P.C. issue is fading
By KEVIN CHIRI
Slidell news bureau
MANDEVILLE – Although the possibility of reducing the size of the St. Tammany Parish Council to less than its current 14-member body seemed to be slipping to a back burner last week, the matter has not been completely removed from the agenda of the Home Rule Charter Commission (HRC).
However, Parish Council Chairman Joe Impastato, who also serves on the 11-member Home Rule Commission, said he is much more focused now on considering a new structure for parish government that could work fine with the 14-member council.
Several HRC members stated in the April 10 edition of The Slidell Independent that they were agreeable to dropping the matter of reducing the size of the council, since there were some public objections to doing so, and there had not been a lot of public interest in changing the way things currently stood.
Impastato, who had been open to considering the Orleans Parish or Jefferson Parish models that had nine councilmen each, agreed with HRC Chairman Kevin Davis that he was also OK with moving on to other matters.
Impastato took that step at last week’s Home Rule Charter meeting when he made a motion to bring up discussion about changing the structure of parish government to a council manager model that is gaining popularity around the country.
To that end, the next HRC meeting on Thursday, April 24 is expected to have a speaker from the International City/County Management Association, who will explain how the new model would work.
“I believe a change in our structure could work with 14 council members, or it could work with a different number,” Impastato said. “But right now, my focus is on learning more about the council manager model and then seeing what the commission wants to do. I believe that is a much more important matter for us now.”
Impastato is among many councilmen who have expressed displeasure with the current parish government structure where the parish president has what they consider “too much power and not enough balance with the Parish Council.”
Among those issues is the power to hand out contracts without bids for certain dollar amounts, the appointment to boards and commissions without council approval, and a general imbalance in power between the council and parish president, say several council members.
As for the seeming move to put the reduction of the 14-man council in the background, Impastato said he sees several reasons that it should stay the same.
“First off, we might lose our minority-majority district that Jimmy Strickland currently has, and I wouldn’t want to see that,” he said. “Then, the argument from people like Cheryl Tanner who represent the rural districts makes it clear they are happy with the way things are and wouldn’t want it to change.”
There has also been an argument that a smaller council would drastically affect the east side of the parish, especially if a change was made to have two At-Large members. Currently, most of the top ranked public officials in the parish are consistently elected from west side candidates, and one councilman believes that trend would continue if At-Large seats were added.
“The council actually had two At-Large members in the 80s and I understand both individuals were from the west side,” said Councilman David Cougle. “The voters ultimately abolished the At-Large positions because it apparently was not working for the constituents.”
Regardless of the size of the council, Impastato continues to maintain that his top priority is coming up with a parish government model that works for all the citizens.
“We are in the service business and as far as I am concerned, we need to have a model that serves the people. Whatever that turns out to be is OK by me,” he said. “I do believe 14 council members is cumbersome and expensive, but from what we have seen, the public is not complaining about it.”
The Thursday, April 24 meeting for the Home Rule Charter Commission begins at 6 p.m. in the Parish Council Chambers on Koop Drive in Mandeville. It is open to the public and there is opportunity for public comments at all meetings.