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With impeachment votes, CPAC speeches and arguments over who pays for St. Mary Parish firefighting, it may seem as though the dust hasn’t settled yet from the November and December elections. But it’s already time to go back to the polls.
Early voting opens Saturday for the March 20 election, which in St. Mary Parish means it’s time to decide whether we’ll pay another 0.45% in sales taxes to give teachers and other School Board employees a raise.
The School Board, members of which represent a variety of political views, has been united and persistent in putting the tax to the voters. Key public officials have been equally persistent in their opposition.
Now it’s up to the voters, and the choice is a tough one. Tough choices mean that even if your side wins, there’s a cost.
The 0.45% tax would, according to the ballot language, raise about $3.85 million a year “to be dedicated and used to supplement salaries and benefits paid by the School Board for teachers and other personnel employed by the School Board.”
The School Board’s plan is to give certified employees a $3,000 annual raise and other employees a $1,500 raise.
The stakes are high because of the school system’s importance here. Any list of St. Mary’s top assets would have to include the public schools.
The state’s performance scores put St. Mary in the top quarter of Louisiana parishes, even though six of every 10 public school students here come from low-income homes. To stay at that level, according to proponents, the School Board must offer competitive pay to attract and keep talented employees.
At a recent meeting, Superintendent Teresa Bagwell said St. Mary will still have low sales taxes compared to other parishes in the region.
She cited Louisiana Department of Education statistics saying that in 2018-19, St. Mary’s average annual teacher salary of $47,933 is more than $2,000 less than the state average.
And nearly half of teachers are leaving the profession during their first five years, Bagwell said.
In November, then-School Board President Michael Taylor said St. Mary ranks 42nd among parishes in teacher pay.
“This is a vast difference in the effectiveness of teachers to impact student achievement and the rate at which they are compensated,” Taylor said.
So why not vote for the tax?
The opposition case comes down to one thing: the economy. The argument is that local commerce doesn’t need the hit that a new tax would inflict.
We all know how St. Mary has struggled since oil prices began their long slide from $105 a barrel in late summer 2014. Aside from occasional peaks, the price has generally stayed below $60 and is often below $50.
Then came COVID-19 and the economic restrictions that pushed St. Mary’s unemployment rate to a depression-level 14.8% in May. Unemployment here was nearly 8% as late as December.
The result has been the loss of about a third of St. Mary’s jobs in 6½ years, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Parish President David Hanagriff has so far kept his promise to speak out against the proposed tax at every St. Mary Parish Council meeting. Hanagriff argues that the timing is all wrong for a new tax.
And, he said at last week’s meeting, the School Board should do more to trim costs, especially at the central office, before asking voters for a new tax.
Former Morgan City Mayor Frank “Boo” Grizzaffi, who left office in January, was another early opponent of the proposal. He noted that sales in Morgan City are already taxed at 8.75%, so the 0.45% addition would push the total rate over 9%.
The most influential opponent has been state Sen. Bret Allain, R-Franklin. Allain told The Daily Review earlier this year that the early word about Census results is that St. Mary may have lost 10% of its population in the last decade of economic struggle, making a new tax a bad idea.
Allain also had objected to an earlier version of the tax proposal developed by the School Board for submission to voters last spring. That proposal was for a 0.5% tax for salaries as well as for a technology fund.
The senator didn’t like the technology fund provision and said that if it was included, he’d insist that the sales tax vote be on the same day as the presidential election so that more voters would have a say. And, as a member of the State Bond Commission that must OK tax proposals for the ballot, Allain was in a position to do something about it.
The School Board eventually lowered the proposed tax to 0.45% and took out the technology fund measure. Even so, COVID delayed the election, and the board eventually withdrew the tax proposal over concern about ballot language developed by the Secretary of State’s Office.
The board came back with the latest proposal, the 0.45% tax with no technology fund, and voted in November to put it before voters. So the tax will appear on the spring ballot, when turnout will presumably be lower and the support of School Board employees will loom larger.
In any case, St. Mary voters have a choice to make March 20.
Bill Decker is managing editor of The Daily Review.

