[StBernard] St. Bernard Parish Council meets to discuss property maintenance, official journal contract

[Westley Annis]

St. Bernard Parish Council meets to discuss property maintenance, official
journal contract

Published: Tuesday, July 17, 2012, 8:35 AM

 By Benjamin Alexander-Bloch, The Times-Picayune 

The St. Bernard Parish Council will meet this afternoon in part to discuss a
proposed new property maintenance code that, in one interesting twist, could
require a third-offender owner to occupy his or her blighted property for up
to 60 days.

The code and new department of property maintenance inspection would work to
ensure that structures are "safe, sanitary and fit for occupation and use,"
according to proposed article. That department also could condemn or
demolish structures, issue permits and collect permit fees.

The official in charge of that department would be the code official, and he
or she in turn could appoint deputies to inspect areas throughout the
parish. The article creating the new code and ordinance only will be
introduced at today's meeting and the council would have to hold a public
hearing next month before approving it into law.

If a property owner is found in violation of that code, a first offense
would carry a $500 fine, a second offense could include 40 hours of
community service in addition to that fine, and a third offense could come
with a $2,000 fine and 80 hours of community service.

Also, under a third offense conviction, the owner might be forced to occupy
his or her blighted property for up to 60 days.

In other business today, the council is expected to further discuss and
possibly finally approve the renewal of the contract for the parish's
official journal, The St. Bernard Voice. Typically a routine action, the
matter has caused heated arguments in recent months.

Council President Guy McInnis pushed hard at the last council meeting 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."

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.

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