By ROBIN SHANNON

L’Observateur

VACHERIE — Less than a month after having the parish’s first choice rejected by a vote of state senators, the St. James Parish Council on Wednesday unanimously approved Parish President Timmy Roussel’s appointment of Vacherie resident Stanley Bazile to the Port of South Louisiana Board of Commissioners.

Roussel and the council welcomed Bazile, a retired employee of Kaiser Aluminum and former parish constable for District 6, to the commission with the confidence that he would serve the port and the parish well.

“Mr. Bazile meets the state senators’ criteria as an appointment from St. James Parish,” Roussel said. “I’m trying to do what is best for St. James Parish. I hope and pray Sen. (Troy) Brown sees it as we see it.”

The parish’s nomination process for Bazile, as well as for the rejected appointment of Vacherie contractor Blaise Gravois, drew the ire of Brown, D-Napoleonville, who said Tuesday he is not yet sold on Bazile’s qualifications.

“I’m not in agreement with it, but I would be willing to look into it further to see if he is right for the port,” Brown said. “I would rather have a person with a business background who has the ability to steer resources and assets to the parish from the port.”

Brown and other state senators earlier this month rejected the parish’s previous nomination of Gravois to fill the open spot on the seven-member port commission, which is made up of representatives from St. John the Baptist, St. James and St. Charles parishes who are responsible for overseeing operations at the port.

Brown has said he and Roussel had an agreement in place to balance the parish’s two representatives on the commission. He said the plan was to have one representative from the east bank and one from the west bank and that one would be black and the other white.

The council had appointed Gravois — who is white — in February to fill the seat vacated by the death of Greg Gravois, Blaise Gravois’ cousin. Brown said he blocked the appointment because it was not in line with the predetermined agreement. The parish’s other representative on the commission, Paulina resident Robert “Poncho” Roussel, who was reappointed by Gov. Bobby Jindal and confirmed by Sen. Jody Amedee, R-Gonzales, is also white. The council did not question the reappointment.

“President Roussel went against our prior commitment without us having a simple conversation, and I see his actions as a blatant insult,” Brown said in a statement. “All port and levee board appointments throughout the state must be confirmed by their respective state senator — whether it be a council, parish president or governor’s appointment — the senator must approve them. Therefore the norm is to have a plan of action in place with the senator prior to making any appointments in order to assure confirmation.”

Gravois said after the meeting that he enjoyed his short time on the board and acknowledged that Bazile would do a great job as a commissioner. On Brown’s rejection of his nomination, Gravois said, “The senator did what he had to do, and now the council is doing what it has to do.”

Bazile declined comment after the meeting.

Brown said he and Roussel had an African-American nominee in mind prior to the Gravois appointment, but Brown said that person was a plaintiff in a redistricting lawsuit filed against the council earlier this year. Roussel said the council would not have mustered the two-thirds vote to make the appointment. The nominee’s name was not made public.

In his dispute over the Bazile appointment, Brown also raised possible ethics conflicts the council may have in ratifying the appointment. Bazile is the uncle of Councilman Charles Ketchens. According to attorneys with the state ethics board, laws prohibiting those conflicts apply to “immediate family” only. Nieces and nephews are not defined as immediate family.

The Senate will not confirm Bazile until the next legislative session in 2013. In the interim, Brown said he will respect the council’s decision but added that he would speak with other port commissioners, the port’s executive director and constituents in St. James Parish to see how Bazile does.

“The reason the Senate has the final say in this is because the Port of South Louisiana makes decisions worth hundreds of millions of dollars a year,” Brown said. “Our job is to ensure our parishes get the funds they deserve.”

Roussel said he is looking forward to meeting with the senator in an effort to put the issue behind them.

“I want to let bygones be bygones,” he said.