Fight leads to shots, attempted murder charge
July 1, 2017Recognizing or ignoring truth
July 3, 2017
Lafourche Parish Public Works Director James Barnes cut a lonely figure at the end of last Tuesday’s Lafourche Parish Council meeting.
As the council meeting wore on, the already-thin numbers of Parish President Jimmy Cantrelle’s administration dropped as officials left the meeting early. At 6:46 p.m., according to Council Clerk Carleen Babin’s record keeping, Cantrelle himself departed. An hour beyond that, all of the other officials left except for Barnes, leaving him as the only administration figure left at the meeting.
Barnes did his best to answer any questions related to public works projects. Topics outside of Barnes’s department were broached, with council members lamenting they could not get any answers due to an absent administration.
Cantrelle said he left the meeting early because of the council’s combative attitude toward him and his staff. He said he wants council members to send questions related to meeting agenda items in advance so the proper parish official can research it and provide the best answer at the meeting. However, according to Cantrelle, the council asks a number of questions primarily to embarrass him and his staff rather than to get information.
“It’s not on questions on the agenda that comes up,” Cantrelle said. “Most of the time it’s questions that they’re trying to bully people or they’re trying to ask you a question that was not on the agenda. As far as anything on the agenda, my staff is more than ready to answer the questions.”
However, questions remain over where Cantrelle was headed when he left the meeting. Council Member Jerry LaFont said he sent somebody to ride by the parish president’s house, and they saw his parish truck outside his home. LaFont alleged Cantrelle left to watch Game 2 of the College Baseball World Series Final between LSU and Florida, which began at 7 p.m.
“I would love to be home watching this LSU game. But you know what, I’ve got an obligation to the taxpayers of Lafourche Parish, while he’s sitting at his house,” LaFont said.
Cantrelle would not reveal where he went upon leaving the meeting, only saying he had “somewhere to go” but deeming it a private matter.
“I have personal reasons on that. And I’m not going to say why I left,” Cantrelle said.
Cantrelle was not the only person whose LSU fandom was used as a cudgel at Tuesday’s meeting. Legislative Internal Auditor Reggie Bagala was due to present a report before the parish council at last week’s meeting, but he was absent as he was attending the game in Omaha. Council Member James Bourgeois said Bagala should be held to the same standard as other parish employees who face deadlines.
“If he can’t personally present it because he wants to go to baseball, that’s fine,” Bourgeois said. “I know Mr. LaFont would like to be there, too, as well as several other people in the audience and what-have-you. I got nothing against that. But if there’s a report due, there’s a report due, and that’s a deadline. And I’d like some accountability on that.”
Council Chairman Corey Perrillioux said Bagala notified him of the trip and requested time off in advance. According to Bagala, he was on a previously-scheduled trip with his family in the Midwest and realized they would be able to catch the games if LSU indeed made it to the final. Bagala noted he was using vacation time for the trip and said he was fine with Perrillioux’s statements on the matter in regard to a response to Bourgeois.
“Reggie mentioned to me that if things work out and LSU makes the finals they may be able to make it to Omaha on the way back to Louisiana,” Perrillioux wrote. “It worked out and they caught a couple of games. In my opinion this is a non-story as leave was approved in advance.”
The walk out and ensuing accusations from the council were only the beginning of a challenging week for the parish president. On Friday, District Attorney Cam Morvant said Cantrelle must give back more than $38,000 in salary back pay he received last month.
Morvant issued an opinion on Friday saying Cantrelle is required to refund Lafourche at least the $38,779.31 he received on May 19, as well as any salary paid over the amount approved by the council in the 2017 budget. The payment was brought to light by Bagala, who discovered it in late May.
Cantrelle said he read Morvant’s opinion and will return the money promptly.
“I have no problems returning the money. I will return the money until they can solve it. I don’t think it was about the money, I think it was about the process of not going in front of the council. If that’s what it takes, I’ll return everything. It don’t bother me,” Cantrelle said.
