Is DPW Chief's Job On The Line?
TPRTK has had conversations with various Councilmen today that reveal that Parish President Charlotte "Clueless" Randolph and DPW Chief Ray Cheramie are trying to rally support to stave off a vote by the Council to terminate Mr. Cheramie's job at Tuesday's meeting prompted, in part, by the uproar caused by our revelation on May 26 that he loaned public generators to his family members in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Mr. Cheramie is trying to meet Councilmen individually so that he can try to convince them his actions were justified. Like, each Councilman doesn't know a large number of his constituents who needed a generator due to medical necessity that week after the storm?
What promises are being made in return? Don't we have a right to know? Councilmen, if you cut a deal to avoid firing Mr. Cheramie, how will you be able to face your constituents who ask why their sister who was dying of cancer or mother who has heart or lung disease wasn't entitled to a Parish generator?
By the way, besides Mr. Cheramie's actions being morally reprehensible and unethical, they were also illegal. The State Constitution prohibits loaning public assets to anyone. One exception to this prohibition is if the loan is for those in need and, in that case, there must be some objective critia in place to assure the neediest are those in receipt of the benefit. In other words, the Council would have to have had a policy in place which contained a test for neediness to avoid the playing of favorites which we saw in this case where Mr. Cheramie's family may have been needy, but what they all had in common was some familial connection to Mr. Cheramie, as opposed to the hundreds who were needy but not connected to Mr. Cheramie.
TPRTK has had conversations with various Councilmen today that reveal that Parish President Charlotte "Clueless" Randolph and DPW Chief Ray Cheramie are trying to rally support to stave off a vote by the Council to terminate Mr. Cheramie's job at Tuesday's meeting prompted, in part, by the uproar caused by our revelation on May 26 that he loaned public generators to his family members in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Mr. Cheramie is trying to meet Councilmen individually so that he can try to convince them his actions were justified. Like, each Councilman doesn't know a large number of his constituents who needed a generator due to medical necessity that week after the storm?
What promises are being made in return? Don't we have a right to know? Councilmen, if you cut a deal to avoid firing Mr. Cheramie, how will you be able to face your constituents who ask why their sister who was dying of cancer or mother who has heart or lung disease wasn't entitled to a Parish generator?
By the way, besides Mr. Cheramie's actions being morally reprehensible and unethical, they were also illegal. The State Constitution prohibits loaning public assets to anyone. One exception to this prohibition is if the loan is for those in need and, in that case, there must be some objective critia in place to assure the neediest are those in receipt of the benefit. In other words, the Council would have to have had a policy in place which contained a test for neediness to avoid the playing of favorites which we saw in this case where Mr. Cheramie's family may have been needy, but what they all had in common was some familial connection to Mr. Cheramie, as opposed to the hundreds who were needy but not connected to Mr. Cheramie.
posted by Carl A. Chauvin at 1:04 PM
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