COVINGTON, La. — St. Tammany Parish President Mike Cooper slammed the parish’s council after a Monday night meeting over the quality of water in the Cross Gates subdivision.
At the meeting of the parish’s utility work group, which Cooper did not attend, residents complained about health issues that they believe stem from a sewer line break a year ago. A couple of council members joined the fray, with comments taking the administration to task for its absence.
“It’s a crying shame that we have no one, no one from this administration,” said Mike Lorino, who represents District 4.
“It’s a disgrace. It is cowardly. It is hiding because you don’t’ want to hear it,” said District 12 councilman Jerry Binder, referring to the absence of Cooper.
By Wednesday, Cooper was firing back with a lengthy retort in which he blamed the council for taking political advantage of the 2021 sewerage break.
“You have demoralized a department of hard-working people by publicly humiliating them. You have insulted them as a group and by name. You have made Parish Government vulnerable for both slander and libel suits from these employees."
Some residents of Cross Gates, who are suffering from skin rashes and other ailments, blame the sewerage break and they believe the raw sewerage cross contaminated the drinking water supply. That is something Cooper vehemently denies.
“There was no cross contamination into our water system,” said President Cooper in his statement. “This is not an opinion, but a proven fact with more than 280 tests to prove it.
“Instead of informing these people of the truth so that they may seek medical attention and look for the correct cause of their illnesses, you are using them for your own political motives. How can you not care about the health and well-being of these people? I want them to get the attention and answers they need. You want political power.”
Cooper said his administration had a third party consultant check the Cross Gates system. Cooper admits that the consultant made nearly three dozen recommendations but that he found no violations.
He also said that the parish will be doing a chlorine burn that was recommended, but Cooper said that it was not needed and being done merely to instill public trust, at a cost of $150,000.
Finally Cooper said that he wasn’t invited to Monday's meeting and wouldn’t have wanted to “subject any of my employees to the type of public humiliation the council, in particular, Mr. Binder, has directed at them in the past.”