Post-Deepwater debacle continues to top headlines

From continued frustration for those seeking compensation following the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster of April 2010, to first time opportunities for candidates that became elected officials, 2011 was a year of both tragedy and triumph.

Pooling together subjects that ranked highest in terms of extent of coverage and urgency in attention, the top 10 news stories of 2011 are presented in an annual countdown.

No. 10: Odomes Guilty of Priest’s Murder

Nineteen years after the Rev. Hunter Horgan III was found bludgeoned and stabbed to death in the St. John’s Episcopal Church rectory, his family members were able to attain a semblance of justice. Derrick Odomes, 33, was found guilty of the homicide that rocked the city of Thibodaux in 1992. Odomes, who was 14 years old when Horgan was murdered, cannot serve a prison sentence for the conviction because of the state’s juvenile-protecting laws that were in place at the time, presiding Judge John E. LeBlanc ruled. Lafourche Parish District Attorney Cam Morvant II said he would appeal LeBlanc’s ruling. Still, Odomes is facing the proposition of spending the rest of his life behind bars. One week before Odomes stood trial, LeBlanc issued him a life sentence as a habitual offender who had six previous felony convictions. Odomes’ attorney, New Iberia-based Lynden Burton, said he would appeal the sixth conviction, which was levied in the 17th Judicial District and thus was the basis for the habitual offender bill being brought forth. The trial, while brief, featured moments of high drama, particularly when Morvant grilled Odomes, who decided to defend himself from the witness stand. Although no murder weapon was produced, no point of entry was established and a hair lifted from beneath Horgan’s fingernail was never examined for its DNA makeup, the murder trial lasted two days, and a 12-person jury deliberated for 90 minutes before returning with a guilty verdict. The basis for the verdict centered around two fingerprints lifted from the scene that matched Odomes. One was lifted from a table in the room in which Horgan was found and the other from a knob on the rectory’s kitchen sink. A trail of blood led from one room to the other.

No. 9: Education Cuts

As the state of Louisiana and, in turn, public school districts faced budget cuts in 2011, many educators found themselves in positions where their jobs were threatened. Some teachers became victims of the budget axe while others saw their workloads increase when open positions were eliminated.

The Terrebonne Parish School District entered a new school year having adopted a $191 million budget and eliminating positions simply by adopting a plan to not fill positions that might come open.

TPSD Superintendent Philip Martin said that he was determined to cut administration if necessary so as to save instructors. The TPSD has a 20-1 student to instructor ratio, which is considered good among education experts.

“To put things into perspective, if you look at just the state contribution [to the budget] and look at the number of kids we have in school and break it down in hourly rates, the state is giving us $3.80 an hour for each kid,” Martin said. “You can’t get babysitting for that. We are charged with much more than babysitting.”

When the Lafourche Parish School Board adopted a $150 million budget for 2012, it came with the termination of five certified teachers.

“I just spoke to my executive secretary, she’s been in the personnel department for over 20 years, and she doesn’t recollect any time we’ve ever laid off certified teachers,” LPSB administrative personnel supervisor Louis Voiron said.

The school board enacted in April a reduction in workforce and began eliminating 67 teaching positions. More than 100 teachers, some certified, some paraprofessionals and some retirees hired to fill a need during a critical shortage, were placed on the displaced list. Fifteen were terminated in March alone.

Of the 15 positions cut in the Lafourche school district, six were retirees, four did not meet certification renew requirements and five were certified. Of the certified instructors, three were offered positions outside of their certification.

One year ago, 23 Lafourche Parish teachers were laid off. Thirteen failed to meet certification requirements and 10 were paraprofessionals.

During 2011, 71 percent of voters in St. Mary Parish offered support to renewing an 11.18 mill 10-year property tax measure to support salaries and benefits for school employees. The proposition was supported in every St. Mary Parish precinct to save jobs in their schools.

