BC graybeards, Maggio show unfitness for office

While the big story coming from this week’s meeting of the Bossier City Council was how five of its members disgraced themselves, another intriguing story emerged over whether the city’s moribund Charter Review Commission operated legally.

The final reading of an ordinance to disband the Commission failed when only Republicans Chris Smith and Brian Hammons voted in support, while Republicans David Montgomery, Jeff Free, and Vince Maggio, plus Democrat Bubba Williams and no party Jeff Darby voted against. In the cases of Williams and Free, they reversed their votes from the first reading two weeks earlier; the others against had been absent.

Montgomery led the charge against, arguing that, even as the Charter didn’t address whether the Council could rescind a Commission once constituted, the intent was that the Council wasn’t to interfere with Commission operations until its termination voluntary or by its 18-month life, and rescinding did interfere because it could influence a panel to make proposals favored by councilors, under the threat of dissolution if it didn’t. City Attorney Charles Jacobs confessed it was a gray area that didn’t have a clear-cut resolution.

Environmental racism trope notches win in LA

If you needed any reminder about how the political left works in the shadows and surreptitiously to achieve goals it knows if exposed cannot win judicially or in the court of public opinion, look no further over the controversy surrounding a proposed grain terminal in St. John the Baptist Parish.

Last week, Greenfield Louisiana cancelled that project after years of struggling with activists both locally and nationally, and a sly federal government propagating an anti-growth and neo-racist disguised as anti-racist agenda. It would have brought around 100 jobs to an economically-depressed area that many in the surrounding community, the unincorporated area of Wallace, wanted.

That area presently has little going for it economically except nearby tourist attractions of former plantations. It also has mostly black residents, many of whom trace their lineage there back decades, if not centuries, whose presence of long-standing families meant the company had to plan carefully building around historically-significant areas and mitigating any after-effects from the economic boost that would ensue.

Fleming keeps on pressure against discrimination

It may not change any of their practices, but at least Louisianans can feel better about and take action form Republican Treas. John Fleming’s principled move that trends in the right direction against one corporate bully.

Fleming recently announced that the state no longer would authorize Bank of America to be an agent for financial matters, effectively removing any state monies deposited with it. This he justified on the basis that the firm refused to provide services to religious organizations, gun manufacturers, fossil fuel producers, and individuals on what only could be political grounds.

Regarding several of the instances Fleming cited, BOA repeatedly has refused to explain why it refused provision, indicating in one instance that a nonprofit organization promoting Christian ministry after years of a relationship had been declared “a business type we have chosen not to serve.” One state media source quoted a BOA functionary claiming that religious beliefs didn’t factor into these decisions, but didn’t address the reasons behind these specific instances, and never has even to the account holders. Indeed, the argument that BOA “provide[s] services to more than 100,000 non-profits affiliated with religious organizations” as a plea that religious belief isn’t relevant doesn’t deny that certain viewpoints are discriminated against.

Tort reform hesitancy risks Landry's reelection

If Republican Gov. Jeff Landry isn’t careful, the insurance reform train is going to leave the station without him, imperiling his reelection chances.

Over the next few months at the behest of GOP legislative leaders, committees plan to meet to hash out options for tort reform. Louisiana vehicle insurance rates are close to the top of all states, and it has a legal structure surrounding the processing of claims out of step with states that tend to have significantly lower rates.

That relative ranking hasn’t changed much since some lukewarm reforms were enacted in 2020 over the objections of Democrat former Gov. John Bel Edwards. Important to note, a number of exogenous factors unrelated to policy choices significantly affect rates, such as weather, and others only indirectly related, such as criminal activity, also can matter, as well as national policy decisions that the state cannot affect, such as economic policy that impacts price inflation. And, as court cases can drag on for years, it will be some time before the true impact of change will be experienced.

Bossier Jury still doing best to stay in dark

Forced to make itself more transparent, we shouldn’t have expected the Bossier Parish Police Jury to do anything but the bare minimum that frustrates the spirit of the law – if not actually making matters worse for citizens who can’t watch meetings live – while jurors do their best to skirt the law.

Act 539 of 2024 expanded the responsibilities of local governments in transmitting live and archived their meetings. Now, municipalities, parish governing authorities, and school boards over certain population levels must transmit live (or close to it) not only their meetings, but meetings of any committees of them, barring those for municipalities whose committees are composed of unelected volunteers.

As it was. the Jury barely complied with existing law. Unlike the five other significant plenary bodies in the area – Shreveport’s City Council, Caddo Parish’s Commission, Caddo’s School Board, Bossier City’s Council, and Bossier’s School Board – which have had sophisticated professional video transmission and have archived meeting recordings for years, it limped along with Facebook Live transmissions from a phone or tablet placed on the end of the table where jurors sat. The transmissions were so terrible that a good chunk of the audio was unintelligible, unless the consumer knew the voices by person you couldn’t tell who was speaking, presentations weren’t shown, and neither were the outcomes of votes. Archiving is a mess, having to sift through the parish’s Facebook site. Nor was it reliable; the entire transmission of perhaps the most important meeting of last year, passing the budget, never came off due to what I was told was a “transmission error” (and therefore isn’t archived).

