[StBernard] St. Bernard Parish sheriff's deputy switches between Sheriff's Office and parish government

[Westley Annis]

St. Bernard Parish sheriff's deputy switches between Sheriff's Office and
parish government

By Benjamin Alexander-Bloch, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune 
on December 04, 2012 at 6:17 PM, updated December 04, 2012 at 6:19 PM Print

The St. Bernard Parish sheriff's deputy who provided security for St.
Bernard Parish President Dave Peralta and recently drew the ire of Sheriff
James Pohlmann has been hired by parish government as chief of operation for
the roads department. Jarrod Gourgues' move from the Sheriff's Office to
parish government appears to have been spurred at least in part by October's
seizure of documents from a Chalmette storage unit leased by former Parish
President Craig Taffaro.

The move from the Sheriff's Office to parish government also brought a raise
- Gourgues' salary went from $37, 836 to $55,000 per year.

Though he was a Sheriff's Office employee, Gourgues, 36, had been providing
internal security for parish government since Peralta took office this year.
Parish government covered his salary.

It was Gourgues who wrote up the search warrant for parish documents
allegedly being stored in Taffaro's storage unit and got a judge to sign off
on it. Gourgues executed the warrant on Oct. 23, looking for files that
allegedly were needed in the ongoing discovery phase of a long-running
housing discrimination case.

That federal case, spearheaded by the U.S. Department of Justice, is over
Taffaro's and parish government's repeated attempts to limit affordable
multi-family and rental housing.

But soon after the raid on the storage unit, Pohlmann pulled Gourgues back
to full-time Sheriff's Office duties, working in the motorcycle division.
Pohlmann said he was angry that he hadn't been kept in the loop about that
investigation into the documents.

"I wasn't happy about not being notified, nor anyone in my criminal
investigations unit, about the investigation or the search warrant by
Gourgues," Pohlmann said.

A few weeks later, a position opened up at parish government and Gourgues
quit the Sheriff's Office to take the parish post.

Soon after the raid of his storage unit, Taffaro filed a lawsuit against
Peralta, Gourgues - then still a Sheriff's Office employee - and a few
parish employees, stating in part that the raid "was the culmination of a
pattern of retaliation by Peralta against Taffaro."

Between Jan. 10 and Nov. 23, Gourgues officially worked for the Sheriff's
Office, with his salary reimbursed by parish government under an agreement
drafted by Pohlmann on Jan. 6 and signed by Peralta on Jan. 10, the day
Peralta was sworn in as parish president.

"He was assigned me, on loan more or less," Peralta recently explained. "He
served more or less at the pleasure of Sheriff Pohlmann and I honored that."

Peralta said Gourgues was instrumental in a series of arrests of parish
employees accused of stealing from the government soon after Peralta took
office.

Gourgues did not return calls for comment.

While Gourgues will earn a larger salary with parish government, Peralta
pointed out that the move will actually save the parish about $50,000 in
total salary payments. That's because Gourgues' previous position managing
parish government security has been eliminated, and Gourgues is replacing
Louis Pomes, who made about $67,000 a year.

Pomes officially retired on Nov. 16 as the road department's chief of
operations after working in parish government for 30 years. He took a
position with the Lake Borgne Levee District.

"It was unexpected. That's when I called Jarrod," said Peralta, referring to
Pomes' retirement. "Jarrod is more than qualified - he has a CDL license,
operates small bulldozers, cranes and airboats. There's not a whole lot of
equipment that that young man can't operate."

After Pomes retired, Gourgues handed in his resignation to the Sheriff's
Office on Nov. 19 and began working for parish government on Nov. 23.