The money to be refunded is back pay that parish administration officials gave to Cantrelle in what they deemed was a miscalculation of his salary for both 2016 and this year. In 2014, the parish council approved Ordinance No. 5444 to give the parish president a raise, beginning with the next parish president term in 2016. The raise tied the president’s salary to an average of the salaries of the assessor, clerk of court and sheriff in Lafourche.
Due to the increase, the 2016 salary for the parish president was set at $122,812, up from $74,952 in 2015. However, in Sept. 2016 then-Finance and Human Resources Director Tommy Lasseigne first brought up the possibility of Cantrelle being underpaid. According to his calculation, Cantrelle was to actually be paid $142,502.30 for the year.
It is noted that on the campaign trail, Cantrelle made a campaign promise to not accept the pay raise for the position were he to win the election. When it was revealed he could not just refuse the money, he vowed to use the money to create a scholarship fund for Lafourche Parish college students. Cantrelle started the TJ Cantrelle Foundation in memory of his late grandson, and the foundation gave out its first three $1,000 scholarships to graduating Lafourche Parish high school students heading to Nicholls Sate University or Fletcher Technical Community College last month.
Neither Lasseigne at the time nor Morvant in his opinion were able to determine exactly how previous HR Director Savonye Anderson came up with the original 2016 salary. However, Morvant attached figures he found for 2015 salaries of the three officials used to determine the average that he thinks Anderson used to come up with the number. According to Morvant, the figures used considered only the base salaries for the assessor and clerk of court. Lasseigne included supplements, statutory allowances and other amounts in his calculations, boosting their salaries enough to increase the average to the $142,000 figure.
In his opinion, Morvant said the raise ordinance had a number of deficiencies, including its use of salary and compensation interchangeably. Morvant recommended the council only use salary and remove the word compensation within the ordinance.
In Oct. 2016, as parish officials sought to determine Cantrelle’s proper pay for 2016, Lasseigne again recalculated the number to be $153,338 based on data from the Louisiana Legislative Auditor’s reports for the three offices. Cantrelle never received any back pay, and by March of this year parish officials were concluding how to determine the proper payment and make it. Lasseigne, then acting as interim parish administrator, emailed Morvant on Mar. 15 about the salary discrepancy. The next day, Morvant told him it seemed to be an accounting issue.
Carrel Hymel, the new finance director, determined on May 18 that Cantrelle’s total back pay for both 2016 and nine pay periods this year to be $38,779.81. The next day, the parish issued two checks totaling the back pay to Cantrelle, since the state tax table would not permit Human Resources Manager Kristy Chiasson to write a check for more than $25,000.
In late May, Bagala noticed the two payments and questioned them. Hymel spoke with David Stagni from the accounting firm Stagni & Company concerning the back pay on June 20. Based on its own research concerning the officals’ salaries and parish payments, Stagni’s company issued a letter on June 22 determining Hymel’s calculation was short and another $5,925 was due to Cantrelle. There is no record of Cantrelle receiving this additional pay.
Movant wrote that he has since spoken to Stagni regarding this matter, and Stagni concurs with his opinion. In his opinion, he said the parish president is required to make a supplemental appropriation to adjust a salary in the 2017 budget, which the council then has to approve.
“In the case at issue, two (2) checks were issued payable to James Cantrelle to cover what was determined to be an underpayment of salary. No supplemental appropriation was done,” Morvant wrote. “In light of the fact that this amount was over and above the salary amount submitted by the Administration and approved by the Council in the 2017 budget, a supplemental appropriation is required. According to the Charter, any payments made in violation of LPHRC Article VI, Section 2 B are absolutely null and of no legal effect.”
Cantrelle said he would bring the back pay issue before the council as a supplemental appropriation if required.
“If we have to bring it in front of the council, then we have no choice if that’s what the decision is,” Cantrelle said. “It’s just on whatever they say to do. Whatever they say to do, I’ll do it. I have no problems listening to the district attorney and no problems listening to anybody else.” •
