Lafourche council members question funding gridlock

There could be a gridlock on La. Hwy 1, stopping traffic inside the Lafourche Parish Council Chambers.

The fate of funding for a leadership academy that will shine the spotlight on Nicholls State University and the parish, a new building for the parish coroner, and membership dues to a planning group whose track record brings millions into the parish, all seem to rest in the hands of Parish President Jimmy Cantrelle, after all three items have been approved by the parish council.

Chairman Luci Sposito describes the matter as, “unfortunate, but this is the world we live in.”

Councilman Jerry Jones says, ”this parish will never progress as long as Cantrelle is the president.”

Cantrelle has yet to make a public decision on funding the La. Girls Leadership Academy, a new building for the Lafourche Parish Coroner’s Office, and paying the parish’s membership dues to South Central Planning and Development Commission.

And this was after Laura Badeaux, director of the academy, Coroner Dr. John King, and Kevin Bellanger, director of South Central Planning, each made presentations before the council, during their Jan 23rd meeting.

Badeaux asked the council for $25,000 to help fund the 10th academy this summer, a five day event that begins on June 10th.

The council approved the money in their budget last fall. Cantrelle vetoed it. The council came back with an override to the veto.

The money is approved, and can’t be used for anything else, yet because of paper snafu inside the council clerk’s office, Sposito said fate of the money is at the will of Cantrelle.

During the council meeting Jan 23rd, Cantrelle told Badeaux, “I didn’t say I wasn’t going to give you the money. I said I would look at it, because of the budget.”

Badeaux asked when will he make some sort of decision, and he never answered.

On Sunday, during a phone interview, Badeaux, who is unsettled over the issue, said she is biding her time and waiting until the first council meeting in February, to see what Cantrelle will say.

“This isn’t some camp. This academy is educational empowerment for 50 girls from a cross this state, of which at least 10 percent are from this parish. The governor, corporate executives, celebrities attend to teach these girls skills and so much more,” she said.

“This event shines a spotlight on Nicholls State and this parish. How do you think it looks when your parish president doesn’t want to climb aboard?”

Badeaux said she has listened to legal counsel, and will wait for the next meeting to see what Cantrelle has to say, before planning her next move.

“The money is there. The council is behind it. What’s the problem?” she asked.

Meanwhile, Dr. John King made a cry for help before the council, saying the present facilities for the corner are unusable.

“We’re in desperate need of a new building,” he said.

King described grappling with a lack of storage, rotten wood, mold and mildew scattered throughout the 1,700 sq ft building as he and his staff try to work. He said they also deal with trying to keep the office’s freezers working.

Although he thanked Lafourche Parish Sheriff Craig Webre for his assistance in allowing prisoners to help him rehab the building so far, he explained that he has found another location, a building at the corner of Wilson Street and La. Hwy 1. The cost is roughly $190,000 but it needs additional renovations of roughly $70,000.

The building is 2,291-square-feet in size, which he said will allow him to create a waiting room for grieving families, free of storage boxes and the like.

Sposito informed King that the council set aside a budget for the project.

Finance Director Carrel Hymell III, said the amount is $250,000, and the money is in the building and maintenance fund.

So Sposito said the matter is now in the hands of Cantrelle, who in turned questioned King about maintenance and work orders.

“As long as I’ve been here, I can’t recall any work orders passed through my office concerning the facility you have now.” he said.

“I need your help with this new building, Mr. Cantrelle,” King said. “Now.”

Cantrelle also questioned King over the proposed building on Wilson Street, saying it was quite old as well.

“I’ll get with you,” he said to King.

But King also cited the location of the corner’s present facility being too close to Raceland Elementary School.

“No child should see us bringing a body to and from our building,” he said, saying it could cause emotional trauma for years.

Councilman Perrillioux agreed, saying his own children had attended the school.

In another matter, Cantrelle seems to be baffled as to whether the parish should pay its annual dues to the South Central Planning and Development Commission.

South Central Planning performs a variety of services for its member governments, which include: long range planning; acting as a state and federal liaison including advocacy; preparation of economic development strategies and plans, land use plans, and capital improvement plans.

Sposito indicated the membership dues, $30,000, are a recurring item in the budget. She asked South Central Planning Director Kevin Belanger to appear Jan 23rd, to detail the work the commission has performed for Lafourche Parish.

Belanger’s report shows South Central Planning has assisted the parish and its citizens in obtaining funds into the millions for varying projects.

Some of those include $1.2 million in grant funds for the Lafourche Airport Access Road (which is ready for bid), to sidewalk rehabs in Chackbay, a $45,000 project.

Belanger said Cantrelle also serves as a member of the South Central Planning Board, because he is parish president.

“I understand that there is talk about not paying the dues and local match this fiscal year to the South Central Planning and Development Commission, for services and activities that go one in Lafourche Parish,” Belanger said before the council and Cantrelle.

“We are recognized by the United States Department of Commerce, through their Economic Development Administration to serve as their ears and eyes to this region. It is through that effort that we annually produce and maintain comprehensive economic development strategy which has and will continue to provide millions of dollars of public infrastructure to Lafourche Parish,” he said.

Belanger added that the commission employs nearly 100 people to which over 35 live in Lafourche Parish.

Cantrelle did not comment after Belanger’s presentation.

No. 3 Lafourche Parish President comes under fire

Lafourche Parish President Jimmy Cantrelle behaved badly – though not with criminality – when he squeezed staffers to make some personnel transfers and engineer some raises for key employees, in return for his support of an employee insurance plan they favored. Cantrelle himself favored a different plan, which he said was a better deal for the parish. District Attorney Cam Morvant made that determination after being asked to look into the matter by the Parish Council. Also ill-advised but not criminally actionable, according to Morvant, was the decision to target a parish employee for testing under a “random” drug testing program.

Cantrelle himself has not commented on Morvant’s findings, and in 2017 more controversy is expected during appeals of firings by Cantrelle of some other employees.

Morvant’s report does not mean the end of official review for Cantrelle. Several of the matters studied by Morvant are expected to be looked at by the Louisiana Board of Ethics, which can make determinations as to whether the state’s ethics code was violated.