Cougle lobbies to keep council at current size
By KEVIN CHIRI
Slidell news bureau
MANDEVILLE – The expected intensity from the start of serious discussions about reducing the size of the St. Tammany Parish Council did not disappoint when the Home Rule Charter Commission (HRC) took up the matter on Monday night.
That topic has clearly been key issue number one since the HRC was formed last year, and the regular meeting of the commission on Monday night was the first time the matter was seriously discussed, even though it had been mentioned many times in previous meetings.
Parish Councilman David Cougle, although not selected for the commission, has been incredibly outspoken for many weeks about his insistence that the council should not be reduced in size from the current 14 members.
Even though he has already clashed publicly with other public officials about the matter and been chastised by other council members for opposing the reduction before the HRC even got to reviewing it, HRC Chairman Kevin Davis invited Cougle to lead off the Monday meeting with a presentation of why he believes the council size needs to remain at 14.
Former Parish Council Chairman Mike Lorino, even though he lives in New Orleans now, was invited to speak on why he sees the Orleans and Jefferson Parish council models as something to seriously consider. Both of those councils are made up of five regular members and two at-large members, but they are all full-time councilmen with huge support staffs that have million-dollar budgets.
Cougle’s main arguments against reducing the council focused on two key aspects—he believes it would dilute the representation for constituents in St. Tammany, and he believes the cost would skyrocket to as much as $12 million a year for an already cash-strapped parish budget. The current total cost for the Parish Council is $1.7 million annually.
From the outset of Cougle’s detailed PowerPoint presentation he highlighted what he thinks will be an explosion in cost to go full-time.
The Orleans Parish Council has 91 staff members to go with their seven full-time councilmen, operating with an annual budget of $15.8 million. In Jefferson Parish the same size council, again all full time, have 57 support staff and a budget of $8.8 million. St. Tammany currently has five support staff for the council, and Cougle thinks a full-time council would need 15 more for a total of 20.
Cougle said he believes a similar St. Tammany model to Orleans or Jefferson would increase their budget from the current $1.7 million to over $12 million.
“And that doesn’t include office space they would all need that hasn’t been added in yet,” he stated.
Cougle openly was calling out commission members for what he has flatly stated is “a decision already made to recommend a reduction.”
He also questioned Chairman Davis’ intent since he is also the executive director for the Northshore Business Council (NBC) which has produced a study showing the benefits of a smaller council in St. Tammany.
At that remark, Davis halted the presentation and told Cougle, “I am interested in the constituency for every council person here, but I don’t appreciate you continually using my name here. You know, I am a private citizen and can sue you,” Davis said.
Cougle fired back with, “so are you threatening to sue me?”
District Attorney Collin Sims, serving on the HRC group, cooled the situation when he said, “this is unproductive,” then later reminded the commission that they need to listen to everyone who has an opinion, regardless of if it is a parish councilman or private citizen.
But Cougle didn’t back down and added, “I believe minds are made up since some of the commission members have plans to seek a higher office,” he said, hinting at two HRC members who have been rumored to seek the parish presidency and assessor’s job in 2027 elections.
Cougle said he believed the fact that the council jobs would be full time, expected to pay approximately $135,000 year, would mean the council positions would suddenly be highly sought after, meaning campaign contributions would increase, which means the lower income earners in the parish would lose access to council members.
“More expensive races would mean only the rich and well connected could run, and that means a lot of people without that kind of money would lose access to their councilman,” Cougle said. He also highlighted the fact that fewer council members would then be representing more than the current 18,000 residents each district now covers.
HRC member Joe Impastato, a fellow parish councilman with Cougle who has had his share of public differences with him, also had a small clash about Cougle claiming minds are made up.
“Who said we are looking at New Orleans?” Impastato asked Cougle. “I’m here to improve St. Tammany and I have a model that could even be cheaper for us. I believe you can save money doing this and whatever we decide on, I will never support something to increase the cost—especially after Saturday’s vote (sales tax rededication that failed.)”
As the differences continued between Cougle and the HRC, Davis also tried to lower the tone by finally saying, “We need to turn this down a bit,” then asked Cougle, “I don’t know why you are coming after us?”
HRC member Gen. Carl Ernst responded to the presentation by telling Cougle, “I see a lot of assertions and assumptions that are not backed up by fact.”
Other HRC members also stated there are no pre-conceived notions about what the committee will eventually decide, and several also agreed with Impastato in saying they will not approve anything more costly than the current budget.
“After Saturday’s vote, if this committee does anything that costs more it will not be fiscally responsible,” Cougle said.
Lorino started his presentation by noting, “it’s apparent the public doesn’t trust us,” then said he saw a reason to consider change since the population in St. Tammany has grown so much, now over 275,000. However, Cougle had earlier countered that by noting East Baton Rouge Parish is the largest parish in the state but has part-time council members.
Lorino thinks that two full-time councilmen would have more time to work on key issues and be available for constituents.
“There are currently so many demands on the council chairman and that’s why we need full-time,” he said. “St. Tammany residents deserve a full-time council.”
The topic of losing the trust of the public was reiterated several times, with comments such as “even with 10 new parish council members the people still don’t trust us,” said HRC member Arthur Laughlin.
Davis concluded Cougle’s time by agreeing with others in stating, “let’s close with we won’t support any unfunded mandate.”
The HRC will review the entire parish charter and make recommendations for change to the full Parish Council, which must decide whether or not to put them on the ballot for the public to vote on. The council needs a super majority of 10 votes to advance anything to the ballot.