‘Business Report’ Publisher: Ascension Parish politics a bit like Russia

Last year, Business Report Publisher Rolfe McCollister penned a column praising a push in Ascension Parish to allow citizens a chance to make a change in the parish’s form of government.   
In fact, McCollister went as far to say that Baton Rouge could learn something from its neighbor to the south, which was exploring the idea of replacing its parish president with a professional parish manager, based on the city manager model used by almost half of the municipalities in America.
“I was wrong,” McCollister writes in his latest column.
The old politics and self-centered politicians still rule in Ascension Parish, and they are leading it nowhere, he writes.
“A committee, named by the Parish Council, met 13 times and came back recommending the proposal—which also included term limits—be put on the ballot so the people of Ascension could decide on their own plan of government,” McCollister writes.
But the Parish Council decided to go against the committee’s proposal.
“The voters in the next election should toss out everyone who voted no—because they basically told voters they were too stupid to make a decision about their own plan of government and didn’t deserve that right,” McCollister writes.
It’s the kind of thing you’d expect to see in China or Russia, but not Ascension Parish, he says.
“Shame on these small-minded politicians who don’t trust their own voters.” McCollister writes. “It’s a slap in the face and should not be forgotten come election time.”
The people of Ascension deserve better than this—and should demand it if they expect to have any hope of orderly growth, better services and economic development in the future, McCollister writes.
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