Parish Council OK's charter revision commission

Staff report
The St. Mary Parish Council on Wednesday passed an ordinance creating the long-awaited Home Rule Charter Revision Commission, although not without some reservations.
Council members are hoping to make appointments to the 11-member commission and see it begin work as soon as next month.
Meanwhile, the council will consider ordinances that, if approved by the council and then by voters, could resolve some of the issues raised by an earlier charter review committee.
Also Wednesday, Chief Administrative Officer Paul Governale appointed two women to be the new director of finance and director of planning and zoning.
And the council’s efforts to bring its budget into balance by year’s end took a $330,000 step backward.
The push to revise or rewrite the parish Home Rule Charter has been going on for months. Proponents of revision have advocated for making the parish presidency a full-time job, with a salary on a par with other parish chief executives in the region, and increasing opportunities for more African American representation on the council.
Under the commission ordinance passed Wednesday by an 8-3 vote, each of the 11 Parish Council members will make an appointment from his or her district. Each appointee must be a qualified elector in that district. The commission will be seated for a year or until voters approve or reject its proposals, whichever comes first.
State law says the Parish Council can vote yes or no on whether to submit the commission’s work to voters. But the council can’t amend the proposals.
Voting to create the commission were J Ina and Rodney Olander of Franklin, the Rev. Craig Mathews of Jeanerette, Dr. Kristi Prejeant Rink of Centerville, Les Rulf of Patterson, Gwen Hidalgo of Bayou Vista, and James “Jimmy” Davis and Dean Adams of Morgan City. Voting no were David Hill of Bayou Vista, Patrick Hebert of Berwick and Mark Duhon of Amelia.
Among the concerns: Council members wanted to know what happens if not enough appointees are available before the commission begins work.
Olander suggested that council members who can’t find appointees could fill in until someone is named.
“Absolutely not,” Mathews joked.
Members also wanted to know what will happen if appointees quit or are otherwise unavailable before the commission’s work is done. The answer: State law says the commission’s remaining members, and not the council, appoint replacements.
Hebert stressed how much responsibility will be placed on the commissioners.
“We’re talking about people who will attempt to change the way we do business,” Hebert said.
Hebert also brought council members together for a special meeting before Wednesday’s regular meeting. The purpose was to look again at proposed provisions developed by a charter review committee in 2018.
The 26 recommendations generally fall into two categories: changes in the powers and duties of officials, notably the parish president, and portions of the charter that were or have come into conflict with state law.
The council decided to turn 12 of the recommendations into ordinances for later introduction, all of them in areas where the current charter differs from state law. The more substantive issues were left for the new commission to consider.
The conflicts with state law include the conditions under which an officeholder forfeits a position; when a special election must be called to fill a presidential or council vacancy (under state law, when more than 18 months remain in a term); the number of days the council has to fill a vacancy before the governor makes an appointment; publication of minutes within 20 days and not 30 days of a meeting; and following state laws about membership on boards and commissions rather than making the parish president an automatic nonvoting member.
A theme running through the committee’s recommendations is concern that the parish president position is too weak and earns too little compared to other chief executives in the region, and that the full-time chief administrative officer is too powerful.
The current parish presidency is a part-time job earning $12,000 a year.
The recommendations also include turning over the post-census chore of redrawing council district maps to a committee rather than letting council members do the job.
Those were among the topics left for the commission to consider.
If the ordinances based on the 12 committee recommendations are introduced at the June 26 regular meeting, they could come up for a passage vote as early as July 24.
Also Wednesday:
—Parish President Sam Jones reported that St. Mary’s share of the construction cost of a new Acadiana Criminalistics Laboratory will be about $330,000.
That puts the potential budget shortfall for this budget year back to $1 million after a series of budget-cutting and revenue-raising measures.
Jones said he believes District Attorney Bo Duhe will work with the parish.
“I don’t see how you can pay something if you have nothing,” Jones said.
Mathews sought clarification about the parish’s obligation to pay its share of the cost of the new crime lab, which is being split among nine South Louisiana parishes.
CAO Governale noted that the May 2022 resolution of support for the new crime lab pledged the parish’s “best effort.”
Officials broke ground May 11 for the $26 million crime lab in Iberia Parish.
—Governale, who was promoted to CAO earlier this year, named his replacement as finance director. It’s Desiree Gros, who has worked for the parish since 2016 and is currently the coordinator for St. Mary Parish’s Drug Court.
The new planning and zoning director will be Mandi LeBlanc, who has worked for the parish since 2014 and is currently the assistant finance director. She succeeds Tammy Luke, who was appointed May 30 to be Lafayette Parish’s director of community development and planning.
—The council passed a resolution of respect for Logan Fromenthal of Morgan City, who died May 27.
Council members praised Fromenthal for his friendly nature and his community service on both the Morgan City and St. Mary Parish councils.