In the article on the basis of the analysis of archival documents, statistical data and memoirs, with application of a biographical method, the reconstruction of the biography of the extraordinary Greek-Catholic priest Lev-Mykola Burnadz in the conditions of various state political systems of the first half of the ХХ century was carried out. The work traced back the process of mindset formation in the family of the priest and during the period of study in Kolomyia gymnasium. It also emphasized the crystallization of the national consciousness, which induced to military service in the Austria-Hungary Army and in the Ukrainian Galician Army. The study indicated the evolution of the belief system in the post-war time as one of the choice factors of a state of a celibate priest. Besides, it analysed the vicarial and public activity of L.-M. Burnadz in Patsykiv and Silets villages, and Horodenka and Stanislaviv cities. It was supposed that social and political views of the priest were a synthesis of a centrist national and democratic and conservative Christian public movements. It was also established that during the violent elimination of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church he refused to transfer to Russian Orthodox Church for what he was repressed and died in exile. Specifications of some separate details of L.-M. Burnadz's biography by the subsequent researchers will promote the preparation of documents for beatification process. Keywords: platoon leader of the Austrian Army, lieutenant of Ukrainian Galician Army, celibate priest, employee, parish administrator, confessor of the faith. ; У статті, на основі аналізу архівних документів, статистичних даних і спогадів, із застосуванням біографічного методу, здійснено реконструкцію біографії неординарного греко-католицького священика Лева-Миколи Бурнадза в умовах різних державно-політичних систем першої половини ХХ ст. Простежено формування світогляду у священичій родині та під час навчання в Коломийській гімназії, підкреслено кристалізацію національної самосвідомості, що спонукала до військової служби в армії Австро-Угорщини й Українській Галицькій армії. Вказано на еволюцію світогляду у післявоєнний час як один із факторів вибору стану священика-целебса. Проаналізовано душпастирську та суспільну діяльність о. Л.-М. Бурнадзав селах Пациків і Сілець, містах Городенка і Станиславів. Припускається, що суспільно-політичні погляди священика були синтезом центристської національно-демократичної та консервативної християнської суспільної течій. Встановлено, що під час насильної ліквідації УГКЦ він відмовився перейти до РПЦ, за що був репресований і загинув на засланні. Уточнення наступними дослідниками окремих деталей біографії о.Л.-М.Бурнадза сприятиме підготовці документів для беатифікаційного процесу. Ключові слова: чотар австрійської армії, поручник УГА, священик-целебс, сотрудник, адміністратор парохії, ісповідник віри
The article analyzes the changes that the metric books of the Roman Catholic parishes of the BSSR underwent in the conditions of the anti-religious campaigns in 1945–1991. With the establishment of the Soviet power on the territory of Belarus, active secularization processes began in all spheres of social life. One of the aspects of the secularization was the ban in 1917 on keeping metric books. They were replaced by the civil status acts registered by the Registry Office. After the accession of Western Belarus to the BSSR in 1939, All Catholic believers in Belarus started getting spiritual guidance from the Apostolic Administration of Vilnius and its branch in Bialystok. As a result, at an unofficial level, due to the demands of the bishops in those Roman Catholic parishes that were not liquidated, the practice of metrication continued. They lasted the whole phase of existence of the Soviet state. The key moment of the functioning of the metric books in the post-war period was the instruction of the Apostolic Administrator in 1948. It emphasized the primacy of the ecclesiastical law over the civil law in relation to the metrication materials. The metric books had lost the rigor of the form. The entries were often made in the school notebooks and on the scraps of paper using the non-literary forms of the language. The right to make an entry in the books on baptisms, marriages, burials was granted to the people who had not been ordained.
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The Bossier Parish Police Jury, and particularly Parish Administrator Joe E. "Butch" Ford, are back in hot water because an elected parish official, normally an establishment ally of theirs, carried out his sworn duties.
Ford has been mired in controversy ever since, without a formal search, he was named administrator at the start of 2022. State law mandates that such officials register to vote in the parish that they helm, but since the mid-1980s Ford had maintained a residence in Caddo Parish, had a homestead exemption attached to it, and had registered to vote there.
In fact, Ford didn't change his registration to a Bossier Parish address until ten months into his contract, violating the law throughout. And when he did, he ran into another problem: his registration didn't match his exemption, which state law said had to happen if a registrant declared a homestead. That took another three months to occur.
Thus, to serve legally, as Ford declared the Bossier property his homestead – while retaining ownership of the Caddo one – that property had to qualify as a homestead according to Art. VII Sec. 20 of the Louisiana Constitution, which would be assessed during the normal spring assessments by parish assessors, in Bossier's case Republican Bobby Edmiston. And in May, public records show Edmiston's office voided Ford's homestead retroactively to the time he declared it, meaning he owes thousands of dollars in taxes for this year and last.
Ford protested, to no avail. In an appeal executed as a legal document, he listed a plethora of reasons, mostly irrelevancies insofar as the law goes in these matters. Edmiston pointed to the Constitution in both his original reasoning and denied appeal, focusing on Sec. 20(A)(1) that states "The bona fide homestead … owned and occupied by any person or persons owning the property," because his assessors had good reason to believe the owners did not occupy the property.
As proof, they went onto the property, which has a heavily overgrown yard and to describe as ramshackle from the outside would do it credit. Views through the windows revealed an enormous amount of clutter littering habitable space and no sign that anybody resided there.
Ford tried to buttress his case by referring to the Civil Code, Art. 42, although he probably meant Art. 38 from the verbiage he used. But this doesn't help his cause either, as that article states unambiguously that "The domicile of a natural person is the place of his habitual residence."
Insofar as this appertains to his legal ability to serve as parish administrator, it's not directly relevant. You don't have to have a homestead in order, for the purposes of statute that defines where you may register to vote, to register at a location if not having a homestead anywhere. However, the law does define for registration purposes a resident as "a citizen who resides in this state and in the parish, municipality, if any, and precinct in which he offers to register and vote, with an intention to reside there indefinitely."
Ford's problem is that the assessor in the parish in which he is registered to vote does not consider him as occupying that property. If he doesn't occupy it, he cannot reside there (except under unusual circumstances such as pursuit of higher education, emergency displacement, or nursing home residence elsewhere). That the assessor denied him an exemption doesn't automatically disqualify him from registering to vote there, but it does challenge his residency there as defined for registration purposes.
This puts the ball back into Registrar Stephanie Agee's court, who at the end of last year faced a similar situation under statute that states if she had a reason to believe his registration was illegal she had to go through a process soliciting the registrant to "show cause" as to why his registration should remain on the rolls. Back then, at the beginning of the year Ford attested he resided there although that now appears to have been fraudulent.
Yet that investigation came because late last year Ford didn't have a mail receptacle at the address and mail bounced back to Agee in the new registration confirmation process. There's no evidence that when the information about his registration in Caddo, then his continued homestead declaration there after the registration in Bossier, became public that Agree acted for that reason.
If Agee doesn't know of Ford's loss of exemption already – and word spreads quickly about these matters at the courthouse – and hasn't launched the process to scrub Ford from the rolls, she knows now. That she acted last time doesn't guarantee she will this time, and keep in mind her appointment for life came from the very body insistent on having Ford as administrator.
Whether Agee can emulate Edmiston with enough fortitude to do the job she swore to do, very much against the wishes of the remainder of the courthouse crowd, won't be easy for the public to verify. Unlike other public records law, in order to make such inquiries public a simple request won't do but rather at least 25 registered parish voters must attest that they want this information.
Any objective reading of the situation points to Ford, unless he rushes to clean out the place and does some remodeling and ships over some furniture denoting at least the illusion of habitation, being illegally registered there and, thusly so, ineligible to serve as parish administrator. Whether the processes of government confirm this or if the matter heads to litigation and whether he retains his job, here and now after the assessment one thing is certain: Bossier Parish has as its chief administrative officer somebody who has engaged willfully in a pattern of deceit to have that job. That's not exactly what citizens expect, or deserve, out of a public servant, much less the highest-ranking administrator in the parish.
And this leads to another certainty: police jurors have colluded in this deceit. It's impossible that, as their employee of almost two decades, that jurors did not know where Ford lived when they appointed him initially, and they certainly all knew about it when they reappointed him for 2023 on Jan. 18 – 12 days before he even attested, whether truthfully, to Agee's satisfaction that he resided in Bossier.
It's all a part of the lawlessness that the Bossier Parish Police Jury has exhibited for a number of years – contrary to state law putting themselves on the parish's Library Board of Control, contrary to state law appointing the executive director of the Cypress Black Bayou Water Conservation and Recreation District as its representative to its Board of Commissioners, and now winking and nodding at Ford's appointment. All along it has taken the attitude that its members are above the law in that they can do whatever is illegal as long as they don't get called on it, then judicially sanctioned for it.
That's something to which every single incumbent running for reelection this fall must answer. And it has to stop, whether voluntarily or involuntarily with voters throwing out the bums who think the law doesn't apply to them.
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Ambiguity over Louisiana law regarding boards of library control, and unambiguous illegal activity of Bossier Parish police jurors possibly not serving legally on it, have become issues in Police Jury contests.
Since 2016, the Jury has had members serving on the parish's Library Board of Control. At present, the entire composition of the Board is made up of jurors: Republicans Glenn Benton, Bob Brotherton, Julianna Parks, Doug Rimmer, and Democrat Charles Gray. All ran for reelection this fall, with Benton and Rimmer drawing no opposition.
