While the mayor says she is not fighting St. George’s incorporation, her administration claims there remain unresolved issues surrounding the governance of the new city, calling into question the recent work of city leaders.

On Tuesday, East Baton Rouge Parish Mayor and President Sharon Weston Broome sent a letter to St. George Mayor Dustin Yates and St. George Transition District Chairman Andrew Murrell.

In the letter, Broome outlined several concerns about the work of the St. George’s Transition District that she said require “urgent attention.”

The first major problem identified was the lack of agreement on the founding date of the city of St. George, which is relevant for numerous reasons.

Yates and Murrell both said Tuesday that they consider Oct. 12, 2019 – the day the city was certified by referendum – to be the date of St. George’s founding.

For city and parish officials, this date brings with it a number of problems.

Broome pointed out that under the 2020 state law governing the taxation process for the St. George Transition District, the district can only exist for 12 months after the city’s incorporation date.

“If incorporation occurs in 2019, the interim district’s authority, including the authority to levy a tax, will expire in 2020,” Broome wrote in response to questions from the Advocate on Friday. “In our view, an incorporation date in 2019 is the worst possible date for the residents of St. George, as St. George would then have no tax revenue for 4 years.”

Murrell is the acting speaker for St George’s and although he did not respond to multiple requests for comment for this article, earlier this week he spoke out strongly against any date other than October 12, 2019.

“We won a case. The case they filed was dragged out over a long period of time. But we won. Why not reset (the founding date) to 2019? What is the reason for a winning party to lose?” Murrell said Tuesday.

Broome said the municipality is not prepared to agree to the 2019 incorporation date requested by St. George’s officials. Jan. 1, 2025 would be a more appropriate date, the mayor said, although she is also prepared to agree to July 1, 2024, as part of an agreement.

In Tuesday’s letter, Broome said the municipality had not received notification of a resolution from St. George to raise taxes. On Friday, Broome said that had not changed.

“The municipality has not received any communications from the city of St. George or the transition district,” she said.

St. George’s officials plan to put a 2 percent sales tax on the ballot in December. If passed, the tax would provide the city with revenue from the municipality, but it is unclear when the measure would go into effect.

Since 2019, the parish has been providing services to the area of ​​the city of St. George, such as emergency services and road maintenance.

The transitional district will be responsible for deciding which services the city parish will continue to provide for St. George and which services St. George will take over itself.

In order for the municipality to distribute these tax revenues, St. George must pay for services provided by the municipality over the previous five years, Broome said.

“The municipality has been the sole provider of services from 2019 to present and should be compensated for those services,” Broome said Friday. “It is unreasonable to propose that the municipality distribute tax revenue without being compensated for the services provided over the past five years.”

On Tuesday, the St. George Parish Council approved a budget for the remainder of 2024. It allocated $8 million for city-parish services under an intergovernmental agreement, but the council did not specify the services requested or break down the costs of any services that would increase the total.

This makes it difficult for the municipality to conduct a cost analysis, Broome said.

“Without an intergovernmental agreement that specifically defines the services and the period over which they will be provided, the municipality is unable to readily quantify the value of the services to be provided,” she wrote.

As of Friday, St. George’s officials had still not told the municipality what services it would need.

Another reservation raised by the mayor is a possible violation of Louisiana’s public gathering law by the St. George Transition District.

By law, bodies such as the Transitional District are required to give at least 24 hours’ notice of their meetings, specifying the date, time, place and agenda, both in person at the meeting location and on the public body’s website.

Publishing it on a Facebook page was not sufficient, the mayor’s administration said.

The interim district reportedly failed to properly announce meetings before July 10, Broome officials said. City leaders also failed to give the required 20 to 60 days’ notice for a June 27 meeting, which included calling a special election in December to levy a 2 percent sales tax.

Any action taken at a public meeting that does not comply with the legal requirements for public meetings could later be declared void if someone files a lawsuit.

While some St. Georgia residents, such as Murrell, believe the mayor’s letter is a divisive attempt to disrupt the new city’s governance, Broome denies this.

Both in her letter and again on Friday, the mayor said she was sharing their concerns only in the hope of facilitating a smooth transition period for St. George as the country continues to build its government.

“Nothing I do as mayor and president of the Parish of East Baton Rouge is born out of discord. Everything I do is for the greater good of the City of Baton Rouge and the Parish of East Baton Rouge,” Broome said.

And while some were bothered by the letter, she said her intention was simply to communicate that the municipality needs more information from St. George’s leaders to move forward.

“The letter was not a threat, nor was it intended as such. It was written in response to their request to address various matters in writing,” Broome said. “We believe that by creating a list of issues, we can more effectively negotiate a constructive solution to this transition.”

Although Broome and her government disagree with the state Supreme Court’s decision regarding St. George, “we are bound by it,” she said, and intend to respect it.

“We need to resolve the issues that have arisen in accordance with the bylaws that govern the operations of the municipality and the transition district,” Broome said. “Our meetings have been very productive and I am confident that we will find a solution that is positive for everyone.”