Day: April 20, 2016

Harbor Fest-Gate: Never a dull moment in the Bay

I understand Hizzoner and the City Comptroller were MIA at last night’s Bay City Council meeting, perhaps because the Office of the State Auditor has summoned the City Council to a meeting tomorrow, where the rumor mill holds the boom will be lowered on the Mayor and his history, habit and practice of ignoring the home rule statute. We’ll see.

Meantime Harbor Fest promoter Michael Rosato announced last month the dates of the 2016 Bay Harbor Fest, an annual festival that has been heavily promoted in the local media but which has massive problems the least of which was last year’s Greg Allman set, which was delayed several hours.  The bigger problems to holding this year’s event appear to be twofold:

  1. Rosato still owes the City money for last year’s event.
  2. Rosato evidently owes the festival’s vendors money from last year as those following along last night on Twitter witnessed:

Now given how Hizzoner handles the City’s finances, I can understand the attraction to the event’s promoter but the City doesn’t do itself any favors holding a money losing music festival. Stay tuned.

Former St Charles Parish DA turned pervert Harry Morel Jr. to enter plea today

And folks this is the culmination of a story about allegations surrounding the former DA that he traded sex for prosecutorial leniency that was first broke by Slabbed New Media way back on September 9, 2011. But it gets better as Drew Broach pointed out a few days ago for Nola.com because if its St Charles Parish, there has to be political inbreeding to go with the perverted old geezer:

It also marks something of an embarrassment for his successor, Joel Chaisson II. The day before Morel announced his retirement in 2011, to clear the way for his daughter, Michele, to run for district judge, he hired Chaisson’s brother, John, as an assistant district attorney. Chaisson, president of the Louisiana Senate, quickly announced he would run for district attorney, a race he won with no opposition.

Joel Chaisson also contributed $2,500 to Michele Morel’s 2012 campaign. She won, edging opponent Tim Marcel by 168 votes, to complete the term of another Chaisson brother, Robert, who had been elected to Louisiana’s 5th Circuit Court of Appeal.

And when Joel Chaisson took office, he hired Harry Morel as an assistant district attorney at an annual salary of $44,000. That was in addition to the $146,227 annual pension Morel began collecting in retirement.

Chaisson denied there was a deal.

Everyone believes that I’m certain. In any event when the former DA become too hot to continue the mutual back scratching, the new DA threw the old under the bus again proving true the old adage about reptiles eating their own kind.

Those wishing to review Slabbed’s archival coverage of this story can click here.

Meantime St. Charles Parish remains unchanged. Stay tuned.