[StBernard] St. Bernard Parish council ends contract with official parish journal

[Westley Annis]

St. Bernard Parish council ends contract with official parish journal

Published: Tuesday, June 19, 2012, 9:45 PM

 By Benjamin Alexander-Bloch, The Times-Picayune 

While most of the St. Bernard Parish Council meeting passed with relative
speed, rancor and indignation erupted Tuesday over a typically routine
action: renewing the contract for the parish's official journal, The St.
Bernard Voice. Council President Guy McInnis pushed hard not to renew the
newspaper's status and the council eventually agreed, 4-3, with Councilmen
Nathan Gorbaty, Richie Lewis and Casey Hunnicutt joining McInnis.

McInnis argued the Voice does not meet state requirements. According to
state law, a parish's official journal must have had its "principal public
business office," not necessarily its printing press, physically in the
parish for five consecutive years prior to its selection. State law also
states that "a newspaper shall have only one principal public business
office."

McInnis suggested that the state attorney general's official provide an
opinion on the matter. And he insisted that the parish district attorney's
office assist the council by subpoenaing the Voice's phone and electric
bills to determine "whether employees of the (Plaquemines) Gazette or the
Voice have been in that building since July 1, 2007."

"Then I'm going to subpoena some people, and they will have to say whether
that's correct under oath," McInnis said.

The Voice has deep roots in St. Bernard, but in 2008 the publication was
sold to the owners of the Plaquemines Gazette. McInnis and other councilmen
questioned whether the Voice's principal office has consistently resided in
the parish since then. They have argued that many, if not most, of the
Voice's business functions are handled in Plaquemines.

Norris Babin, publisher of the Voice and Gazette, argued that McInnis and
others were harping too much on the five-year requirement and said that
McInnis appears "to want to rake the St. Bernard Voice over the coals."

The whole debate first came to light in March when the St. Bernard Post,
which opened in October, wanted to compete for the official journal
contract.

During that period, McInnis had asked state Rep. Ray Garofalo, R-Meraux, to
introduce a bill that would have allowed the parish to hire a newspaper that
has only been in operation for about six months as its official journal.

At that time, McInnis said he asked Garofalo to introduce the proposal after
receiving a legal opinion from a parish attorney that the current official
journal, the St. Bernard Voice, did not meet state requirements.

After a Times-Picayune story revealed that the St. Bernard Post rented
office space from Garofalo, McInnis said that "due to ethics conflicts,"
Garofalo would drop the bill.

McInnis himself was listed as the sports editor of the Post when it started
in October. He said he wrote only one sports story and that Post owner Kenny
Zulli, an old friend, had surprised him with the title.

McInnis says he stopped working on the paper after that first publication
because he felt it would be a conflict of interest after he decided to seek
the Parish Council seat.

During the Tuesday council meeting, Zulli-hired attorney Cullen Tonry said
the parish should not sign "a contract (with the Voice) that fails to meet
the state requirements."

Babin insisted that the Voice does meet state requirements. But Babin
previously has told the council that fewer than half of the newspaper's
employees work out of its Arabi office and that he could not guarantee that
employees have staffed the Arabi office every workday.

If the Voice does not qualify, the parish might be forced to select a
newspaper from a neighboring parish, likely choosing the Gazette anyhow.

McInnis and Councilman George Cavignac, who voted to make the Voice the
official journal, will meet between now and the next council meeting to
decide what questions to forward to the attorney general's office.

But in terms of the five-year requirement, there is a provision that states
that it shall not "be applied in assessing the qualifications of a newspaper
which was in existence on May 11, 1970." The St. Bernard Voice states that
it has delivered news in the parish for the past 121 years.

The other main parish publication, The St. Bernard News, which began
circulation in 1967, likely does not qualify because an official journal
must "maintain a general paid circulation" and the News is free. Also, its
address is listed in Metairie.



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