By state law, the parish if it chooses (or enough citizens petition it) to have a library system must have this panel with five to seven citizens of the parish appointed by it. State statute also grants the board some powers independently of the parish: to elect and employ a librarian, and, upon the recommendation and approval of the latter, to employ assistant librarians and other employees and fix their salaries and compensation; provided that no contract of employment shall be made for a longer period than four years nor with any person as head librarian, or director, who has not been certified by the State Board of Library Examiners. Otherwise, the parish controls all other aspects of library operation that it chooses to do so.
Bossier Parish established its libraries in 1939 (Ord. 75 of 1939) following state statute operating at the time (Act 36 of 1926), which scarcely differs from statute addressing that today that creates and defines a board. Opinion since, as recently as this summer, since then has reaffirmed that this process makes a board a creature of the parish.
Yet juror service on a library board is deemed illegal by Republican Atty. Gen. Jeff Landry's office, forcefully stated in a document released in February. It explicitly reads that "Louisiana's Dual Officeholding and Dual Employment Law prohibits a member of the governing authority from serving in an office that they have the authority to appoint. The law provides that the governing authority appoints citizens to the library board of control. The governing authority may not appoint a member of the governing authority to the library board of control."
Given the status of boards as a creature of governing authorities, that would appear to grant an exception to the dual office-holding statute, in that the prohibition applies "except that local governmental subdivisions may appoint members of the governing body to boards and commissions created by them and over which they exercise general powers as provided in Article VI, Section 15 of the Constitution of Louisiana." On the surface, this would seem to exempt the prevention of jurors from serving on a board and is the justification the parish uses to back the practice.
However, it seems unlikely that the AG's office would make something up out of thin air contrary to that and there must be some rationale as to its declaration of the illegality of juror service on a board. Unfortunately, Parish Attorney Patrick Jackson reports that inquiries about this have gone unanswered. But, oddly, that's the extent to which the Jury has gone to clarify the matter. It's had nearly eight months where it could have instructed Jackson to request formally an opinion rendered about the question whether juror service on the board violated dual-officeholding, which would have forced action on behalf of the AG and likely would have produced an opinion by now with an explanation/resolution.
As it stands, while the AG has issued several opinions (such as 19-0143, 19-0113, 19-0096, 11-0022, 08-0126, 03-0454, and 93-710 particularly related to incidents in Caddo and Bossier Parishes) over the decades about members of a governing body in a parish serving on the library board of a parish (or parish/city's board, as the law allows joint library systems and a number of parishes operate under this mode), none involved the current situation in Bossier Parish: can a police juror in a Lawrason-governed parish (that is, without a home rule charter whose governance state statute therefore mandates) serve on a library board that solely governs library operations across the entire parish? And while it is speculation as to why the AG's office declares the answer to this question in the negative, two reasons suggest themselves.
First, if a parish (or parish/city) is to have a library, state law dictates that a board with certain composition and powers be established to run it. That could mean that legally a board is not considered to be entirely a creation of a jury, because the state gives no option for that so in some sense a board is an instrument of state policy. Second, because statute gives boards those few powers independent of a jury, that independence becomes destroyed if a juror is allowed in part to exercise both and creates dual officeholding.
A review of several larger-populated parishes (Ascension, Jefferson, Livingston, Ouachita, Rapides, St. Tammany, Tangipahoa) with over 100,000 people that don't have joint parish-city government or library operations, whether operating under a charter, shows no members of the parish governing authority serving on their boards, except in a few instances where such a member (on behalf of the authority's chairman) serves in the ex-oficio capacity as allowed under statute. Even among the smallest parishes in the state, under 10,000 in population, with parish libraries (Caldwell, Cameron, Red River, West Carroll; information couldn't be located for Catahoula, East Carroll, Madison, Tensas), where because of the small populations a jury might take the shortcut of appointing their own except for the ex-oficio allowance no jurors served as board members. Thus, Bossier Parish is an absolute outlier in adopting this practice, and that this large sample of similarly-governed parishes for library matters in the state doesn't follow that method indicates at least in part hesitancy to do so over legal concerns that don't seem to bother Bossier.
Altogether, this suggests the practice is of dubious legal validity and, that as discretion should be the better part of valor, Bossier would do best to avoid it. Regardless, the Jury-driven Bossier Board members did unambiguously break the law in one matter: last year hiring Parish Administrator Butch Ford as the interim library director for several months. Under Louisiana law, as he doesn't have a librarian certification, he could not have served in that position.
At the time of Ford's appointment, Brotherton, Gray, and Rimmer served on the Board, comprising a majority. Within three months Benton and Parks joined, and all acquiesced to Ford's continued service – much like they and the rest of the Jury allowed Ford to serve as parish administrator for almost a year illegally as they surely knew he lived in Caddo Parish and did not have a Bossier Parish address at which he could register to vote as required by law. Since then, Ford established a sham residence in Bossier Parish that likely if challenged as a registered voter in the parish would have that registration deemed fraudulent.
The way incumbent Bossier Parish jurors like to play fast and loose with the law should trouble voters, especially when considering the illegal behavior of Benton, Brotherton, Gray, Parks, and Rimmer on the Board and the probability they continue to serve on the Board illegally. At least the electorate will have the chance to register its views about this in the cases of Brotherton, Gray, and Parks.
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With most through to another four years of office, in their latest meeting Bossier Parish police jurors reverted to their typical arrogance and obtuseness. Perhaps they should pay attention to the shape of their future: what happened at the last Bossier City Council meeting.
Recent election results guaranteed nine jurors would return to office. The one runoff that remains will send a new member to the Jury since District 10 four-decade veteran Jerome Darby retired, but vying as his replacement leading into the runoff is his brother Democrat Julius Darby. Republican challenger Keith Sutton defeated incumbent Republican Mac Plummer in District 12, while the GOP's Pam Glorioso beat incumbent Democrat Charles Gray in District 9.
But over the past two years, all jurors had engaged in questionable, if not illegal, acts. They hired, knowing full well it was against the law, Butch Ford as parish administrator, because he was not a registered voter in Bossier Parish. He would not become one until ten months into his tenure, but even now some dispute remains over whether that residence qualifies for that purpose. They also filled completely the parish's Library Board of Control with themselves, a move which is of uncertain legal status and unprecedented across the state.
When at that latest meeting a couple of citizens questioned the reappointment of Republican Juror Doug Rimmer to the Board, drawing upon attorney general documents that declared sitting jurors on library boards was dual officeholding, as well as questioning why all five board members had to be jurors when in a parish approaching 130,000 residents surely there were more than enough non-jurors willing to serve, the likes of Rimmer and another juror on the Board, Republican Julianna Parks, at jury meetings and other forums have asserted the necessity of having jurors on the Board because of alleged and nebulously specified problems with the Board. As well, at this meeting Rimmer stated, on the advice of Parish Attorney Patrick Jackson, that the ability for jurors to serve on the Board was unquestioned.
The problem is, in addition to the Attorney General's office publicly taking the opposite position, case law not addressing this exact situation – at the meeting Jackson erroneously implied that it had and in favor of his interpretation – and conflicting statutes that seemingly give a parish the ability to dodge dual officeholding restrictions in this instance, Jackson himself doesn't have a good track record when it comes to understanding what the law means concerning appointments in parish government. In the past, he told jurors that, absent a court ruling otherwise which eventually happened, that Jury appointee Robert Berry to the Cypress Black Bayou Recreation and Water Conservation District could serve in that capacity and as the agency's executive director without violating dual officeholding law. And Rimmer stated at a recent Republican Parish Executive Committee meeting that Jackson also advised jurors they could appoint Ford as parish administrator despite his voter registration not being in Bossier while he looked to rectify that, which appears nowhere in the law and an action Ford showed no signs of pursuing until this space publicized his continued registration in Caddo parish ten months after his appointment.
Worst of all, Jackson either apparently was unaware of, tacitly approved of, or actually counseled in favor of the fact that the Board, then comprised of Rimmer, Republican Bob Brotherton who won reelection, and Gray illegally had made Ford interim library director in October, 2022, in contravention of R.S. 25:215 that states any head of a library system must have qualifications under R.S. 25:222, or a certification by the State Board of Library Examiners. Ford would serve six months in that job.
This unequivocally illegal action by three jurors (probably four, as minutes of that meeting never haven been made widely available, if they exist; the next meeting's minutes imply at that previous meeting Republican Juror Glenn Benton had been appointed but it's unknown whether he participated in the vote to appoint Ford) belies the argument that jurors were necessary to "clean up" the Board. In fact, they disgraced it and themselves by behaving illegally.
And the whole argument of juror necessity to respond to some problem is untenable, if not a mendacious excuse to justify the juror takeover. In fact, jurors were serving on the Board as long ago as 2016, when the Jury expanded the Board to include Rimmer and Brotherton with five other citizens (boards can have five to seven members). If there were alleged difficulties, not only have these been going on a long time, but also jurors by definition contributed to these so how can adding more jurors – and retaining the two already there – solve for problems jurors already are creating? So what's so great about juror service on the Board if they act illegally and supposedly badly enough to need outside intervention?
Of course, to clarify about whether jurors can serve on the Board, a simple request to the Attorney General's office for an opinion could be pursued. That would take a resolution passed by the Jury, but no juror has suggested this happen – perhaps because they know their policy might be in trouble. And the dismissive attitude that Rimmer and other jurors showed in the meeting towards citizen concerns on this issue illustrates their haughtiness and a belief they are above the citizenry, if not the law, emboldened now by recent electoral success.
