Mayor-President Broome Will Not Be Able To Continue as a Plaintiff Against St. George

Perhaps attorney Mary Olive Pierson is stronger on rhetoric than on law. In any case, she has allowed Mayor-President Sharon Weston Broome to place herself in an untenable and rather embarrassing position.

Ms. Pierson has allowed her client to file a highly-publicized suit to block the incorporation of the City of St. George, which was approved by the voters of the proposed city. Ms. Pierson has been speaking for the Mayor-President in the most confrontational and condescending manner toward the organizers of St. George (and thus toward the 86,000 people of St. George whom they represent).

Ms. Pierson has make a lot of bold statements about meeting the leaders of St. George in court. Unfortunately for Ms. Pierson, she has a client without standing to sue.

Often, apparently complicated legal problems have easy solutions. But the answer is often hidden in plain sight from lawyers who fail to open the Revised Statutes and actually read the law, which would allow them to make public statements about the law with some authority.  So it is with Ms. Pierson.

We wonder why she hasn’t bothered to read the law. In fact, Louisiana law is quite clear on who can file suit to block an incorporation.

La. R.S. 33:4 sets forth who may sue in such cases. It says,

§4. Legal action contesting an incorporation

A. Any of the following persons or governmental entities may file a petition contesting the incorporation:

(1) Any elector residing in the area proposed for incorporation.

(2) Any person owning land in such area.

(3) Any municipality which might be adversely affected or an elected official of the governing authority of such a municipality.

So let’s examine that list and see if Mayor-President Broome is eligible to file suit.

First, is she an elector in the area proposed for incorporation?  No, she is an elector in the City of Baton Rouge.  So she doesn’t qualify that way.

Second, does she own land in the proposed City of St. George?  Apparently not.  At least, she’s never mentioned it and her financial disclosure forms with the State of Louisiana list no such property.

Third, is she a municipality that might be adversely affected by incorporation?  No, she is a human being and not a municipality. Furthermore, she has stated that the City of Baton Rouge will not be filing suit.

Now that’s very interesting.

If the City of Baton Rouge is being adversely affected by the incorporation of the City of St. George, then why wouldn’t the City of Baton Rouge be filing suit to block St. George?

Why doesn’t the City of Baton Rouge go into court and assert that claim?

Hmmm…

In any case, there remains only one situation that would allow Mayor-President Broome to file suit to block the incorporation of St. George. The law says she must be “an elected official of the governing authority of such a municipality.”

Now, the Mayor-President is certainly an “elected official.” No question of that.  But is she “an elected official of the governing authority” of the municipality?  Well, in her lawsuit, she certainly claims to be!

Ms. Pierson’s petition, ever so cleverly drafted we are sure, says, “Mayor-President Sharon Weston Broome, the duly elected Mayor-President of the City of Baton Rouge and Parish of East Baton Rouge is an elected official of the governing authority of the City of Baton Rouge and Parish of East Baton Rouge…”

But is she?

Unfortunately for Ms. Pierson and her legal reputation, Louisiana law defines rather clearly what a “governing authority” is in our statutes.

The definition of public officers and employees in our law is set forth in R.S.42:1102.

R.S. 42:1102 (11) provides as follows:

“(11) ‘Governing authority’ means the body which exercises the legislative functions of a political subdivision.”

Ms. Pierson, the “governing authority” of a municipality is a legislative body — the city council!  In the case of our local government in East Baton Rouge Parish, the governing authority is the Metro Council — not the Mayor-President!

The Mayor-President is clearly not a member of the Metro Council, not “an elected official” of the Metro Council, not “an elected official of the governing authority.”

Ms. Pierson failed to read the law or perhaps failed to understand the law. Her wonderful unpaid, pro bono offer to represent the Mayor-President in this matter is worth exactly what she is being paid — zero!

The Mayor-President will be dismissed from this lawsuit as a plaintiff, because she is not permitted under the law to file the suit.

She needs better legal counsel.

By the way, another plaintiff, M.E. Cormier, will also be dismissed as a plaintiff. In the suit, Ms. Pierson claims Ms. Cormier can be on the suit even though she does not reside in the incorporated area because she wants “to assert claims pertraining to the adverse impact of the proposed incorporation on her person and on municipalities in the vicinity.”

Seriously?

The statute on incorporation spells out who can file suit. Ms. Cormier doesn’t reside in the area to be incorporated.  She can’t be a plaintiff!  The description in Ms. Pierson’s brief suggests she might be a witness, but there’s no way she can be a plaintiff in this case under the governing law.

So Ms. Pierson has two unqualified plaintiffs, leaving her only one — Mr. Lewis Unglesby — whose task it will be show that the City of Baton Rouge, which he cannot legally speak for, is adversely affected.

None of the other points in her brief are even worth discussing, such as her claim that the Plan of Government prohibits another municipality in the parish and requires a parishwide vote. Read the Louisiana Constitution, Ms. Pierson. It invalidated that provision of the Plan of Government 45 years ago, and the courts struck down your interpretation 14 years ago in the Central case.

All you are doing is maliciously trying to impose your will on the people of St. George and substitute it for the democratic expression of the people there and what they want for their future.  

You should be ashamed!

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