LEONARD GRAY / L’Observateur / October 11, 2000

HAHNVILLE – The showdown over department head confirmations came to a head during Monday’s meeting of the St. Charles Parish Council, and thecouncil blinked.

A proposed ordinance aimed at forcing St. Charles Parish President AlbertLaque to present two department heads, officially “interim” since January, was withdrawn from consideration by a 7-1 vote.

Two department heads remain to be appointed and confirmed in the Laque administration, nearly 10 months after the parish president took office in January. Those are the Planning and Zoning and Community Servicesdepartments.

In their stead, interim department heads have held the positions so far, without council input as to their appointment. Two council members, at least,planned to embarrass Laque into correcting that situation Monday.

Instead, council member Dee Abadie was the sole vote, asking Laque to submit his nominees for each position for council confirmation within two weeks from Oct. 9, in keeping with the spirit of the parish’s home rulecharter. Co-sponsor Lance Marino was absent from the meeting.The Marino/Abadie ordinance also included a clause to empower the council to fill the positions, which is completely against the charter, as taking an administrative function and turning it over to the legislative branch, Laque said.

Where the ordinance failed, Councilman Clayton “Snookie” Faucheux explained, is that “we don’t have the ability or the authority,” according to the charter.

Faucheux added that only a charter change could empower the council, but that would take a vote of the people to effect the change.

Abadie argued, “There’s a bigger issue here,” and she said the lack of a deadline in the charter by which the parish president must submit his nominations constitutes a “loophole” which must be closed.

“If you have the confidence and trust in your people, bring them forward,” she urged Laque. “I don’t want to play the game anymore.”Abadie cited a council policy pushed through in 1988 by then-Councilman Don Grimes which calls for council votes on nominees by a certain time period, once submitted.

That policy, however, does not affect Laque’s timetable to submit a nominee, according to parish attorney Bobby Raymond. In addition, the clause in theAbadie/Marino ordinance to allow the council to name its own nominees for any vacant positions, if Laque fails to do so, is likewise contrary to the charter.

Robert Lambert has been interim Planning and Zoning director, and Robel Howard has been interim Community Services director since Laque took office in January.

Their current annual salaries are $41,999 for Howard and $47,999 for Lambert, according to the parish’s personnel director, Sandy Zimmer.

Laque said he appointed Lambert, not expecting to keep him on full-time, but was pleased with his work. “I wanted him to prove himself,” Laque said. “He’sbeen running the department at least as good as, and probably better, than it’s ever been done.”In Howard’s case, Laque said, “I strictly overlooked it,” saying he basically forgot to include him in earlier confirmations.

However, Laque stressed he would not be pushed to rush anyone through the confirmation procedure. “I’m not gonna be forced into doing it,” he said.Giving the council another stick, Abadie claimed, is that if the interim department heads are not confirmed their positions conceivably could be eliminated from the budget by council vote, as interim positions are not under the protection of confirmation.

“If they try that, I have other means,” Laque said, adding he could conceivably give Lambert an assistant director job while he himself assumes the directorship, freeing Lambert to continue to run the department in Laque’s behalf.

Return To News Stories