Home Rule Charter source of disagreement among Lafourche councilmen

The Lafourche Parish Council struck down three of the four proposed Home Rule Charter changes on the agenda at the council’s meeting last Tuesday.

Several councilmen introduced ordinances changing the Home Rule Charter, which is a set of rules governing lawmakers, similar to the state Constitution.

Lafourche is made up of the administrative (parish president) and the legislative branches (parish council). There are nine council members, each representing one of the parish’s nine districts.

Under the Home Rule Charter, both the parish president and council serve four-year terms.

The councilmen were seeking a majority vote to give Lafourche voters the green light to make changes to the governing charter.

“Some of the council members thought that the Home Rule Charter needed a little tweaking,” said Council Chair Tommy Lasseigne, after the meeting. “And in order for the council to change the charter, the parish voters have to approve the changes.”

According to Councilman Daniel Lorraine, the longest serving council member at 24 years, the Home Rule Charter was adopted in 1979.

Councilman Mark Atzenhoffer argued the Home Rule Charter should not be changed.

“We can’t change the charter,” Lasseigne said. “We are asking the parish voters if they want to change the charter. I feel we are telling the people that they can’t make sound decisions.”

During Gerald “Buzz” Breaux’s administration, the Home Rule Charter was rewritten. Parish residents voted on it as a whole. Since then, residents have not been allowed to vote on any of the proposed Home Rule Charter changes.

Lafourche Parish residents will only vote on one of the proposed Home Rule Charter changes, which the council approved last week.

The council voted 6-2 to allow voters to decide whether or not the council clerk will have authority over legislative-branch employees. Voting nay were councilmen Mark Atzenhoffer and Michael Matherne. Councilman Brent Callais was absent.

Three other ordinances failed: These would have limited the terms of council and parish president, decreased the number of votes allowed to terminate a parish department head or administrator, and given parish councilmen a direct connection to parish departments without administrative approval.

Council members would only have been able to serve 12 years and the parish president would have been allowed eight years had the measure passed.

Several councilmen argued that term limits are built in every four years when parish voters elect a new council.

“I don’t feel that we should have term limits,” said Councilman Lindel Toups. “We go to the voters every four years to get elected or re-elected. That should be the term limits.”

Lasseigne said he is torn on the issue. The councilman is running for parish president in October and is therefore ineligible to run for his council seat.

“I think if I went to the polls and I had to vote on term limits, I would be thinking about two things: Has [the council representative] done all that we ask of him, and, if so, why not keep him in office? Or do we need some new blood on the council – a fresh face with new ideas?” Lasseigne said.

Proposing the ordinance, Matherne said, “I think the term limits are a good idea because citizens don’t want career politicians. Term limits will increase turn over rates for public officials, and I think that’s healthy.”

He cited results of a statewide 1995 election that enacted term limits for state legislators. In the election, 76 percent of the voters cast ballots in favor of the term limits.

“People in Lafourche Parish should have the right to vote on a limit for council members,” Matherne added.

The councilman is running for state representative in October and is therefore ineligible for re-election to his council seat.

Unlike a typical ordinance, changing term limits in the charter requires a two-thirds vote, not a simple majority-vote, to be included on the ballot.

Voting against changing term limits were councilmen Michael Delatte, Atzenhoffer, Tyrone Williams, Lorraine and Phillip Gouaux.

A second charter change would have lowered the number of council votes needed to terminate a parish department head or administrator. Council members wanted to decrease the number of votes from seven to six, a two-thirds majority.

The ordinance failed 4-4, with nay votes coming from councilmen Atzenhoffer, Williams, Matherne and Gouaux.

And the final change would have increased the council’s management powers.

Currently, the parish administrator has to approve all work orders submitted by parish employees. However, the councilmen set out to take that power away, allowing themselves direct access to the parish departments.

The ordinance failed 4-4, with ayes coming from Lasseigne, Matherne, Toups and Lorraine.

Had the measures passed, the ordinances would have appeared on the Oct. 20 election ballot for a parishwide vote.