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A committee of nine dubbed the Home Rule Charter Revision Committee, will now begin a review of the Lafourche Parish Charter, under a directive of the Lafourche Parish Council.
However, one of the committee appointments didn’t come without controversy.
And there is a question of missing video tapes from the council’s initial discussion of the charter’s approval from 2004.
Council Chairman Luci Sposito said she introduced the idea of a charter committee to her colleagues in Jan of this year, primarily because it has been more than 10 years that the document has been reviewed.
“This is a committee – whose mission is to look for areas where we can plug holes, and to identity any small errors they see,” Sposito said, explaining further that time has lapsed and perhaps there are areas of the charter that need to be addressed during a full council meeting.
“Let me be clear that during the committee review, they cannot make any changes whatsoever to the charter. Changes can only be made with voter approval.”
Sposito stressed that the group will make recommendations to the council, however those will be discussed openly at future council meetings.
One representative was nominated from each district in the parish, at the council meeting May 8.
Sposito explained that either she met or had the respective councilman meeting with each nominee, to explain that the task of being a committee member wasn’t an easy one, and that the time served on the committee would be an involved commitment.
The members of the committee are: Andrea Brinkley, to represent District 1; Danielle Stein, to represent District 2; Paul Arceneaux, to represent District 3; Kent Lirette to represent District 4; Paul LeBoeuf, to represent District 5; Carol LeBlanc, to represent District 6; Lonny Babin to represent District 7; Herbert Melancon, to represent District 8; and Laci Latiolais to represent District 9.
The nomination of Paul LeBoeuf however, didn’t come without controversy.
Councilman James Bourgeois said LeBoeuf was not his nomination, and instead offered a substitute motion at the May 8 meeting, to nominate Brent Abadie, a parish employee and attorney; however,that motion failed with Bourgeois, Councilman Daniel Lorraine and Michael Gros voting for Abadie.
Bourgeois then offered a second substitute motion to nominate Holly “Scooter” LeBouef, however that failed with Bourgeois an Lorraine voting for her.
Bourgeois said at that point, he left the meeting, especially after Sposito said she wasn’t going to allow anyone or anything to be an obstruction to the appointments.
“Paul LeBoeuf was her pick all along – not mine. That’s who she wanted. So I got fed up and left the meeting,” Bourgeois said.
Sposito said Bourgeois had plenty enough time to get a nominee to her, explaining that he was emailed numerous times since January.
However, Bourgeois said he never received any emails from her.
“My email hasn’t worked properly for about a year or so. I never received anything. Frankly, my parish phone has never worked right. I’ve complained and nothing has been done,” he said.
“When I began my term, I never had these problems. But when I started going against the majority of the council, that’s when I started having these issues,” Bourgeois said.
Councilman Lorraine verified that Bourgeois has had problems with both email and his cell phone.
“Let me tell you, when you go against certain members of this council, they don’t like it. And they do what they want,” Lorraine said.
“Man, I wish the election was tomorrow, because these folks don’t get anything done,” he said.
“They can’t tell you what is in the charter,because they themselves don’t know. But hear this, when you start messing with the charter, watch what the people are going to do,” he said.
Councilman Jerry Jones, who was not present at the May 8 meeting, said he’s glad the charter committee will get to work.
“It’s been since 2004, don’t you think it’s time?” Jones asked.
The District 1 Councilman also explained that he believes the charter is in disarray.
Also, he said a portion of the 2004 video tapes are missing, ones connected with the charter.
“These tapes went missing last year. Now who do you think took these tapes, literally removing them from the parish offices?” Jones asked.
