By JOHN BINDER
Tammany West news
COVINGTON – Facing charges of intimidation, threats and abuse of power, former Council on Aging for St. Tammany (COAST) Board President Kathleen Javery-Bacon was removed from her position on Monday night in a unanimous vote by the agency’s Board of Directors.
Javery-Bacon, who was one of the last allies on the board to recently fired COAST Executive Director Mary Toti, was sent a letter outlining all of the charges made against her, according to Board President Bill Magee.
Magee said Javery-Bacon, like Toti, has conducted herself on the board in a manner which has been “humiliating” to the agency’s other board members. Javery-Bacon did not appear at the Monday meeting to comment on the reasons for being removed.
According to the charges, Javery-Bacon abused her power when she was board president by allegedly threatening Magee in an email with the intent of intimidating him. Also, Magee said Javery-Bacon inappropriately called for a day-off for all COAST employees the day before Easter Sunday in order to avoid a special meeting by the COAST Board of Directors, something he said she did not have the authority to do.
Among the most serious charges made against Javery-Bacon involved her role in the banning of longtime Slidell senior citizen volunteer Frank Reagan, which was reported exclusively by Tammany West news.
“We had to undo everything she did with Mr. Reagan,” said Magee.
Months ago, Javery-Bacon accused Reagan of calling a COAST employee at the Slidell senior center a racial slur and eventually had him banned. However, Magee said Javery-Bacon purposefully mislead COAST Attorney Rod Rodrigue on the incident in order to convince him to sign a letter banning Reagan from all COAST facilities.
At the time, Javery-Bacon claimed Attorney Paul Colomb with the Governor’s Office on Elderly Affairs (GOEA) told her she had the authority to ban a senior citizen. Magee, though, said he and Rodrigue spoke with Colomb afterwards and found out that Javery-Bacon was never given permission to ban Reagan, thus the banning was rescinded by the board.
Another controversy Javery-Bacon was charged with allegedly leading was when she and Toti single-handedly made the decision to move Covington senior citizens from Hadden Hall to the Greater Starlight Baptist Church.
Board member Bettie Pogue, who represents Covington seniors, said Javery-Bacon never asked for input from Hadden Hall senior citizens when it came to a possible move of the senior citizen center.
Now, Pogue said a majority of senior citizens are not happy at the Baptist church, which has led her to take on the task of finding another senior center.
And at the board’s annual meeting back in July, Pogue noted that Javery-Bacon made an effort to shut her down when she began speaking of the problems surrounding the Covington senior center.
“I had to over shout the president in order to speak about what was going on at the senior center in Covington,” said Pogue.
Another recent charge made against Javery-Bacon involved an incident at a meeting in the Village of Folsom in which she allegedly told the alderman board that they “ought to be ashamed of themselves for not wanting to take care of their seniors,” according to Pogue.
Pogue and Magee said Javery-Bacon disgraced the board by making such an accusation since the issue apparently involved funding, which was beyond the Folsom board’s control.
Likewise, Javery-Bacon has allegedly attempted to work as the receptionist for the Slidell senior center, Magee reported on Monday.
Newly hired COAST Executive Director Julie Agan, who has made a conscious effort to turn the agency around, said she actually saw Javery-Bacon working the front-desk of the center, a job which she is not authorized to do.
Afterwards, Agan said she received phone calls from senior citizens at the Slidell center who complained that Javery-Bacon was improperly acting as receptionist.
Javery-Bacon was not present at the special meeting to defend herself. Magee said he asked to meet with Javery-Bacon twice, but said she never acknowledged the requests.