ST. MARY PARISH — Morgan City residents filled the municipal auditorium Tuesday night, seeking answers after the St. Mary Parish Council voted to remove the drainage board that had long overseen operations in the area. The decision also prompted Morgan City Mayor Lee Dragna to announce the city’s withdrawal from its Cooperative Endeavor Agreement (CEA) with the parish.
“What is the benefit of the Parish taking over the city of Morgan City when not much has been done for the unincorporated area that the Parish is already in charge of?” one attendee asked during the public meeting.
City officials fielded a steady stream of pointed questions, many of them focused on how storm response would be handled moving forward. Under the now-canceled agreement, the city had been responsible for day-to-day operations such as pumping water and cutting grass in drainage ditches. Dragna told residents the city would continue to pump water but emphasized that the cost will be handled differently now.
“Like I told you before and I told everybody before, we are going to pump the water no matter what. But it still cost the same amount of money, whoever’s pocket it’s coming out of,” he said.
Some residents pushed back, questioning why the mayor made the decision unilaterally and asking for a more democratic process.
“If you feel strongly that everybody feels this way, that we should get out of this agreement, why don’t you put it on an agenda, let the council vote on it… versus you going on your own and not letting people have a say?” one speaker asked.“Tell me what the difference is if we stay in it or if we don’t stay in it? We just told you that we are never gonna let the people flood,” Dragna replied.
Mayor Dragna said the decision was formally communicated during a meeting Monday with Parish President Sam Jones, Chief Administrative Officer Paul Governale, and the city’s public works director. “We just told him, in the CEA you have there's a 45 day exit clause and we’re enacting the 45 day exit clause. Not saying we won’t pump, we not gonna let people flood, but the city is not going to pay something they say they can do on their own.”
With the board now dissolved, Governale has assumed control of drainage operations in the Morgan City area. “I’m hoping in about 6 weeks we’ll have a new board… the decisions we make will be in the best interests of the taxpayers—the people who actually pay the money to run the district,” he said.
Still, the lack of specifics left many in the room uneasy, particularly given the uncertainty around storm readiness.
“You explained a lot of stuff up here and that’s fine, but I wanna know what we’re gonna do if next week we got a hurricane coming and we got the same situation that we had in September of last year?” one resident asked.
“In the case of a hurricane, I’m being told that through GOHSEP, National Guard, FEMA—we could probably get some pumps loaned,” Governale said.
Tensions over the parish’s takeover have also been fueled by the absence of city representation on the new temporary structure. “There was alway, for as long as I can remember, always somebody from the city, so there was a Liaison on the board, not the parish government, so you don't have to really deal with the parish government, you just deal with the board now you have nobody, so the city don’t know what’s going on,” he said.
Tuesday’s meeting, called by the mayor in response to the parish council’s vote, offered no concrete solutions—but it did provide residents with a forum to voice their concerns. As hurricane season approaches, many in Morgan City are watching closely—and waiting for clarity.