Mike Vappie has returned home, and he is looking to make a difference.
Vappie grew up in Franklin and played running back at Franklin High before continuing on in college and a brief stint in the now defunct United States Football League. Since then, he has spent much of his career in the sports marketing arena.
But after years away, he decided it was time to come home.
“I’ve always wanted to come home, always knew one day I would come home, always had a heart for home,” said Vappie, who returned to the area in November.
Now, he wants to help the area with the Great Gumbo Celebrity Golf Classic, which he said will be a nonprofit. The event will be held this year on Oct. 9 at The Atchafalaya at Idlewild near Patterson and feature ex-sports figures. The idea is to use proceeds to benefit charities in St. Mary Parish to help children with education.
“I’m not going to just tie one charity to it,” Vappie said. “I’m going to try to sprinkle it around when we do that event.”
Years ago, Vappie got his business career started in an unusual way as he was a member of the Birmingham Stallions in the United States Football League, but his career was quickly derailed by injury.
While the league only lasted two years, he worked for the organization.
Vappie later worked in sports marketing where he said he has worked with many athletes through the years starting their foundations and doing fundraisers for them.
“I lived and worked in Orlando for many years,” he said.
Vappie has had one book published, “The ABC’s of Spiritual Growth,” and he is writing a second book now.
He also is part of a team that is producing a documentary on the untold story of African Americans’ contributions to the Kentucky Derby. The 15-part series is called “We Run the Money.” It will be streamed on TV, according to the project’s website, www.werunthemoney.com.
He said through research, it’s been discovered that the derby was started by ex-slaves.
“Those (ex) black slave jockeys were the first superstar athletes in America,” Vappie said.
A four-part documentary series, called “The Ghosts of Kentucky,” also is being produced.

A new study of how the 2020 major hurricanes and the COVID-19 pandemic affected each other as well as disaster response found that although prior experience enabled community-based organizations to respond to the pandemic, the pandemic is also creating new challenges to preparing for and responding to natural disasters.
The research is published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health.           
“Two major crises hit Louisiana and coastal communities in the Southeastern United States in 2020 - a significant increase in the frequency and severity of hurricanes, and the COVID-19 pandemic,” says Benjamin Springgate, MD, MPH, Chief of Community & Population Medicine at LSU Health New Orleans School of Medicine.
Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 26 representatives of community-based programs in southern Louisiana.
The participants ranged in age from 28 to 70. The majority (61.5%) were non-Hispanic white; 30.8% were Black; one participant (3.8%) was Latinx and one participant (3.8%) was Vietnamese.
Three-fourths of the participants lived in Orleans Parish, and most represented local-level organizations.
Participants represented 24 community-based agencies and organizations that provide a wide variety of services, including environmental and social justice issues impacting underserved communities, community health promotion, health and mental health services, disaster preparedness and recovery, funding of community initiatives, community development, faith-based services, affordable housing, child welfare advocacy and support, and criminal justice reform.
“Local leaders noted that due to the pandemic, it is now harder to plan for evacuations in the event of a hurricane,” adds Dr. Springgate.
“Organizations find it is also more difficult to provide in-person client services and challenging to plan for providing food and other resources to residents who may shelter in place during a storm.”
The analysis also identified several strengths based on disaster preparedness experience and capabilities.
“Local organizations identified several strengths based on their disaster preparedness experience – particularly that based on prior experience with hurricanes, they already had a framework for how to respond and adapt to the novel challenges presented by COVID,” Dr. Springgate notes.
The analysis shows that the increase in demand for disaster-related services has been accompanied by a decrease in the availability of services due to a decline in available financial resources as well as the constraints on services delivery imposed by protocols designed to prevent the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus.
The authors conclude that despite the anticipated challenges to delivering services in response to a natural disaster, the networks of partnerships and prior experiences with disaster preparedness and response, along with certain features of the community that have fostered resilience to adverse events, represent key assets in coping with the pandemic and with the current hurricane season.
Though limited to a particular setting with extensive experience with climate-related disasters and preparedness and response, the lessons for interaction with a pandemic context may have important implications for approaches in other areas to consider enhancing preparedness and response resources, training and partnerships.
Other LSU Health New Orleans authors include Dr. Ashley Wennerstrom, Olivia Sugarman, Carter Pesson, Jessica E. Seay, and Caroline N. Stallard. Other authors were Lawrence A. Palinkas from the University of Southern California, Jill Hancock from Pennington Biomedical Research Center, Diana Meyers from St. Anna’s Episcopal Church, Arthur Johnson from Lower Ninth Ward Center for Sustainable Engagement and Development, Mara Polk from National Alliance on Metal Illness-New Orleans, and Kenneth B. Wells from the University of California, Los Angeles.
This research was supported by a grant from the National Academy of Sciences’ Gulf Research Program (NCT03977844, B. Springgate, PI). 

