L’Observateur / July 31, 1999

Observers of Tuesday night’s meeting of the St. John the Baptist Councilwere treated, apparently, to more politics as usual in the wake of the growing housing scandal.

Residents and housing authority board members addressed maintenance concerns to the parish council. The council, in response, dismissed theentire housing authority board, at the behest of the U.S. Department ofHousing and Urban Development (HUD). HUD, meanwhile, has launched itsown investigation as to various allegations of improper activities in the housing developments.

HUD also alleges that serious criminal activity, such as drug dealing, has occurred in public housing, and that the housing authority knew of that activity. In addition, residents expelled from the developments forcriminal activity were also allegedly permitted to return to their apartments, presumably to resume those criminal activities.

At Tuesday’s council meeting, the council voted to hire a lawyer to investigate those charges on behalf of the parish. The council itself willbecome an investigative body with subpoena powers. However, in anapparent set-up situation, a lawyer, brought in by one of the council members was immediately at hand and prepared to be conveniently hired.

The council, following the script, immediately fell in line and hired the lawyer provided in an unanimous vote.

So what happens now? The lawyer must establish his own mission, set up his own investigative procedures, call in witnesses and present his findings to the council at some undefined date. To what purpose?Apparently to discredit the HUD report and thereby those residents and board members who brought HUD into the picture.

In an election year, this could have a devastating effect on the outcome of some campaigns. It’s political warfare and an embarrassment to theparish. And that’s the bottom line – the parish is embarrassed and tryingto find some way to recover, either by vindicating the housing director or discrediting the HUD report.

Caught in the midst of all this are the residents, who now have no housing authority board and a housing director under close investigation by a federal agency. Meanwhile, their local elected officials seem moreinterested in covering their own tracks than the welfare of the residents.

Maintenance remains up in the air, since despite a $75,000 budget, little is being done to organize and carry out badly-needed and obvious problems.

Who’s in charge? What day is it? Evictions have been put on hold, at the parish council’s request, until the new housing authority board is empaneled and the investigations are completed. Meanwhile, what will happen in January, with a new parishcouncil and a new parish president? More changes on the housing authority board? It’s a sad situation, and will likely spin out for months, an albatross to the next council and administration which may have wanted to enter the new millennium with a clean slate.

However, it’s apparent the new millennium will be saddled with a lot of old problems, at least as far as St. John the Baptist Parish is concerned.We must all be concerned.

Copyright © 1998, Wick Communications, Inc.

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