[StBernard] St. Bernard Parish Council members face off in court Friday in hospital board dispute

[Westley Annis]

St. Bernard Parish Council members face off in court Friday in hospital
board dispute
by Chris Kirkham, The Times-Picayune 
Thursday June 04, 2009, 4:22 PM
Three members of the St. Bernard Parish Council will face off in court
Friday against two of their fellow councilmen, in a political
battle-turned-legal-showdown the could shape the future of the parish's
biggest economic development project since Hurricane Katrina.

At issue is membership on the parish's five-person hospital board, appointed
by the council and tasked with building a 40-bed, $58 million hospital in a
parish that has been without one since 2005. In a split vote two weeks ago
the Parish Council appointed Councilmen George Cavignac and Wayne Landry to
fill two vacancies on the hospital service district board. 

But three other councilmen have since cried foul, seeking an injunction in
court last week that barred the two from being seated. They claim in the
court filing that no resignations from the board had been "publicly
announced" prior to the May 19 council meeting and that Landry and
Cavignac's appointments caught them by surprise. 

Earlier, Council Chairman Frank Auderer said the hospital appointments were
"obviously an unauthorized addition'' to the council's May 19 agenda. On
Thursday, he said the hospital appointments were not on an early agenda he
had reviewed on May 13.

Auderer said there was a miscommunication between him and the council clerk
over items that were later added to the agenda before the deadline of 11
a.m. May 15. He acknowledged that he did not see a final copy of the agenda
at the time he approved it by telephone. 

Agendas e-mailed to various media outlets, including The Times-Picayune, had
the hospital appointments item on the agenda. 

Auderer and Councilman Kenny Henderson were absent at the May 19 meeting.
Landry, Cavignac and Councilman Fred Everhardt voted for the appointments;
Councilmen Ray Lauga and Mike Ginart opposed them. Henderson has since said
he would have voted for Landry and Cavignac if he had been present. 

The hearing will be held at 9 a.m. in 34th Judicial District Judge Robert
Buckley's court.

Lauga, Ginart and Auderer will be represented by Chalmette attorney Wayne
Mumphrey. Mumphrey did not return calls seeking comment Thursday. Lauga and
Ginart also did not return calls. 

Landry and Cavignac were originally going to be represented by attorney
Lance Licciardi. But since Licciardi is scheduled to be out of town Friday,
they said they will represent themselves.

"The facts are clear-cut ... we're going in without any high-powered
attorney hired by other attorneys on the council," Cavignac said, referring
to Ginart, who is an attorney. 

Cavignac said he and Landry spent an entire night memorizing the Louisiana
Code of Civil Procedure, "so we're quite prepared to go into court." 

Landry called the filing seeking an injunction "a fabrication," particularly
the assertion that the hospital board item was added to the agenda without
Auderer's knowledge. 

"I want it to be so clear to the people that we didn't even need an attorney
to get justice," Landry said. "I know what the truth is, and I'm not afraid
to go before God or anybody else on this matter."