Editor and Publisher

EDGARD – The hope for an official ruling on whether local industry will be included in the proposed Town of Garyville will have to wait yet another few days.

Parties on both sides of the Garyville incorporation controversy gathered in Division ‘A’ court on Friday, with Judge Anne Lennan Simon the newly-named head of the proceedings, after all three local judges recused themselves in the case. However any hope for clarification about whether the scheduled election for July 19 might be postponed, or any definitive word on whether industry will or will not be included in the new town, still was not forthcoming.

So for now, the election which is just seven days away, is still on tap for voters in the Garyville area to decide whether they will incorporate or not.

“It would have been nice to have some finality in this matter,” Geri Baloney, legal head for the Garyville Incorporation Committee said after the two-hour court heading. “But it looks like that will come Tuesday.”

Simon listened to arguments on Friday over a host of exceptions Baloney had filed, the majority trying a multitude of ways to get at one conclusion—have the lawsuit by Marathon thrown out.

(See COURT, page 2A)

Simon either denied, or postponed a final decision on some of the exceptions, all pointing to a Tuesday court date when she said she will rule on the request from Marathon for a declaratory judgment about whether or not they have a state-backed industrial area status or not. Should the judge support their industry status, they cannot be included in the Garyville boundaries.

Marathon is one of five industrial companies in the region which have been drawn into the proposed boundaries for the town. However all those companies, as well as a group from the Reserve area defended by Danny Becnel Jr., have filed suit against the incorporation effort, asking to be taken out of the proposed town’s city limits. The argument for all the industries is essentially the same: all saying they filed proper paperwork many years ago to gain state-backed industrial area status, which exempts them from being included in any future municipality.

At stake are tens of millions of dollars in tax money that currently goes directly to St. John Parish, but could conceivably see a large portion suddenly begin going to the very small Town of Garyville.

Marathon’s lawsuit has also asked for the election to be postponed or cancelled, if that is necessary to allow a proper ruling on their status.

“We are not trying to squelch anyone’s free speech, or object to a town voting on incorporation,” Marathon lead attorney Daniel Wellons said. “We just want to be taken out of the town, and then we will take ourselves out of this fight.”

Simon has set a Tuesday, 10:30 a.m. time for the next court hearing, saying she will rule on the declaratory judgment request by Marathon and “other related matters,” although she declined to elaborate on just what those matters might be.

On Friday, she listed to arguments from both sides on a multitude of exceptions filed by Baloney. She tried various options at trying to convince the judge that the Marathon suit was without merit and should be thrown out.

Some of the issues involved whether Marathon incorrectly combined several issues; they filed their lawsuit prematurely since any challenge to an election should come after the vote; Governor Bobby Jindal was not properly included in the suit; free speech rights were being challenged by Marathon; and more.

Yet to all of the challenges, Simon refused to end the litigation. She continually asked Wellons whether he would “still have a dog in this fight” if Marathon’s request to be removed from the town was granted. However she also stated over and over that any decisions Friday would not answer the key question of whether the industry status was valid.

A total of 11 attorneys representing all the different companies were on hand, however Simon said that for this day, it was Marathon’s day in court to face Baloney’s exceptions.

Baloney has also filed a motion objecting to the consolidation of all cases into one, and was particularly upset with the fact that all industry waited so long to file their suits, now putting the court into a difficult predicament with time running out before the election.

“Why did they all have to wait 56 days after we had the petition for the vote approved?” she said. “That is why we are in this position. They waited far too long to begin challenging this.”

Yet Wellons continued to contend that it is Baloney and her team of lawyers who are trying to use the legal system for an advantage. Once again on Friday, just as on Monday, Baloney’s team was filing new motions as the day in court began.

“The people have a right to go to vote on this issue, knowing positively whether industry will be part of their new town or not,” Wellons said. “But all these motions are just delay tactics on their part. They are trying to stretch this matter out so the election will be held.”

Wellons even made a case for the Garyville group being less than truthful by noting Baloney had included in her original comments that they weren’t certain if all industry should, or should not, be in the town. But this past week at a public hearing, they announced their “secret” they have been holding onto, that they believed industry had missed a key point in filing for their paperwork.

“Just look at this new revelation,” Wellons said, holding up Wednesday’s L’Observateur with a headline of ‘Group says secret is out.’ “They were trying to trap the industry by not telling what they knew until the 10 day period to file for industry exemption was over. It’s all just delay tactics.”

St. John Parish Attorney Jeff Perilloux agreed, repeating the position he has held from the beginning.

“All these objections were disposed of today, but it just shows that we wasted another day in court for all this,” he said, on hand since the parish has also been named in the court case by Marathon. “These are just more delay tactics, procedural bull, to tie up the court. This all could have been avoided if the attorney general would have listed to our plea from the beginning, to not consider the industry in this town’s boundaries.”

“All I can say is that the people better stay tuned,” he added.

Baloney maintained her calm demeanor through it all, noting after the day in court was over that “I’m not upset about the ruling by the judge today. I think it was good to see she didn’t rule against our case and I continue to believe this election will take place next week.”