[StBernard] St. Bernard Parish Council receives 20 applications for Registrar of Voters job

Westley Annis westley at da-parish.com
Fri May 2 21:39:56 EDT 2014


St. Bernard Parish Council receives 20 applications for Registrar of Voters
job

Print Benjamin Alexander-Bloch, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune By Benjamin
Alexander-Bloch, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune
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on May 02, 2014 at 5:10 PM, updated May 02, 2014 at 5:40 PM

The St. Bernard Parish Council has received 20 applications for its open
Registrar of Voters position, and it's expected to make an appointment at a
meeting scheduled for Tuesday evening.

Registrar of Voters Velma Bourg officially left her post on April 10, after
heading the office since September 2007. She had worked in the Registrar of
Voters office since 1992.

Chief Deputy Registrar of Voters Juanita Coco took over the top post until a
new registrar is appointed by the Parish Council, Parish President Dave
Peralta said.

Coco, who has been with the office since January 2012, is one of two office
employees who applied for the vacant position. The other employee is Connie
R. Crumhorn, who has worked for the office since 2007.

Crumhorn is the daughter of longtime Registrar of Voters Rita Crumhorm, who
Bourg took over for in 2007. Rita Crumhorm had served 18 years at the
office's helm, and a total of 31 years in the office.

Several former Clerk of Court employees also applied for the post, including
former deputy clerks Norma J. Lovell and Cristy Ruiz Ourso. Former Chief
Deputy Clerk Lena T. Nunez also applied.

The state Ethics Board last month filed charges against Nunez, alleging that
she gave her brother, attorney Sidney Torres III, special treatment when it
came to parish filing fees between June 2009 and May 2011. The charges stem
from the findings of a 2012 legislative audit. Attorneys for Nunez and
Torres denied after that audit that their clients did anything wrong.

Another high-profile applicant for Registrar of Voters is former State Rep.
Reed S. Henderson, who represented St. Bernard and New Orleans from 2008 to
2012. Henderson announced in June 2011 that he would not seek re-election,
and Rep. Ray Garofalo ended up garnering the seat.

Henderson had taken over the state House of Representatives' 103rd District
seat from Ken Odinet, who was barred by term limits from seeking
re-election.

Since Katrina, with the parish's greatly reduced population, there currently
are about 25,500 registered voters in the parish.



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