By Dave Freneaux
Sheri Morris "is a tribute to the finest tradition of the legal profession". Sheri Morris, in the creation of the City of Central, "guided Northeast Baton Rouge Citizens for Incorporation through a legal maze that might have challenged an entire team of older, more experienced lawyers who knew it couldn't be done." Quotes from Woody Jenkins, Editor, Central City News. Indeed most would agree that Mr. Jenkins has correctly assessed the talent and expertise of Ms. Morris. The question these days seems to be whether Central gets its money's worth from the law firm Ms. Morris works for. It would seem, based on her undefeated record in defending and prosecuting lawsuits for the Central Community and the glowing comments above, that Ms. Morris is eminently qualified and successful.
So now the $665,000 question, a figure that has been referred to no less than seven times in recent weeks to describe the work Ms. Morris has done in the Central Community. First, understand that in this body of work M. Morris has represented not only the City of Central, but the Central Community School Board and the Central Transition District. In all, this represents at least 10 combined years of legal representation involving three major lawsuits. On average, Ms. Morris has represented these Central entities for less than $66,000 per year each.
To give perspective to this cost, CentralSpeaks.com contacted the Louisiana cities of New Iberia, Slidell, and Ruston. The average populations of these cities is 26,288, which is smaller than Central's 27,000+. The budget or actual expense for legal services, per year, in these cities is: Ruston $175,000, Slidell $398,756 and New Iberia $123,810, for an average of $232,522. While no two cities can actually be a completely "apples to apples" comparison, Central's $66,000 annual average, compared to $232,522 per year in similarly sized cities, seems to be quite a bargain for a City Attorney who is, according to Mr. Jenkins, "a tribute to the finest tradition of the legal profession."
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AMEN!!!
Perhaps her fees would have been lower if there were no lawsuits when the incorporation was first begun. From my experience I know that Ms. Morris has worked very hard for Central. I think that its time we looked at the “undistorted” facts.
In the article it states that the average per year was $66,000 “each”. If that is correct then $66,000 times 3 entities would be $198,000.00 average per year not the stated $66,000.00. Not sure which figure is actually correct.
In my opinion, this paper, more importantly, Just the Facts, is like reading the prior weeks version of the Central City News only with Mr. Freneaux’s spin. I also see nothing more than a ridiculous attempt to discredit the editor of the CCN each week. I find much humor in deciding, wich article in the CCN will be targeted in Speaks the following week. Just my opinion.
I actually erred on the conservative side. It is 5.5 years representing the City of Central, 2 years representing the Transition District, and 4 years representing the School System, for a total of about 11.5 years of legal services, and I rounded down and tied half my calculator behind my back, just to be fair. If I use the full 11.5 years the average legal bill per year is more like $58,000, an even better comparison to the $232,000 paid by similarly sized cities in Louisiana…per year. By the way, the legal bills for the school system are consistently higher than the city, averaging $87,000 per year, so the comparison between Central and other cities runs more like $53,000 per year compared to their $232,000. Quite a deal for someone who is “a trinute to the finest tradition of the legal profession” – CCN.
What is this Sheri Morris love fest this week? There is a reason why the council several weeks ago voted to not retain her services. She is currently retained only because they realized there wouldn’t be any type of legal council for the city. It is time for the city to stop messing around and get a full time legal council so this tomfoolery of illegal ordiances, accepting wrong bids, etc will stop happening.
Surely someone recognizes there are some questions here. After Mr Stockstills comments Tuesday night, do you think its in the Cities best interest for Ms Morris to spend hours and hours going through billing records and documents before turning them over and while she is doing this, the legal bills keep piling up ? The public records costs could have been minimal instead they are growing daily due to the way this is being handled. I see what is going on here and I will certainly bring it out when this is over when the papers try to claim outrageous legal bills for a simple public records request. Ms Morris may very well be a great attorney but that doesnt justify that some of her practices are costing this City unneccessarily.
