By KEVIN CHIRI
Slidell news bureau
SLIDELL – St. Tammany Parish Council Chairman Jerry Binder is reacting strongly to criticism from Concerned Citizens of St. Tammany President Rick Franzo, who blasted council members for not agreeing yet to sign a recall petition against Coroner Dr. Peter Galvan.
CCST began its six-month drive on Saturday, seeking over 53,000 signatures from registered voters in St. Tammany, which would give parish residents the decision about whether they want Galvan to remain in office or not.
Galvan has come under fire in media reports for the past five months for alleged credit card use, deemed excessive by some. He and his staff have also received large raises in recent years, particularly Galvan, who is now paying himself nearly $200,000 a year as the parish coroner.
The watchdog group that formed in St. Tammany over two years ago led the way in recent months to begin a recall against Galvan. During that time, the St. Tammany Parish Council voted 13-1 asking Galvan to resign his position, and Parish President Pat Brister also publicly asked the coroner to step down. Additionally, State Rep. Tim Burns is leading a bill through the Louisiana Legislature, changing the authority for spending in the Coroner’s Office to the Parish Council.
Since the negative publicity began, the Parish Council has been the most vocal public body in addressing the allegations against Galvan, even though nothing criminal has been uncovered yet.
The council voted to ask both the Louisiana legislative auditor and the state attorney general to perform a comprehensive investigation in the Coroner’s Office, which began over a month ago.
However, when the recall effort was getting ready to start last week, Franzo stated his interest to see the Parish Council members show their support by being among the first to sign. He even set up a special day for public officials to sign last Thursday, May 16.
On that day, only Council Members Jake Groby, Reed Falconer, Maureen O’Brien and Richard Tanner showed up to sign the petition, leading Franzo to publicly criticize any council members who have not signed, or indicated they would sign.
Franzo said he has e-mail promises from Council Members Marty Dean and Marty Gould, both saying they plan to sign the petition, while no other Parish Council members have responded about their intent, other than Gene Bellisario, who said he would not sign.
On Tuesday, the CCST leader said he saw the lack of response or support by council member as “insincere” in terms of their earlier vote asking for the resignation.
“It is most disturbing to see 13 Parish Council members vote for his resignation, and so far, I only have four signed, and two others who said they will sign,” Franzo said. “That tells me the others voted for the resignation without sincerity.”
Binder was informed of Franzo’s statement and responded strongly, saying it was not Franzo’s place to criticize any of their decisions, especially this early in the process.
“Mr. Franzo fails to recognize that we don’t have to be led by the nose, or pressured by him, to make our own decision on this matter,” Binder said. “He wants to set a timeline on when we will decide about signing this petition, but we have six months to make that decision.”
Binder said that he, along with several other council members, are waiting for the results from the legislative auditor and attorney general before making a decision about signing the petition.
“Some of us want to see the results of the investigations,” he said. “It would be a lot easier if we didn’t have to go through the recall process, assuming something came out of the investigation.”
But Binder didn’t stop with simply reacting to the comments by Franzo on this issue. He said some of the CCST leaders have pushed a little too far in their efforts to be a watchdog group, and in demanding action and specific decisions by some public officials in St. Tammany.
“I was among the four member committee who offered the resolution for Mr. Galvan’s resignation, and asked the legislative auditor for a forensic investigation,” Binder said. “It is easy to sit on the sidelines, as Mr. Franzo and some of his group have done, and not have to press ‘yes’ or ‘no’ on particular issues.
“There are a lot of people who see their group as bullying public officials to make certain decisions and we are not going to respond to that,” he said. “The decision to ask for a resignation, and the decision to sign the recall petition, are up to each individual council member and we do not need Mr. Franzo telling us when we need to do that.”