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| Photo by Robin May | |
| Tehmi Chassion |
Chassion’s request, according to Wednesday’s meeting agenda, is for a closed-door executive session (out of the public’s eye) to again discuss Thad Welch, the super's special assistant for facilities, maintenance, grounds and transportation.
At issue, claims Chassion, is Welch’s lack of a high school diploma, which is listed as one of many requirements in the position’s job description. The argument for Welch’s ouster, however, is weak: In recent years Chassion and his fellow board members repeatedly hired LPSS employees who did not fully meet the education requirements of their respective job descriptions (and Welch is working toward his GED).
Chassion and the board members who support him on the issue, Rae Trahan, Greg Awbrey and Mark Babineaux (Tommy Angelle may be on the fence), have repeatedly been asked by the public and LPSS administrators and employees to drop the issue — so the real problems facing the school system can be addressed.
Those pleas are falling on deaf ears, with Chassion’s call for Wednesday’s closed-door discussion yet another example of the obstructionist, grand-standing plaguing the board.
It’s no secret Chassion’s fight over the Welch issue — especially in light of the 34 employees hired by the board since 2009 who also didn’t meet all the requirements listed in their job descriptions — has far less to do with Welch and far more to do with an as-yet-undisclosed beef the board member has with the superintendent (more on that later).
The reason Chassion cites for calling Wednesday’s executive session — which will require a two-thirds vote of the board — comes nowhere close to falling under the state’s guidelines for making a public meeting private.
Louisiana Revised Statute 42:17 clearly defines when it is allowable for a public body to convene behind closed doors. Based on our reading of those 10 reasons, Chassion needs to get a schooling on Louisiana’s Sunshine Laws or rescind his request for Wednesday’s executive session and start doing what he was elected to do: focus on issues that matter, like that poor performing middle school in his district.
Since Chassion didn’t respond to a message left Tuesday morning on his cell phone — it’s actually been months since The IND has heard back from the board member — here's RS 42:17 in its entirety (hopefully he’ll read up before Wednesday):
1) Discussion of the character, professional competence, or physical or mental health of a person, provided that such person is notified in writing at least twenty-four hours before the meeting and that such person may require that such discussion be held at an open meeting. However, nothing in this Paragraph shall permit an executive session for discussion of the appointment of a person to a public body or, except as provided in R.S. 39:1593(C)(2)(c), for discussing the award of a public contract. In cases of extraordinary emergency, written notice to such person shall not be required; however, the public body shall give such notice as it deems appropriate and circumstances permit.
2) Strategy sessions or negotiations with respect to collective bargaining, prospective litigation after formal written demand, or litigation when an open meeting would have a detrimental effect on the bargaining or litigating position of the public body.
3) Discussion regarding the report, development, or course of action regarding security personnel, plans, or devices.
4) Investigative proceedings regarding allegations of misconduct.
5) Cases of extraordinary emergency, which shall be limited to natural disaster, threat of epidemic, civil disturbances, suppression of insurrections, the repelling of invasions, or other matters of similar magnitude.
6) Any meeting of the State Mineral and Energy Board at which records or matters entitled to confidential status by existing law are required to be considered or discussed by the board with its staff or with any employee or other individual, firm, or corporation to whom such records or matters are confidential in their nature, and are disclosed to and accepted by the board subject to such privilege, for the exclusive use in evaluating lease bids or development covering state-owned lands and water bottoms, which exception is proved pursuant to and consistently with the Public Records Act, being Chapter 1 of Title 44 of the Louisiana Revised Statutes of 1950, as amended, and other statutes to which the board is subject.
7) Discussions between a city or parish school board and individual students or the parents or tutors of such students, or both, who are within the jurisdiction of the respective school system, regarding problems of such students or their parents or tutors; provided however that any such parent, tutor, or student may require that such discussions be held in an open meeting.