Captain Obvious: I don’t think you have a clue about what you are saying. Read Dave’s article. It’s pretty clear what the cost would be to hire a full time attorney. Think of the cost of an attorney for the 12th largest city in the state, plus benefits and retirement. That would be way more than $58,000.
Plus read the other article about the school board bid..Ms. Morris had nothing to do with that. Read the superintendent’s statements.
To Beth:
Thank Goodness we have Central Speaks. CCN prints opinions and biased articles without printing all the facts and information. That’s not journalism. Central Speaks actually researches information before printing stories and then prints the “facts”. I thank Dave for getting correct info out to the citizens!
Captain Obvious,
It SHOULD be a Sheri Morris love fest this week! OBVIOUSLY, the new council members had no idea what they were doing when they voted not to retain her services, hopefully they will be better prepared next time they try to present something of this magnatude! They should go to her to extent a sincere apology of the unprofessional way that meeting was conducted and beg her to stay. She is a class act who has given this city great representation and advice on numerous occcasions She has also given a lot of her own personal time and brought her family to Central to support numberous events held here. It IS time the council and the CCN stopped messing around with Ms Sheri Morris and we need to pray that she will continue to represent us as she has in the past! OBVIOUSLY, you don’t know all the facts concerning the school board’s acceptance of the bids. OBVIOUSLY, Mr. Jenkins thought very highly of her until recently, I wonder why? Maybe because she wouldn’t bow down to his requests for documents that were not hers to give??
Sometimes Beth it takes a week for the FACTS to be seen. Maybe if Mr. Jenkins would not put his SPIN on his articles they wouldn’t have to be correctly presented. I don’t think that Dave is trying to discredit the editor of the CCN…he is doing a great job of that himself!! Just my opinion.
Dave,
Your explanation is a little misleading. If you compare to the article you are referencing from CCN, only 5 1/2 years of charges are used. You are using man-years to come up with 11 1/2 to cloud the issue. 2005 and 2006 totaled 47K as there were minimal charges as you would expect in the beginning. If you average the last 3 1/2 years to July 2010, you are looking at 176,000 AVERAGE which is a better indicator of steady state services. As you state this is for the school board and City. Lets be fair and deal with just the Facts, which I am very familiar with since I requested and reviewed the records. The way you are phrasing this is very convoluted and is quite a stretch. BTW, 7 months into the year for 2010, its 135,000 already. I will bet that you could hire an attorney on a full time basis for that. Before we get into a debate about the viability of that, I realize and concede there are pros and cons to that so lets not go there and start another needless debate.
Beth,
I guess this too is a matter of perspective. I see an issue presented and see that it is already spinning and simply try to refocus on the facts, and stop the spin. I see “spin” as taking the facts and interpreting them FOR the reader. I feel I should respect Central’s readers enough to let them decide for themselves what the facts mean. Sometimes that means they need to be given the rest of the facts.
Thank you Mike for clearing the figures up. It seems alot of the debates come from comments made by someone placing “clouds” over the actual facts. The city can move forward much easier when the clouds are removed and the sun is able to shine on our great community.
Mike,
If we begin combining Cities and School Boards I will need to go back to Slidell, Ruston & New Iberia School Systems and ADD those legal fees to the $232,000. Would that double the fees to $464,00 a year? I do not know. Your comment “If you average the last 3 1/2 years to July 2010, you are looking at 176,000 AVERAGE which is a better indicator of steady state services.” is fine as long as you then divide that number in half, giving $88,000 as the average for the City and that same for the School Board. Then compare that $88,000 to the $232,000 average of the other cities.
Heck, just throw ALL of the “averages” out and look at last year! City of Central $63,379, Central Community School Board $71,637, average of Slidell, Ruston and New Iberia $232,522 (which I do not claim is too high since we really don’t know what their legal issues are). That should simplify it and eliminate ALL of the playing with numbers. Oddly close to the $66,000 I wrote about.
I think most people see my point. I’m just an average, simple, down to basics kinda guy, not playing with numbers, just showing whats there. We are in the court of public opinion, not a court of law. If we want to start playing what if’s, I can do that too, but most people, like me, only want to know the 2+2 part. That equals 4 except when you start getting into wierd, convulated calculations or chemical equations that people like me dont care about because its not day to day reality. The sooner everyone starts talking average Joe and Mike day to day language, the less problems we will have. Its all the majority of us understand.
