Citizen panel role ordered

• By DAVID J. MITCHELL
• Advocate Florida parishes bureau
• Published: Aug 27, 2008 - Page: 4B - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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A federal judge in New Orleans has ordered parties in a Tangipahoa Parish school desegregation suit to consult with a citizen advisory committee about the future of the case, court records show.

Attorneys for the plaintiffs and the school system and a court compliance officer have asked the judge to reconstitute the 20-member Biracial Committee, cutting its size in half and giving it reduced authority under a joint motion filed earlier this month.

U.S. District Judge Ivan L.R. Lemelle has not signed that and three other related motions since a phone conference among the attorneys Aug. 20, which resulted in his order to consult and to deal with other matters.

One of the Biracial Committee co-chairs, Tom Hogan Jr., has complained that neither side told the committee about the proposed changes before the motion was filed Aug. 4.

In a letter to Lemelle dated Aug. 19, one day before the conference, the committee told Lemelle it would be “unwise” at this time to curtail the committee’s authority.

“The Committee has served a useful function and its leverage with the plaintiffs, the Compliance Officer and the School Board should be maintained as providing yet another means to attain unitary status,” the committee co-chairs wrote.

Hogan said the committee plans to meet on the matter at 6:30 p.m. Thursday.

Lemelle also directed the attorneys to work on other aspects of the pending motions, including an indication of whom the two sides have agreed on as a candidate for a new parish chief desegregation officer.

The judge also has told them to indicate whether they agree on appointing an independent counsel to review interim employment criteria also being proposed.

He also ordered the parties to make sure each knows what is being proposed in joint submissions and laid down a sharply worded admonition that left unclear to whom he was referring.

“Partisan politics and egocentric behavior that causes delay or disruption of the judicial process will not be tolerated,” Lemelle wrote in the minute entry filed Aug. 20 but not posted online until Friday. Lemelle gave attorneys 20 days to make their filings.

As proposed, the desegregation officer would be a newly hired official who would report to Superintendent Mark Kolwe and Compliance Officer Arlene Knighten Guerin. The desegregation officer would have a central role in seeing through a variety of changes to desegregate the school system.

The Biracial Committee has had at times contentious relationships with the School Board and opposed the process used to hire Kolwe more than a year ago.