[StBernard] St. Bernard Sheriff Jack Stephens resigns from Meraux foundation board

Westley Annis westley at da-parish.com
Wed Sep 21 21:09:22 EDT 2011


St. Bernard Sheriff Jack Stephens resigns from Meraux foundation board

Published: Wednesday, September 21, 2011, 5:35 PM Updated: Wednesday,
September 21, 2011, 5:37 PM

By Dennis Persica, The Times-Picayune

St. Bernard Sheriff Jack Stephens and Chalmette attorney Sal Gutierrez have
resigned from the board of the Meraux Foundation, a multimillion-dollar
charitable organization created to "improve the quality of life and standard
of living of the residents of St. Bernard Parish." Rita Gue, a board member,
said the organization has received the resignations of both men. She said
they did not come as a surprise.

"It had been discussed for quite some time," she said.

Gutierrez said Wednesday that he resigned because "I just wanted to
concentrate more on the practice of law."

Serving on the board was "time-consuming," he said.

Stephens is not seeking re-election. He was out of town and unavailable for
comment Wednesday.

Gue is Arlene Meraux's niece and had been her live-in caretaker since
Christmas 2000. Meraux, who died in 2003, willed her fortune to the
foundation she created to "improve the quality of life and standard of
living of the residents of St. Bernard." The foundation has extensive land
holdings in the parish and elsewhere and has donated millions to several
causes.

Gue's husband, Floyd, also is on the foundation's board, as is Attorney
Sidney Torres III. Gue said the board will choose new members in the days to
come.

"We still want to do really nice things for the residents of St. Bernard,"
she said.

Last year, the U.S. attorney's office in New Orleans issued a subpoena
requesting documents that led to the naming of the foundation's board, a
legal drama in which then-Judge Wayne Cresap declared Meraux unable to
handle her personal affairs and awarded significant control of the
foundation to Gutierrez, who is a political ally of both Cresap and
Stephens.

The subpoena came after Cresap pleaded guilty to taking kickbacks to spring
inmates from jail.

By last year, the foundation had donated about $3.6 million directly to
various causes since 2003, according to tax records.

According to an investigation by The Times-Picayune last year, board members
-- with the exception of Stephens -- each received $120,000 salaries in
2008. Board members have raised their salaries 100 percent since 2004.

In 2003 and 2007, the annual compensation for the board was larger than the
amount of donations the foundation gave out.

Stephens does not take a salary but has a management interest in the
historic Lafitte's Blacksmith Shop bar in the French Quarter, once owned by
Meraux and still part of the estate, and a long-term lease to manage
property that houses the Breton Sound Marina and offshore oil and gas
support equipment on Meraux Foundation land in Hopedale. Friends and
relatives of Stephens and the Gues have also been paid over the years with
money from the foundation and the estate, The Times-Picayune determined.

The foundation oversees one of the single largest collection of real estate
holdings in St. Bernard Parish, prime properties throughout downtown New
Orleans and the French Quarter, and numerous other businesses connected to
the estate, with an estimated value of more than $50 million.

By virtue of its land holdings, the foundation exercises considerable
control over the future of the parish.

Land it owns across from the Chalmette Battlefield and Wal-Mart has been
donated to the parish for a yet-to-be-built hospital, a move that could
increase the value of the adjacent land. Two parts of that same tract and
another piece of land owned by the foundation were sold in 2008 to outside
investors planning to build mixed-income apartment complexes, the focal
point of a controversy that still rages in the parish.

Because the foundation is nonprofit, it pays no property taxes on land it
owns in St. Bernard.

Bylaws allow members to serve for life unless they are voted out by other
members. And each board position can be transferred to another person or
inherited through a will.





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