I’m not a mathmatical genius, but even I can understand Dave’s calculations…not that difficult, kinda like 2+2=4, divided by 2 equals uh…2. Sounds like pretty basic, day to day stuff to me. Of course these numbers are much larger but they still add and divide the same.
Dee,
You are way smarter than me I guess becuase I have to stretch things to make that add up. We went from an article that showed 5 years of services to 11 1/2 years of services to Slidell, Ruston, New Iberia, Timbuktu, and somewhere along the way, I got lost because my map didnt show all these places ! I never left Central. Thought thats where we were focusing ?
If we are going to somewhat compare Central to City of Ruston and City of Slidell let’s please report the budgets as well. City of Ruston is $61.9M and City of Slidell is approx. $30M +/- compared to the budget of Central which is approx. $4.5M +/-. In comparison to these numbers, Central legal fees are approx 1.4% of the budget as compared to 0.5%-0.67% of Slidell and Ruston.
Oh come on Mike. Let’s not fall back on poking fun in an attempt to laugh off a correct analysis when I know you are fully capable of understanding the numbers.
To all you anyomous posters,
Recently, Dave exposed something that I picked up on a long time ago. We have a few of you posting under many names trying to put forth the false perception that there are many people in Central that support the status quo. Dave noted that there were questionable posts on this site under at least 5 different names that appeared to be from the same person. This explains why I receive so many phone calls, run into many people out in the streets and have many emails supporting efforts to get information about our City, with almost NO negative comments.Positive to negative is at least 100-1. I would be willing to bet we have at least 75% support overall, maybe more, in this effort. Its not very hard to pick up on patterns of words, phrases, subjects, etc to realize that many of these “Jane Smith” to “Nathan” to “Joe Blow” posts all originate from the same person(s). Give it up or if you really believe what you post, use your real name. This is happening on this site and Facebook pages and is really starting to become comical its so obvious. LOL, LOL……….
Mike, ironically, the one I identified and deleted with a half dozen screen names and an unacceptable racial slur was “anti status quo”, to use your terminology. I do not, however, believe the racial slur was indicative of a political position, only pure ignorance, regardless of who they support.
Do all of these cities being compared use the same attorney for all the different departments? I don’t know Sherri Morris and have no specific comment on the fees, but I do support a citizens right to ask questions, about any public official or private official acting in a public capacity. I would like to see the mud slinging end. Even if someone acted inappropriately, illegally or whatever – there’s no need to get in the mud with them. Take action but do so professionaly and with dignity. That’s my approach.
I would argue that having one person do multiple tasks can lead to undesired consequences. Maybe that is what happened here. Maybe, and I’m just brainstorming here, but maybe Sherri Morris just had way too much going on and missed some things she would have otherwise caught. I know when I take too many things on at work I tend to miss some things as well. Delegation may have been the more appropriate discourse. The amount of money probably wouldn’t be as concerning to some if it was paid to say 3 different attorneys.
Not defending or attacking anyone here, just offering a different perspective.
Mike, what exactly are you looking for to use against Sherri Morris? I thought at first your search was to find out about CH2MHill’s charges, inadequate work and the infamous ad but now it has turned around to Sherri Morris. Do you really believe that she or her firm has overcharged us for something or she is hiding some deep dark secrets? Are you truly aware of how long and hard she has fought many battles for this city? And do you have any idea where this city might be today without her? BTW my attorney that represents my business, charges WAY more per hour that she does and he would NEVER put up with the treatment of disrespect she has received lately.