If it stays that way. And it may not, if the latest Bossier City Council meeting indicates anything. Because three years ago, the Council was much like the Jury today. Back then five members of almost two decades or more service on the Council, actively supported by another more junior member, ran the show with little transparency, using their voting power and a compliant mayor to foist an avalanche of unneeded capital spending fueled by debt onto the backs of the citizenry.
However, the stench of that awakened enough voters so that two of the graybeards lost their jobs and eventually were replaced by newcomers Republicans Chris Smith and Brian Hammons. Since then, the pair have become increasingly vocal about use of tax dollars going to genuine needs rather than to monuments, figurative and literal, to long-serving councilors' egos.
While Hammons missed the last meeting, Smith more than made up for the both of them with a display of this critical attitude over spending. On an item for more capital expenditures for parks and recreation, Smith pointed out that in recent years over $20 million in tax dollars had gone for capital expenditures at the Tinsley Park complex, yet tax-paying citizens often couldn't use these in being crowded out instead by out-of-towners paying fees to use these.
Sparring with head of the Bossier City Department of Parks and Recreation Clay Bohanan, who with past mayoral and current Council graybeard support has pursued a model that puts revenue generation ahead of citizen ability to use certain facilities, Smith not only fought back against Bohanan's arrogance, who was joined by graybeard Democrat Councilor Bubba Williams implying that their exclusionary pay-to-play model was unimpeachably correct, but he also made the heretical suggestion that in following that model it would make more sense just to sell off the facilities to private operators.
In the larger scheme of things, Smith's argument was that instead of taxpayer dollars going to paying of the principal and interest on debt on things of little value to the citizenry, it could be reserved to fund employee raises, particularly for public safety personnel. When Williams subsequently challenged (actually calling untrue) a Smith statement that Bossier City's salaries ranked at the bottom of the region by pointing to a study done a couple of years back comparing Alexandria's public safety salaries to others in the state that put Bossier City police in the middle of the pack, Smith trumped him with his own very recent data looking at regional agencies, almost all in Texas, which had Bossier City salaries at or near the bottom.
Such argumentation would have been unheard of coming from the Council three years ago. But Smith and Hammons' elections in 2021 brought a breath of fresh air into Council debates that until then had been almost always get-along-go-along with no dissension on big spending plans with total disregard of airing out negative implications of that spending.
Hopefully, those kinds of debates will commence and flourish now that at least one reform-minded outsider, Sutton, will join the Jury. Glorioso was part of the cabal united with the Council graybeards when she served as Bossier City chief administrative officer until her boss lost reelection, so it seems unlikely that she would act differently in opening up the Jury. Perhaps Darby's opponent Democrat Mary Giles would ally with Sutton, while Julius Darby seems unlikely to.
But as the events surrounding Bossier City government over the past couple of years have shown, you don't have to have a majority to change the atmosphere. Perhaps a couple of years from now the sunshine even one dissenter can bring will have started to show results in curbing the Jury's penchant for lawless, sanctimonious behavior while deflating its members' attitude of insufferably unaccountable behavior.
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It's the electronic equivalent of laying down asphalt on parish roads right before an election: after three years of assurances this was around the corner, Bossier Parish finally is getting around to creating facilities to broadcast professionally its jury meetings – a day late and a dollar short of needed transparency.
For years, to broadcast proceedings the nine-figure annual revenue Bossier Parish has done so by slapping down on a table a device that tries to capture the entire panorama of twelve jurors by video and streaming it by Facebook Live. With little technical improvement, the arrangement continues until this day. Audio often is terrible that requires guesswork as to who speaks and there's no opportunity to view presentations or vote tabulations.
As a result, at the start of the Jury's meeting last week local web site operator Wes Merriott of Sobo Live made it an offer. Perhaps more known for his biting remarks during public commentary periods of the Bossier City Council, Merriott at the Jury's interval for public comments offered his technical services to improve the live stream capacity at no charge.
Despite the price, it was an offer the Jury could refuse. At the meeting's end during time set aside for juror comments, Republican Juror Julianna Parks revealed a sandbagging of Merriott. She had a parish functionary explain that an appropriation of $850,000 had been made to upgrade transmission facilities in 26th District courtrooms and the Jury chambers, with the courtrooms having priority.
Of course, citizens might have missed that because of what was called a transmission error occurring for the meeting last December dealing with the budget that led to no audio/visual streaming or archiving. And the minutes, produced after the fact sometimes weeks later, of that meeting only have the barest documentation of what the budget looks like, unlike every other major governmental body in the region which posts online much more detailed budgeting documentation, before meeting on it.
Regardless, by the end of the month the Jury should vote to move the project forward and its information and technology folks felt possibly the entire project for the chamber would be complete by the end of the year – that is, right after juror elections for the next four years. Merriott for his trouble was given the promise of a chat about transmission quality.
Naturally, all of this should have happened years ago. Almost three years ago I contacted the parish's public information officer Pat Culverhouse about the very issues Merriott had said had been brought to his attention. The reply I received then was that improvements were in the offing and to be patient. So, this has been known for a long time yet the parish made no targeted effort for improvement until two years had passed.
Parks tried to prompt IT staff to explain away the delay as a product of supply chain difficulties. But that strains credulity that this would knock things back by three years; certainly, starting when the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic descended to show the inadequacy of the current setup would have resolved the problem long ago.
In truth, greater transparency through clearer meeting presentation and therefore archiving wasn't desired by Parks or jurors generally until they realized it would become a campaign issue – and conveniently decided to tackle that only on the year of elections in a way making the solution available after elections. And the Jury still, unlike every other major government body in the region that posts this on the web, seems to have no plans to provide prior to meetings any documentation of agenda items other than item titles and summaries, except for maps for certain zoning decisions. That information is vital for citizens to understand issues and formulate input on items before the Jury acts upon these.
This is just another game by incumbent jurors – all of whom but one are running for reelection (and in that instance the incumbent qualified but then withdrew and has his brother running instead) – to trick the public into believing they respond and are accountable to citizens primarily when actually they are more motivated to preserve maximal ability to fulfill their insider needs first. Otherwise, the Jury wouldn't be tolerating the con game it lets its Parish Administrator Butch Ford play to evade state law about where he actually resides and is eligible to vote, or illegally placing its own on the parish's Library Board of Control, nor would it have taken so long to usher off the Cypress Black Bayou Recreation and Water Conservation District's Board of Commissioners its designee Robert Berry for illegally serving in two officers until legal judgments dictated it do so (Berry now is challenging for a spot on the Jury).
At least improving meeting transmission is minimal progress that needs immediate follow-through by putting thorough documentation of each meeting agenda item online when the agenda is published. But it still has to rectify other things as well and has a long way to go to win back the confidence of the citizenry, which may require wholesale changes through elections this fall.
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In April, most Bossier City residents will be solicited to slap upon themselves again a large amount of property taxes, and to a smaller degree parish residents outside of municipalities face the same. As a result, chances are good that at least some portion of current taxes will be rejected.
All of Bossier City, Bossier Parish, and the majority part of both encapsulated in the Cypress Black Bayou Recreation and Water Conservation District have cued up property tax renewals on the Apr. 27 ballot. The State Bond Commission last week approved for the date a pair of city levies for 8.32 and 2.71 mils for public safety, the parish levy 7.43 mils for the library system, and the district levy of 1.54 for general operations and capital outlay.
The four are for ten years, although the district's starts in 2025 while the other two wouldn't renew until 2026. If all were approved, city property owners with a $225,000 primary residential property within the district boundaries would reestablish onto themselves $350.88 annually in property taxes; those not in the boundaries would add back $327.78; and outside a municipality in the district would sign on again to $134.55, and those only in the parish would re-up to $111.45. (Parish Administrator Butch Ford's shack, which permits him to evade legal prohibition against his employment, is valued so low, below the homestead exemption, that his taxes paid won't change regardless of the outcome of the parish and district votes.)
Citizens within and among these various jurisdictions have reason for skepticism in renewing these taxes. In the case of Bossier City, it would be general profligate spending, in part on luxuries that serve few citizens such as maintaining tennis courts for a private sector operator that hardly any city residents use; high-dollar recreation facilities residents are discouraged, if not prohibited, from using; and huge capital outlay projects that have low overall value such as the duplicative Walter O. Bigby Carriageway.
This has put the city into a debt bind. At the end of 2022, it had $434.5 million in debt, with this declining slowly over the past couple of years. With an estimated mid-2022 population of 62,971, that left it at $6,900 per capita, or in terms of government activities (excluding enterprise activities, in this instance the city-run water and sewerage system) $3,400 per capita. These are the highest levels of any major city in Louisiana, which in part explains why the two major investment services rank the quality of its debt as only in the third-highest and fourth-highest categories (high quality with low credit risk, but with some susceptibility to long-term risks).
Having frittered away dollars on nonessential, if not questionable, items has had consequences such as government activities long-term debt interest of about $9 million paid out (its business activities also cost another $5 million in interest) in 2022 that just a portion of which if freed could back things like firefighter pensions or pay raises for city employees, particularly in public safety. Ironically, adequate funding of public safety is the issue that probably won't lead to a citizens' revolt at the ballot box on city millages because those address public safety, as city fathers decades ago clearly must have envisioned since they cleverly tied these levies explicitly to the most important function local government can have.
That fact will discourage citizens from voting down the items in order to teach a lesson to the likes of City Council graybeards Republicans David Montgomery and Jeff Free, Democrat Bubba Williams, and no party Jeff Darby who oversaw the fiscal mismanagement over recent decades. After all, even as graybeard actions have precluded better pay for public safety, removing the millages would mean no pay and no job for many first responders.
