Three Together Louisiana members in Ascension Parish are asking a judge to void actions the parish council and its finance committee took last month to award the Industrial Tax Exemption Program incentives to five undisclosed projects.
The lawsuit, filed today in the 23rd Judicial District Court, alleges the council and its committee violated the state’s open meetings law when both bodies separately approved the ITEP awards.
Residents Henrynne Louden, George Armstrong and Lana Williams say neither the agenda for the finance committee’s Sept. 12 meeting nor the agenda for the council’s Sept. 21 meeting indicated the incentives would be awarded to the undisclosed companies.
The only item on the committee’s agenda related to ITEP was an item that provided for Ascension Economic Development representatives to introduce applicants for the incentive to the committee, the lawsuit says.
Still, the finance committee voted to recommend awarding more than $450 million in incentives to the unknown projects without amending its agenda, the Together Louisiana members say. The council then approved the recommendation, with the ITEP recipients appearing on that body’s agenda under “fictitious names” like Project Magnolia and Project Bagel.
The plaintiffs claim neither they nor other members of the public could determine from the council’s consent agenda the identities of the companies seeking the benefit, the ITEP amount sought for each project, or the cost of granting the exemptions, among other things. The agendas were never updated to reflect the true nature of the votes, the plaintiffs say.
“The primary purpose of the Open Meetings Laws and the constitutional provision ensuring the right of citizens to participate in the deliberations of public bodies is to protect citizens from secret decisions made without any opportunity for the public input,” the lawsuit says.
Bill Dawson, chairman of the Ascension Parish Council, says he has scanned the contents of lawsuit, but he wouldn’t say whether the allegations are valid.
The identities of companies are typically concealed when going before the council for tax incentive approval due to concerns about competition or other proprietary issues. Though appearing under disguised names, council members are privy to details like the project’s return on investment, average salaries, number of employees and length of construction.
“I can say this has been our normal operating procedure for many years,” Dawson says, adding that Louisiana Economic Development is aware of the identities of the companies behind the projects.
—Alexandria Burris