No. 8: Morris Resigns Amid Political Tug-of-War

No one ever questioned the qualifications of Frank Morris, but his personality and motives came under siege in a public forum several times over the course of his 10-month stint as Lafourche Parish’s inaugural director of planning and permitting. At times, it seemed Morris was the whipping post of Parish President Charlotte Randolph’s detractors, and the parish president defended the department head on each occasion. Morris was charged with leading an office that sometimes lost paperwork, causing unnecessary delays. He was also criticized for being unwilling to use discretion when it was allowed and too vague when informing builders exactly what modifications they needed to make. Morris and Randolph defended the department by saying they were abiding by state code laws in every instance. Daniel Lorraine, an outspoken critic of Morris, several times insisted Morris picked favorites when issuing permits. Morris left his post and forfeited his $75,000 salary, which made him the highest paid government employee, on Dec. 1. Randolph said Morris wished to return educating others on building codes. Many of the permit squabbles have since been resolved by the parish’s new Chief Building Official William Gill, according to Gill. After Morris’ resignation, news broke that prior to Morris’s announcement, he had a disagreement with Randolph over issuing an occupancy permit to a Galliano welding store, as first reported by the Thibodaux Daily Comet. Randolph has admitted publicly to signing the permit for the store, which complied with directives from the Fire Marshal’s Office but not Morris.

No. 7: Jail Trials

In February the U.S. Department of Justice launched an investigation and filed suit against Terrebonne Parish in connection to a sex for favors scandal involving guards at the Terrebonne Parish Juvenile Detention Center. Charges dated back to April 2008 and involved eight employees who allegedly to engaged in sexual activities with female inmates and were accused of abusive physical actions and obstruction of justice.

Working with the Justice Department, detention center officials made sweeping changes in personnel and policies to improve conditions at the jail.

Criminal charges were brought against the eight former employees allegedly involved in the scandal. Two members of the group made plea bargains to serve reduced sentences, two were found not guilty by a jury and charges against the remaining four were dropped.

By November, one of the former employees sued the parish in an attempt to regain employment at the juvenile detention center. One week later the U.S. District Court of Eastern Louisiana entered a revised settlement agreement between the Justice Department and Terrebonne Parish Consolidated Government to bring the case to rest.

Jail woes in Lafourche Parish offered indication at the beginning of 2011 that a new facility might be in the making. Strife among parish jail committee members delayed progress on the project while one councilman complained the committee simply kicked the matter down the road.

By the completion of December, members of the committee selected to plan and oversee the building of a new jail in Lafourche Parish said they would revisit a parish-commissioned study published in 2009 to determine if funding a second study would paint a focused picture of the potential jail size. The proposal left the parish no closer to having a much-needed jail than it was 12 months earlier.

No. 6: LA1 Pathway

December was an up-and-down kind of month for advocates of replacing La. Highway 1 with a bridge unencumbered by high tides and undeterred by land subsidence. The LA 1 Coalition, a non-profit lobbyist organization state, has spearheaded the push to build an elevated highway that connects Golden Meadow to Fourchon, beginning from the South Lafourche Levee System. The coalition, transportation officials and Gov. Bobby Jindal traveled to Fourchon Dec. 9 to celebrate a new intersection that allows direct travel from Leeville to Fourchon atop an elevated highway. This came days after the U.S. Department of Homeland Security released a study that said a 90-day shutdown of La. 1, which would sever the nation from services at Port Fourchon, would shortchange the Gross Domestic Product by billions of dollars. The study was included in the coalition’s application for a $18.4 million in a round of federal grant funding, but the coalition was denied for the third consecutive year TIGER funds. The funding would have funded construction on the first segment of the coalition’s second phase, a ramp that stretches from behind the levee system and would allow construction on the future bridge’s span in a future project. Undeterred, Coalition Executive Director Henri Boulet said advocates would continue to monitor alternative funding sources for the second phase of the highway improvement plan, which is estimated to cost $320 million in total.