A bit more vulnerable is the parish levy, not only because library operations aren't nearly as central to parish citizens' lives – likely the majority of them, aside from early voting, never have set foot in or connected to the Internet sites of Bossier Parish Libraries – but also as the parish's Police Jury has engaged in a series of legally questionable, if not outright illegal, acts in regards to the library. In particular:
It has had jurors serve on the Library Board of Control since 2016. State law is somewhat ambiguous about the legality of this practice – in fact, Bossier is the only parish for which information is readily available on the web that does this – but an attorney general's opinion on that question soon will be released.At one point, it appointed Ford as head of libraries on an interim basis for several months, which unambiguously broke the law as he did not under state statute have the proper qualifications.Most recently, it appointed all 12 jurors to the Board. Even as it appears they will meet in a kind of rotation fashion, that violates state statute that limits membership to as many as seven parish residents.And, even as some jurors allege they needed to take over the Board because of problems they refuse to specify were endemic to the library system that only they could solve – which rings entirely hollow since jurors were board members for many years before making the board an all-juror affair – if one of those problems was unsupervised availability of graphic materials to children, the problem continues.
These kinds of shenanigans might induce the electorate to pull the plug on library funding, which would still leave around 100 mils of taxation for the parish that could be reallocated for library purposes if so desired. Still, the magnitude of the money that would disappear, as well as arguments that the library does serve school children and others, likely will save the day for this renewal.
None of that applies to the district levy. Few parish residents use the park (and have to pay to get in) yet most get taxed for it, and many of the few hundred property owners to which it is highly relevant since it foists land use controls upon them who pay hundreds or even thousands of dollars a year to it depending upon the activities in which they engage are nonplussed at it. The latter especially have had to endure years of evasive and opaque management accentuated by a series of questionable decisions by its Board of Commissioners and its recently-departed member and (illegally employed) executive director Robert Berry, from favoritism to elected officials who appoint them to resisting accountability to wasting tens of thousands of dollars in fruitless legal expenses and more on grandiose, unrealistic plans (which the renewal still advocates, as it in part would be dedicated to operating a zoo the conceptualization and intentions of which have been thoroughly botched).
That and the size of the millage and the election date conspire to put this renewal in real jeopardy. Already asked to approve about 20 mils, voters might think they can afford to drop 7.5 percent of it that they would see the 1.54 mils as not being missed, even as that comprises over half of park revenues for 2022. And while the election date helps the other levies' chances of renewal, because as very likely these four items will complete the ballot's entirety which will disproportionately attract to the polls the beneficiaries and families and friends of most of the items (i.e., Bossier City public safety employees and Bossier Parish library employees) in favor of these, with close to zero direct beneficiaries of the district more than offset by a number of disgruntled landowners, this hurts the chances of that millage passing (although it could get another shot later in the year if this failed).
Commissioners seem to recognize this and have been trying to engage landowners in a public relations campaign to improve their image. They may need to extend that to the public, who will see their ballots asking for taxes for something most never have heard of, and of those who have many will have heard negative things, that would seem easy for government to do without. Of course, a large PR campaign will cost money of which the district has none, being in the hole $92,650 which would have been nearly three times as much at the end of 2022 if not for an unspecified one-time insurance payout that year.
While each of the three entities smartly asked for renewing at the current millages being paid rather that at the higher amounts that the measures originally authorized, that may not save the District's request from tax-fatigued voters. Rejection of that would send a signal to the District at present as well as to Bossier City and the Parish for the future that voters will take only so much misrule before they start casting retribution.
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With all but one contest at the state and local levels resolved, elections this cycle in Bossier Parish demonstrated that to come close to beating its political establishment, you had to have a pretty organized effort behind you.
At stake were all the seats on the Police Jury as well as two state Senate and two state House of Representative slots, with a couple of House posts already decided when House District 10 incumbent Republican Wayne McMahen and House District 5 newcomer Republican Dennis Bamburg didn't draw opponents, as well as a few juror positions with just incumbents filing. Among the others, in all but one Jury and one House seat establishment forces had a rooting interest in, if not intense involvement supporting, a particular candidate.
The House race it didn't particularly care about was the District 2 matchup between Caddo Parish Democrats Terence Vinson from the School Board and Steven Jackson from the Parish Commission. It offered a contrast in styles both in terms of candidates and campaigns: Vinson utilizing traditional canvassing methods and with a steady record in office, while Jackson spent more overall and more on media to go with his more controversial personality, most recently being convicted for impersonation of a police officer. That apparently didn't faze enough voters, who gave him a narrow win.
Bossier political powers-that-be did care about the House District 9 race between Republicans state Rep. Dodie Horton and businessman Chris Turner, with them backing the challenger. Horton decisively turned him back, in part because of the assistance she received from the Louisiana Freedom Caucus through its political action committee, a group of consistent conservative House members of which she is a member and is led by another area House member, Republican Alan Seabaugh.
Seabaugh himself was on the ballot and in the crosshairs of the establishment – not just Bossier's but of other big government, get-along-go-along politicians and special interests across the state – for Senate District 31. Those forces aggravated at his reform and smaller government agenda propped up to oppose him retired basketball coach Mike McConathy running under the GOP label. Seabaugh prevailed in a contest that, when all is said and done, likely in terms both of dollars spent by the campaigns and by others on their behalf, will end up as the most expensive in state history.
Thus, strong candidate organizations and allied interests could maintain their foothold against the establishment. That lesson also was the case in the other Senate contest, District 36, that turned into a big establishment win, but not so much because of its efforts. There, GOP incumbent Robert Mills lost handily to Republican Bossier Parish School Board member Adam Bass.
Mills had angered conservatives by voting in the Senate this year not to hold back surplus money to pare down pension obligations and deposit more into the state's Budget Stabilization Fund savings account, against the preferences of Horton, Seabaugh, and the Freedom Caucus. The politically ambitious Bass, who had been testing the waters for Bossier City mayor in 2025 with establishment backing, stepped into an ideal situation where he could have that support and benefitted from some conservatives deserting Mills (for example, Seabaugh, busy with his own campaign, didn't aid Mills as he had in 2019). Despite the Mills campaign gaining an advantage monetarily in the closing weeks of the campaign, conservative acceptance of Bass and local powerbroker backing (in a district that had changed to his favor through reapportionment) was more than enough to make Mills the only incumbent senator to lose this cycle.
That establishment success, minus reformist or small government conservative backing with one possible exception, was more pronounced in Jury races. All but one incumbent ran again, and in the District 10 exception former School Board member Democrat Julius Darby, the incumbent's brother, qualified, with most finding success without great difficulty
Given their level of campaigning, resources committed, and district demographics, three Republican challengers – all reformers and conservatives – had the best shot to win of all challengers. In District 1, small businessman Mike Farris took on GOP incumbent Bob Brotherton; in District 5, former juror Barry Butler faced off against GOP incumbent Julianna Parks; and in District 12, small businessman Keith Sutton squared off against GOP incumbent Mac Plummer.
Brotherton looked vulnerable given his health that made him difficult for him to attend Jury meetings, much less campaign. He and Parks both served, likely illegally, on the parish-appointed Library Board of Control and certainly illegally had appointed Parish Administrator Butch Ford as interim director of libraries for several months. They and Plummer had made Ford administrator in full knowledge legally he didn't qualify, a matter still in doubt nearly two years later.
Yet Brotherton supporters are dug in like ticks in a district that swings north to south along the eastern edge of the parish – his wife represents a very similar district on the School Board – and his surrogates campaigned well enough for him to win without a runoff. And Parks was able to draw upon her connections – her husband Santi is Bossier City's elected judge – to seal a comfortable win.
However, Sutton knocked off Plummer and did so because of superior organization. South Bossier has gained a reputation as the most rebellious part of the parish to the existing power elite, with reformist political activism from a handful of elected (past and present) officials that are allies of Sutton's, including former School Board member Shane Cheatham (his podcast partner), Bossier City Councilor Brian Hammons, and Bamburg (Republicans all), as well as from others not in office. Sutton also aggressively canvassed the district on foot and by mail.
As things turned out, he might be the only reformer on the new Jury. One other incumbent lost, but that came from District 9's tilt between two establishmentarians, Democrat incumbent Charles Gray and Republican former Bossier City chief administrative officer Pam Glorioso. Demographics favored Gray with a Democrat voter registration advantage of 2:1 and a near-majority black registration (Gray is black).
Perhaps overconfidently given those demographics, Gray concentrated on outdoor advertising while Glorioso ran a more retail-oriented campaign. Also hurting Gray was dispirited turnout by black Democrat voters, who weren't excited by their party's offerings at the state level, and possibly reputationally in being a Library Board of Control member likely serving illegally who also approved of Ford's illegal service in two different capacities. So, Glorioso won a low-turnout contest, but she won't join any reformist efforts Sutton might back.
Sutton might get help from an unlikely source. In District 10, despite the Darby's family hold over that area of town (brother Jeff is on the Bossier City Council and sister Samm is on the School Board), Julius got pushed into a runoff by Democrat military retiree Mary Giles, who herself courted controversy with careless placement of campaign signs. It's the only legislative or local race left to be decided on Nov. 18.
Even if Sutton remains the only juror not tied into the Bossier good-old-boy-and-girl network, at least citizens will have one voice on the Jury to question orthodoxy and bad decisions such as those surrounding the library and Ford's employment. And that this cycle attracted more competition than any since 1987, even if most challengers lost, foists more pressure for accountability onto the nine returning incumbents, knowing that questionable actions will provoke a need to campaign ending possibly in losing.
