Bossier jurors' acts spur flood of challengers

Water/sewerage system problems, minimal transparency, and thumbing their noises at the law buy incumbents reform, retread, and rookie electoral opposition this fall not seen in three dozen years

A review of races this fall in Bossier Parish government shows an expected electoral quietude among executives, but perhaps having the chickens coming home to roost for many of the incumbents on the Police Jury.

Parishes have four elective executive offices up for grabs, but there will be next to no drama in Bossier for these. The incumbent assessor, clerk of court, and coroner drew no challengers, letting all three cruise to reelection. Republican Sheriff Julian Whittington did receive a challenge from political unknown Republican Chris Green, a former deputy who would seem to have little chance for the upset.

The Jury contests are another matter. In 2019, eight incumbents walked back into office, with District 2 Republican Glenn Benton being the only incumbent to receive a challenge. This time he avoided one, along with Democrat Jimmy Cochran (unchallenged in District 7 since 1999) and Republicans Doug Rimmer (unchallenged since 2011 in District 8) and Tom Salzer (never challenged since being the only one to qualify for a special election for District 11 in 2017) while the other eight incumbents all filed for reelection against opposition.

Make that seven. District 10’s independent Jerome Darby, the longest serving juror in the state in his tenth term, shortly after qualifying withdrew, perhaps because there still will be a Darby on the ballot. Democrat former School Board member Julian Darby, his younger brother, signed up, along with a pair retired military veterans Democrats James Carley and Mary Giles. The Darby family machine, whose Samm Darby as a Democrat represents the district Julian once did, despite having Jerome facing just one election in 2007 since 1987, should get cranked up enough to keep the seat in the family.

As for the other seven incumbents with a fight on their hands – the most since 1987 – from the rhetoric of the challengers it seems that has come at the expense of Jury actions over the past several years. Since 2016 jurors have served illegally on the parish Library Board of Control, currently Benton, Republican Bob Brotherton from District 1, Democrat Charles Gray from District 9, Republican Julianna Parks from District 5, and Rimmer. Jurors also tolerated inserting themselves into another dual officeholding controversy when their appointee to the Cypress Black Bayou Recreation and Water Conservation District Robert Berry also became its executive director, which changed only last month when jurors didn’t reappoint Berry. Even so, three jurors – Gray, Parks, and District 12 Republican Mac Plummer – didn’t go along with that.

Incumbent jurors also have courted controversy with their management of its Consolidated Waterworks/Sewerage District #1, its growing attempt to provide centralized water and sewerage provision to areas outside of municipalities. Deliberate lowballing on rates that taxpayers had to subsidize that may mushroom costs to all in the future and problems in absorbing new systems have raised the ire of some parish residents.

The Jury and parish government also have done little to make their dealings transparent, in contrast to every other major northwest Louisiana local government. Meetings are narrowcast on a hard-to-view and nearly impossible-to-hear Facebook Live channel, years after a statement that it would move to a professional setup (last year’s meeting dealing with the budget wasn’t delivered or archived at all). Online agendas carry the barest of information so citizens prior to meetings have no idea about the items being discussed and voted upon. Meeting minutes habitually are posted well past their meeting dates.

Perhaps worst of all, incumbent jurors have stuck by Parish Administrator Butch Ford as he continues apparently to violate state law that says a parish chief executive must be a registered voter in that parish, which means he must have his primary residence that would qualify for a homestead exemption in that parish. Over the past 19 months – the first 10 of which jurors ignored Ford’s full-time residence at a Caddo Parish property with a homestead exemption and his registration to vote in Caddo, a property he still maintains – Ford has been unable to establish with certainty that he qualifies to register to vote in Bossier Parish, yet the Jury reappointed him without dissent earlier this year (and originally hired him the year before without a job search).

This pattern of obscurantism, questionable fiscal administration of the water utility, and lawlessness likely provoked many, if not all challengers. The most vulnerable perhaps is Brotherton, whose health problems have prevented him from attending most Jury meetings this year and will make it difficult for him to campaign. In a solidly Republican district, Republican small businessman Mike Farris has a distinct chance to replace him, much likelier to do so than the two Democrats running, retiree Mary Odom and trucking executive Andre Wilson.