(Editor’s Note: The charges listed here and the narratives that go with them are provided by the police agencies that made the arrests. Guilt or innocence has not been determined in court.)

Between Friday and Monday, Morgan City police made arrests involving possession of six different varieties of illegal or misused drugs, according to police reports.

Morgan City
Police Chief James F. Blair reports that over the last 72-hour period, the Morgan City Police Department responded to 126 calls for service. The following people were arrested beginning Friday:
—Christopher Dwaine Woods, 29, 11th Street, Morgan City, was arrested at 7:49 p.m. Friday on charges of stop sign and yield signs, driver must be licensed, possession of marijuana (third offense), possession of MDMA (ecstasy), possession of crack cocaine, illegal possession of a controlled dangerous substance in the presence of a minor, and introduction of contraband into a penal institution. Woods was also booked on a 6th Ward Court warrant for two counts of failure to appear for arraignment and a 16th Judicial District Court warrant for failure to appear.
A patrol officer conducted a traffic stop at the intersection of Railroad Avenue and Oak Street in Morgan City. The driver was identified as Woods.
A computer check revealed he did not have a valid driver’s license. A warrant check revealed the 6th Ward Court and 16th Judicial District Court held an active warrant for his arrest. He was placed under arrest.
During the arrest, he was found in possession of suspected marijuana. There was also a minor in the vehicle, leading to the additional charge. He was transported to the Morgan City Police Department for booking.
During the booking intake process, Woods attempted to discard crack cocaine and MDMA he had concealed on his person. He was additional charged and booked into the Morgan City Police Department.
—Kirk M. Anslum, 39, Patton Street, Morgan City, was arrested at 2:27 a.m. Saturday on charges of possession with intent to distribute fentanyl, possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine, violation of the Uniform Controlled Dangerous Substance Law (drug-free zone) and possession of drug paraphernalia.
Narcotics Detectives with the Morgan City Police Department executed a search warrant at the residence of Anslum on Patton Street in Morgan City.
Investigators located fentanyl, methamphetamine and drug paraphernalia during the search of the home. During the investigation, investigators discovered evidence the fentanyl and methamphetamine were for sale.
He was placed under arrest and transported to the Morgan City Police Department for booking and incarceration.
—Deondra Walker, 24, Federal Avenue, Morgan City, was arrested at 9:35 p.m. Saturday on charges of turning movements and required signals, possession of codeine, and illegal possession of a firearm in the presence of a controlled dangerous substance.
A patrol officer conducted a traffic stop for a traffic violation at the intersection of Terrebonne Street and Shannon Street The driver was identified as Walker.
During the traffic stop, officers located suspected liquid codeine in a Styrofoam cup and a firearm in the vehicle. He was placed under arrest and transported to the Morgan City Police Department for booking and incarceration.
—Kenneth Hernandez, 24, Tommie Street, Morgan City, was arrested at 10:58 p.m. Saturday on charges of aggravated flight from an officer and driver must be licensed.
—Daniel Orellana, 19, Marin Lane, Morgan City, was arrested at 10:58 p.m. Saturday on charges of possession of marijuana, possession of methamphetamine and possession of drug paraphernalia.
The Morgan City Police Department received a call about a reckless driver on La. 182. Officers located the vehicle and attempted to conduct a traffic stop. The vehicle fled at a high rate of speed on La. 182, leaving the roadway several times and nearly striking a bridge railing crossing the Bayou Ramos.
The vehicle came to a stop, and officers detained the driver, Hernandez, and his passenger, Orellana. A computer check revealed Hernandez did not possess a valid driver’s license.
Orellana was found in possession of suspected marijuana, methamphetamine and drug paraphernalia. Hernandez and Orellana were placed under arrest and transported to the Morgan City Police Department for booking and incarceration.