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A whole generation goes by, and nothing changes for Bossier Parish apparently playing fast and loose with the law when it comes to squeezing money from the citizenry.
The Bossier Watch transmission of Apr. 16 contained a couple of minutes of commentary and video of a sign reading "VOTE SATURDAY, APRIL 27, 2024 BOSSIER PARISH LIBRARIES" planted near a roadway. The hosts recounted they had seen some around, although the exact location of this one was unknown. On that date is the spring municipal runoff elections in Louisiana, where a 7.43 mils property tax renewal to fund Bossier Parish libraries reengaging in 2026 for 10 years is the one item that will appear on ballots parish-wide.
What follows is a reprint of a post I made at my Louisiana-centric blog site, Between the Lines, on Dec. 30, 2010 that reviewed events of four years previous. (Keep in mind nearly 18 years ago that the Arthur Ray Teague Parkway stopped at the southern end of the now-Brookshire Grocery Arena). It's amazing how little things (and people involved) change:
As 2011 approaches and observing that Bossier Parish seems to have no difficulty, even in trying economic times, in finding money to service road construction, as well as reviewing the past year and digesting the renewed enthusiasm that the people have acquired courtesy of over-reaching national government to monitor the activities of government, it makes me think back some years ago about an object lesson concerning how government operates. The specific example is Bossier Parish's, and the apparent whimsy of situation might amuse save for the unsettling consequences implied had things turned out differently.
Perhaps somebody remembers in the days leading up to the 2006 fall elections that a sign touting an affirmative vote for Bossier Parish raising property taxes essentially threefold, at what was then the southern end of the Arthur Ray Teague Parkway, was moved a short distance away only a few days before that election. Blame me for the consternation.
I first noticed the sign on Sep. 21 and became simultaneously curious and concerned. It didn't state who sponsored it, and it was in a spot I thought might be part of the public right-of-way, and certainly was on public property (Bossier City's). Obviously, it was an attempt to encourage passage of the measure which should bring pause to anyone who believes in fairness by government: Bossier City was permitting a pro-vote sign, supporting a Bossier Parish measure which would enrich the parish coffers by $2 million a year, to be placed on its property, regardless of whether its citizens supported such a measure.
According to the Unified Development Code for both the city and parish, this is permissible under certain circumstances. Article 9 Section 10 states: "Temporary signs containing no commercial message and related to an election or other event or matter of public interest may be erected in any zoning district of the city or parish but not within the public right-of-way." Note, however, that the Code does not mention placement on government property.
After a couple of phone calls I got hold of Parish Engineer Joe "Butch" Ford, who said a private entity had put up the sign (and a similar one elsewhere). At least no government was using taxpayer dollars to try to influence its citizens voting behavior. Still, apparently it was on city property and the right-of-way question he couldn't answer, so on I called the Bossier City engineer to find out the answer to the latter.
He took time out of his busy day to relay to me that the public right-of-way extended to the back side of the barricade blocking the end of the pavement (about 25 feet from the roadway). However, the sign was located on the front side of the barricade, meaning it was in the public right-of-way and therefore illegally placed.
I then placed another call to the Metropolitan Planning Commission (I had placed one the day before but, like the call to Ford, had been close to the end of the workday and, unlike the one to him, was not answered). The employee there said they would deal with the situation, once I informed him of it. Since this was early Friday afternoon, I didn't know whether anything would happen before the weekend.
Early the next Monday, now five days prior to the election, I got a call from the Bossier MPC director Sam Marsiglia, who said it was legal to have the sign there because "it's a public sign." He alleged that a government had put it there, and that was legal. I informed him that the parish engineer had said otherwise and tried to explain that wouldn't look very good if a government was using taxpayer dollars to sway their votes so a government wouldn't do that, but he was insistent and said I should call Parish Administrator Bill Altimus about the matter.
I had duties to attend to so it was about 20 minutes later that I dialed Altimus. He cheerfully informed me the sign would be moved. As soon as I hung up, Marsiglia called, saying it would be moved to the Reeves Marine property (adjacent east of the barricades) and to check back with him if it wasn't done. (It would have been out of the right-of-way simply by moving it behind the barricades but would have remained on city property.)
This, I might add, is simply wonderfully neighborly behavior by the city and parish and Reeves Marine. Silly me, I thought whenever illegal campaign signs were discovered they either were destroyed or confiscated to a location where their owners could liberate them. Instead, not only were the interests behind the sign being allowed to move it, within only minutes of being informed of that necessity Reeves Marine graciously volunteered to host the sign. What a friendly place! Future candidates for office, now you know, if you place a sign on Bossier City property and/or illegally, it won't be destroyed or removed, they'll let you move it, maybe even to Reeves Marine. (If you ask nicely, maybe they'll even move it for you!)
(Note: in a subsequent communication, even Bossier City elected officials seemed confused over the incident. At my request, city councilman Scott Irwin wrote to Mayor Lo Walker, whose office's reply did not even discuss the legal issue and did not address the propriety of an electioneering sign on city property, adding "With your concurrence I will consider this ITEM CLOSED." Maybe not; maybe this issue of propriety is something that ought to be addressed by the city.)
Regardless of the sign's position (or of any others; there were several other similar ones touting the bond issue around the parish), the proposition narrowly failed. It took one concerned citizen to make the system work properly regarding the sign. Sep. 30, 2006, it took a majority of concerned citizens voting to make the Bossier Parish Police Jury see the truth that it didn't need to raise taxes to make sure the parkway was extended expeditiously and, even with deteriorated economic conditions, then to proceed to fulfill the other projects that had argued could be completed only with the increased taxation.
And confirmation of this came earlier this month, when the extension to the Parkway opened (through where the sign originally had been) without the extra tax dollars having gone into its construction. Lesson: watch government very closely lest it take what it does not need nor deserve from the people.
And now to 2024 … the sign displayed on Bossier Watch seemed awfully close to the road, meaning it's in the right-of-way, and the Bossier UDC hasn't changed since making that placement illegal. Thus, it would be incumbent on either the parish or whatever municipality may have such signs to remove these.
And where are they coming from? Campaign finance disclosure law would mandate that any political committee spending money on electioneering at this date close to the election would had to have filed a report about the expenditure for signs. None has, meaning either some PAC somewhere illegally hasn't reported this or no registered PAC has done it. That leads to a loophole in the law (R.S. 18:1501.1): any person who spends in opposition or support of a candidate or ballot item must report that – unless the aggregate contributions and expenses involved don't exceed $500. It is possible that, if there are few enough of these signs, that their cost didn't exceed that figure, and that someone or a few people got together and did that.
So, the public never may know who is doing this, and what their potential relationship is to Bossier Parish's government and libraries. In fact, it may be quite close, given the wording of the sign which ambiguously doesn't advocate for or against the ballot item. It merely exhorts the viewer to vote on that day and slips in "BOSSIER PARISH LIBRARIES." By doing this, if discovered government employees actually were involved, the parish could claim it wasn't electioneering but merely informing the public there was an election on Saturday, Apr. 27.
Of course, the signs' presentation implies something critical about libraries will appear on the ballot and, further, people should vote in whatever manner available to support libraries. After all, who is against libraries?
If anybody in Bossier Parish government knows about this, they need to go public. At the very least, parish government must remove any such signs on public rights-of-way; tolerance of this denotes acceptance not only of illegal behavior but also endorsement of a political preference. And state lawmakers would do well to clarify statute to make it expressly illegal for any government to spend any dollars to electioneer, even if in a manner that doesn't explicitly advocate for or against something on the ballot. Because when it comes to gorging themselves on taxpayer dollars, government will try any dodge available to keep other peoples' money rolling in.
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A review of races this fall in Bossier Parish government shows an expected electoral quietude among executives, but perhaps having the chickens coming home to roost for many of the incumbents on the Police Jury.
Parishes have four elective executive offices up for grabs, but there will be next to no drama in Bossier for these. The incumbent assessor, clerk of court, and coroner drew no challengers, letting all three cruise to reelection. Republican Sheriff Julian Whittington did receive a challenge from political unknown Republican Chris Green, a former deputy who would seem to have little chance for the upset.
The Jury contests are another matter. In 2019, eight incumbents walked back into office, with District 2 Republican Glenn Benton being the only incumbent to receive a challenge. This time he avoided one, along with Democrat Jimmy Cochran (unchallenged in District 7 since 1999) and Republicans Doug Rimmer (unchallenged since 2011 in District 8) and Tom Salzer (never challenged since being the only one to qualify for a special election for District 11 in 2017) while the other eight incumbents all filed for reelection against opposition.
Make that seven. District 10's independent Jerome Darby, the longest serving juror in the state in his tenth term, shortly after qualifying withdrew, perhaps because there still will be a Darby on the ballot. Democrat former School Board member Julian Darby, his younger brother, signed up, along with a pair retired military veterans Democrats James Carley and Mary Giles. The Darby family machine, whose Samm Darby as a Democrat represents the district Julian once did, despite having Jerome facing just one election in 2007 since 1987, should get cranked up enough to keep the seat in the family.
As for the other seven incumbents with a fight on their hands – the most since 1987 – from the rhetoric of the challengers it seems that has come at the expense of Jury actions over the past several years. Since 2016 jurors have served illegally on the parish Library Board of Control, currently Benton, Republican Bob Brotherton from District 1, Democrat Charles Gray from District 9, Republican Julianna Parks from District 5, and Rimmer. Jurors also tolerated inserting themselves into another dual officeholding controversy when their appointee to the Cypress Black Bayou Recreation and Water Conservation District Robert Berry also became its executive director, which changed only last month when jurors didn't reappoint Berry. Even so, three jurors – Gray, Parks, and District 12 Republican Mac Plummer – didn't go along with that.
