With interesting timing, St. Martin Parish Council calls special meeting to pour cold water all over AG Jeff Landry’s proposed blueprint settlement with Freeport McMoRan for legacy coastal erosion.

March 4, 2021:  Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry outlines a blueprint proposal to enable Freeport McMoRan to settle all coastal erosion litigation in Louisiana with other oil producers having the same ability if they are so inclined and required approval by the Louisiana Legislature is obtained.

On March 4, 2021, Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry called a press conference to outline his proposed blueprint of a settlement with Freeport McMoRan for legacy coastal erosion.

Landry’s blueprint settlement was strongly backed by the most prominent trial lawyer coordinating lawsuits by municipalities against oil producers for such erosion, John Carmouche.  That fact alone caused many eyebrows to be raised entailing Landry’s motivation and rationale.  Let’s take a look at Landry’s press conference in its entirety (all of 13 minutes):

March 4, 2021 press conference of Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry in its 13-minute entirety wherein he outlines his proposed blueprint settlement for Freeport McMoRan along with any other oil companies who express a desire to obtain the same type terms.

Landry took a ton of heat entailing the proposal he outlined above, to wit:

Tyler Gray, Louisiana Mid Continent Oil and Gas Association:

It is disappointing that some elected officials have sided with plaintiffs’ attorneys in support of job-killing lawsuits and a flawed settlement scheme that could put our coast further at risk.

Our member companies will continue to fight these meritless coastal lawsuits and oppose the implementation of this untenable settlement scheme.

Marc Ehrhardt, Grow Louisiana Coalition:

 Only politicians and lawyers have seen this supposed settlement. It has been done in secret. Whenever a politician or lawyer says ‘Trust me. It’s good for you,’ it doesn’t seem to work out too well for the people. How is this secret settlement scheme any different?

Not one square inch of the coast has been created as a result of these lawsuits in the entire time that these trial lawyers have been wheeling and dealing behind the scenes and out of the public eye.

Louisiana State Senator Sharon Hewitt (R-Slidell):

This settlement scheme is nothing more than a backroom deal that threatens the future of oil and gas jobs in Louisiana……..This secret settlement begins a dangerous path that leads to false promises, bankruptcies, and job losses. I’m certain it’s as dead this year in the legislature as it was last. I will work with my colleagues in the legislature to expose this shakedown, save those jobs, and fight for real solutions that restore our coast.

There was plenty of other criticism of Landry’s blueprint proposal, but we believe everyone likely gets the drift.

In order to become effective, legislation had to pass within three years.  As Senator Hewitt notes above, that legislation has been dead on arrival.

With that being the case and the matter seemingly dead, our interest was peaked when, all of a sudden, the St. Martin Parish Council called a special meeting on Tuesday, September 20, 2022 to discuss whether to accept or reject any potential Freeport McMoRan settlement money.  We found both the timing (given that Landry may soon announce for Governor) and the seeming need to rush (i.e. a “special meeting”) to be interesting, so Sound Off Louisiana founder Robert Burns, accompanied by his camera, attended that special meeting.  Here’s the discussion that ensued in its entirety (at 15 minutes — including shutting Billy Broussard down from making public comment — it’s not much longer than Landry’s news conference above):

September 20, 2022 Special Meeting of the St. Martin Parish Council to discuss whether to accept or reject any settlement proceeds from the Jeff Landry blueprint for settlement with Freeport McMoRan.  Parish President Chester Cedars explained the specifics of any settlement and what St. Martin Parish’s role would be if requirements are met and the Council opted to accept Landry’s blueprint settlement.

So, isn’t it a “fair game” question to ask why the sudden need to call a special meeting for this?  After all, by our math, the total proceeds to St. Martin Parish from the settlement, according to Cedars’ numbers, would be the whopping total of $40,000 (0.0004 x $100 million).

No, it would seem that the brief video above represented a direct slap in the face to Attorney General Jeff Landry.  After all, Cedars indicates, “We’re big boys and girls, and we don’t need somebody else (Landry) making the decision to sue or not sue, to settle or not settle, and that we believe that state legislation which gives another person, firm, or entity, or officeholder authorization to sue on our behalf is unconstitutional because we are sovereign under Article 6 of the State Constitution.”

Sounds like a pretty direct wind up and full-fledged and very hard slap right in the face of Jeff Landry, no?

The logical question is why, especially given that we’re told many St. Martin Parish Councilmen are strong, strong backers of Landry.

Well, let’s note how Cedars interjects his opinion that Landry’s proposal is “unconstitutional.”

Could it possibly be that Landry has hinted (or maybe more than hinted) that he intends to rule that Cedars and the Council’s Ordinance requiring that Lafayette Consolidated Government obtain their approval for removing the spoil banks on the Vermillion River is also unconstitutional?

Heck, for that matter, Landry, who is expected to end up having to make a ruling  on the Ordinance passed enabling the suit against Billy Broussard in terms of constitutionality, just may deem that Ordinance unconstitutional as well.  We certainly know several attorneys, to include Michael Adley, who feel very strongly that it is most definitely unconstitutional.

We believe THAT (the Lafayette Consolidated Government ruling, were Landry to side with LCG and, to a lesser extent, any Broussard ruling favoring him) may be enough to convince these Councilmen, their alleged alliance to Landry notwithstanding, to turn on Landry.  That may explain Tuesday’s action being to give an early indication of such a turn in sentiment toward Landry.  That would certainly explain the hastily-called special meeting which appears to us at least to have been called for the sole purpose of giving Attorney General Jeff Landry a big smack down in a very public manner!

If anyone else has a better line of speculation on why the urgency to reject a lousy $40,000 and to do so in the the haste and hostile tone Cedars espouses in the video above, feel free to express it in the comments section to this feature.  We’d love to know just what motivated an action which seemingly can only be described as a vicious direct slap in the face of Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry!

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