—Monique Barrilleaux, 37, Clement Street, Morgan City, was arrested at 3:28 a.m. Monday on charges of proper equipment required on vehicles and possession of methamphetamine.
A patrol officer conducted a traffic stop for a traffic violation at the intersection of Fig Street and Levee Road in Morgan City. The driver was identified as Barrilleaux.
During the traffic stop, officers discovered she was in possession of methamphetamine. She was placed under arrest and transported to the Morgan City Police Department for booking and incarceration.
—Justin Dale Havens, 33, Florida Street, Morgan City, was arrested at 5:11 a.m. Saturday on a charge of discharge of a firearm in the city limits.
Officers were called to the area of Duke Street regarding gunshots fired in the area. They learned from a witness that Havens had fired multiple gunshots into the ground in front of his residence. Officer spoke with Havens at this residence and discovered a firearm and fired shell casings. Havens admitted to officers he had fired his handgun into the ground. He was placed under arrest and transported to the Morgan City Police Department for booking and incarceration.
—Clifton Thomassie III, 56, La. 311, Houma, was arrested at 9:05 a.m. Saturday on charges of operating a vehicle with a suspended license and no motor vehicle insurance.
—Esdras De Leon Hernandez, 33, South Road, Morgan City, was arrested at 4:02 p.m. Saturday on charges of speeding and driver must be licensed.
—Carley Gros, 20, La. 70, Pierre Part, was arrested at 1:50 a.m. Sunday on a charge of alcohol consumption in public.
—Jeremy J. Walker, 40, Federal Avenue, Morgan City, was arrested at 7:33 a.m. Sunday on a warrant for simple battery.
—Bridget A. Richard, 49, Railroad Avenue, Patterson, was arrested at 11:20 a.m. Sunday on a warrant for disturbing the peace and simple assault.

Berwick
Police Chief David Leonard reported these arrests:
—Daniel Griffin, 44, Fifth Street, Morgan City, was arrested at 11:16 p.m. Friday on charges of reckless operation of a motor vehicle, aggravated flight from an officer and driving under suspension.
About 11:10 p.m. Friday, officers with the Berwick Police Department observed a vehicle traveling in a reckless manner in the area of Sixth Street. Officers attempted to conduct a traffic stop on the vehicle, at which time the driver fled at a high rate of speed and traveling on the wrong side of the roadway on the La.182 bridge.
The suspect vehicle veered into the oncoming traffic  several times, almost striking other vehicles. After a brief pursuit, the vehicle stopped on Federal Avenue at Railroad Avenue in Morgan City. Officers made contact with the driver Griffin, who was taken into custody without further incident.  
A computer check showed that his driver’s license was suspended. Griffin was transported to the Berwick Police Department, where he was booked. Griffin was released on a $8,500.00 bond.
—Mark Clements, 55,  River Road, Berwick, was arrested at 12:04 a.m. Saturday on a charge of domestic abuse battery.
—Gina Clements, 53, River Road, Berwick, was arrested at 12:04 a.m. Saturday on a charge of domestic abuse battery.
About 11:30 p.m. Friday, officers responded to disturbance call at a residence on River Road. Officers spoke with Mark and Gina Clements. During the course of the investigation, it was learned that the married couple had been involved in a physical altercation with each other.
They were both placed under arrest and transported to the Berwick Police Department, where they were booked. Each posted a $10 bond.
—Philip Raymond, 31, West Admiral Doyle, New Iberia was arrested at 2:31 p.m. Saturday on charges of possession of marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia.
About 1:45 p.m. Saturday, a traffic stop was conducted on U.S. 90 on a vehicle for a traffic violation. During the course of the stop, officers made contact with Raymond, and an odor of marijuana was detected coming from the vehicle.  
A search of the vehicle was conducted, at which time marijuana and items of drug paraphernalia were located inside the vehicle. Raymond was placed under arrest and transported to the Berwick Police Department, where he was booked. Raymond later posted a $3,500 bond.

