Relationships with district boards can be rocky for Parish Council

As a new St. Mary Parish Charter Review Commission prepares to begin work, one problem continues to crop up: the relationship between the full-time parish government and the patchwork of boards and commissions that provide services across the parish.
At least three instances of head-butting between special purpose districts and the Parish Council or president were on display at the June 26 council meeting. It will be up to the commission to decide whether the friction results from politics, policy or structural deficiencies in the charter.
Changes could affect the way water, sewer, drainage, medical and firefighting services are delivered across the parish.
Disputes over the way boards work aren’t new.
A push by local business leaders to consolidate the dozens of special purpose districts led to the consolidation of gravity drainage districts serving Amelia and Morgan City, a move favored by then-Parish President David Hanagriff.
That led to a series of arguments and accusations about whether tax money dedicated to each of the separate districts was being spent properly and about public record requests. Voters in the new district later rejected an attempt to consolidate the combined district’s finances.
That consolidated district, Gravity Drainage District 2A, came up June 26, when former district board member Leroy Trim accused Parish Councilman Mark Duhon of Amelia of working behind the scenes to have him removed from the board after eight years of service.
Councilman James “Jimmy” Davis of Morgan City made the motion nominating new appointees, a list that did not include Trim. But Trim’s anger was directed at Duhon, who seconded the motion. He accused Duhon of waging a vendetta.
“I think I needed a change,” Duhon said.
“I’m not a person you can pull or push,” Trim said later. “I’m a man of character.”
Later, Trim drew Duhon’s ire by suggesting that the council wasn’t helpful in getting ditches cleaned out.
“That’s one thing nobody can say to me,” Duhon said, “that I don’t do my damned job.”
Also at the June 26 council meeting, Councilman the Rev. Craig Mathews asked Parish President Sam Jones why council members hadn’t heard about the resignation of four members of the fire district board serving Bayou Vista until reporters asked for comment.
Myron J. Bourque, Lana Luke, David Picou and Bryan Roy submitted their resignations from the St. Mary Fire Protection District No. 7 board on June 12. That left only one serving board member, Andros Williams.
Jones told the council that board members had come to him with complaints that Jones thought had been addressed. Then came the unexpected resignations.
In an interview with the Review, Bourque and Roy cited differences with Fire Chief Gerald Price over such matters as private vehicles parked on fire district property and whether the district should buy bullet-proof vests for firefighters.
But another claim is more complicated. Bourque and Roy said they went to the parish government to find out to whom the fire chief reports. They said they couldn’t get an answer.
The Bayou Vista Volunteer Fire Department is an organization separate from the district board, which administers tax money levied by the district.
In an interview Tuesday, Jones said he sees a problem in the way the government is structured.
“The charter is a nonfunctioning entity …,” Jones said. “The clear lines of responsibility aren’t there.”
Residents often assume the parish president has the same authority that a mayor has in a city or town, Jones said. But the authority in St. Mary is split among a relatively powerful chief administrative officer, who is in charge of day to day operations, and the council, which makes appointments to boards and commissions.
“People out there have the perception that the parish president is the exclusive head of government,” Jones said.
He said he hopes the new charter commission will look at the relationship between the parish government and the district boards.
Jones pointed to another board during the June 26 meeting.
He told the council he was surprised to learn that the Cajun Coast Visitors and Convention Bureau, the parish’s tourism authority, had $2.6 million in cash.
Cajun Coast is supported by a hotel and motel tax.
Jones said Cajun Coast has been slow to respond to requests for relatively small amounts of money that boost tourism at the local level. He also questioned whether the Cajun Coast brand has been effective.
Cajun Coast Director Carrie Stansbury said the board is preparing a response for an upcoming Parish Council meeting.