Lafourche voters face Charter amendments

The establishment of a Lafourche Parish residency requirement on the position of parish administrator and the fate of that current employee will be decided separately.

Contrary to earlier beliefs, Lafourche voters on Nov. 6 will be faced with two propositions to amend the parish’s Home Rule Charter: One proposes a residency requirement on future parish administrator candidates, and the other would enforce this requirement immediately, which would relieve Administrator Crystal Chiasson of her duties.

Chiasson lives in Napoleonville, Assumption Parish, Lafourche’s northwestern neighbor.

The proposals would amend the parish’s Home Rule Charter, the set of foundational bylaws that direct Lafourche Parish Government.

“(The council) asked me to prepare a Charter election with those two changes, and with regard to the way the state election requirements are, it would be very awkward to do it in one proposition, so it was done in two propositions,” said Alan Offner, who drafted the proposals as an attorney and partner with Foley and Judell.

“You’re not supposed to ask two questions in one proposition,” Offner continued. “What if you were for the first part and against the second part? How are you supposed to vote?”

One councilman introduced an amendment to the measure drafting these propositions earlier this year that would have mandated separate propositions, but it failed.

The proposals prompted debate among parish leaders when the parish council voted 6-2 to present the measure to the public.

Some say the change is needed to make government flow properly and ensure the administrator has Lafourche’s best interests in mind. Others contend that it is a back-door effort to fire Chiasson and thus a clear example of councilmen passing their responsibilities to residents.

Regarding where she lives, Chiasson said assertions of her caring less about the parish’s welfare because of her address – less 20 miles from her Thibodaux office – are false.

“If I own property here and my plans are to build here, I want the parish to be the best it can be,” Chiasson said. “You don’t have to be in a parish to love a parish. … I don’t own my home in Assumption Parish. I don’t own anything in Assumption Parish.”

Earlier this year, she showed reporters receipts that show she paid $1,200 in tax on three Lafourche properties last year.

Councilman Jerry Jones spearheaded the council-developed initiative. A former ally of the administration, Jones began distancing himself from the parish president and her staff over the summer.

The discord first arose in public when he voted against hiring Joni Tuck to serve as the parish’s new director of Community Services. Among other tasks, Tuck directs the Office of Community Action, which Jones has long been involved with as a councilman.

Several attempts to reach Jones were unsuccessful.

Councilman Phillip Gouaux said he supports the requirement because the current situation prevents the proper presidency succession plan from working in cases of emergency.

Since Chiasson does not live in Lafourche, she cannot fill a presidency vacancy should it arise, which means the duty falls to the next-in-line council chairman, as dictated in the Charter.

Gouaux and other councilmen who are not willing to forego their full-time jobs to fill such a vacancy cannot serve as council chair, the Dist. 7 councilman reasoned.

“That’s one of the major factors why I’ve never applied,” he said. The councilman also said the administrator should live in the parish for the sake of parish residents.

He said he has not decided if he supports the retroactive-enforcement proposition.

Councilman Aaron Caillouet has been a staunch opponent of the amendments.

When the council approved the resolution, his proposal to separate the residency requirement from the retroactive enforcement clause failed.

Afterward, Caillouet called two special meetings in futile attempts to rescind the ordinance before it was placed on the ballot.

“As I’ve said before, I think it’s our job to determine whether or not somebody is suited for the job,” Caillouet said. “That’s what the voters elected us to do. We shouldn’t pass the ball back to them. We ought to be able to do our jobs.”

The first-term councilman and former parish president also said he disagrees with the residency requirement because it could prevent the most qualified candidate from landing the job.

There’s also the matter of job security, or lack thereof, which members of Randolph’s cabinet privately say deters qualified candidates from applying to department head positions and prompts sitting directors to leave early.

Donna Adams (Human Resources), Gretchen Caillouet (Grants and Economic Development), Thomas Turner III (Community Action), Frank Morris (Planning and Permitting) and Nicholas Matherne (Coastal Energy and Environment) have all resigned within the past two years.

Adams, Matherne, Morris and Turner faced the council’s firing line before leaving. Department heads, unwilling to speak on the record about this matter, say the lawmakers’ frequent ire has established a tenuous situation that already restricts the applicant pool.

As it relates to Chiasson, this isn’t the first time her job has been in jeopardy since being appointed in March 2008 amid concerns about her residency.

Her employment status was challenged in September 2009, when a resolution that would oust her failed despite a majority 6-3 vote. Seven votes are needed to fire the administrator or a department head mid-term, also dictated by the Home Rule Charter.

And this January, as per the Charter, the parish president submitted the parish administrator and all department heads for ratification before the council at the start of her new term. Chiasson was approved by a 5-4 vote.

Jones supported Chiasson on all three occasions. Even with his vote now, however, the council would have difficulty mustering the seven votes needed to fire her midterm.

Jones also proposed a Charter amendment that would reduce the amount of votes needed to fire an existing department head from seven to six, but that measure failed.

Jerry Jones

FILE PHOTO