No. 5: Atchafalaya to Morganza

Flood control and hurricane protection is an ongoing concern in the Tri-Parish region. In 2011 local governing bodies took the lead over state and federal agencies to make advances in the Morganza-to-the-Gulf hurricane protection project and pooled resources to launch a long-range plan to protect residents against rising waters from upstream rivers and backwater flooding.

Federal funding cuts in April and a U.S. House of Representatives ban on legislative earmarks threatened work on Morganza. Members of the Terrebonne Levee and Conservation District, frustrated with seeing study after study performed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers with little evidence of structural work taking place anytime soon, took it upon themselves to secure state and local funding to build an inner Morganza levee and floodgate system.

Success of the TLCD was marked with improvements stretching from Terrebonne into Lafourche Parish, contracts signed for work to begin on the Houma Navigational Canal floodgate, and continued developments made on multiple reaches that that are designed to one day connect the entire system.

A major accomplishment was completed with a half-day dedication ceremony for the Willis J. Henry Bush Canal Floodgate at the confluence of Bayou Terrebonne and Bush Canal.

As the first Terrebonne Parish floodgate built in 17 years, the Bush Canal Floodgate held a final price tag of $14.9 million. The project was noted as having been completed without federal funds n a detail levee district officials intended to have result in a government reimbursement.

During May, rising waters on the Mississippi River promoted the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to open several gates at the Morganza spillway. While it offered relief and protection to Baton Rouge and New Orleans, the released water flooded much of the Atchafalaya Basin and threatened St. Mary and Terrebonne Parishes with predicted flooding of historic proportions.

Levee Districts and parish governments pooled their knowledge and resources to build up levees and undertake the installation of a barge complex on Bayou Chene. The success of this measure gained attention to lead federal officials to concede that a permanent structure at that site would provide protection while protecting navigation in the future.

No. 4: Jori Lirette

Each detail in the murder of 7-year-old Jori Lirette was more heinous than the one that preceded it. A special-needs child with cerebral palsy, Jori used a wheelchair to get around, suffered from heart complications from the day he was born, and ate through a tube. His detached head was found near the road than ran in front of his family’s residence at 414 W. Seventh St., Thibodaux, and his limbs were found in a trash bag in the home’s yard. Jeremiah Lee Wright, his 30-year-old father, allegedly confessed to the murder, an act he committed because he was “tired of taking care of” Jori, according to police reports.

Jesslyn Lirette, Jori’s mother, was approaching a separation with Wright, according to family members. She expressed regret in an interview for leaving Jori at home while she went to run errands, a mother lamenting the death of her child, lost in the national media frenzy that relayed the gruesome details of her loss beyond Louisiana.

In one of the many disturbing details Wright allegedly provided investigators was that he severed Jori’s head so Jesslyn “could feel stupid” when she returned home.

The Thibodaux community rallied around Jori’s death. A makeshift memorial lined the house’s porch and expanded to include hundreds of items, such as balloons, stuffed animals, hats and toys. Members of the community and beyond gathered in droves at Peltier Park one week after the murder to light a candle, listen to family members deal with grief and share in prayer. “In a way, it’s a protest to the crime,” one man said at the vigil.

Wright has since been ruled mentally unfit to stand trial. He is being held at the Eastern Louisiana Mental Health Hospital in Jackson, La, where psychiatrists are working to restore his health in order to prepare him for trial. A status hearing is scheduled for Jan. 31, where Judge John LeBlanc, who is receiving monthly reports on Wright’s status, will determine whether the trial can begin.

Jori, a second-grader at South Thibodaux Elementary, drew pleasure from watching animated television and listening to loud music. Linkin Park was his favorite band, and Buzz Lightyear, from the “Toy Story,” series, was his favorite cartoon character.

No. 3: Women Elected

From school boards to state government, women of the Tri-parish region made a significant mark on the political landscape.

The year started with Debi Benoit and Brenda Babin becoming the second and third women to ever serve on the Terrebonne Parish School Board. With their professional backgrounds and assertive manner they took on the establishment and made a mark of higher standards and positive results in the business of education.

