Council to debate home rule charter amendments today

• By DAVID J. MITCHELL
• Advocate River parishes bureau
• Published: Nov 5, 2009 - Page: 4B

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GONZALES — The Ascension Parish Council plans to consider during a special meeting this afternoon in Donaldsonville 28 amendments to the home rule charter more than a year in the making.

The changes include pegging the parish president’s salary to the sheriff’s salary, ending the practice of reading proposed ordinances in full during council meetings, limiting some of the council’s power over personnel and eliminating the council’s budgetary and other controls of commissions and special boards.

Many of the other amendments, all of which were proposed by the parish Home Rule Charter Commission, are minor changes. The home rule charter is the parish’s governing document.

If the amendments get council backing today, parish spokesman Scott Rabalais has said, the proposed changes would be on track for the March 27 election ballot, pending Louisiana State Bond Commission approval.

The final votes, which come up at a special council meeting set for 4:45 p.m. today in advance of a regular council meeting at the new time of 6 p.m. today, follow an initial attempt in July to introduce 19 amendments.

That effort was aborted because legal notice requirements were inadvertently skipped. Since then, the council convened in a special meeting Oct. 20 and reintroduced the amendments but this time in the form of 28 items now needing a vote. 

Parish Attorney Lindsey Manda said Wednesday no changes were added but some were broken up in an abundance of caution because the charter requires one clear title to each amendment.

The amendments have garnered little discussion so far in public meetings, and council Vice Chairman Randy Clouatre said Tuesday he was not aware of council members who would be proposing changes to the amendments.

Councilman George Valentine said he is considering some changes.

He said he opposes the salary increase because the change would mean the parish president gets raises whenever the sheriff does. The council currently sets the parish president’s salary, but it must be a minimum of $55,000 annually.

“Why should (any parish president) just get an automatic pay raise? To me, it’s an accountability problem,” Valentine said.

The amendment creates the sheriff’s salary as a floor for the parish president’s salary but also gives the council the ability to provide up to a 15 percent raise over that level. The council must consider the salary at least once every  four-year term.

Ascension Parish Sheriff Jeff Wiley makes $122,000 per year when a stipend is counted. Parish President Tommy Martinez makes $100,000 annually.