Apathetic; Enemy of Lafourche Parish?
FACTS:
Is open public corruption becoming a way of life in Lafourche Parish? A candidate for public office recently asked, what can be done about the embarrassment brought to Lafourche Parish by some local elected officials? My answer is simple, the tax payers must realize that the political power is with the majority of the people and not with a few, indulging in special interest. Lafourche Parish is one of the highest taxed parish in the state. Some of our elected local officials and their staff members are some of the highest paid in the state. Why do the people of Lafourche Parish choose to elect self serving individuals? The candidate stated that he agreed with my analogy, but what can the people do? My response was, the people have the power to petition the parish and state legislators. The parish may want to adopt the original Home Rule Charter and its 15 member Council. It worked well for over 20 years. The tax payers of Lafourche can petition the state legislature to remove the District Attorney as legal advisor for parish government. Take the DA out of the picture.
OPINIONS:
As stated in a recent blog entry, a group (special interest) of self proclaimed Charter experts wanted to change the original charter to one proposed by the group. Some of the Caillouet administration council (1996-2000) opposed the issue because the proposed charter was ill-written and done away with the balance of power in Government. The people voted in favor of the new charter. The 2000-2004 council took an oath to up hold the people’s wishes (obey the new 2000 charter), the majority five did and the parish president, along with the minority four, did not. There was no amendment to the oath of office, it did not say that I will follow the charter only if I like it. This parish administration (2000-2004) realized that the majority five were correct in their actions, and decided to change the charter again. The new (2000) charter only lasted four years. The present Charter is another ill-written document. The balance of power is again one sided. In my opinion, Lafourche Parish must return to its original Charter.
At the beginning of Cam Morvant’s term as District Attorney, He attended his first council meeting, pulling a dolly loaded with what he alleged to be government ordinances which weren’t done correctly and files on litigation. When asked by Councilman Marlbrough, “why are you doing this Mr. Morvant”, he stated ” because I am a Stickler for the law. In my opinion, Mr. Morvant was show-boating and attempting to be a bully. In my opinion, the DA was attempting to discredit the five, but ended up looking like the incompetent puppet he is alleged to be. Mr. Morvant’s incompetency really came to light in January of 2004. The 2000-2004 Council was still in office and Mr. Morvant was still their legal adviser. The council called a Special Meeting,( it is alleged that some of the members of the silk stocking group told Mr. Morvant to stop the meeting, because some members of the SSG might be investigated) if Mr. Morvant really believed that the meeting would be illegal, all he had to do was pick up the phone and advise the chairman of that fact. Why didn’t he? In my opinion he wanted to show boat again. It is alleged that he choose to get a Temporary restraining order on his own clients. It is also alleged that he was able to locate a judge which issued the order. Mr. Morvant himself showed up before a unsuspecting client and demanded a halt to government business (showboating?). If Morvant is not incompetent, why then, did he not handle the situation professionally and courteously? Note: The above is public record.
Stay in touch, it is up to the people of Lafourche Parish to continue putting up with selective arrest, selective prosecution and alleged corruption by our public officials without consequences.
