Asks HRC to ‘consider’ smaller council, OIG, parish manager
By KEVIN CHIRI
Slidell news bureau
MANDEVILLE – The St. Tammany Chamber of Commerce has added some intensity and reconsideration of issues to the current meetings of the Home Rule Charter Commission (HRC) after sending three speakers to last week’s meeting, plus a letter to the committee proposing several key “considerations” for the group to move on.
Being careful not to call them “recommendations,” the Chamber Board sent the 11-member panel a letter on Friday, Aug. 14, and showed support for the new parish manager system of government, an inspector general, and strong consideration to look at reducing the size of the 14-member Parish Council.
While the letter didn’t specifically call for a smaller council, Board Member Doug Ferrer, president of Red River Bank, didn’t mince words in making it clear that if the Home Rule Charter Committee, and the full Parish Council, don’t move forward on real change for St. Tammany government, “we’ll be talking about these same issues in 2030.”
Since the HRC began meeting in January, the topics highlighted by the Chamber have been at the forefront of discussions. Whether or not to reduce the size of the council has been the most controversial issue, but getting increased attention at the Thursday meeting was the idea of hiring an inspector general for the parish—as a real way to review each and every taxing agency in the parish to find better efficiency.
Speaker-after-speaker at the meeting stated unequivocally that “we have a government trust problem in our parish.”
Ferrer said that it is time for parish leaders—the Parish Council and Parish President Mike Cooper—to stop figuring out their financial problems one year at a time, never finding a long-term solution.
“Think back when council members ran for office. Nine new people were elected and all of them advocated for change. You can’t tell me change means leaving the council the same,” he stated. “It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know there is a trust issue in our parish. We need to do things to show transparency, efficiency, accountability and earn trust.”
Perhaps most interesting from Ferrer was taking on the question of whether a smaller council would be more expensive. The Chamber board member said that at this point, considering the massive annual financial problems the parish has been facing for years, “you need to stop thinking about the cost and start thinking about value. We should do what is best for residents and if they see a return on their investment, the cost is irrelevant.”
Chamber President Lacey Osborne spoke and said, “the Chamber thinks we are in a major fiscal crisis, so we are counting on you guys and the Parish Council to vote for what is best for St. Tammany.”
It was only two months ago when HRC Chairman Kevin Davis said he felt the issue of reducing the council was a dead one since “the public has not shown interest in it.” But that all changed this week thanks to the Chamber Board stepping up for the first time publicly to weigh in.
The loudest voice throughout this process against the council reduction has been Parish Councilman David Cougle, who put on a presentation to the committee that claimed it would cost between $1 million and $2 million more a year if the council size became smaller, and there were full-time councilmen.
But the cost issue was downplayed by Ferrer and others, who said it is time for St. Tammany Parish to make some hard decisions and look at 2030, “or maybe even 2035,” said HRC Board Member Gen. Carl Ernst.
An Office of Inspector General (OIG) got more discussion than in previous weeks as one way to reshape parish government and become more efficient. Davis said he expects the OIG to be the first issue the committee should recommend to the full council.
John Vincent, president of a Covington homeowners group, said the Orleans Parish Inspector General just found $1.3 million in sick leave fraud, and HRC Board Member Gen. Carl Ernst supported the idea as well, noting, “Orleans Parish didn’t start off saving a lot of money, but this past year they had a 731 percent return on investment,” considering the monies they saved in government, compared to the cost of the office.
“We need to look at things long term. We have 14 council members and we do not have a balance of power with the administration,” he said. “Our job is to take a long term view, maybe radical or not, and let the Parish Council take it up.”
Cougle was not happy with the Chamber requests for consideration and said their past actions, supporting an apartment zoning change for the parish and now a reduced council, show that they are pushing for “lobbyists, special interests and big developers, driving the topic of wanting to convert to something closer to the New Orleans model.”
District Attorney Collin Sims, also an HRC Board Member, has been a leading proponent for change and reviewing every taxing agency to become more efficient.
“I don’t know what the best size (of the Parish Council) is, but I do know that right now our government is totally broken,” he said. “Under our watch, the Coroner’s Office amassed $16 million and nobody was paying attention. Now the funding is gone and we might lose our DNA lab.
“The Public Health Millage was diverted to jail medical and again, nobody was watching, and over the years, we now have a Justice Center funding problem,” Sims added. “I believe there is an abundance of revenue locked away that isn’t needed, but we can’t do anything but ask for another tax. It’s crazy. It’s like Groundhog Day.”
Sims took the lead months ago advocating for a (Transparency and Resource Accountability Committee) TRAC to look into parish taxing agencies, but instead of getting supported he was quickly criticized by two agencies since he was connected to it.
The D.A. believes that the long-term solutions for the parish will only come with some kind of “aggressive recommendations and how to move to a parish government that does the job, rather than run and ask for another tax. It has to be about needs, not wants and we need to do the work to figure this out.”
Davis said he was “excited” to see the new interest in the work by the committee and acknowledged, “it looks like some things are back.”
If the committee does make a recommendation for changing the size of the council it could come in several forms—either asking the public to allow for change of any kind, or specifying the new council numbers.
Recommendations from the HRC go to the full Parish Council, which must get 10 votes to pass it on as a ballot item for the public. They can change, reject or pass on any recommendations.
The next meeting for the HRC is Thursday, August 28, at 6 p.m. in the Parish Council Chambers.
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