District 3 Republican Philip Rodgers, who in 2019 ran on addressing problems with the Berry-run CBB, even as Berry’s ouster – which also means by state law he must give up his executive directorship – has occurred, created some more problems for himself when in the process of criticizing District actions at one of its recent meetings opened himself to charges that he sought and obtained  with its Board’s knowledge favorable treatment from Berry. He is opposed by Republican Andy Modica, a District critic, parish constable, and recent applicant to fill a vacant School Board slot, who complained at the meeting where the Jury didn’t reappoint Berry – at which Rodgers’ campaign supporter Rodney Madden received the nod – that the fix was in against him and other applicants for the post that went to Madden. It wouldn’t be hard for Modica to campaign contrasting the sweet deals political insiders get with the reception others encounter.

If that seems at all vengeful, forget it when compared to the fate suffered by District 6 Republican Chris Marsiglia. He drew as a challenger none other than Berry, running as a Republican. There’s no fury like a scorned former CBB executive director/ex-commissioner, who lost both gigs because the Jury didn’t reappoint him – with good reason, of course, since the judiciary declared a situation like his in violation of the law and the District was footing legal bills in his defense equivalent to about an eighth of its total revenues in a losing cause.

Marsiglia was one of three first-time electees (although he had run for a seat unsuccessfully years ago) who faced opposition then and now. District 4 Republican John Ed Jorden (who also ran years ago) turned out to be another, and worse off since in 2019 he had just opponent and now faces two. While district demographics suggest Democrat Donald Stephens can’t win, he might make a runoff against either Jorden or Republican appraiser Jack Harvill.

And one of the most polarizing figures on the Jury, Parks who won a special election for the post in 2021, faces perhaps the most quality challenger running, Republican Barry Butler who formerly served in her spot from 2008-12. In his term, Butler distinguished himself by challenging orthodoxy and refusing to get along and go along as so often happens among jurors, often serving as the only voice willing to take up topics and bring out information that didn’t portray parish policies in only rosy hues. Parks, who through her husband Republican Bossier City Judge Santi Parks has a considerable parish political establishment network to fall back upon, can bring a lot of resources to bear to retain office, but Butler, who suffered defeat through the efforts of that network, has the capacity to knock her off.

At the other end of the parish, after three straight elections without an opponent, Plummer will be forced to work for his job against Republican small businessman Keith Sutton. Also a critic of business-as-usual on the Jury with a desire for greater Jury fiscal responsibility, transparency, and term limits, he hosts a podcast with former School Board member Shane Cheatham that in part discussed politics of the day.

Republicans dropped the ball in the Darbys’ District 10, which has been a plurality white district that has 41 percent black registration that should give them a decent chance to win with relatively fewer black Democrats, by not running a candidate there. They also blew it in 2019 in District 9, then with a narrow white plurality, when the only Republican who qualified subsequently was disqualified over not being a district resident, handing the victory to Gray. Since then, the district has moved to a black plurality of around 47 percent.

This time, the GOP challenger should stick, and a quality one at that – former Bossier City chief administrative officer Pam Glorioso, who might well have run for and possibly won the mayoralty had her boss Lo Walker not ran for a fifth term. She doesn’t have the reform potential that challengers in other districts have (in Berry’s case, perhaps more out of spite), having been a longtime part of the parish political establishment, and she may not have the numbers on her side to knock off Gray in a district that has become more secure for him.

If everything goes right for reformers, known quantities such as Farris, Modica, Butler, and Sutton could form a solid bloc on the Jury. If Berry and Glorioso also make it, matters become more interesting still. Throw in Harvill and a Darby opponent and some real change could be on the way. Even if turnover ends up minimal, clearly the challengers who have stepped up means there’s more of the grassroots upset at sitting jurors that there has been for decades.