Charter changes not up for vote this fall

Proposed changes to St. Tammany Parish’s governing constitution should not be placed on the Nov. 4 election ballot because there’s not enough time to gather public input, the non-profit civic group advocating the changes said.

During a special public meeting Wednesday night to discuss the changes, the St. Tammany League of Women Voters retracted its proposed deadline after nearly a year of drafting the new legislation.

“At this point, we don’t know if there is enough time,” League President Sandra Slifer said. “We are backing off that request.”

The proposed changes, the first submitted to Parish Council members since the Home Rule Charter was adopted 10 years ago, include, among other things, reducing the council size from 14 to 11, including two at-large members.

The meeting, held in Parish Council chambers before a packed house of more than 60 area residents, drew some opposition for the at-large member proposition, typically council members who represent the entire parish.

“At-large members? Huh? We want somebody we can go to and somebody we know,” resident Barbara Martin said. “I know a lot of these people.”

Pearl River resident and former East St. Tammany Chamber of Commerce CEO John Smith called the reduction a detrimental move.

“The reality is two at-large members would be representing the largest districts,” he said. “That’s where the vote is. What happens to rural representation?”

Area resident Will Rochelle also questioned the reduction as the growth of the parish booms.

“We can’t go in reverse,” he said. “We should not be engaged in reducing representatives.”

Parish Council member Gene Bellisario agreed.

Bellisario who retired before being elected to represent the Slidell area eight months ago, said he spends 50 hours a week working with constituents.

If a reduction is approved, it would be “impossible to address all those needs. It will not work,” he said.

“I’m of the belief that we need to increase (the council) by one member,” he said.

In addition, a reduction would require more taxpayer funded council staff to work with council members, a move that may dent parish coffers, he said.

Among the League’s other proposals are instillation of term limits. Currently, Parish Council members are not term limited, while the parish president’s office is limited to three terms.

The proposal is seeking a two-term limit for council members.

Slifer said “voters strongly support term limits,” as evident in a public vote this year to limit well liked Parish President Kevin Davis to three terms.

But St. Paul’s High School social studies teacher Tom McNitt disagreed.

“If someone is doing a good job, we don’t have to punish them,” he said, adding it’s up to voters to oust a poorly performing representative.

Overall, though, the public praised the group’s efforts to incite change on a grassroots level.

“We have a good charter, but no good document is so good it can’t be tweaked,” Mandeville resident John Robertson said. “The greatest example is the U.S. Constitution, which was changed 10 times right out of the box.”

Joe Mitternight, who served on the league’s committee and helped form the original charter, said the charter was designed as a living document, knowing change is inevitable.

“We left if pretty broad” on purpose, he said.

Other recommendations include:

• Creation of an independent legal department instead of using the local district attorney’s office as now required by the Louisiana State Constitution.

• Requiring a master planning and zoning plan be reviewed every two years if needed, backed by “the force of the law.”

• Consolidation of the parish planning and zoning commissions, now operating as separate boards made of identical members. That move would strip two seats, making the commission a nine-member board instead of 11.

• Promoting the parish chief administrative officer or the assistant CAO to fill the term of parish president if a vacancy occurs. Currently, the council must name an interim parish president within 15 days.

Once appointed to the interim position, the CAO cannot run for the seat in an open election.

The proposal “ensures that the appointee will be focused on the needs of the parish and not on an upcoming election,” according to the report.