Parish President Mike Cooper wrote a public letter to the Parish Council members saying he wrote it with equal amounts of disappointment, frustration and anger.
He said upon taking office, he had high hopes of working for the betterment of St. Tammany and its citizens. But he said his repeated attempts to work with them have been met with direct rejection or complicity of that rejection.
Cooper called Monday night’s meeting of the Council’s Utility Workgroup an embarrassment to St. Tammany Parish. Cooper said it had been one year since the “Holy Week Incident” of 2021 and added the only “incident” that took place last year was a sewer line break. He said there was no cross contamination into the water system. Cooper said this was a proven fact with more than 280 tests to prove it. Cooper said the people in Cross Gates who are suffering from rashes and other ailments are being used by the Council as political pawns. Instead of informing these people of the truth so that they may seek medical attention and look for the correct cause of their illnesses, he said they are being used for political motives.
Cooper wrote that a third-party consultant evaluated the entire Cross Gates system and provided 35 recommendations, but Cooper said he found no violations in the system.
Cooper said at Monday night’s meeting, Councilman Binder stated publicly that Cooper was “cowardly” for not attending. He said he was not invited to that meeting and he would not subject any of his employees to the type of public humiliation the Council, in particular, Mr. Binder, has directed at them in the past.
Cooper concluded by saying to Mr. Binder, Mr. Canulette, Mr. Mike Smith and Mr. Lorino, that he called for a public apology. He said it was not too late to begin a positive, respectful, cooperative relationship that will benefit the people they were elected to serve.
