CHALMETTE, La. (WGNO) – St. Bernard Parish President Dave Peralta greeted reporters Friday morning.
“Hey, fellas. Nice to see you all here. Take care!” said Peralta, waving as he left chambers after the emergency meeting he wanted to hold was canceled for lack of quorum. Four council members are needed to proceed, and only three showed up.
Peralta’s plan was to ask for money to hire an outside lawyer to continue the legal battle he’s having with the council, over a contract with the Jefferson Parish-based information technology firm, ParaTech.
It’s a contract that Councilman Casey Hunnicutt says is fraught with controversy.
“The owners of ParaTech were the largest campaign donors to Mr. Peralta’s parish campaign. When we got in office the IT contractor and the staff were fired, they were brought in. We believed it was a sweetheart deal when it was done,” says Hunnicutt.
On Wednesday, the council voted to end the contract with ParaTech, saying that’s in the best interest of St. Bernard Parish citizens.
“ParaTech is under investigation for tampering with our server. He has then been put in charge of our server. Hello? That’s a red flag. It’s our job as a council to protect the citizens’ data and information on that server,” says Lewis.
Councilman Ray Lauga added, “All we’re saying is that you can go get any other IT contractor out there for right now other than the ones that are being investigated.”
Peralta wants a judge to decide who is in charge of contracts after four meetings this week were filled with votes, a veto, and demands that were overruled.
At one point, Peralta even declared a state of emergency, saying that the internet and telephone systems provided by ParaTech are critical to the day-to-day operations of every department of parish government.
Councilman Lewis downplays that argument, saying, “Look, our telephones weren’t going off, our fire department wasn’t shutting down, our water systems weren’t gonna shut down. We knew that.”