I do understand your frustrations in getting ALL of your requests fulfilled but surely you are smart enough to understand that as someone who is paid to look out after the legal issues of our city she should tend to be cautious. I would want my attorney to be cautious. I believe if Mr. Stockstill represented this city, in the manner that Sherri Morris has, he would use caution in this situation. I’m sure he was very careful during the time he did serve our city. Had you asked for a reasonable amount of paperwork, I (and many others) feel you would have had that request fulfilled, but the amount of paperwork you and Woody have asked for APPEARS to be a “witch hunt”. I know you have defended yourself against that, saying you are only looking for the truth. But again…what “truth” are you looking for? There is a catch phrase circulating these days that “preception is reality” and “witch hunt” is the perception you are showing.
I also think if someone came at you at Exxon and started badgering you about the contracts that you oversee like Ms. Morris has been badgered, you would make sure that everything was in order especially when they contained legal matters. And, more so if you knew that anything you handed out could and probably would be printed in a newspaper and possibly slanted to use against you and your company. You would be cautious!
Not really sure if you were referring to me in your comment about posting under different names but I can assure you there is only one of me on this thread or any others, don’t think anyone could handle more than one of me!! LOL, LOL….
Obviously, I am also very glad that I don’t live in Ruston or Slidell if those are accurate numbers for their budgets. Where ARE they getting all that money, if their population is less than Central and WHAT are they spending it all on??? Now that may be some records worth looking into!
Dee,
What is is called is that their tax dollars are not tied to a consolidated City/Parish Government like Central to East Baton Rouge. Also, those towns have full blown police departments that everyone keeps calling for in Central. Guess what people that takes big time Money. Slidell police is about 7M of their budget. That is more than the whole budget for city of Central. Also, they have a parks and recreation. Once again our money is being stolen from us to provide Baton Rouge with the better Parks while BREC pats their back about one playset at Lovett that isn’t any better than the one in my own back yard. Those cities are taking care of their own sewer. I will admit that I would rather EBR still take care of the sewer as it currently is being done. I wouldn’t want any treatment plants in area but ultimately it might come to that.
What this stops and makes me think of how much of my tax dollars are going out of Central to fund other parts of the Parish?
Dee,
Instead of asking me, why dont you ask some of the citizens on the street, of which I’ll bet at least (0% support this effort.
Once again, somethig that appeared to not be that big a deal has been blown up by the way it has been handled. I’m no private investigator but I learned from raising my kids and business dealings that when somone starts stalling, you probably need to start asking more probing questions. Do I think anything illegal has gone on ? Actually no but my curiousity has been peaked by the way this is going. What was once one trail has now branched into many.
Dave,
Sorry for poking fun. You and I have some very lengthy conversations on many topics, they are fact based and though I dont always agree, we walk away still friends.
But to your point, I’m a little leery comparing City to City unless you just use as a resonablness check and do some further digging. Way too many times over the years our plant has been compared to plants world wide using our standard metrics. But when you see something thats so far out of range that it appears to be an anomoly, you have to dig deeper. Finally has come to a point where we just steward against our baseline to measure many things because we were running ourselves crazy to find out why we were not matching up on some numbers.
Same here and I think Paul made that point. We have no idea how these other cities are running their business, what is paid for out of what revenue, etc. So it comes down to looking at Central and seeing where we can improve which is all I’m after.
Captain Obvious,
There are 2 big areas that are tax dollars are going that I think we need to look at. BREC and the library system. Between the 2, 22% of our property tax is going to EBR and we get very little back. This is going to be another areas I’m going to lobby the council on. I talked to Bodi White and he is willing to help but has to have the council go ahead due to potential litigation. A fight well worth taking on.
Mike, If you, or anyone, will look both at the article in the newspaper and every mention on this site in comments that I have made, any time I mention a comparison with other cities I also state that it is not actually a “true comparison apples-to-apples”, as I do not have the time to invest in the detailed analysis it would take to arrive at a true comparison.
My WHOLE point in all of this has been to point out that the inflamatory sum of $665,000 which appears in print over and over and over seems like a really large sum to the average person, and it is NOT an unreasonable sum for the legal services this community has been receiving.
