MORE CHAOS IN PORT ALLEN By John Michael Lockhart It was another chaotic week in Port Allen. On Monday, the Louisiana Legislative Auditor issued a scathing report detailing possible financial improprieties by Port Allen Mayor Demetric Slaughter during her three weeks in office, the mayor replaced her secretary and the Port Allen City Police Dept. tried unsuccessfully to evict a WBRZ-TV news crew from city hall. On Tuesday, city hall went into lockdown mode with the public locked out of the top two floors, three city council members filed an injunction against the mayor and two separate agendas were submitted for Wednesday night’s special meeting. On Wednesday, state District Judge Alvin Batiste scheduled an emergency hearing to hear arguments in the suit filed by the three councilmembers and ordered Slaughter to appear in his courtroom, the council voted down a motion to publicly discuss the 2013-14 budget and the mayor left city hall under police escort and went home even though a fire district meeting remained on the agenda. By Thursday, all three floors of City Hall were on lockdown, Ralph Slaughter, the mayor’s brother-in-law, was ordered to repay approximately $500,000 to Southern University’s foundation, and, at presstime, the Riverside Reader learned that the mayor’s legal council, Phelps Dunbar LLC, had reportedly dropped the mayor as a client. As reported last week, the La. Legislative auditor said Mayor Slaughter may have violated state law by instructing the city’s payroll clerk to pay her more than what was in the executive salary portion of the 2013-14 budget, for receiving a car allowance that was neither budgeted nor approved by the city council and for billing taxpayers for a trip to the president’s inauguration that served no public benefit to the citizens of Port Allen. On the same day the auditor’s report was released to the public, the mayor moved a new part-time hire in the utility department to the second floor to serve as her secretary. According to a WBRZ news report, the new secretary, who is drawing retirement as a former city employee, called Port Allen City Police to remove Chris Nakamoto and his cameraman from the building. As WBRZ’s chief investigator, Nakamoto has uncovered a number of alleged abuses associated with the mayor since February. On Tuesday, three city council members filed an injunction against the mayor in a 15-page lawsuit (see related story on page 1) and two agendas, time-stamped one minute apart, were posted at city hall. On Wednesday, state District Judge Alvin Batiste denied the request made by councilmen R.J. Loupe, Hugh Riviere and Garry Hubble for a temporary restraining order against the mayor but did call for an emergency meeting in his courtroom at 9 a.m. on Tuesday, July 2. At the council meeting Wednesday night, a 3-2 vote of the council elected not to consider the mayor’s budget, saying it had not been properly introduced in a timely fashion. While the council was presented with a 2013-14 budget by CFO Audrey McCain, under the mayor’s directive, on May 1, the mayor told the Riverside Reader on June 5 that she never bothered to look at it. “Really I haven’t had a chance to look at it. “We have to sit down together if there’s any concern to be with what was put in there. It would have to be the two of us working together,” Slaughter said. To date, the mayor and CFO still have not sat down to go over either budget and the city is now in its 2013-14 fiscal year without a budget for the first time in the city’s history. However, Riviere says he’s hopeful that the stalemate can be resolved. “At some point we have to move on this; I hope a formal introduction can be made in July and adopted in August. We’ll have a good month to review it. “Usually the budget is introduced in May and voted on in June; that’s just the process,” Riviere told the Riverside Reader last Thursday night. After the mayor was unsuccessful in getting a hearing on her budget, she left city hall and went home even though there was still unfinished business to be discussed. In the mayor’s absence, Mayor Pro Tempore Ray Helen Lawrence chaired the fire district meeting. “I was curious as to what caused the mayor’s absence since she is the fire commissioner; I don’t know why she left. When they started calling roll, I asked, ‘Where’s the mayor?’” Riviere said. Jane Harris, one of the few Port Allen residents in attendance for the fire district meeting, said Lawrence “did a fabulous job.” “If the mayor could run a meeting as well as Ms. Lawrence, this city wouldn’t have any problems. That meeting ran smooth as glass,” Harris said. On Thursday, the Riverside Reader learned that even the front door of City Hall had been locked to the public during normal operating hours. Port Allen resident Janet Simoneaux said she was shocked when she walked up to the front door at city hall Thursday morning and found it locked. “I beat on the door for a minute and no one came. I walked around to the back door and the girl working told me she was told to keep the front door locked. “I thought it was ridiculous to keep the citizens of a city locked out of a public building they’re paying for and I asked to speak to the mayor. “I was allowed upstairs and I introduced myself to the mayor. She told me that when she took office one of the things she wanted to do was increase security at city hall but that she would take my concern under advisement. “She asked me if I always came in through the front door and I told her I always park out front and use that door if I’m going into city hall,” Simoneaux said, before asking, “Isn’t that what a front door is for?” Also on Thursday, state District Judge Tim Kelley ruled that the mayor’s brother-in-law, Ralph Slaughter, tried to defraud the Southern University System Foundation by transferring a substantial portion of his assets to his wife, Shalonda Slaughter. Kelley’s ruling clears the way for the foundation to seize Ralph Slaughter’s Baton Rouge home and other assets to satisfy a $475,000 judgment against the former Southern University System president. With interest, that judgment, which was handed down nearly a year ago, is now approaching $500,000. Shortly after taking office in January, Mayor Slaughter advertised for a newly-created city chief of staff position with an annual salary in the range of $84,000 to $95,000. After Ralph Slaughter charged more than $2000 on his American Express card for the mayor to attend the presidential inauguration, the mayor announced her decision to name him as her paid chief of staff. When three members of the five-member council announced their objections to the newly-created position, the mayor announced her intent to name her brother-in-law as her chief of staff, pro bono. While the former Southern president has acted as his sister-in-law’s spokesman since February, the mayor has never asked for nor received council approval of his appointment as her chief of staff. The Riverside Reader will be in the courtroom on Tuesday to hear arguments in the lawsuit between three of the city councilmen and the mayor. That story will be posted on our Riverside Reader page on Tuesday evening. In a related matter, the Riverside Reader remains committed to providing Port Allen residents who are unhappy with the mayor’s job performance with a vehicle to express their discontent. The Riverside Reader is open seven days a week, with limited hours on the weekend, for Port Allen voters to sign the recall petition against the mayor. The Riverside Reader is located at 570 N. Jefferson Avenue, at the corner of Georgia and North Jefferson Avenue in Port Allen. Organizers have 180 days under the law to obtain the required number of signatures to get a recall election on the ballot. The petition was filed on June 7 and organizers have until October 1 to garner the necessary number of signatures to get a recall referendum on the election calendar this year. To volunteer or to sign the petition, visit the Riverside Reader’s office or call 336-0749.
Posted on: Fri, 28 Jun 2013 04:15:34 +0000
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