Assumption
Sheriff Leland Falcon reported this arrest:
—Derrick D. Domingue, 34, Shell Beach Road, Pierre Part, was arrested Sunday on a charge of unauthorized entry of an inhabited dwelling.
The arrest arose from a Sunday afternoon incident near Tut Street in Pierre Part.
Deputies were dispatched to the location and made contact with the complainant, who advised that she was in her home when Domingue walked in without knocking or offering any form of communication before doing so. The entry was made without the victim’s consent.
Deputies located Domingue nearby. He was interviewed and arrested. Domingue was booked into the Assumption Parish Detention Center with bond set at $25,000.

Franklin
Police Chief Morris Beverly said his department responded to 27 complaints over the weekend and made the following arrests:
—Deondric Butler, 25, of Ninth St., Franklin, was arrested at 1:16 a.m. Saturday on charges of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, possession of marijuana (third offense), possession of drug paraphernalia and possession of a firearm in the presence of a controlled dangerous substance.
Butler was additionally arrested on a warrant for 16th Judicial District Court for failure to appear on the charge of aggravated assault with a firearm. Butler was booked, processed, and released on a $70,000 bond.
—Joaquima Brown, 26, Weber Street, Franklin, was arrested at 1:16 a.m. Saturday on charges of possession of marijuana, possession of drug paraphernalia and possession of a firearm in the presence of a controlled dangerous substance.
Brown was booked, processed, and held on a $20,500 bond.
—Charles Beverly, 28, Deforest Brown Lane, Franklin, was arrested at 1:16 a.m. Saturday on the charges of possession of marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia. Beverly was booked, processed and released on a $1,000 bond.
The three arrests stem from officers patrolling the area of Ninth Street in reference to previous high volumes of calls involving shots being fired in the area.
Officers observed a vehicle with multiple occupants.
Officers believed one of the occupants had outstanding warrants. With the assistance of the St. Mary Parish Sheriff’s Office, officers approached the vehicle that was occupied by Butler, Brown and Beverly.
Officers and deputies observed a handgun in plain view.
The subjects were transported to the Franklin Police Department for questioning, and a search warrant was obtained to search the vehicle. Upon searching the vehicle, officers located two handguns, illegal narcotics and the paraphernalia.
—Jasmine Webb, 29, O’Neal Chube Street, Franklin, was arrested at 6:20 p.m. Saturday on a warrant for the St. Mary Parish Sheriff’s Office for non-consensual disclosure of a private image. Webb was booked, processed and released on a $10,000. bond.
—Shontranice McDaniel, 25, Easy Street, Franklin, was arrested at 6:20 p.m. Saturday on a warrant dated Aug. 18, 2020, for simple battery.
McDaniel was booked, processed and released on a $2,500.00 bond.

St. Martin
Sheriff Becket Breaux reported this arrest:
—Jennifer Courville, 46, Ray Lane, Breaux Bridge, was arrested Sunday on a charge of theft valued to $1,000-$4,999.