As controversy grows over the East Baton Rouge Council on Aging and its leadership, state Rep. C. Denise Marcelle, D-Baton Rouge, led a group of more than two dozen elected officials and senior citizens today on the steps of City Hall in a show of support for the agency and its embattled executive director, Tasha Clark-Amar.
Last week, Metro Council members Buddy Amoroso and Dwight Hudson called for Clark-Amar’s resignation after reports surfaced that she is embroiled in litigation with the family of an elderly woman, since deceased, who was served by the Council on Aging. According to court documents, a member of the COA board of directors drew up the woman’s will, and Clark-Amar named herself executor of the woman’s estate, a service for which she is attempting to pay herself $500 a month from the estate for the next 20 years.
Marcelle, who is also a member of the COA board of directors, declined to address the fresh accusations against Clark-Amar. Rather, she said, the purpose of the press conference was to defend the COA against a litany of criticisms that have come to light since voters last fall approved a property tax that will generate some $8 million a year for the agency for the next decade.
“Since over 90,000 people said yes to the tax, the Council on Aging has been under attack,” Marcelle said. “We really need to call it what it is. Whenever there is a tax passed or a money grab, a certain group of people in this city want to control the money. That’s what it is.”
Marcelle and the other elected officials crowded behind her—Democratic state Reps. Ted James and Patricia Smith, Sen. Regina Barrow and Metro Councilman LaMont Cole—said they are not taking sides in the controversy over the will, despite appearances to the contrary.
“We are not here to answer questions about a case,” Marcelle said. “We will let the courts make that decision. … But in this democracy we are innocent until proven guilty.”
However, for the family of the deceased woman, Helen Plummer, this morning’s press conference was the latest indignity in a case that apparently has them pitted against the city’s African-American political establishment.
“They’re trying to make this a race issue and are taking the attention off of what is really at hand here,” said Plummer’s granddaughter, Tracie Davis, at a separate press conference later. “For our family, a very proud African-American family in the community, this is not a race issue. The media did not seek us out. We sought out the media because it felt like we were fighting a dragon.”
Clark-Amar is the daughter of longtime 19th Judicial District Court Judge Janice Clark.
Davis and her brother, Dan Freeman, said they tried unsuccessfully to retain several attorneys to represent them in Baton Rouge but all refused to take the case because of connections to Clark-Amar, Judge Clark or others on the COA board of directors.
They also said they’re frustrated that elected officials have apparently taken sides in the issue and have refused to engage with them or respond to emails they’ve sent.
“They have let us down,” Davis said. “Not that they should be taking our side, but they should have reviewed all of the facts. The African-American community of leaders have basically turned their backs on this family.”
The probate matter in Plummer’s case is pending. A status hearing that was scheduled for today has been postponed until Thursday. In the meantime, Davis said they are trying to hire an attorney from New Orleans because they can’t find one in Baton Rouge willing to represent their family.
—Stephanie Riegel
