[StBernard] St. Bernard Parish Council seeks opinion on whether members can run for other posts while in office

[Westley Annis]

St. Bernard Parish Council seeks opinion on whether members can run for
other posts while in office
Print Benjamin Alexander-Bloch, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune By Benjamin
Alexander-Bloch, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune 
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on July 15, 2014 at 5:55 PM, updated July 15, 2014 at 6:23 PM

The St. Bernard Parish Council on Tuesday (July 15) adopted a resolution
requesting that state Attorney General Buddy Caldwell provide the council
with an opinion that could determine whether council members can run for
other political positions while still in office or immediately upon leaving
office.

The council also adopted an ordinance authorizing Parish President Dave
Peralta to negotiate all leases of St. Bernard Parish property for use in
the film and television industry. Currently, the council needs to approve
leases.

Peralta argued that when the film industry wants some property, it needs it
quickly, and that he should have the authority to make fast decisions.

Originally, the ordinance was going to hold the parish president to 30-day
leases, but the council on Tuesday decided to amend it so that the parish
president now can lease parish property for any amount of time to the film
industry, as long as that lease needs to be signed more quickly than it
could be under the normal council approval process -- which typically can
take between 14 and 20 days.

The council also received a presentation by a UtiliWorks consultant about
the final study on the St. Bernard water system. The presentation in part
stated that a rate increase is needed, although there were ways of
minimizing costs for smaller consumers and putting more of the burden on
business and industrial facilities.

The presentation listed various possible scenarios for such increases, but
it did suggest that any increases should be phased in over a three-year
period. The council forwarded the study to the parish water and sewer
committee for its review.

In terms of the attorney general's opinion, some councilmen and members of
the public have questioned the clarity of the 2009 charter amendment's
language, arguing that it is unclear whether it prevents council members
from running for other public posts until one year after leaving office.

That amendment states that a "council member shall hold no other elected
public office, or any compensated appointive office or employment of the
parish government or compensated office of any state political subdivisions
until one year after leaving office."

Some council members have argued that the clause "until one year after
leaving office" does not apply to elected public offices, and that it
instead only applies to the other positions listed after the sentence's
comma.

Many of the councilmen who pushed that amendment forward in 2009 have said
that prohibiting councilmen form immediately running and holding other
public offices was not their intent. At the time that parish voters approved
the amendment, it also had not been advertised as having that intent.

But, over the past few months, some sitting councilmen and members of the
public have argued that the amendment clearly places such prohibitions on
council members' potential bids for future office.

Council Chairman Guy McInnis, who has been rumored as a potential parish
president candidate in 2015, last month requested an attorney general's
opinion on that issue. But the AG's office on June 30 said its policy is
that a question from a single council member "must first be presented" to
the full council.

The attorney general's opinion request passed on Tuesday by the council asks
whether the amendment "actually requires a one-year waiting period for a
sitting council member to seek any other elected office?" It also asks
whether legislative intent carries weight.

At its last council meeting on July 1, the council struck down a proposal to
place new charter language on the November ballot that, if accepted by
voters, would have explicitly stated that council members could hold another
elected public office immediately following their tenure on the council.

The council request also asks the attorney general's opinion on whether
"another election to amend the home rule charter is necessary?"