Judge rules DA’s office can’t represent St. Tammany Parish government in apartment complex lawsuit

By Alex Lubben

Source: The Times-Picayune | NOLA.com

August 17, 2023

In the latest twist in the saga over who will represent St. Tammany Parish in a lawsuit over a controversial apartment complex planned on the outskirts of Covington, a judge ruled that the parish has, as of now, no legal representation at all.

Judge William H. Burris of the 22nd Judicial District Court ruled Wednesday that the District Attorney’s Office has a conflict of interest in the case and will not represent the parish. He also ruled that the St. Tammany Parish Council had improperly appointed the lawyer they wanted to work the case, Ross Lagarde.

Now, the council will have to reconvene to adopt an ordinance appointing Lagarde. They had appointed him via resolution, which does not require the sign-off of the parish president. Burris ruled that the proper way to appoint him is through an ordinance, which will have to cross Parish President Mike Cooper’s desk.

In the meantime, the lawsuit over the development is stalled out, since the parish technically doesn’t have a lawyer. A hearing on the case, which had been scheduled for Friday, has been postponed, Parish Council Administrator Gina Campo said.

The controversial development that kicked this whole thing off — the Covington Trace Ridge complex, a 100-unit apartment building just outside the Covington city limits — began acquiring permits to begin construction earlier this year. Council members said the complex caught them by surprise, and they pressed Parish President Mike Cooper for an explanation how the development had made it so deep into the permitting process without council members’ knowledge. The council hired Lagarde as the attorney in an “investigation” into Cooper’s role in greenlighting the project.

The developer, HRI Properties, then sued the parish, alleging that the government was unlawfully standing in the way of construction.

Local residents worry that adding so many new housing units to that part of the parish could increase already-bad traffic along U.S. 190.

Cooper said he hoped to work with the council to appoint a special counsel for the lawsuit. “It is unfortunate that public funds will now have to be spent on this case,” he said.

During Wednesday’s court hearing, Parish Council Chairman Jake Airey testified that, during a meeting with assistant district attorneys, an assistant district attorney told him that the DA’s office felt that they had a conflict of interest in the case. The lawyers at the DA’s office were, at the time, advising both the council and the president’s office — and the two parties were not in agreement.

District Attorney Warren Montgomery asserted in a June 14 letter to Airey that, while that particular assistant district attorney said there was a conflict, he could appoint another lawyer to handle the case who would not have any conflicts of interest.

But Burris, after review, sided with the council and barred the DA from representing the parish.

“I wish we could have resolved this issue without resorting to the courts, but I believe that we can all work together to quickly and expeditiously implement the court’s ruling and move this matter forward to a resolution,” Airey said.

All of this, Campo said, boiled down to an inconsistency in the parish’s government charter, which specifies that the district attorney is the appointed council for every part of the parish government. The setup works when everyone is getting along, but when the council and the president are at odds, it can create a conflict of interest.

Indeed, in 2002, a New Orleans nonprofit, the Bureau of Governmental Research, analyzed the parish’s charter and predicted that it could lead to exactly this kind of conflict. The report notes that the charter, which requires all branches of the parish government “to use the same legal counsel, creates problematic situations where separate and independent legal advice would be advisable.”

“This is an unworkable situation,” Campo said. “Ultimately the way to address it is via a charter vote.”

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