Incumbent jurors also have courted controversy with their management of its Consolidated Waterworks/Sewerage District #1, its growing attempt to provide centralized water and sewerage provision to areas outside of municipalities. Deliberate lowballing on rates that taxpayers had to subsidize that may mushroom costs to all in the future and problems in absorbing new systems have raised the ire of some parish residents.
The Jury and parish government also have done little to make their dealings transparent, in contrast to every other major northwest Louisiana local government. Meetings are narrowcast on a hard-to-view and nearly impossible-to-hear Facebook Live channel, years after a statement that it would move to a professional setup (last year's meeting dealing with the budget wasn't delivered or archived at all). Online agendas carry the barest of information so citizens prior to meetings have no idea about the items being discussed and voted upon. Meeting minutes habitually are posted well past their meeting dates.
Perhaps worst of all, incumbent jurors have stuck by Parish Administrator Butch Ford as he continues apparently to violate state law that says a parish chief executive must be a registered voter in that parish, which means he must have his primary residence that would qualify for a homestead exemption in that parish. Over the past 19 months – the first 10 of which jurors ignored Ford's full-time residence at a Caddo Parish property with a homestead exemption and his registration to vote in Caddo, a property he still maintains – Ford has been unable to establish with certainty that he qualifies to register to vote in Bossier Parish, yet the Jury reappointed him without dissent earlier this year (and originally hired him the year before without a job search).
This pattern of obscurantism, questionable fiscal administration of the water utility, and lawlessness likely provoked many, if not all challengers. The most vulnerable perhaps is Brotherton, whose health problems have prevented him from attending most Jury meetings this year and will make it difficult for him to campaign. In a solidly Republican district, Republican small businessman Mike Farris has a distinct chance to replace him, much likelier to do so than the two Democrats running, retiree Mary Odom and trucking executive Andre Wilson.
District 3 Republican Philip Rodgers, who in 2019 ran on addressing problems with the Berry-run CBB, even as Berry's ouster – which also means by state law he must give up his executive directorship – has occurred, created some more problems for himself when in the process of criticizing District actions at one of its recent meetings opened himself to charges that he sought and obtained with its Board's knowledge favorable treatment from Berry. He is opposed by Republican Andy Modica, a District critic, parish constable, and recent applicant to fill a vacant School Board slot, who complained at the meeting where the Jury didn't reappoint Berry – at which Rodgers' campaign supporter Rodney Madden received the nod – that the fix was in against him and other applicants for the post that went to Madden. It wouldn't be hard for Modica to campaign contrasting the sweet deals political insiders get with the reception others encounter.
If that seems at all vengeful, forget it when compared to the fate suffered by District 6 Republican Chris Marsiglia. He drew as a challenger none other than Berry, running as a Republican. There's no fury like a scorned former CBB executive director/ex-commissioner, who lost both gigs because the Jury didn't reappoint him – with good reason, of course, since the judiciary declared a situation like his in violation of the law and the District was footing legal bills in his defense equivalent to about an eighth of its total revenues in a losing cause.
Marsiglia was one of three first-time electees (although he had run for a seat unsuccessfully years ago) who faced opposition then and now. District 4 Republican John Ed Jorden (who also ran years ago) turned out to be another, and worse off since in 2019 he had just opponent and now faces two. While district demographics suggest Democrat Donald Stephens can't win, he might make a runoff against either Jorden or Republican appraiser Jack Harvill.
And one of the most polarizing figures on the Jury, Parks who won a special election for the post in 2021, faces perhaps the most quality challenger running, Republican Barry Butler who formerly served in her spot from 2008-12. In his term, Butler distinguished himself by challenging orthodoxy and refusing to get along and go along as so often happens among jurors, often serving as the only voice willing to take up topics and bring out information that didn't portray parish policies in only rosy hues. Parks, who through her husband Republican Bossier City Judge Santi Parks has a considerable parish political establishment network to fall back upon, can bring a lot of resources to bear to retain office, but Butler, who suffered defeat through the efforts of that network, has the capacity to knock her off.
At the other end of the parish, after three straight elections without an opponent, Plummer will be forced to work for his job against Republican small businessman Keith Sutton. Also a critic of business-as-usual on the Jury with a desire for greater Jury fiscal responsibility, transparency, and term limits, he hosts a podcast with former School Board member Shane Cheatham that in part discussed politics of the day.
Republicans dropped the ball in the Darbys' District 10, which has been a plurality white district that has 41 percent black registration that should give them a decent chance to win with relatively fewer black Democrats, by not running a candidate there. They also blew it in 2019 in District 9, then with a narrow white plurality, when the only Republican who qualified subsequently was disqualified over not being a district resident, handing the victory to Gray. Since then, the district has moved to a black plurality of around 47 percent.
This time, the GOP challenger should stick, and a quality one at that – former Bossier City chief administrative officer Pam Glorioso, who might well have run for and possibly won the mayoralty had her boss Lo Walker not ran for a fifth term. She doesn't have the reform potential that challengers in other districts have (in Berry's case, perhaps more out of spite), having been a longtime part of the parish political establishment, and she may not have the numbers on her side to knock off Gray in a district that has become more secure for him.
If everything goes right for reformers, known quantities such as Farris, Modica, Butler, and Sutton could form a solid bloc on the Jury. If Berry and Glorioso also make it, matters become more interesting still. Throw in Harvill and a Darby opponent and some real change could be on the way. Even if turnover ends up minimal, clearly the challengers who have stepped up means there's more of the grassroots upset at sitting jurors that there has been for decades.
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For different reasons, Bossier Parish voters should reject all four property tax renewals on Saturday's ballot and tell the various powers-that-be to try again before it's too late.
Bossier City has two such items on tap, both of which are identically dedicated to public safety operations and maintenance. Both are ten years in length starting in 2026, pitched at current levies (rolled back from previous authorized maximums, as property values have risen in recent years) of 8.32 and 2.71 mills that would generate about $8.6 million in annual revenue. These do not cover salaries, which are supplemented by a 5.98 mill measure approved at 6.19 mills in 2020.
The city was smarter this time around than back then. Four years ago, with that millage then set at 6.00, in essence it allowed for a future tax increase by the city asking for 6.19 and received negative publicity for that although the measure passed. Then as now, it occurred within a year of city elections; the next year the mayor and two city councilors got dumped by voters. So, this time the city pinned the renewals at the current rates, and hopes the assessment report from the parish that soon will be completed will show increased values and allow for a roll back later this year, just in time for elections next year.
In 2022, the latest date for which figures are available, the city spent net of charges for service $27.6 million on public safety, so the amount in question represents 31.2 percent of that kind of spending. That amount is a bit less than the $9 million the city spent on interest for non-enterprise debt – that is, money that goes to paying off a parking garage for a private concern in and out of receivership, a high-tech office building (and expansions around it), a money-losing (about $10 million so far) arena, playing fields and recreational buildings that only private organizations often of non-residents can use, and a duplicative roadway complete with statute extolling past and present politicians – and significantly less than the $11.8 million paid out that year to extinguish a portion of that debt, which stood at $214 million.
Meanwhile, at the end of that year the city sat on $37.6 million in the general fund, $30 million in its Riverboat Gaming Special Revenue Fund, and $18.9 million in the Public Health and Safety Permanent Fund. By ordinance (and in the case of the Permanent Fund, permission of the attorney general), the entire amounts could be used to fund current operations, meaning even missing a few years of these taxes could be offset without service reductions.
Therefore, city voters should send a message to their elected officials by voting negatively on the taxes. By law, the city could get a couple of more cracks at approval before expiration, and voting down these now could tell officials to get debt under control that would facilitate, among other things but perhaps the most crucial priority now a pay raise for public safety employees, where after that show of good faith would demonstrate the merits of future approval. For example, the city could sell the Brookshire Grocery Arena, revoke already-authorized tens of millions of dollars in unissued debt, and/or scratch from capital outlay plans what appears to be yet another attempt to foist an unneeded recreational center onto taxpayer's backs.
Bossier Parish's 7.43 mill renewal (rolled back from 7.73) for library operations also needs rejection, as a different message sent. That would collect $9.5 million annually, which is well above the 2022 expenditures of $7.3 million. In fact, there was so much excess that $2 million was shoveled from it towards construction of the just-opened Central Library. Both the Library Fund and Library Construction Fund had healthy balances of $3.4 million and $6.9 million (although estimated remaining costs for the new library of $5.3 million had yet to be realized).
Still, a year without this funding would leave a gaping hole in the library's budget. Nor could the general fund provide much cushion, as most recently the parish has run a deficit in it after transfers to prop up other areas of parish government, leaving a balance at the end of 2022 of just $7.2 million.
Yet perhaps that's the lesson the Police Jury needs to have delivered, which is the only known body in the state to appoint its own members to a library board of control, a legally questionable practice subject to a pending attorney general's opinion (which over a month ago was described as nearing completion, but perhaps timed so that it comes out after the election?). Absolutely unambiguously it violated R.S. 25:214 by appointing more than seven members to the Board and allowing them to meet in that fashion and in the past also violated R.S. 25:215 by appointing for several months Parish Administrator Butch Ford as head librarian, when the law stipulated that this officer had to have certifications that Ford lacked.
