Leave it to the Bossier Parish Policy Jury not just to double down, but to triple down, on its penchant for insular, insider-run government, as it proved at its last meeting.
This meeting featured the handoff from outgoing parish administrator Butch Ford, whose three-year tenure was marred by his dodging state law that he had to be registered to vote at a parish homestead, which he wasn’t for half of his time in office that the Jury simply ignored, to his successor Ken Ward. Although he served for almost 20 years in a middle-management position in Caddo Parish, Ward had created just for him last year an assistant parish administrator’s position in Bossier Parish, perhaps as a result of many years of service on a parish board that made him familiar to most jurors.
Ward may turn out to be an excellent administrator, but the parish, as has been its wont for decades, conducted no public search that could have attracted experienced and talented candidates. That is an affront to residents who expect the best candidate for the job regardless of whether he is known to, if not friends with, jurors, and a public vetting of all applicants.
But that wasn’t the only inside job perpetrated at the meeting. Unfortunately, Republican Juror Bob Brotherton, after a couple of years of ill health that nonetheless didn’t discourage him for running for reelection in 2023 and winning, died just days before the meeting. This meant a replacement would have to be selected, and because the Jury hardly meets to start the year, the next meeting would have occurred a day after the statutory limit for the Jury to decide on its own for the replacement, leaving it in the hands of Republican Gov. Jeff Landry.
Well, the Jury can’t have an outsider meddling in its affairs to this degree, can it? Nor could it be bothered to advertise the opening and have a special meeting to vet applicants. So, with little warning – the only such being a last-minute change to the agenda – it decided on this pinch-hitter then and there without any additional publicity. The rationale to justify this was an alleged tradition that jurors could select their replacements if they cashed out; presumably, they have an inkling that could happen when this kicks in and there isn’t a double-secret vault someplace where jurors stash the names of the chosen ones as the spirit moves them for revelation if the worst happened.
And the favored designee was Brotherton pal Kim Gaspard, recently-retired Republican mayor of Haughton and long-time teacher, coach, and principal in the parish schools. But while an experienced former elected official who has demonstrated some popularity with district voters, his method of selection was an insult to his constituents.
District voters deserve an open hearing probing qualities of applicants to serve as their representative for up to a year in a process that solicits them. Sure, the fix may be in, but at least there is a public process for voters to observe and a means of accountability over jurors for who they select.
Plus, there is a question about when an elected replacement will take office. The Jury should schedule this election at the earliest possible date, the May 3 local runoff slot. Possibly this could end in a runoff which then would require a special election with costs born entirely by the parish, but the same could occur if the Jury waits until the regular October and November cycle, where the parish would have to pick up the costs unless the Legislature puts a constitutional amendment on the ballot, which isn’t guaranteed. The Jury should have emphasized there would be an election called in May, not October, so that the people have their say as to whom their representative will be as soon as possible.
And, there should have been the stipulation that whoever took the position wouldn’t compete for the term completion, which the Jury never has done but some elected bodies do as an informal rule. That allows for more of an open process that doesn’t allow the Jury favorite to use the advantages of the office to get a leg up over anybody in the subsequent election.
But the backroom dealing wasn’t over. Coping with a resignation on the Metropolitan Planning Commission also came up. This one was advertised, but turned out to be a dog-and-pony show.
Seven people applied and the Jury heard from the five who showed up. In fact, it even had a preview from one, Clayton Cathey, as he asked a couple of trenchant questions during a discussion earlier in the meeting over a progress report on the paid toll bridge in the southern part of the parish over the Red River.
A couple of submitters didn’t bother to show up, including Democrat School Board Member Sandra “Samm” Darby, sister of Democrat Juror Julian Darby. And one who showed up didn’t get the time of day from jurors even though the Jury had selected him previously on multiple occasions to represent them on the Cypress Black Bayou Board of Commissioners: Robert Berry, who also ran unsuccessfully for the Jury in 2023 after it unceremoniously refused to reappoint him in the wake of a court ruling that said he couldn’t serve simultaneously on the Board and as the district’s executive director.
But the fix was in for Chris Turner, who in his introduction somehow failed to mention that he had run for the state Legislature in 2023 against incumbent Republican state Rep. Dodie Horton, losing despite gathering contributions from a number of Bossier political insiders who either worked for or who were appointees to various government bodies or are two present jurors including newbie Gaspard. Horton has displeased the Bossier political establishment by, among other things, succeeding with an accountability bill for Cypress Black Bayou and so it jumped behind Turner’s candidacy.
In fact, the Jury almost railroaded Turner through, with nominations almost closed before there was, for the first time since he took office a year ago, a Republican Juror Keith Sutton sighting. Sutton is one of three new jurors elected in 2023 and was the only one reasonably expected to challenge the Jury’s insider orthodoxy since the other two rookies, Darby having replaced his brother and who served multiple terms on the Bossier Parish School Board and Republican Pam Glorioso being the daughter of a longtime juror and a longtime Bossier City employee who rose to chief administrative officer before her ally Republican former Mayor Lo Walker was swept from office, are card-carrying insiders.
Instead, for his first year in office one could have kidnapped Sutton, made a mask of his face, then strapped it onto the man he defeated, Republican Mac Plummer, and sent Plummer in his place to Jury meetings and nobody could have told the difference in how they voted and addressed issues. Sutton was nowhere to seen or heard regarding several questionable jury actions. Why did he never pipe up in opposition to the entire jury meeting once illegally as the parish’s Library Board of Control and not since in over a year? Or query Ford about his residency when Ford came up for his last annual contract a year ago? Or lobby for the Jury to have greater transparency in disseminating agenda information and especially that concerning its secretive budget process? Or even speak out about the parish administrator and District 1 appointments?
He finally found his voice with the MPC nominations, putting up Cathey who lives in his district. Naturally, Turner won 10-2 (for perhaps the only time in our lifetimes this will happen at the short end of such a vote, Sutton was joined by the insider of insiders, Republican Julianna Parks). Cathey then couldn’t even win a consolation prize, an appointment to the Board of Adjustment, an arrangement about which all jurors had agreed beforehand by changing the agenda order would become a contest among those not chosen by the MPC and therefore was the only appointment decision this meeting not rigged from the start.
And that’s the way business is done by the Jury, where, as the meeting demonstrated, it’s who you know ultimately that counts.
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