[StBernard] BP rent to St. Bernard Parish marina at center of Meraux Foundation dispute

[Westley Annis]

BP rent to St. Bernard Parish marina at center of Meraux Foundation dispute
Published: Tuesday, October 05, 2010, 7:00 AM     
Updated: Tuesday, October 05, 2010, 7:14 AM
 Chris Kirkham, The Times-Picayune 
 
A company partially owned by St. Bernard Parish Sheriff Jack Stephens has
been leasing marina space to BP and its oil spill contractors for $1.1
million a month since May, according to BP, but lease records show the
sheriff's company is only paying a fraction of that - about $2,000 per month
- to the parish's primary nonprofit organization, which owns the waterfront
marina property at the eastern end of the parish.

The sheriff's company, Amigo Enterprises Inc., has a long-term lease for the
land in Hopedale, which is owned by the Arlene and Joseph Meraux Charitable
Foundation - a nonprofit group that pays for scholarships for Chalmette High
School seniors and has donated land for a parish hospital. Stephens also
sits on the foundation's board.

According to the lease executed in 1996 between Amigo Enterprises and Arlene
Meraux, who died in 2003 and left a vast fortune to the private foundation
that bears her name, Amigo is supposed to pay $1,500 per month to the
foundation, with inflation adjustments every five years since 1996. That
would put the figure at $2,087 per month in 2010 money, according to an
inflation calculator from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

In addition to the rent, the lease states that Amigo is supposed to pay 10
percent of all gross income from any subleases or contracts to Arlene
Meraux, and therefore now the Meraux Foundation.

Rita Gue, the president of the Meraux Foundation and Arlene Meraux's niece,
said Amigo has not paid the 10 percent portion to the foundation since she
has been on the board, in 2003, and that no money from Amigo's BP lease has
been paid from this summer. But she said attorneys for both Amigo and the
foundation are working on the issue, and she said she is optimistic that the
matter will be resolved.

Stephens could not be reached for comment. He owns a third interest in the
company, along with his cousin and former chief deputy, Tony Fernandez Jr.,
and another associate, John Despeaux.

According to financial disclosure forms filed with the state Ethics
Administration in 2008, Stephens' income from Amigo Enterprises is in the
highest tier, at more than $100,000.

There has been a dispute over payments between Amigo Enterprises and BP,
which came to light in September when Amigo Enterprises sent St. Bernard
Parish government a 10-day notice to vacate the Breton Sound Marina area,
where oil spill cleanup operations have been based since early May.

At the time, Parish President Craig Taffaro said Amigo Enterprises was owed
more than $3 million. Soon after, BP made a $1.1 million monthly rent
payment to the company. BP spokesman Tom Mueller said the company has been
paying Amigo Enterprises $1.1 million per month since the beginning of the
spill. But Mueller would not provide a lease agreement or other
documentation outlining the payments.

The $1.1 million figure covers only land rent, according to BP, not other
costs such as fuel, use of equipment and other on site. Amigo Enterprises
normally subleases the property to the popular Breton Sound Marina, and also
serves as an offshore oil and gas supply depot. 

Fernandez disputed that Amigo was paid $1.1 million per month, but he would
not say how much the lease actually was. He would not comment on the
disparity between the lease with the Meraux Foundation and the sublease to
BP.

"I'm not going to confirm that," Fernandez said. "I'm not going into what
our business is and what our business practices are."


Fernandez also would not say whether Amigo Enterprises has paid 10 percent
of the gross income to the Meraux Foundation, as required in the original
lease. He did acknowledge there was a discussion between the foundation and
Amigo regarding the lease.

"Let me just tell you this, the document itself is something that we adhere
to, and whatever the arrangements are, the payments between us and (the
Meraux Foundation) is between us." Fernandez said.

Although Stephens could not be reached for comment for this article, he has
previously said that his Amigo Enterprises contract was originally with
Joseph Meraux, Arlene Meraux's longtime companion, which predated both the
foundation and his being elected sheriff in 1983.

"The sheriff wasn't the sheriff when we started this business, he was just a
plain guy, just like me," Fernandez said.

Joseph Meraux inherited large swaths of undeveloped land that had been in
the name of his father, legendary St. Bernard Parish Sheriff Louis A. "Doc"
Meraux. At the time of his death, the land went to Arlene Soper, his
longtime companion, who changed her name to Arlene Meraux soon after. 

Her will stated that her entire multimillion-dollar fortune should go to a
private foundation to "improve the quality of life and standard of living of
the residents of St. Bernard Parish, Louisiana."

There was a protracted and dramatic legal fight over Arlene Meraux's estate
at the time of her death. A feud escalated over who would control the
foundation. On one side was Gue, who had been named to the board in court
documents; on the other was Sal Gutierrez, a longtime legal advisor to
Stephens who had been appointed to run the estate by former St. Bernard
Parish Judge Wayne Cresap, who has since been sentenced to five years in
prison for taking part in a non-related judicial kickback scheme.

The Meraux Foundation gave out $1.8 million in charity in 2008, which is the
last filing available from the Internal Revenue Service.


Chris Kirkham can be reached at ckirkham at timespicayune.com or 504.826.3321.


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