State special session rally falls short on signatures

Local bath salt abuse continues to dog police
October 30, 2012
Voters head to the polls Tuesday
October 30, 2012
Local bath salt abuse continues to dog police
October 30, 2012
Voters head to the polls Tuesday
October 30, 2012

An attempt to call members of the Louisiana Legislature to vote on returning to Baton Rouge, for a special session, fell short by two signatures Friday.


A petition started by Rep. Jerome “Dee” Richard (NP-Thibodaux) failed to include 13 needed autographs from the state Senate as the workweek ended and a deadline arrived. Only 11 state senators and 40 state House members signed. Only 35 were required.


“It is very disappointing,” Richard said. “The process is what it is, and the governor and president of the Senate are strong.”

Generally, only the governor may call a special session. However, Richard said he saw the need to address issues in the Louisiana State University Health Care System, which in-part prompted a scheduled $14.3 million budget cut and loss of 245 jobs at Leonard J. Chabert Medical Center by Jan. 1, 2013.


Of the Tri-parish delegation, the only signatures Richard was able to secure were those of state Sen. Troy Brown (D-Paincourtville) and state Reps. Jerry Gisclair (D-Larose) and Joe Harrison (R-Napoleonville).


State Sens. Brett Allain (R-Jeanerette) and Norby Chabert (R-Houma) declined to offer signatures as did state Reps. Gordon Dove (R-Houma), Sam Jones (D-Franklin) and Lenar Whitney (R-Houma).

Regional delegates have been working on a plan to transform Chabert Medical Center’s operations to a public/private hospital model, which includes having the facility run by a board of commissioners similar to Terrebonne General Medical Center.


Dove said he recommend against going the special session route for fear it would disrupt already established efforts.


“Unless you get the governor on board with a special session you will just spend a lot of taxpayer money going into session,” Dove said. “Then, if the governor vetoes whatever you do, you need a two-third vote to override his veto.”

Dove said the gamble of securing a special session was not worththe risk of fighting a veto. “The governor would control more than 53 votes in the House and 20 on the Senate,” he said.


Chabert said survival of the hospital – named after his father – is a priority for the sake of a population unable to afford medical insurance and treatment. He said the idea of a special session was well intended but the timing was wrong.

“Short of having a drawn out plan to go into session and at a cost of $80,000 a day, it was way too costly to taxpayers,” Chabert said. “They needed a plan, but didn’t have one. I welcome the idea of a special session, but not one without a plan.”

The Tri-parish delegation plan, according to Dove, involves a cooperative effort between TGMC, Ochsner Health System and Thibodaux Regional Medical Center to keep Chabert operational with full services. Decision-making powers would be locally controlled rather than falling under complete direction of either LSU or the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals, although state funding would continue.

“We’ve been diligently working on a solution as a private/public partnership,” Dove said. “It would be run by hospitals used to running hospitals. Not by bureaucrats in Baton Rouge.”

Dove said while area medical facilities work with legislators on a plan, he expects LSU representation on the hospital board to make sure services are not “cherry picked.”

Harrison said his support of a special session was in response to legislators being left out of the decision making course that prompted a $278.1 million in cuts to the state’s charity hospitals.

“I’m disappointed that we didn’t have the chance to exercise our rights as legislators and be part of the process,” he said. “I think it would have pushed the plan and the efforts of our delegation along, but under the circumstances we really don’t know.”

“We made a step in the right direction,” Richard said. “We’ve just got to build on it.”

Richard had delivered his petition to House Clerk Karen Haas last Monday with only 39 signatures from House members at that time. If it had met requirements, legislators could have held a special session between Nov. 26 and Dec. 10.

Leonard J. Chabert Medical Center would have been part of a special session if a plan by state Rep. Jerome “Dee” Richard to call Louisiana legislators back to Baton Rouge had succeeded. Failure of that effort has not stopped the Tri-parish delegation from its plan of action to save services at the Houma hospital.  

TRI-PARISH TIMES FILE PHOTO