By ERIK SANZENBACH / L’Observateur / July 10, 1999

LAPLACE – With a standing-room-only crowd looking on Tuesday night, the St. John Parish Council voted 7-2 to remove all five commissioners fromthe St. John Housing Authority Board for “neglect of duty by not respondingto the needs of tenants.”Even though the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s final report on St. John public housing is not due until July 19, the majority ofthe council was in agreement when Councilman Perry Bailey said, “We have a problem and something must be done about it tonight.”The lack of the HUD report was one the main reasons Councilmen Joel McTopy and Steven Thornton voted against the motion.

“The jury is still out,” said McTopy. “HUD has to show wrong doing. Removal before the jury comes back is dereliction of duty. I will not votefor it.”Councilman Ranney Wilson said, “We can’t wait for the federal government.” This elicited a loud round of applause from the audience.

When asked why he voted against the motion, Thornton replied, “I would hate to put the parish in a libel situation because we would not wait the two weeks. We have to show just cause before we can remove anybody.”The Parish Council’s legal advisor, Charles Lorio, also warned the council it had to show just cause before they can remove members of the Housing Authority Board. Without just cause the parish can be sued.However, starting Wednesday, all five commissioners were sent notices by registered mail informing them they have been removed from their posts. According to Housing Authority rules, the commissioners will have10 days in which to appeal their dismissal.

Shiela Morris, chairperson of the Housing Authority Board, will also be removed, even though she was the one who brought the issue of poor maintenance and deplorable living conditions to the attention of the Parish Council.

But she is not concerned about her dismissal.

“Justice has been done,” she stated. “This was never about me. This was allabout safe and sanitary housing for the underprivileged in St. John Parish.I have no trouble with my removal. I will appeal.”Earlier, before the vote, her mood and that of the audience was not so amiable. Amid a chorus of encouragement from the public housing tenantsthat crowded into the council chambers, several people from a group called Advocates of St. John got up before the council and testified aboutterrible living conditions in St. John public housing.Michael Carter, chairperson of Advocates of St. John, told how severalcommissioners are unavailable to the tenants. Carter said some membersof the board don’t even show up for meetings.

Tenant Dolores Martin said when the HUD representative saw some of the conditions in his inspection last week, he “looked like he was going to throw up.” She wanted to know what has happened to all the recreationmoney and why the Housing Authority cannot fix the broken playground equipment for her children.

Morris told the council there are only seven maintenance workers to take care of 316 housing units in the parish. Not one of the workers is acertified plumber electrician or carpenter.

Morris went on to say that despite Housing Executive Director Patrina Ester’s claims there isn’t enough money, there is a maintenance surplus budget of $75,000.

“We can maintain the housing with this money, ” Morris claimed.

Morris said Ester is not being aggressive enough in getting the needed funds to maintain St. John public housing. According to Morris, theHousing Authority was sent an application for a federal program called Family Unification Program which would subsidize public housing by $1 million. Morris asked Ester if she had filled out the application and sent itto the federal government.

“Ester told me that she didn’t have time to open up her mail,” said Morris.

Morris’ most serious allegation was about the way the Public Housing Management Assessment Program was handled. The PHMAP is the yearlyreport the Housing Authority sends to HUD. In Ester’s five-year tenure asexecutive director, the St. John PHMAP has given itself a 100 percentrating three times, which means that all 316 units are up to federal housing standards.

Morris claimed, “This is a lie.”The PHMAP needs the signature of both the executive director and the chairperson of the Housing Authority Board.

Morris said, “In 1998, I, Shiela Morris, refused to sign the PHMAP papers.

She sent them in anyway.”After public discussion, several council members expressed their opinions.

Wilson said six people are not enough people to take care of public housing and wondered if the Housing Authority could contract out the work.

Morris replied the Housing Authority Board has put the work up for bid, but “nobody had applied for the work.”Wilson replied, “We have a problem from beginning to end, not just with the board.”Councilman Nickie Monica said he has been to four Housing Authority Board meetings, and after witnessing these meetings he would vote in support of the board’s removal.

After the vote, Parish President Arnold Labat said he agreed with the action to remove the board. He then asked Council President Duaine Duffyhow long it would take to accomplish this.

Duffy replied that with the appeals process, removal of the Housing Authority board will take several weeks.

Return To News Stories