What Central’s long legal fight to become a city might say — or not say — about St. George

Since its inception, organizers of the proposed city of St. George have used the path Central took to incorporation 16 years ago as their model. 

Now they are hoping a district court judge’s ruling Tuesday that blocked the creation of their new city will be overturned on appeal — the same thing that allowed Central to become East Baton Rouge Parish’s fourth municipality.

For now, retired 22nd Judicial District Judge Martin Coady’s ruling invalidates an October 2019 election in which 54% of the registered voters who live in the proposed boundaries for St. George voted in favor of incorporation. But supporters say it’s far from over — as Central proved.

“We intend to appeal sooner rather than later,” said Andrew Murrell, spokesman for the St. George incorporation camp. “That includes going as far as we need to. We are well aware of what we want and what we voted for.”

Murrell said their side is confident Coady’s ruling will get overturned at the appellate level. He said there were “errors” in the math the judge used to decide that a new city was “unreasonable” because it couldn’t balance it’s budget and would cost Baton Rouge government $48 million annually.

But the team of lawyers representing Mayor-President Sharon Weston Broome and Council Pro Tem Lamont Cole — the plaintiffs seeking to stop the new city — say any comparison to how things played out with Central’s is unfounded. 

“That’s not gonna happen here,” said attorney Mary Olive Pierson. “There’s no comparison…one reason why (the 1st Circuit Court panel) ruled the way they did was because the plaintiffs in that case didn’t put on any evidence to prove their claims in their lawsuit. We did.”

What happened then

For all the similarities the St. George movement shares with Central’s incorporation — which was also rooted in creating a new school district in a predominantly-White area — the legal challenges are different.

For starters, it wasn’t city-parish leaders at the time trying to block Central’s incorporation. It was mostly a band of residents and property owners who lived in Central.

In June 2005, they challenged the legality of Central’s incorporation, claiming the election was flawed and the city’s boundaries were drawn to dilute the voting strength of Black residents, excluding them from the new city.

Their lawsuit also asked the court to reconsider then-state District Judge Michael McDonald’s November 2002 that ruled unconstitutional a section of the city-parish’s Plan of Government limiting the number of municipalities in East Baton Rouge Parish to only three — Baton Rouge, Baker and Zachary. 

A district judge ruled in the plaintiffs favor. But the state 1st Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Central opponents provided no evidence proving the election was flawed or that consolidation was racially motivated.

The 1st Circuit panel also stated that the Louisiana Constitution — and a 1984 state law outlining how incorporations can occur — superseded the city-parish’s home rule charter, therefore making the 2002 ruling meaningless.

What’s happening now

The current lawsuit Mayor Broome is leading asserts St. George’s incorporation would have negative impacts on the rest of the city-parish —mostly financially. Its arguments are based on research from two LSU professors who said proponents overestimated projected revenues and underestimated expenses for St. George’s makeshift budget.

The city-parish would lose $48.3 million in revenue each year if St. George incorporation happened, Broome’s lawyers argue. And that would cut services, trigger layoffs, hinder the ongoing obligations the city-parish has to pensions and retirement benefits for employees, impair the city-parish’s bond indebtedness and reduce the city-parish’s financing ability by reducing its credit rating.

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The lawsuit also asserts that St. George organizers organizers failed to develop a sufficient plan for the municipal services the new city would provide to its residents.

After a 1 1/2-week trial of testimony, Coady mostly agreed with the plaintiffs. 

He wrote that St. George would be unable to operate with a balanced budget based on what he heard from witnesses from both sides. 

His ruling also included a breakdown of all the ways Central’s incorporation cannot be compared to St. George’s; the defendants relied heavily on testimony from Central officials and the organizers behind its incorporation petition drive.

Coady said the sufficiency of Central’s incorporation petition was never the issue in that case— so it offers no guidance on St. George.

Evidence also showed that tension between the city-parish and Central organizers weren’t as high as they are between St. George’s proponents and Broome, Coady said. That meant a more seamless transition of services once Central’s incorporation moved forward. 

Other differences Coady highlighted:

‘There’s No Comparison’     

Pierson expects Coady’s ruling to hold up at the appellate level because his opinion was “fact-based.”

“He would have to have made a big mistake for it to get overturned,” she said. “That’s not gonna happen here. St. George is not Central, Central is not St. George. Not even close.” 

But Murrell pointed to facts St. George organizers believe the judge got wrong.  

For example, he said the unfunded accrued liabilities projected for St. George are capped at about $7.5 million, payable to the city-parish over 15 years and not 30. And he said the property taxes residents already pay in the St. George area would cover the cost for police protection from the Sheriff’s Office. 

“I don’t see how he determined we’d pay more for the Sheriff’s Office than we pay now,” Murrell said. “It would be the same service we have now.” 

East Baton Rouge Sheriff Sid Gautreaux testified during the trial that he still didn’t know what services St. George will require from his office or how much the voter-approved city would pay for those services.

Murrell went on to say that city-parish leaders have “mismanaged” their budgets for “a long time” and the judge is somehow using their mistakes to say St. George leaders couldn’t do it any better. 

“Just because they keep failing doesn’t mean we’ll fail,” he said.