Landrieu is suing the parish over the right to select members of the New Orleans Aviation Board
With very little public discussion, the St. Charles Parish Council appointed Luling attorney Timothy Marcel special counsel as it prepares for a legal battle against New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu who is suing the parish over the right to select members of the New Orleans Aviation Board. The Parish Council approved the resolution unanimously during its meeting Monday night before heading into an executive session with Marcel to discuss the lawsuit.
Luling attorney Timothy Marcel will serve as special counsel for the St. Charles Parish Council in the New Orleans Aviation Board controversy.
Landrieu filed suit last month in Civil District Court in New Orleans, asking a judge to declare that the mayor of New Orleans has sole appointing powers to the Aviation Board under the city's home rule charter.
Parish Council members say a 1985 compromise agreement with the city that allowed officials to extend a runway into the parish in exchange for a representative on the board gives them appointing rights.
"This is not about the candidate, it's about the process," Parish Councilman Clayton "Snookie" Faucheux said after the meeting. "This suit encompasses so many different areas."
Although the lawsuit does not contest or mention other details of the compromise agreement, Faucheux said the litigation could affect the $500,000 a year in taxes the parish receives from Kenner, taxes that are generated by sales at the airport.
Faucheux also questioned why Parish Attorney Leon "Sunny" Vial was the only one served with the suit, despite council members being named individually. Other council members said they had just received copies of the suit at Monday's meeting.
"It's an error on (Landrieu's) part," Councilman Paul Hogan said. "Tim Marcel will get it all straight."
Marcel, who recently lost a bid for a state district judge seat in St. Charles, has practiced law for about 15 years in a private firm working mainly in civil litigation, family law and successions.
For nearly a year, the St. Charles Parish Council has tried to seat Luling businessman Neal Clulee on the Aviation Board to replace longtime member Henry Smith Jr. of Norco, who died last year. Clulee was nominated by a majority vote of the parish council in November 2011, over the objections of three councilmembers and Parish President V.J. St. Pierre Jr. who argued that the council should have considered other people.
The Parish Council rejected Landrieu's request that St. Charles submit other names for consideration. In August, a split New Orleans City Council voted 3-3 on Clulee's appointment and the measure died.
In September, the Parish Council again nominated Clulee as its choice and St. Pierre vetoed the measure saying the parish needed to choose someone else since the city council didn't confirm him. However, the parish council voted to override that veto earlier this month and again confirmed its selection of Clulee.
Before Monday's meeting, St. Pierre said he thinks "the mayor is doing the right thing by letting the court decide."
At the heart of the contention is the 1985 agreement between the parish and city that gave St. Charles the right to nominate a representative to the nine-member Aviation Board as part of a compromise to let the airport expand a runway into the parish. That agreement also gave the New Orleans City Council final approval of all members.
In the suit, Landrieu says the St. Charles Parish Council's interpretation that the agreement gives them perpetual nominating and selecting powers is incorrect, and if that interpretation is allowed to stand, it would violate the city's home rule charter.
The suit alleges that the agreement allowed St. Charles to retain the person who held the seat in 1985 and then to name that person's successor once the term expired.
Smith was the successor and held the seat until his death in 2011.
"The Mayor of the City of New Orleans has completed his obligations under the Agreement with regard to the Parish of St. Charles," the suit states.
Landrieu's suit asks for a declarative judgment that New Orleans' home rule charter, which established the Aviation Board, gives Landrieu the sole appointing power of all members.