Councilman under fire after allegedly harassing parish employee

Lafourche Community Action Interim-Director Stacy Savoy says she is sick and tired of Parish Councilman Daniel Lorraine harassing her in front of colleagues and the agency’s clients.

Savoy brought her complaints before the parish council last Tuesday, where she said the situation escalated at a commodity giveaway last month, in Galliano.

A witness, Lois Adams of Larose, said the manner in which Lorraine spoke to Savoy as well as to her, was very disrespectful.

“I am a 72 year old woman – a mother, a grandmother and a great-grandmother. I’m also a faithful greeter at my church. I have no reason to stand here and lie to you tonight,” Adams said.

But after both women spoke before the council, Lorraine called Savoy, “a big liar” and said he has witnesses that will tell a different story.

He also scolded Adams while she was speaking, saying, “lady, how can you remember the story, you can barely stand up.”

While he later apologized to Adams, (she later accepted), he still maintained that Savoy, “is a liar.”

Lorraine said at the commodity giveaway, Savoy hollered out, “Why don’t you tell all the people how you are going to move our programs to Morgan City!”

But Savoy said he was hollering that he was going to fire her, because he thought she was taking part in a petition to get rid of him and Councilman Jerry Jones.

“I’m here to tell you once again, Mr. Lorraine, you cannot fire me. You cannot remove me from a position that you did not put me in. I cannot allow you to keep disrespecting me. And I have that whole incident videotaped on my phone,” Savoy said. “I stay on these two knees at night, praying for devils like you.”

Council Chairman Luci Sposito interrupted the barbs, and asked Savoy, “How is this productive at this point?”

Savory answered, “You tell me. The agency board chairman lets people who aren’t on this board, to speak to the council as if they’re still members. Mr. Paul Chiquet’s term expired in June, but he and others get to come up here and flip the script on me. I am tired of being bullied.”

The last full meeting the agency board had was in March, Savoy said, “and that’s illegal. And yes, we have also reported that to the state.”

Councilman Bo Melvin told Savoy, “I am sorry we are at this point. I am sorry for both parties.”

Savoy later handed copies of a report she compiled on the Galliano incident, as well as other incidents where she accuses Lorraine of harassment.

Parish Interim Administrator Brent Abadie concluded the issue by saying the matter has now become a personnel issue, and an investigation will be launched into her allegations against Lorraine and vice-versa.

“Let us investigate this and see what we can work out to find out what happened,” he said.

Savoy reiterated that the community action board is not in compliance.

“Proper protocol is not being followed when it comes to procedures,” she said.

Chandra Marks, another south Lafourche resident, also spoke at the meeting, presenting a petition with 102 signatures to keep the parish services in Lafourche and have them not move to Morgan City.

“Let me start by saying that this petition does not mention Mr. Lorraine’s name, nor does it mention Mr. Jones’ name,” she said.

Marks said the petition is to stop the agency’s services from leaving the parish, because they help many people, and they have helped her tremendously.

Councilman Jerry Jones asked her, “Who told you the services were leaving the parish?”

Marks said she read it in the paper.

Jones said the parish services will not be moved to Morgan City, nor will they leave the parish.

He said the parish council is awaiting a decision on whether the state will allow the St. Mary Community Action to operate and manage the parish’s LiHeap and other Community Service Block Grant programs, “but they will do this from within the parish if they are approved to do so, by the state.”

“We’re merging our services with theirs. It’s a win-win. St. Mary has transit, revolving loans, summer feeding, affordable housing. They have an ‘A’ rating with the state,” he said.

Jones said St. Mary Community Action has been operating the parish’s Weatherization Programs for a few years now, and he as only had one complaint since, and that complaint wasn’t really the fault of St. Mary.

“I promise all of you, Lafourche Parish will have two or three seats on their board,” Jones said.

Rev. Nelson Taylor, was also another speaker at the council meeting, and said he was taken back at how Lorraine treated Savoy, and how believes the contention lies, “in the politics as to how this office has been operated this year.”

“I have done my research, Taylor told the council, and this is not the last time you will hear from me,” he said.

“This whole situation goes back to what happened here earlier this year, and the fight about who is really in charge of this program and its employees,” Taylor said.

The Lafourche Community Action Agency has been embroiled in controversy since mid-June when Parish President Jimmy Cantrelle mysteriously closed office for a few days and sent all employees home with pay, including Ruffin-Roberson.

Cantrelle then left on a brief vacation and upon returning, opened the office, with all of the employees returning back to work except Ruffin-Roberson.

He fired Ruffin-Roberson about a month later, on July 9, after spending almost $230.00 to change the locks on the community action offices.

Councilman Jerry Jones said then, that Cantrelle had opened, “a big can of worms.”

Jones later accused the parish administration of working behind the scenes with others, to set up Ruffin-Roberson to be fired.

He believes that Cantrelle fired Ruffin-Roberson because allegedly, she forged five hours on a time card for an employee in her office, that totaled $87.30.

Council