This is not a matter of me trying to convince the Mayor to “allow” her to stay, this is to point out to all of us that if we are not careful, one of the most involved and talented municipal attorneys in this area is likely to simply not “want” to stay. Call the staff at the Louisiana Municipal Association and ask how good Ms. Morris is. I will take a beating on this thread for this post, but so be it. I always want Central to have a choice, and to have the opportunity to choose the best we can get. The unfortunate reality is that all of us typically don’t know whether what we have is good until we lose it and have to go find something else.
And Mike, thanks for the apology, although it is not necessary. I have gotten somewhat aggressive in these posts as well, and I don’t mean to add to the acrimony. We all need to throttle it back a few notches. Sorry if I have offended.
You know you cant offend me ! I dont mind healthy debate and I shouldnt have made light of your comment. You do look at things at a much deeper level and it does make me go digging to get answers.
well….golly! One thing I can say is Central is a very passionate bunch, either way you look at it!….lol.
Thank you Mayberry for your fancy math, and your apples don’t add up to apples analogy, facts and figures!….lol.
Green acres is the place to be……..
Bebe,
I choose to accept your comment and nickname as humor, and I hope that is how you intended it. Funniest thing is that if you told the people who really know me that I live in a “Mayberry” mentality, they would wonder if you were talking about the same guy. I will roll with the humor as long as it moves us all away from the division. Your history of comments on this site says alot about where you stand, and you obviously care and understand. I hope the Mayor read your comment to him. It was a well stated gesture of reconciliation.
Dave
Dave,
I did not tell people you have a Mayberry mentality, I said that when I want the Mayberry take…I consult with the CS, and when I want the down and dirty realities I consult with the CCN!
yes, I’m just playing Dave, I don’t always agree with you as we both know, but I do like you for some unknown reason and I respect you. I also do not know Woody, but I like him too and I respect his opinion as well. I also appreciate both papers viewpoint and their presented selection of facts each week, I just find the contrast sometimes very humorous, if only to myself….
and I’m glad you liked the letter to the Mayor. I mean what I say, and I say what I mean. I’m glad you appreciated that one anyway..
Did not mean to offend you, it just all strikes me as funny sometimes. Please forgive my humor!
I know each of you are very serious people even though you both always seem to present a different persepctive in the reporting of facts. And as people should realize, as you are both newspapers, you would be sued for printing something as fact that wasn’t. And I say that because I see you have a loyal following here who is always suggesting that facts belong to one person or paper exclusively, but I don’t see that as the truth. Woody prints the facts too, its just this loyal following here doesn’t seem to like his facts!…lol.
There are ‘facts’ in both papers, its just you both choose different facts to print. That is another reason I have to read two papers to get the whole, complete story of whats going on in this town. I personally can think for myself without need of interpretation, but I do appreciate and respect both papers viewpoints, opinions and perspectives.
and again, I’m sorry, if my Mayberry analogy offends you. It was not meant with malicious intent….just humor. Mayberry was an awesome place anyway! I loved Mayberry. It would be nice to live in Mayberry, and hopefully one day we will get there!
Have a great weekend Dave.
Thanks Bebe. And, I have offended enough people in my life that I actually have no right to be easily offended, and I am not. No worries. On the Baton Rouge Little Theater Board I got the nickname “Mr. Sensitivity”, and I am pretty sure it was tongue-in-cheek. I actually HAVE described Central as “Mayberry” to many of my friends who do not live in Louisiana. Christmas Parades, Packed Stands on under Friday Night Lights, social events where you have to find out who is related to who before you say much of anything. I love it.
All of that does not wipe away the reality that being a city is a serious responsibility, dealing with millions of dollars of taxpayers’ money, but it does make the fight worthwhile. At the end of this “season” I look forward to a healthy City with better understandings of all perspectives. I said after the election that it would take 90 days for the polarized ends to meet somewhere in between. I underestimated. But, we will get there. See y’all at the game.
Very Sincerely,
“Mayberry”
lol…well see there, the only thing I am guilty of is reading your ‘vibe’ accurately Mayberry!…LOL.
enjoy your weekend!
Cmon Dave ! You are a sensitive guy ? Now we are talking Cosmopolitan stuff ! LOL