GOP lawmakers must keep up tort reform pressure

Louisiana’s Legislative Republicans wisely have launched a full-court press on tort reform, and must capitalize on the opportunity to build their case while exposing the fallacies of opponents that keep vehicle insurance rates artificially high.

This week, legislative committees dealing with insurance held interim meetings, after another round earlier this summer. Instigated by the supermajority-wielding GOP, these represent an attempt to gather data to make another run at tort reform after tepid 2020 legislation, watered down in response to objections by trial lawyer supporter Democrat former Gov. John Bel Edwards, seemingly has produced mixed results.

Trying to ascribe rate changes to policy is difficult because so many other factors may intervene. For example, Louisiana always will have upwards rate pressure because of its above-average propensity for natural disasters, compared to other states, which damages more vehicles.

LA one step closer to restoring single M/M map

For one party attached to Louisiana’s ongoing controversy about its congressional districts, it’s a matter of forcing a smile and hoping for the best.

Last week, the losers of Callais v. Landry turned in petitions to the U.S. Supreme Court about whether sufficient cause existed for the Court to take up the case directly. Earlier this year, a three-judge panel ruled the state’s redone map impermissibly used race to draw a two majority-minority district map, inflating beyond constitutional bounds that use at the expense of ignoring equal protection of voters and traditional principles of reapportionment.

That plan had come about after another was enjoined by another district judge prior to any trial ruling the drawing of such a map violated the Voting Rights Act by only including a single M/M district. This was unprecedented, as no court ever had endorsed drawing boundaries specifying that the proportion of M/M districts had to equal that of the state’s population, much less without a trial on the merits, on the basis of the VRA which itself explicitly rejects that approach except in cases of clear intent to deprive minority group members of voting rights.

Court should uphold LA Ten Commandments law

Despite a lawsuit by objecting parties, Louisiana’s Act 676 of 2024 is constitutional, but those responsible for administering it must not do so unconstitutionally.

This week, Republican Atty. Gen. Liz Murrill outlined why the suit brought shortly after GOP Gov. Jeff Landry signed the bill into law is defective. As such, she asked for dismissal of the suit alleging that mandated display of the Ten Commandments injects religious content into education in violation of the First Amendment. The state already has promised the displays won’t go up in five school districts before Nov. 15, although the law doesn’t come into effect until Jan. 1, 2025.

The law mandates that in all public education classrooms a copy of the Ten Commandments, taken from the text of a case where the U.S. Supreme Court decided that could be displayed on public property, be displayed along with designated text explaining the context that includes other important historical documents. The law also mandates that no public funds be expended to create the displays, where school districts or colleges may accept donated copies or donated funds to create the displays. It also suggests as part of the display adding the Mayflower Compact, the Declaration of Independence, and the Northwest Ordinance, all of which use religious referents.

Hunter filing error invites incident reminder

An upcoming electoral contest with a backstory became even more interesting last week, driven by a rare political opportunity – an open judgeship, with this on the state’s highest court, no less.

Due to a reapportionment itself controversial because it involved Republicans essentially surrendering a safe seat on the Louisiana Supreme Court, a new majority-minority district without an incumbent that split Monroe and moved south into splitting Baton Rouge attracted three black Democrats in a race this fall. One, First Circuit Court of Appeals Judge John Michael Guidry, was getting a second shot at a spot on the state’s highest court after having run a strong campaign almost a decade ago in a different district that was not M/M. Terms that don’t come up often (of ten years length), an age limit of 70, and that incumbents basically never lose means his second chance is extraordinary.

Guidry, backed by business interests, almost found himself the winner by default almost immediately after qualifying. Someone connected with Guidry sued to remove the other two candidates from the ballot, Second Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Marcus Hunter and Louisiana Housing Corporation Chief of Staff Leslie Chambers, who is drawing support from trial lawyer interests. Both were argued not to have paid state income taxes in the past, where legally they must have done so to file candidacies, and also that Chambers wasn’t domiciled in the district.

BC charter panel implodes, lawfare on tap

The verdict from the Bossier political establishment: lawfare.

Last week, Bossier City’s Charter Review Commission imploded. It hadn’t had a formal meeting in over a month-and-a-half despite a couple of attempts, with one featuring no members appointed by city councilors who opposed a strict term limits measure, and the other featuring no members appointed by councilors and the mayor who favored that. In the meantime, two members resigned and a citizen petition to put on the ballot a term limits measure of three lifetime retroactively was certified and readied to present to the Council the day after.

That petition mirrored a proposal accepted by the Commission at its previous meeting, where two of the members who had expressed opposition to the measure were absent and put the anti-measure commissioners into the minority. This brought a counterreaction from that group, who still maintained a majority, who at the intended meeting – which was not summoned by the acting chairman Shane Cheatham and because of its not having been scheduled at a previous meeting was of questionable legality – had anti-proposal member Secretary Sandra Morehart place the item for review with the intent of its removal. This would be facilitated by appointing two new members, apparently allies of the majority against strict limits, at the meeting as by state law. The strategy was either to have no term limits measure in the final product or a watered-down version that could override the petition’s version on the Dec. 7 ballot.