Bossier Parish police jurors have shown they are a hard-headed lot and more than willing to break the law when it gets in their way. Parish voters telling them to go back to the drawing board by rejecting the renewal might be the only way to make them more accountable and stay within the law, which then would merit future renewal.
Finally, the Cypress Black Bayou Water Conservation and Recreation District renewal of 1.54 mills that most parish voters will have to assess also deserves defeat. Unlike with the other measures where elected officials can show behavioral changes that induce later voter acceptance, this one may be beyond any hope.
This levy actually is a slight decrease from the 1.56 authorized last time and currently assessed, putting it at the level of the previous reauthorization in 2014. Undoubtedly, setting it at that is a reaction to the debacle in 2019 when district board – comprised of five unelected commissioners appointed by various Bossier governments – basically wanted to double the tax five years early, and got drubbed at the polls as most but not all of parish residents are subject to the tax and 97 percent don't own land regulated by the district.
The new version, which would last from 2025 to 2034, would raise a bit under $1.5 million annually, which would be around three-quarters of its total 2022 revenue haul. Debt service for the 2025-27 period, which is when all its debt will be extinguished, runs just over $1 million. Other expenses, which are all cultural and recreational in nature, net of charges for services cost $1.2 million. About five-eighths of those charges come from fees charged to users of the park area and waterways, and around three-eighths come from landowners around the waterways who have to pay mandatory fees.
However, the fact remains that few of the 97 percent ever visit the area (which they have to pay to enter whether they already paid property taxes for it) and it has strayed very much from its original intent as a water management entity. In fact, in its entire history stemming back to 1958 it only ever has made one water sale, which otherwise could be a major source of revenue, as its management has focused on running it like a park.
Almost all of its expenses come from its recreation activities, even though those tied to landowners make up a tiny portion of that, who end up subsidizing others' recreation. Most expenditures would go away, and the need for property tax subsidization, without its acting like a park.
So, don't let it act like a park, at least as it currently is governed. It should return to a basic duty of water sales, which has low expenses, and user fees for boat launching or even beach usage should be enough to pay for minimal staff, and chuck the rest of its activities. Better, have the state adopt it as a park by extinguishing its debt and taking it into the state park system, and conduct water sales through the Department of Energy and Natural Resources. Covenants can be put on landowners but there would be no need for them to pay fees.
Or for most of the rest of the parish's residents to pay the property tax. Voters can kickstart this conversion process of going from a patronage sinkhole with largely unaccountable governance too willing to chase grandiose schemes on the taxpayer dime to focusing on state objectives with streamlined management, if not operations, by rejecting its taxpayer funding, and again in November when it would be guaranteed to try again less than two months before loss of this revenue.
Bossier voters just need to remember one thing when they hit the polls on Apr. 27 – no, in quadruplicate.
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Operating squarely within their histories of lack of transparency, Bossier Parish and Bossier City's legislative organs recently tackled controversial legal issues differently, one to the benefit and one to the detriment of the citizenry.
The Police Jury appoints a member to the Cypress Black Bayou Recreation and Water Conservation District, and that current term expires at the end of the month. Held at present by Robert Berry, controversy arose when, two terms back, Berry and his fellow commissioners appointed him also as executive director. This eventually caught the attention of the state's attorney general as a violation of dual officeholding, and after a protracted legal battle this spring the Louisiana Supreme Court instructed lower courts to rule along those lines.
Even so, the district's Board of Commissioners petitioned for Berry's reappointment. Perhaps one reason was, according to public comments made at their meetings, it had become dependent on Berry to make and execute decisions on its behalf, and another maybe being that state law would force Berry if leaving the Board to resign as executive director, as a former member generally of a state board can't be employed by it until two years pass after end of service, so commissioners wanted to keep him in that job.
But that wish simply didn't comport to legal reality. At the meeting, a parade of Berry's and the District's lawyers (it's uncertain to this point how many taxpayer dollars they have burned on trying to fight the state's case, but it's certainly into six figures and probably a tenth or more of all District expenses annually over the last two or three years), other commissioners, his friends, and family spoke about how great of a guy he was and how great of a job he had done and how the decision hadn't actually kicked him out of office, all arguing for reappointment.
However, legal advice rendered by lawyer and area political insider Neil Erwin to the Jury reminded, if not understated, that eventually it was a virtual lock that the judiciary in the future would find Berry in violation. Erwin, rather than the attorney assigned by the district attorney's office to serve as parish attorney, Patrick Jackson, delivered this message, which was unusual in that Jackson rarely misses a meeting and only two weeks earlier had busted a gut to return from the east coast in time to attend that previous meeting, yet was absent for this one.
In early June, the Jury formally had solicited applications for the post, drawing half a dozen applicants for vetting. All but one spoke to the Jury, making the one who didn't conspicuous by his absence – Rodney Madden, a local business owner and 2019 campaign supporter of Republican Juror Philip Rodgers. Although Rogers financed that campaign with mostly his own and some family resources, Madden had made a testimonial video supporting Rodgers. Additionally, Rodgers was one of the public complainers about Berry having too much influence by default over the Board, where he, rather politically guilelessly, said Berry had made certain representations that came as a result of Rodgers' political position that now the Board he accused was trying to renege upon.
Madden, it was asserted, was out of the country on vacation and couldn't appear in person although he sent along a short video segment – filmed by GOP Jury Pres. Doug Rimmer – introducing himself. It would seem odd that somebody who followed the Berry case and felt committed to offer services as a result, understanding importance of letting the Jury publicly vet him, would have scheduled a vacation at the very time he would have known, because of his interest in the appointment, that the appointment would be made. That behavior seems more consistent with someone who hadn't considered the matter until asked relatively close to the opening of the search process to offer his services and who had assurances that to receive serious considerations that jurors didn't need to vet him publicly.
Whether this signaled the fix was in, at least one applicant thought the fix in fact was in. Andy Modica, who actually in past and present has been appointed to several positions in government by the Jury, testified he had been told jurors already have decided upon someone, not him. Rimmer then said he didn't doubt someone had told Modica that, but claimed it was "news" to him who the mysterious slam-dunk appointee was.
Yet there was a slam-dunk appointee, when all was said and done. Rodgers nominated the missing Madden and he received at least seven votes in favor – recall that the Jury, despite having a budget in the hundreds of millions of dollars annually, refuses to set up anything but a rinky-dink cellphone-driven narrowcast Facebook Live transmission system for meetings so it's impossible to tell who or how many votes are cast on measures without actual physical attendance, until the minutes are approved weeks later.
That takes the issue of Berry being the Jury's appointee off the table for fall juror elections – and without the timing of the end of the five-year term happening to be months before the election, without that spotlight Berry might have won a third term leading taxpayers to fork over more dollars to defend his lost cause. Of course, other election issues remain such as having Parish Administrator Butch Ford apparently illegally registered to vote at a place that is not his residence that disqualifies him from holding the job with the Jury's tacit consent and jurors illegally serving on the parish's Library Board of Control.
Still, at least Madden legally may hold the position and has the potential to serve well, making the action a victory for the parish residents, most of whom pay directly or indirectly property taxes to fund the District. Things didn't turn out so well for Bossier City residents in the previous day's meeting of the Bossier City Council.
There, a Council majority followed through on making a formal request to ask for an outside legal opinion on petitioning for a charter change to install term limits, despite the fact that the Charter and state Constitution allow for the process followed, and that the two propositions that limit officeholders to three lifetime terms don't unconstitutionally violate retroactivity prohibitions on criminal or penal laws. It came up as a Council matter as a delaying tactic designed to push farther into the future to a lower-stimulus election date the inevitable election that must be called, which could increase the chances of its defeat.
But even more than that, rhetoric from City Attorney Charles Jacobs and others indicated, arising from questions asked and unasked, beginning with why Jacobs brought the matter in the first place. It certainly wasn't at the behest of Republican Mayor Tommy Chandler, who in the course of discussion made clear he was for term limits and wouldn't impede their adoption. It therefore came from at least one councilor, as the Charter permits that.
More blatantly, as articulated by GOP Councilor Chris Smith, why did the Council have to do something formal about this when, just in the past month, without seeking Council approval, Jacobs had engaged outside counsel on another matter? Jacobs' response never addressed that discrepancy.
However, what it did do was reveal the endgame strategy behind the request that could benefit at least four of the five who voted for the resolution, who with adoption of the proposals all would become ineligible to serve any more terms. Essentially, Jacobs issued a veiled threat, apparently reflecting the thinking of the Council graybeards, by invoking the long-running dispute over the establishment of the city of St. George within East Baton Rouge Parish as what could happen.
Of course, significant differences exist in these two cases, where St. George's centers on a judgment call whether demands in state law were met in the petitioning and election that approved the city's establishment, but Bossier City's term limit proposal is cut-and-dried valid. Still, the idea of launching costly litigation – weaponizing city government at taxpayer expense precisely to attempt thwarting the will of the people – visibly was put on the table.
This scorched earth strategy to save four part-time jobs hopes best case to wear down those backing limits – who may have to retain counsel to sue the city if the Council doesn't approve of term limits in its next meeting or fails to place the matter on the Nov. 18 ballot by Sept. 25 – so that they give up or to delay matters to a lower-stimulus election, and worst case to string things out so much as to buy another term possibility for the graybeards. Regardless, bringing about such litigation would be a selfish, self-interested response by a handful of governing elites that, in attempting so hard to get around the clearly valid rules in place, questions the very fitness of such persons to serve in office.