Lafourche Parish President Charlotte Randolph followed a trend she started in making history in parish government. When she was first elected she was the first woman to serve as chief executive of that parish. When she was re-elected she became the only person in Lafourche to return to that office for a second term. In 2011, Randolph was elected to a third term following a contentious campaign battle.

Terrebonne Parish Councilwoman Arlanda Williams went unopposed to secure her second term of representing District 2. Among her accomplishments of the year, Williams increased her influence in the Democrat Party and the National Association of Black County Officials.

In November, Williams was named one of four municipal representatives from across the nation to join the Federal Communications Commission Intergovernmental Advisory Committee.

The Louisiana House of Representatives had a woman added to its numbers with the elections of 2011 when political newcomer Lenar Whitney became both the first woman and first Republican elected to represent District 53.

No. 2: Redistricting Resistance

When the U.S. Census Bureau revealed that Louisiana would lose a congressional district in 2012, public and political efforts were launched to keep Terrebonne Parish and Lafourche Parish united after it was determined they would no longer be the centerpiece of U.S. House representation.

Public meetings, petition signings and trips to Washington were common as delegates, business leaders and private citizens let their desires be known.

When it came down to the Louisiana legislature drawing lines to send to the U.S. department of Justice for approval, the efforts to keep Lafourche and Terrebonne together had failed.

Instead the two parishes were both split in upper and lower regions and absorbed into representation that drew the new parts into Baton Rouge and New Orleans respectively.

Redistricting was an issue on the local level as well as Terrebonne, Lafourche and St. Mary Parishes redrew lines to meet racial balance requirements outlined in the civil Rights Act of 1965.

During parish realignment, residents found that the Tri-parish region had become more racially integrated than realized, making the drawing of lines to fulfill federal requirements a challenge.

The results of redistricting will not be known until representation beginning in 2012 offers a view on what voices carry the greatest influence.

No. 1: Feinberg and BP

For the second-straight year, the fallout from the fatal BP Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion and subsequent oil spill reverberated throughout the Tri-parish region more soundly than any other event. Tightened drilling regulations slowed the pace of deep-water permitting in the Gulf of Mexico, resulting in uncertainty over the future and cutbacks in the present among those in the oil-and-gas service industry, which bases a lot of its operations out of Port Fourchon in Lafourche Parish.

The region’s commercial fishermen have attributed a paltry season to lingering effects of a large-scale chemistry project in the coast’s waters. Those same fishermen have also complained that the Gulf Coast Claims Facility, in charge of administering BP’s $20 billion damages fund, has delayed and short-changed reparation. Then, there was question over whether GCCF Administrator Kenneth Feinberg would or wouldn’t make his first appearance in Lafourche Parish after public haggling over whether such an appearance would provoke “a circus.” Feinberg did show up, and residents were emotional in addressing Feinberg, some succumbing to tears and others resorting to laughter.

All of this, of course, fails to touch on the long-term health concerns resulting from contact with the one-time oil-infested waters. A Raceland physician championed the cause and began testing several people who were experiencing mysterious illnesses, many of whom came forward to air their stories. Two scientists, one retained by State of Louisiana, and the other with an environmental advocacy group, explained in this newspaper their differing opinions on what was causing the illnesses. Definitive answers remain as murky today as the waters once were.

But progress has been made on other fronts. The GCCF announced recently it would double its payouts to commercial fishermen, and a state representative announced he would appeal to the governor to create a mediation stage in the claims process where claimants can be adequately represented and study the offer on the table in a non-binding environment. On the drilling front, although the pace of permitting still lags behind historical levels, it has started to pick up in recent months. Regarding uncertainty, the federal government held its first lease sale in the Gulf since the spill, and the western Gulf tract sale commanded more money in total bids than it had before.

Still, the lingering aftermath of the largest man-made disaster in the country’s history are far from over.

Top news of 2011 ranged from the completion of a murder case in Lafourche Parish to the killing of a child that captured national attention. An ongoing battle with BP settlements through the Gulf Coast Claims Facility took the top spot in regional news headlines. FILE PHOTO