Three GOP Councilmen Join Dems In Effort to Kill City of St. George

February 5, 2015 0 Comments

Three Republican Metro Councilmen joined all five Democrats on the Council in an effort to kill the proposed City of St. George, even before voters have the chance to go to the polls on whether to incorporate.

John Delgado, Trae Welch, and Scott Wilson voted to hire local attorney Mary Olive Pierson to challenge the legality of efforts to incorporate. St. George leader Norman Browning said it is unfair to use taxpayers’ dollars to challenge an incorporation effort. If the Councilmen don’t like St. George’s effort, they should use their own money to challenge it, not the taxpayers’, he said.

Welch and Wilson represent the City of Central. Central Mayor Jr. Shelton last week said residents of St. George should have the right to vote on incorporation.

Conservatives and Republicans have been working hard to help create the new City of St. George. For many of them, it is the best hope we have to bring high quality neighborhood schools to more than 109,000 people in the southeast part of East Baton Rouge Parish.

It is the best hope we have to establish a low crime city that includes one-fourth of the people of this parish.

It is the best hope we have to bring people back to this parish who have fled to Livingston and Ascension parishes.

It is the best hope and perhaps the last hope, in view of the changing dynamics of this parish, which voted for Obama by 10,000 votes and for Mary Landrieu by 6,000 votes.

What will happen when Sid Gautreaux retires as Sheriff? What will happen when Brian Wilson retires as Assessor? What will happen when Doug Welborn retires as Clerk of Court?

Will radical leftists in the mold of Obama begin to take over parish offices from Sheriff on down?

What will that mean for crime? What will it mean for taxes?

Will it lead to further flight out of the parish, leaving us another New Orleans or even Detroit?

St. George is more than just a movement to incorporate a new city. It is our hope to save East Baton Rouge Parish.

That’s why it seemed so strange to see three Republican Metro Council members vote to kill the proposed City of St. George last week.

It was no surprise to see Councilmen John Delgado voting that way, but to see Councilman Trae Welch of Zachary and Scott Wilson of Central vote against the very principles that their own communities are founded on was amazing.

As one Metro Councilman said, “If we can’t count on Zachary and Central to stand for what’s right on this Council, then we are definitely doomed.”

Councilman Trae Welch said he was against St. George because it would hurt the other unincorporated areas of the parish. We don’t understand that reasoning at all. At present, tax revenues from the unincorporated go to benefit the City of Baton Rouge, and very little is spent on the unincorporated area. We need to change the current budgeting system and distribute funds from the unincorporated areas fairly. But the creation of St. George has nothing to do with that one way or the other.

In an interview this week, Councilman Scott Wilson said the creation of St. George would create too much competition and be bad for Central. He also said he strongly supports the right of citizens to vote, and “I hope they do get to vote!”

But Delgado, Welch, and Wilson all voted to deny the citizens of St. George their right to vote!

State law is very clear. If 25 percent of the registered voters in an unincorporated area sign a petition for incorporation, they get to vote on whether to incorporate.

But three Republicans voted to allow attorney Mary Olive Pierson to use our tax dollars to file suit, harass the organizers of St. George, and try to find an excuse to delay and derail these citizens’ legitimate right to vote on incorporation.

It was a sad day in the Metro Council Chamber.