Says move would help secure funding for important projects
Parish President V.J. St. Pierre has asked the council to approve the hiring of a lobbyist to help the parish get more money from the federal government for parish projects.
Former Lafourche Parish President Richard Egle is St.
Pierre’s choice to lobby for money in Washington, D.C. Egle, who introduced himself at last Monday night’s council meeting, says he plans to work hard to secure the funding the parish needs. However, Egle has never secured funding for a government entity before.
“St. Charles Parish is the first parish that I’ll be lobbying for,” Egle said. “I am friends with Aaron Broussard, parish president of Jefferson Parish, but I haven’t ever been officially employed in Jefferson Parish.”
Lobbyists don’t come cheap.
Egle’s fee is $8,333 monthly with an additional $1,000 a month for expenses. That brings his total salary to about $100,000 per year, according to a preliminary agreement established by Egle and the parish. If the council approves the measure in three weeks, Egle will be retained to negotiate money for parish projects.
Egle said although he has limited experience with government agencies, he did help Broussard secure funds for safe houses in Jefferson Parish. And that did involve some negotiating with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
“I might have misspoken at the council meeting,” he said. “One of the council members (Dennis Nuss) asked me if I had ever worked with the Corps, and I told them no – but I did on this project.”
At a June 16 council meeting, St. Pierre discussed a lunch that he had with Broussard where he asked him how he was able to have so many drainage structures and fixtures for his residents. St. Pierre was interested in how Broussard secured funding for some of his public works projects. Broussard told St. Pierre he uses a lobbyist.
Councilman Paul Hogan supports St. Pierre’s idea to recruit help in Washington, but still has concerns.
“Before we hire someone for that amount of money for one year, I would like to know that I can reasonably expect a fair rate of return on that investment,” he said. “Right now, I’m trying to figure out exactly what he would be doing for us that will justify his cost.”
Hogan says that he is trying to find out if it would be better to retain Egle on an “as needed” basis to lobby for specific issues.
For the past 15 years, Egle has pulled in big bucks for businesses.
“The largest amount of money that I’ve secured for a business is $150 million, which occurred over a four year period for a company out of Slidell,” Egle said. “The company wanted to convert an old Army facility into a computer-ready site.”
Egle says that parishes that use lobbyists aren’t uncommon.
“I think St. John Parish uses a lobbying firm too,” he said.
Egle also answered questions about his association with a company under federal investigation. That company is linked to Congressman William Jefferson.
“I lobbied for Global Environmental Energy Corp (GEEC) for about a year,” he said. “They kept telling me about all these things they were working on, but I never saw anything materialize from the group. It just never happened.”
The company has since been caught up in the federal government’s investigation of Jefferson.
Egle said that he terminated his contract with the company after a year.
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