their millages.
On Wednesday, the council considered appointments to the Morgan City drainage district board in order to appoint five members from a field of six: current members Timothy Matthews, Leroy Trim, Harry “Hanko” Hoffpauir, Glenn Swain, and potential new members Charles Solar Jr. and Sidney Michel III.
The council’s vote left Hoffpauir, who also chairs the consolidated district’s board, off the Morgan City district’s board.
Councilman James Bennett of Morgan City argued against Hoffpauir’s appointment. He has accused Hoffpauir of delays in responding to Bennett’s public records request dealing with actions taken by the consolidated board. And Bennett said he believes the consolidated district hasn’t fulfilled its obligation to spend tax money raised in Morgan City on Morgan City work.
Bennett has talked about seeking investigations by the Louisiana Ethics Board and the Louisiana Attorney General’s Office.
“If you’ve got evi-dence,” Hebert said Wednesday, “I say bring it on. … If you’ve got some meat and potatoes, I say bring them to the table.”
Parish President David Hanagriff also defended Hoffpauir, saying he has served well. But when Hanagriff started to talk about what he says are attacks by Bennett on the consolidated district’s board, Rink ended the discussion.
She said discussion of Hoffpauir’s qualifications are relevant to his proposed appointment, but that talking about council members isn’t.