Seeking to breathe life into its extraordinary investigation into Parish President Mike Cooper’s administration but unsure what to do next, the St. Tammany Parish Council will rely on a time-honored next step in government.
It hired a lawyer Monday night during a special meeting.
The council voted unanimously to hire Ross Lagarde, a well-known St. Tammany Parish attorney, to help investigate how Cooper’s administration handled the permitting of a controversial 100-unit apartment complex in the Claiborne Hill area just outside the Covington city limits.
'Political show'
Cooper, who typically attends Parish Council meetings, was conspicuously absent Monday evening. But his administration fired off a news release – it appeared timed to hit just after the council’s vote – calling it a "political show" and a waste of tax dollars.
St. Tammany Parish President Mike Cooper
Cooper has also said the investigation puts the parish government “under a cloud” of suspicion, while the council cannot point to any laws, codes or regulations that were violated.
How much?
How much it will cost remains unclear. Council Administrator Gina Campo said the council and Lagarde will come to a price after the “scope of the work” is determined.
Although the council is typically represented legally by the District Attorney’s Office, council members said going outside in this case is necessary because the DA’s Office representation also covers the parish administration. That sets up a conflict, council members said.
The council’s vote Monday signaled its most visible move since voting June 8, after a long and sometimes-heated debate – and over Cooper’s objections – to launch an investigation, a first-ever step for the council. Council members have asserted that the Covington Trace Ridge Apartments, which have not yet been built but are far along in the permitting process, flew under their radar because no one from Cooper’s administration clued them or area residents in.
Council members also took aim at what they said was Cooper’s unwillingness to cooperate or communicate with them.
A St. Tammany resident walks away from the parish government building north of Mandeville Monday night after the Parish Council voted to hire a lawyer to push its investigation into how President Mike Cooper's administration handled the permitting of a controversial apartment development near Covington.
But perhaps because of the “first-ever” nature of this exercise, some council members seemed unsure how to proceed, even though they voted for the probe. Council member David Fitzgerald, who pushed to open the investigation, said last week that bringing on legal counsel would be a good place to start.
“Time is of the essence,” Fitzgerald said in an interview, noting that the farther along the apartment complex moves, the harder it might become to derail.
Fitzgerald said last week that Cooper’s administration had provided some of the documentation he had sought, but not all of it. Fitzgerald said council members have seen nothing illegal or improper, but that it appears as though Cooper’s administration tried to keep the project as low-profile as possible to avoid opposition.
St. Tammany Council member David Fitzgerald
“To me, that’s troubling,” he said.
Fitzgerald did offer that he thinks the term “investigation” sounds harsh. “Inquiry” might be better, he allowed.
'An attack on entire staff'
The June 8 meeting was hardly the first time the council and Cooper had sparred. But the investigation comes at a particularly unstable time in St. Tammany politics: After a series of tax defeats at the polls, parish government doesn’t have the money to cover its state-mandated funding obligations for the criminal justice system and has telegraphed that those agencies should expect even less this year.
And it comes against the backdrop of this fall’s elections, when Cooper and some Parish Council members will likely face stiff re-election challenges.
Cooper has maintained the investigation is “embarrassing.”
And he said it “calls out” all parish employees, not just him. “Basically, it’s an attack on our entire staff,” he said in an interview.
Cooper said he has communicated with the council and that the resolution calling for an investigation does not specify what was done improperly.
Without that, “how do you call for an investigation?” he asked.
A handful of parish residents strode the podium prior to the council vote Monday. But Council Chair Jake Airey turned most of them away as it became clear they wanted to vent in general about the apartment complex, a matter that Airey said was not on that evening’s agenda.
But one, Nancy Wagner of Covington, pointed out that the parish government is having money problems and added: “Here’s another chunk of money that’s going to be spent.”