ERIK SANZENBACH / L’Observateur / August 24, 1999

LAPLACE – Even though St. John Parish Public Housing Executive DirectorPatrena Ester was fired last Friday by Parish President Arnold Labat, the Parish Council is still going ahead with the legislative audit of the public housing authority.

Parish Council President Duaine Duffy said, “I don’t see where it would hurt to do it. We need an unbiased third party to determine what is neededto fix the housing authority.””By the evidence I heard,” said Councilman Kevin Duhon, “I still think there needs to be an audit.”Councilman Steve Thornton concurred. “The legislative audit will uncoverthe truth, and the truth hasn’t come out yet.””If we are going to have a new board of commissioners, ” said Councilman Perry Bailey, “we need to know what they are getting into.”Labat’s firing of Ester came at the end of a long and frustrating battle by the parish to find out what was going on inside the St. John Parish PublicHousing Authority.

Last June, angry tenants mailed a video tape to the New Orleans office of the Department of Housing and Urban Development that showed sub- standard maintenance at the St. John public housing units.This promptedHUD to begin its own investigation which resulted in HUD placing most of the blame on the Public Housing Authority Board of Commissioners. Thisfurther angered tenants, because they believed it was Ester and not the board who was at the root of all their problems.

The St. John Parish Council then fired the board of commissioners, hired alawyer and began its own investigation into the housing authority. Thatinvestigation came to an abrupt halt last Thursday when Ester’s attorney informed the council she would not answer any of their questions.

The council then decided in executive session to hand over the investigation to the Louisiana Legislative Auditor, the state Attorney General’s office and the inspector general of HUD.

Friday afternoon, Labat had a letter of termination delivered to Ester’s office.

In the letter, Labat cited Ester’s failure to maintain “the Public Housing Authority complexes in St. John the Baptist Parish in a safe and sanitaryenvironment, and failure to take action on issues in a timely fashion” as reasons for her dismissal.

She was instructed to turn over her office keys and all files and data relating to public housing authority complexes and units to Labat.

There is general agreement as to the firing of Ester.

“I feel good for the public housing tenants,” said Wolfe, the most vocal of Ester’s critics. “But I feel sad for Ester. I don’t like to see anybody losingtheir job. But this is a positive step for the parish.” When asked if he agreed with the firing of Ester, Duhon said, “I would concur with the decision because of all the evidence put before us.” Hecontinued, “She is not guilty until proven so, but the evidence convinced me.”Thornton said he was on the fence until about Ester until she refused to answer questions.

“When she didn’t want to talk, it sure took the shine off her position, so I think Labat was right in doing it,” he said.

Duffy also said he supports Labat’s decision.

“There really was a need for a change,” he said.

Bailey, however, has a different take on the firing.

“It came as a great shock to me, especially after two nights of hearings. Ijust hope the action Labat took was under legal counsel,” Bailey said. “I wish he had been there at Thursday’s executive session to discuss what he was going to do.”Former St. John Parish Public Housing Authority Board of CommissionersChairperson Sheila Morris’ reaction to the firing was one of surprise.

“I was shocked,” she said, “because of the council’s and the parish president’s reaction to the HUD report which blamed the board and not Ester.” Asked why he didn’t fire Ester earlier, Labat said he couldn’t do anything until the board of commissioners had been fired and the appeals process had been completed. According to a 1997 law, the parish president has theauthority to hire and fire the board of commissioners, but it is still not really known if he can fire the executive director. Only the board ofcommissioners is supposed to have that power. Since there is no board inplace, HUD spokesman Chester Drozdowski said the legal ramifications are hazy.

“At this point, our lawyer is looking at the situation, ” Drozdowski said. “Idon’t know what is going on.”Drozdowski said he is upset by Labat’s actions.

“We told him that he can’t go around firing people,” Drozdowski said. “Thecorrect way to do it was to put a new board in place, give Ester six months, and if things didn’t improve, then the board could fire her.” Drozdowski, like Bailey is worried about legal repercussions. “Labat willdefinitely get sued over this, ” he said.

Labat said after he selects a new board of commissioners he will leave it up to the board to find a new executive director.

Last Thursday, the Parish Council named their nominations for the board of commissioners and Labat should act on the nominations by the end of the month.

In reaction to Labat’s future appointments, Wolfe said, “I hope Mr. Labatwill appoint someone that will take care of the people.”Duffy was philosophical about the whole matter. “Hopefully, we can getthe Public Housing Authority back on track. Plus I hope the tenants willkeep up the drive to maintain their houses and realize that they too are responsible for what goes on in public housing.”

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