8) Presentations and discussions at meetings of civil service boards of test questions, answers, and papers produced and exhibited by the office of the state examiner, municipal fire and police civil service, pursuant to R.S. 33:2492 or 2552.
9) The portion of any meeting of the Second Injury Board during which records or matters regarding the settlement of a workers’ compensation claim are required to be considered or discussed by the board with its staff in order to grant prior written approval as required by R.S. 23:1378(A)(6).
10) Or any other matters now provided for or as may be provided for by the legislature.
B. The provisions of this Chapter shall not apply to judicial proceedings.
C. The provisions of this Chapter shall not prohibit the removal of any person or persons who willfully disrupt a meeting to the extent that orderly conduct of the meeting is seriously compromised.
D. The provisions of R.S. 42:19 and R.S. 42:20 shall not apply to any meeting of a private citizens’ advisory group or a private citizens’ advisory committee established by a public body, when the members of such group or committee do not receive any compensation and serve only in an advisory capacity, except textbook advisory committees of the State Department of Education or the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education. However, all other provisions contained in this Chapter shall be applicable to such group or committee and the public body which established such group or committee shall comply with the provisions of R.S. 42:19 in providing the required notice of meetings of such group or committee.
MAY 24 Blogger Robert Mann posts this entry about the Baton Rouge Chamber's recent report on Louisiana's higher education system. It's critical to economic development, and yet our system is facing a "funding crisis" with no way to resolve it, the report says. The Chamber says control of tuition and fees must be returned to the higher ed governing boards.
MAY 24 Here's a NBC33 story about Tyrann Mathieu. He has signed with the Arizona Cardinals, inking a $3 million, four-year deal. He gets a signing bonus of $265K, but gets another, larger bonus if he doesn't get cut from the team for doing drugs. The deal reportedly includes mandatory tests and meetings for the player.
MAY 24 Jarvis DeBerry posts here about the redonkulus rhetoric that would have us believe NOLA is a safe city with a murder problem. Maybe the city's crime stats don't compare with its murder stats because you can't manipulate a murder, he says: a dead body's a dead body. It just doesn't make sense, he says, and his readers agree: a poll asks if they believe the city is safe, and more than 90 percent say no.
MAY 24 Jindal administration officials announced Thursday that the privatization of public health care is going to cost a lot more than they budgeted for, the Advocate reports here. "I'm so surprised," said no one. Anywhere. The cost they're projecting now is more than $1 billion - a lot more than the $626 million budgeted for it. And, it's more than it cost the state to operate those hospitals. So why are we doing this again?
MAY 24 Blogger CB Forgotston ridicules the recent PR campaign by the state GOP in the wake of a legislative auditor's request to both major parties. The GOP (apparently unaware that the Dems got the same request) started yammering about being targeted because it had "killed" a tax increase. CB finds that laughable, but it's also pretty funny that the GOP was comparing this episode to the IRS scandal (Because the President has so much to do with our state auditor. Right?).
MAY 24 Politico details some recent fund-raising efforts by Sen. David Vitter, which have raised the question of his future political plans. This time, it is a $5,000 per head "bayou weekend" that includes "Cajun cooking" and an all-caps "alligator hunt," the story reports. Funds raised go to a super PAC that can spend money to support Vitter in federal or state races, the story points out.
MAY 24 The pink building on Royal in the quarter was sold at a sheriff's sale Thursday, this Picayune story reports. An injunction that would have halted the sale wasn't enforced because the family failed to post a $150,000 bond, the story reports. So the owner of the mortgages on the building bought it, for nearly $7 million. Now the feuding family will have to negotiate with that company to get a lease on the building that has housed their business for close to 60 years.
MAY 23 This post in Louisiana Voice tells us about a bill by a Winnsboro lege that would require all public high school students to take at least one Course Choice online class in order to graduate. (What?) Blogger Tom Aswell says it's a monument to "waste and corruption," especially in light of the problems he's exposed with the program in recent weeks. Idaho had a similar program, but voters removed it by a 2-1 margin, Aswell says.
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