Parish council boots members of 2 boards

Members of two parish boards were removed by the St. Mary Parish Council in Wednesday’s meeting.
Councilman James Bennett made a motion, read by Clerk of the Council Lisa Morgan into the record: “In accordance with Ordinance 2151, Article 7, Section 7.1, declaring the removal of Mr. T.J. Aucoin, commissioner of Recreation District No. 1; Mr. Leroy L. Trim, Mr. Oscar L. Toups, Mr. Roland Verret, Mr. Kenneth Mire and Mr. Ray Mayon Sr., commissioners of St. Mary Water and Sewer Commission No. 1; and each respective position will be vacated immediately and that applications to fulfill the unexpired terms of the members of the respective vacated positions shall be advertised immediately in accordance with the laws of this parish and that Henry C. LaGrange, chief administrative officer, be authorized to assume the responsibilities of operating…Water and Sewer Commission No. 1, including signing checks, contracts and other documents related to its proper operations until new members to the board of commissioners are sworn.”
Bennett’s motion was seconded by Councilman Paul Naquin.
“Why aren’t these being done separate?” Councilman Kevin Voisin asked. “If you’re going to take one member off of a (recreation) board to me that should be a different board…then you should deal with the other.”
“It’s under the same article, which is non-compliance,” Chief Administrative Officer Henry “Bo” LaGrange said.
Voisin asked legal counsel Eric Duplantis, “Can you state what the non-compliance is?”
But LaGrange said, “Non-compliance is related to Article 2, of the ordinance which is part of human resources, which says that all political subdivisions shall adhere to the parish personnel policy manual, and that political subdivisions shall adopt the manual within 90 days after the effective date of this ordinance.”
He explained that if a board member or board isn’t in compliance, the CAO should be notified, and that was done on Feb. 22 and given 60 days to comply. “They failed to comply within 60 days so on July 15 the ordinance provides that you send another letter (of final notice) giving them 15 days to comply.”
After that, if there is no compliance, the CAO by majority vote of the parish council would enact the procedures.
The recreation board held a special meeting Tuesday and voted 2-1 to adopt the procedures, but Aucoin voted against.