Those members of the Lafayette Parish School Board itching for the ouster of the superintendent’s hand-picked special assistant — supposedly over his lack of a high school diploma — may want to reconsider, or at least read the letter his lawyer sent Tuesday to James Simon, the board’s legal counselor.
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| Tehmi Chassion |
The drama over Thad Welch — Superintendent Dr. Pat Cooper’s special assistant for facilities, maintenance, grounds and transportation — erupted in early January and has since been the favored bone of contention for board members Tehmi Chassion (who has led the charge), Ray Trahan, Greg Awbrey and Mark Allen Babineaux.
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| Mark Allen Babineaux |
At issue, according to the protesting board members, is Welch’s lack of a high school diploma, which is listed as a requirement of his job description. According to comments made by board member Hunter Beasley during a meeting earlier this month, Welch is by no means the first employee hired by the board who did not meet the education requirements listed in the job description. Though Beasley did say there are at least two other examples of the board hiring individuals who did not meet all the requirements of their job description, The IND, on Thursday, submitted a public records request to the school system in hopes of determining when they approved those hires, and who was on the board at the time.
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| Greg Awbrey |
We should have that information by Tuesday at the latest, as stipulated by Louisiana’s public records law.
Chassion has led the charge for a re-vote on Welch’s hiring, but so far has yet to garner enough support from his fellow board members.
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| Rae Trahan |
The likelihood of Chassion and company backing down from the issue is slim, and is arguably the reason Welch — who has yet to share his side of the story with the media — decided to hire Lafayette attorney Lane Roy.
Roy has since weighed in on the legal ramifications of the issue in this letter sent Tuesday to school board attorney James E. Simon, who told The IND during Wednesday’s meeting that he does not speak to reporters.
Roy, himself a former school board attorney, points to the fact that the funding for Welch’s job was OK'd when the board voted to approve its yearly budget during a meeting held June 26. Absent from that meeting — which is no surprise if you’ve read The IND’s previous coverage — were board members Chassion and Tommy Angelle. Roy points out that the board follows Robert’s Rules of Order, which in effect makes them ineligible for any vote to reverse that previous decision since they were not present at the time of the original vote.
Roy continues:
Finally, any complaint about qualifications of Mr. Welch are long since not issues for discussion. Mr. Welch applied for the position that he has, appropriately and truthfully indicated in that application all of his background information and education. The Board has every right to look at everything in there before it makes a decision about hiring anyone recommended by the Superintendent. Any claim at this time that there was misrepresentation by Mr. Welch is a statement by the maker of the claim that Mr. Welch, in fact, misrepresented, in my judgment, is libel and makes any person who made such a statement responsible legally for damages that might result therefrom.
I would also suggest, Jimmy, that you remind the Board that when the Board acts illegally, knowing in advance that their actions are illegal, state law provides that they may be held personally responsible for damages that result from their illegal actions. This would be over and above any potential action against the Board as a body or against the Board’s insurer. I do not believe that Board members want to invite this potential responsibility upon their personal estates, and strongly recommend that they follow the law and take no action regarding termination, removal, or other dismissal of Mr. Welch. In short, I suggest the Board simply follow the clearly established law.
Though Chassion did introduce a resolution attempting to pull funding for Welch’s job during Wednesday's meeting — potentially putting him in violation of Robert’s Rules and state law — he was unsuccessful in getting support from a majority of his fellow board members. Only Trahan, Babineaux and Awbrey voted in favor of the item — potentially putting themselves in violation of Robert’s Rules and state law since they were not on the prevailing side of the original vote — with Angelle saying he was still on the fence and would need more information before making up his mind. The majority, including members Hunter Beasley, Shelton Cobb, Mark Cockerham and Kermit Bouillion, opted to let the state Attorney General’s Office weigh in on the matter.
What’s more is that recent legislation, which took effect July 1, puts the termination of a school system employee into the hands of the superintendent, who must first make a written recommendation before the school board can pull the position’s funding. Cooper maintains that will not happen in the case of Welch, whom he previously worked with during his tenure in the McComb, Miss., school system.
Click here to read our most recent coverage of the board’s absentee member issue, and here for more on The IND's recent encounter with the board's attorney.
JUNE 19 Former Saint Steve Gleason, who is paralyzed by ALS, released a statement Tuesday in response to the Atlanta radio station's skit making fun of him and the disease, this Picayune post reports. What did he say? He said he'd accepted the apology of the DJs who did it, notes that at least the incident has got people talking about ALS, and asks anyone who is burning to take action about it to do so -- by helping him fight ALS.
JUNE 19 Blogger Ian McGibboney takes a look at the Gleason incident in this post. He makes a good argument about the difference between having free speech and being free from consequences for your speech (which none of us is). He also admits that many of us got upset before we listened to the skit -- but lets us know that the reality is far worse than we can imagine. It was the incredibly bad judgment, even more than the actual speech, that probably got those DJs fired, he opines.
JUNE 19 Washington Post blogger Aaron Blake writes about Sen. Guillory's switch to the GOP in this post. He writes what most political watchers in Louisiana know: Guillory was a Republican before he decided to run for the senate seat in a mostly-D St. Landry district, and has switched back now that he plans to run for Lt. Gov. in a mostly-R state. But how come Blake missed Guillory's appearance on a TLC pageant show? Now that is a video we'd like to see. (Again).
JUNE 19 Here's another Washington Post blog post about a Louisiana politician, and it's just plain scathing. Ezra Klein says Jindal's Politico post was "insulting" to the intelligence of voters, and adds that Jindal is personifying the "stupid" he's railed against, by being an "elite" who convinces GOP activists of "things that aren't true." Me-ow.
JUNE 19 Here's Gov. Jindal's post in Politico, in which he asks the GOP to get over losing to Obama (again) and stop "the bedwetting." (Uh, what?) He gives his Republican buddies what is probably a nerd's idea of a coach's motivational talk, which starts with a list of accomplishments that they can't seem to exploit and ending with an absurd description of liberals that sounds like a character treatment for a Fox "News" movie scripted by Gordon Liddy. Sure, he's preaching to the choir, but even the choir's not this gullible.
JUNE 19 Lamar Parmentel read Gov. Jindal's post on Politico, but thinks it was so dumb it probably was published in the wrong paper. This post by Lamar on the Daily Kingfish opines that possibly Jindal's post was destined for the Onion -- because the governor couldn't possibly be serious here. If you listen closely, you can hear the staff of the Kingfish giggling.
JUNE 19 Blogger Robert Mann posts from Turkey, a country he has visited several times in the past few years. Mann gives an interesting overview of the current political and societal climate of the country, which -- if you're living under a rock and don't know -- is experiencing protests and turmoil these days. Mann promises to post as much as he can during his trip, which should be fascinating reading.
JUNE 19 Blogger CB Forgotston says the legislature is keeping the vicious cycle going with its funding of new buildings for the community college/technical college system. Universities across the state need maintenance and improvement on existing buildings, and the solution is to build new buildings at other schools? By the time the bonds are paid off, those buildings will be falling down, too, CB says.
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Mr. Hardy should be congratulated for his lawsuit against the 'NO-SHOWS' of the LPSS. Again, well done Mr. Hardy.....