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A letter, dated May 26, 2020, has recently been circulating the area regarding a filed lawsuit against Terrebonne Parish Consolidated Government on behalf of the Terrebonne Council on Aging (TCOA) and claiming that the Parish is withholding funds from the organization in retaliation for the lawsuit.
In the letter, the TCOA Executive Committee states that the lawsuit is to seek clarification of the Proposition language and what the Board feels is inappropriate use of TCOA millage funds by the Parish. “Specifically, $500,000 was taken from the millage to begin renovations to the American Legion building on Legion Avenue,” the letter reads, “and $250,000+ was taken for the Mechanicville Center, which was opened without any knowledge or approval from the COA.”
According to Terrebonne Parish President Gordon Dove, the Parish reached out to TCOA regarding the American Legion renovation and elderly program at Mechanicville Center, and they declined to fund both.
“We’re looking at $2.5 million to remodel the [American Legion] building. What we did is we took $500,000 out and went we went through council, we budgeted, we went through legal, we went through the CFO and made sure that remodeling the building for the elderly veterans was within the call of the millage, in which it is 100 percent in the call,” recalled Dove, who said the $500,000 was to repair the roof of the facility and the remaining $2 million will go to the remodeling.
In the meanwhile, Dove said, American Legion approached the TCOA about the renovations. “We wanted to bring them in and participate,” he continued. “And of course, they turned down the veterans…What we would want to do is make it a community center, a centralized community center for elderly veterans and give them a place to go.”
For the Mechanicville Center, Dove and Councilman John Navy both said that money was used to fund an elderly program at the center, not the building itself — which was funded with state money.
Navy said he approached TCOA Executive Director Diana Edmonson about the program, and she said before people in the area didn’t support a similar program. She told him no to the program, Navy said.
“Diana had talked to me about it and she said she wasn’t funding an elderly program in Mechanicville,” Dove said. “…And so I took $100,000 out of there and went through the council, went through the proper steps, and funded that I think two or three years in a row, and they never had a problem with it since then. It’s a wonderful program.”
According to Navy, Edmonson makes a $200,000 a year salary “off of taxpayer’s money,” but the Mechanicville elderly program spends up to $120,000 a year.
The administration of the millage funds was brought to question in 2015 under the Michel Claudet administration, when the TCOA, which is a private non-profit organization that’s in a cooperative endeavor with the Parish, contributed $5 million for construction of the Academy Place Apartments for senior citizens.
In 2015, a request was sent to the office of Attorney General James D. ‘Buddy‘ Caldwell on behalf of the TCOA, asking for an opinion on who can administer the special tax.
The response reads: “The Terrebonne Parish Consolidated Government, not the Terrebonne Council on Aging, Inc., is the proper entity to collect, manage and administer the proceeds of a property tax to be used for the purpose of acquiring, constructing, operating and maintaining capital improvements to serve the elderly and may use the proceeds to renovate the old Houma School building for the purpose of providing apartments for seniors in Terrebonne Parish.”
According to the Executive Committee’s letter, since the beginning of the year, the Terrebonne Parish Council has withheld ad valorem taxes, which in the past has always been sent to them as it was collected by the Sheriff’s Office. The TCOA Board believes that these actions by the Parish are in retaliation for the lawsuit, the TCOA Executive Committee noted.
Dove and Navy said that the Parish has withheld funds from the TCOA this year; however, it’s not for retaliation. Dove said TCOA currently has approximately $16.2 million in the bank and they need $7 to $8 million to operate. Dove said the Parish is currently withholding about $11.8 million from the tax.
“We’re not even even spending the money. We want them to spend the money that they already have,” Navy said.
“They are the ones that want to put all the money in savings accounts. And don’t get me wrong: it’s good to save for a rainy day…But under the state law, you cannot hoard the money,” Dove said.
According to the TCOA Executive Committee, TCOA has been saving money to build a low-cost housing facility for the elderly on St. George highway in Schriever.
Dove and Navy also discussed lack of funding from TCOA for elderly programs, one being Meals on Wheels.
When approached for more money for the program by Terrebonne Parish Sheriff Jerry Larpenter, who did it for years for “next to nothing,” Dove said, TCOA took the program to the Lafourche Parish Sheriff’s Office. “[Lafourche Sheriff] Craig Webre is a wonderful guy; I don’t blame him,” Dove continued. “But that money should stay in Terrebonne Parish.”
Dove and Navy also said there are 200 people on the waiting list for the program. “We have $28 million in that fund, and they are making 200 people wait for their meals,” Dove added.
The two officials also noted TCOA stopped running bus transportation services in the Mechanicville area.
“We want to work with them; we don’t want to work against them,” Dove added. “We want the money to go to the elderly.”
Edmonson declined to comment due to pending litigation. She said Times contact information would be forwarded to TCOA board members. None have made contact before deadline.
Read the full letter by the TCOA Executive Committee: TCOA (2)