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From the lineups of candidates for seats on the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, its potential for policy change from its present course is incremental for the next four years after 2024.
Only District 3 Republican Sandy Holloway will return unopposed. Three other districts will send another Republican, while two will produce a Democrat. As a Republican seems likely to win the governorship and that officer appoints three members, that would indicate a Republican majority regardless of the outcome of the two races where major party candidates will clash.
Although in both cases, a Republican newcomer seems likely to win, with each having an existing connection to state government. Current District 4 Republican incumbent Michael Melerine will defer for a state House of Representative contest, but his wife Republican Stacey Melerine will run in his stead. They may become the new political power couple in north Louisiana, given that District 5 Republican Ashley Ellis also will retire, leaving her husband independent Friday Ellis as mayor of Monroe the only elected official in the household.
Stacey Melerine should win, given the observed strength of Michael's previous campaign that should transfer to her effort. The two are lawyers and share an agenda focusing on accountability and school choice. Opposing her is Democrat retired educator Emma Shepard, who ran in 2019 but dropped out, and Republican Paige Hoffpauir, a real estate agent.
Ashley Ellis has endorsed GOP state Rep. Lance Harris to succeed her, who has sponsored a number of measures in the lower house on education also emphasizing accountability and school choice. He is a big favorite against Republican Toby Brazzel, an investment advisor and political newcomer.
The other partisan-contested race involves another GOP state representative, Paul Hollis with the endorsement of retiring Republican Jim Garvey in District 1 and also mirroring his accent on accountability and school choice. He also will be a heavy favorite, against Democrat Lauren Jewett, an educator who previously unsuccessfully ran for a Jefferson Parish School Board seat.
One internecine Republican contest occurs in District 6 with Ronnie Morris running for reelection. He squares off against Jodi Rollins, who has publicized the issue of cameras in schools and who will be a decided underdog.
The other happens in District 7 to succeed the retiring Republican Holly Boffy with three from the GOP competing. Former Lafayette Parish School Board member Erick Knezek with go up against education administrator Cathy Banks and businessman Kevin Berken who formerly ran unsuccessfully for state Senate, all of whom seem in tune with the current accountability/choice agenda of the BESE majority that is decidedly minus appointees of Democrat Gov. John Bel Edwards. Knezek appears to have the edge by performing the most serious campaigning to date, according to campaign disclosures.
Both all-Democrat battles feature two-up races, but only one likely will be competitive. Incumbent Democrat Preston Castille has a distinct campaigning advantage over educator Dolores Cormier-Zenon in District 8.
District 2, however, looks to be closer. Educator Sharon Latten-Clark, with traditional and charter school experience will take on former unsuccessful Orleans Parish School Board candidate Eric Jones, who currently is a city appointee to its Industrial Development Board. He had been on a local charter school board until resigning in the wake of controversy over the treatment of struggling students. Whether his sharing a last name with popular outgoing member Kira Orange Jones will help his chances in an open question, but neither candidate probably will join BESE reformers as often as she did.
But when the dust settles, expect Republicans to control six of the eight elective seats. With projected GOP gubernatorial picks to join them, that would give the accountability and choice bloc a comfortable majority, boding well for Superintendent Cade Brumley to stay on if he wishes and setting the stage to recapture minor losses suffered through eight years of Edwards, such as diluting or reversing a recent decision to weaken graduation requirements.
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Because of a blatant partisan gerrymander, not much drama will come from Caddo Parish Commission elections this fall, with just a few internecine conflicts to stir up things.
Despite having a black/white population of about 49/45 percent as a result of the 2020 census, earlier this year the Commission reapportioned itself into seven strongly majority-black districts out of 12. In terms of registered voters (through August), no district's majority race was less than 62 percent, District 10 being the lowest, which also underwent the most dramatic change from its previous incarnation where prior to February's reapportionment its plurality was 49 percent white.
Commission Democrats managed this with an extreme power play. Disregarding its own rules that reapportionment should have occurred in 2022, they delayed the process until one commissioner, Republican Jim Taliaferro, resigned at the end of the year to take a seat on the Shreveport City Council and then appointed Democrat Ron Cothran to serve in the heavily-Republican district. That gave them seven sure votes by which to muscle through the current plan, disregarding an alternative that would have created six each black or white majority districts, leaving District 10 with a small white plurality.
They segregated races to such an extent because they didn't want what happened with the similar School Board District 10 last year. It was drawn in that reapportionment to have a small black majority (leading to a slight white plurality in registrations) that led to a white Republican winning despite that typically whites in Caddo typically cross over more than twice the rate to vote for black candidates than blacks do for white candidates. The plan adopted largely hinged on the fact that with a board divided Democrats and Republicans with six each, so an egregious gerrymander could not have passed.
As a result, there won't be any competitive inter-party races which in any event feature eight incumbents of which only District 12 Democrat Ken Epperson drew a challenger in the form of former District 10 GOP Commissioner David Cox. But district demographics make Epperson a solid favorite to win an eighth (not all consecutive) term.
A newcomer also got a free ride. Democrat Gregory Young, a retiree who once tried for this office and also Shreveport City Council, will replace the only term-limited commissioner, Democrat Lyndon Johnson.
Technically, another incumbent also is trying his luck. Cothran, reapportioned out of District 8, will go for a lateral move to District 10. He faces off against Democrat Quinton Aught, who lost narrowly to then-Republican Mario Chavez, who won't seek reelection in a district now much less favorable demographically to his chances, and Democrat Kenny Gordon. Given his previous effort, Aught is the favorite to flip the district to Democrats.
While that might get heated, so might the contest to replace Cothran. That comes down to Republicans Grace Anne Blake, a small business owner who applied for the appointment Cothran nabbed, and education administrator Tim Euler. Both tout conservative credentials in likely the most conservative district of the 12, but until recently Blake was not registered as a Republican, back then choosing a no party label.
But the most heated battle could transpire between District 4 GOP incumbent John-Paul Young and Republican Frank Thaxton. Both sons of judges, Thaxton may have a score to settle, as he also applied for the post Cothran received, who Young voted for. Over his term, Young frequently has sided with Democrats and on some big issues, like voting for Cothran and the reapportionment plan highly favorable to Democrats. But in doing so, whether knowing it he drew Thaxton into his district, and is the incumbent most in peril of losing.
The last incumbent having to break at least a little sweat to get back into office, District 1 Republican Todd Hopkins, received a challenge from the right in the form of welding supply employee and political activist Republican Chris Kracman, Hopkins' long political service in a couple of different roles and conservative record should be enough to reelect him.
Republicans John Atkins and Ed Lazarus, plus Democrats Roy Burrell, Steffon Jones, and Stormy Gage-Watts will return unchallenged and likely will be joined by Democrat university administrator Victor Thomas in District 3. He faces no party Joshua Hanson, but district demographics favor him to replace Democrat Steven Jackson, whose tendency to grandstand has become tiresome and whose recent legal troubles apparently convinced him to seek another office.
Democrats almost certainly will continue to control the Commission, although this time affirmed through the ballot box, and of the three incumbents facing a challenge in their current districts only Young has any real threat to be sent packing.
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In the world of politics, Jerry Payne didn't particularly care to advertise his own role; he just wanted to get results and usually did.
Anybody involved in electioneering in northwest Louisiana over the past few decades knew of Jerry. He first entered politics through his lifelong and perhaps best friend, Republican former Gov. Buddy Roemer, when Roemer started his political career through election as a delegate to the 1973 Constitutional Convention. Jerry would continue to work with Roemer as the latter ascended the ladder up to the governorship.
Actually, their initial collaboration came in the field of data management. For the first quarter-century or so of his work life, Jerry served as an administrator mainly dealing with systems for tracking and processing financial transactions that would send him out of state for years at a time. For that reason, he never took a role in the Roemer Administration even though he was asked as a significant figure in Roemer's defeat of Democrat former Gov. Edwin Edwards.
Election consulting remained a sideline of his until the latter part of Roemer's term, when he finally committed full time. Once he did, he became phenomenally successful, enabling a couple of hundred ideologically-eclectic collection of candidates mainly from Caddo and Bossier Parishes to win elective office nine out of ten times over the next two decades.
That remained largely unknown to any but area political activists, because Jerry wasn't the kind of guy who did things to publicize his role. Some area consultants would be fixtures in the media, but not him. Nor did he really attempt to branch out beyond area contests, despite his rate of success (although when younger and working in Birmingham, he did get involved in a historic mayor's race there, which his candidate narrowly lost).
He began to taper his activities after he became a widower, and in fact would survive a cancer scare himself. He hung on as a Democrat while the national party, followed by its state version, began its sprint to the far left that increasingly disdained his strong Christian beliefs. Helping him transition more towards the partisan center (a journey more than one area figure involved in politics would experience) was the presence in his life of his second wife Madonna, who before her return to Bossier City had become involved in GOP politics.
In actuality, I got to know Jerry not really in the realm of politics, as we rarely had rubbed elbows since my arrival in the area which was about when he went full time into consulting, but more because he and Madonna were friends of my wife's family from their church. They joined others (including his brother and sister-in-law) in their Sunday school class that committed to helping out my wife, and me by extension.
Unfortunately, his greatest test came in his last years when he suffered a particularly debilitating stroke (as cruelly, Roemer had the same happen to him) seven years ago that left him having to live in a nursing home. Things got rougher still when the pandemic hit to close off his world even more and family members faced their own health challenges, but he hung in there.
Jerry this week assuredly gained a richly-deserved reward, leaving a lasting legacy in area and state politics and as a person.
