The Jefferson Parish Council is planning to hire a law firm to investigate the Inspector General's Office for potential ethical violations and professional misconduct, just weeks after the taxpayer-funded watchdog released a public letter scrutinizing parish plans to spend $10.3 million on a brewpub complex in downtown Gretna.
In a resolution added last-minute to Wednesday's council agenda, Jefferson Parish's five district council members propose the parish select a law firm to "provide an analysis, study, report and/or recommendation" regarding the conduct of the Inspector General's Office and whether Inspector General Kim Raines Chatelain should keep her job.
Chatelain, in an interview, called the resolution "an attack on the independence of the office" and said it's clear the Parish Council "cares nothing about accountability."
Tensions between the Parish Council and Chatelain's office have simmered for months but reached a boiling point in September after the IG released a 35-page report criticizing a parish plan to spend $10.3 million on a 20,000-square-foot brewery and taco restaurant on the site of a parish-owned parking lot in downtown Gretna.
Chatelain said the deal circumvented public bid and open meeting laws and put the parish in a financially vulnerable position should the brewpub fail.
But officials at the state, parish and city level lambasted the letter, saying it failed to identify any waste, fraud or abuse and unfairly cast the project in a bad light. They also criticized Chatelain's office for opting not to interview anyone involved in the project before issuing the letter.
The resolution argues that the IG's office overstepped its authority in issuing the public letter, while also taking aim at Chatelain's friendship with Jefferson Parish at-large council member Jennifer Van Vrancken, who has joined the IG in criticizing the brewpub project.
Van Vrancken sponsored two resolutions on Wednesday's agenda related to the brewpub. The first asks Jefferson Parish President Cynthia Lee Sheng's administration to freeze the $10.3 million in funding for 45 business days. The second directs the nonprofit and economic development corporation involved in the construction and management of the brewpub to make a special presentation about the project at the Nov. 6 council meeting.
Van Vrancken said hiring a law firm to investigate the IG is a waste of taxpayer money and "retaliation" for her own resolutions calling for a pause on the project.
The resolution specifically attacks the IG for failing to release reports on Van Vrancken's failed EAT Fat City project, or her former aide, Jeffrey Simno, who she fired earlier this year after it emerged that he had bid on parish-owned land.
Jefferson Parish District 5 Council member Hans Liljeberg said he's all for oversight but thinks the IG's office has lost its way.
"It's very important for me that the IG be independent and apolitical, and I don't find that that's what's going on here," Liljeberg said.
The other council members who sponsored the resolution alongside Liljeberg didn't respond to a request for comment. They include Arita Bohannan, Marion Edwards, Deano Bonano and Byron Lee.
Jefferson Parish at-large council member Scott Walker said he plans to save his comments for Wednesday's meeting, adding that he hopes there still a "path for peace."
Chatelain said that based on the language of the resolution, any investigation will be "biased" from the get-go.
The Parish Council ultimately has no say in whether the IG keeps her job. Chatelain, instead, answers to the parish's Ethics and Compliance Commission -- a five-member body comprised of appointees nominated by local universities.