St. Charles Parish Councilman Paul Hogan wants an investigation into what he says was a lack of approval by the Library Board of Control to increase the square footage of the East Bank Regional Library from 33,587 to 39,655 prior to the project going out for bid.
And though Hogan indicated that this caused the price of the project to jump by $1.3 million, he said that he is not trying to hold up the completion of the building, which is expected to be finished by the end of the year.
“I am a huge advocate of the library system and I look forward to seeing both the East Bank Regional Library and a library in Paradis completed so that they can be enjoyed by our residents,” he said. “The issue I have made the board aware of is that the east regional project, which came to the council for approval, is not the project that was approved by the Library Board.”
Hogan combed through Library Board meeting minutes from the past seven years and said that Library Director Mary des Bordes failed to record any size increases to the building that were approved by the board. Hogan said that his main issue was the final size increase, which he says the board did not approve of or have any knowledge of.
A letter presented to Hogan earlier this year by Library Board Chairwoman Carolyn Tregre informed the councilman that the changes to the building were presented at “numerous” meetings. She writes that when changes were presented, they were accepted by a consensus.
“But the librarian failed to record the approval of any of the increases in their minutes,” Hogan said. “That means that Library Director Mary des Bordes failed in one of her duties, which is the keeping of accurate minutes of the meetings.”
Hogan said that he and the rest of the council voted on the final design for the East Bank Regional Library, at a cost of $8.5 million, without a project of that size first receiving approval by the Library Board.
The council ended up awarding the contract in a 5-4 vote in which Hogan voted against – stating that it was not a fiscally responsible project.
“The records show that the librarian (des Bordes) failed to inform the Library Board of the increase (the final 6,000 square foot increase) and failed to present to the Library Board the final plans which had the additional increase,” Hogan wrote in a letter to Tregre that called for an investigation. “The unauthorized increase, which the librarian failed to present to the Library Board, resulted in an additional cost of $1.3 million to the taxpayers of St. Charles Parish.”
Because of that, Hogan is calling for a “complete and timely” investigation by an outside entity into des Bordes. Should the findings of the report show that des Bordes’ actions or inactions “tainted” the title of librarian or the Library Board, Hogan asks that she be fired.
Hogan gave the board two weeks from the time of the letter, which was written on Aug. 31, to make a decision.
“If the board decides to take no action, then the issue will be passed on to another agency to perform an investigation,” Hogan said.
Parish President V.J. St. Pierre released a statement after receiving Hogan’s letter saying that until the councilman can provide proof that des Bordes has done something illegal, both her and members of the Library Board have his full confidence and support.
“I will continue to devote my time and efforts to moving this parish forward, completing the new East Bank Regional Library and constructing the new Paradis Library,” the statement added.
That also seems to be the opinion of a vast majority of the council members. In fact, every member except for Hogan and Councilwoman Carolyn Schexnaydre signed a letter expressing confidence and support in both des Bordes and the Library Board.
“This was done solely by me and I am not representing the council,” Hogan said. “I will take all the heat for this, but I do think that someone needs to be held accountable for this unauthorized increase at the expense of the taxpayers.”
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