Reducing Crime, Election Integrity, Property Taxes, and Good Government were key issues differing Charles Marsala and Stephanie Hilferty, the two candidates for District #94 State Representative, at the Alliance for Good Government Forum.

Charles Marsala is a New Orleans native, who lived in Jefferson Parish 15 years before heading to Silicon Valley in California after graduating Tulane in Mechanical Engineering.  He became Mayor of Atherton and was awarded the California League of Cities Leadership Award in 2009. Currently he produces a TV show on Louisiana Tourism, Coastal Restoration, and History called “Celebrating Culture” which has received three regional Emmy Nominations. He has been the President of the American-Italian Federation of the Southeast since 2019.

Marsala lives in West End. Recently he was credited with working with the media to have New Orleans S&WB fix and stop the 500,000 gallons of fresh water that was flowing daily into West End Lakeshore Park since Hurricane Katrina, to have Jefferson Parish trim the oak trees, and have the MYHMC remove the debris and old marina concrete pilings sitting in the parking lot.

Marsala presented that his next goals are to have the state repair the retention wall and obtain federal grants to convert the road along the lake into a bike path. His comments were that the state is preventing the restoration of West End Lakeshore Park by not using the FEMA funds to do the needed repairs. As representative he would author a bill to authorize the FEMA expenditure before it expires.

As state representative, he would adhere to the original terms 1906 of the state lease to New Orleans to use the land as a “Public Park or Amusement Park.” He would repeal Act 152, which was passed in 2019 by representative Stephanie Hilferty to convert four acres of West End Lakeshore Park to the highest revenue producing with options including: residences, bars, video poker, commercial, and other means.

Recently New Orleans Council Member Joseph Giarrusso has proposed banning all non-boathouse residences in the Marina Area. The Planning Commission is evaluating if that proposal would violate the city’s Future Land Use Master Plan.

Giarrusso’s web site states: “He’s worked with State, Orleans, and Jefferson Parish officials to redevelop West End into a major new attraction and a source of economic activity.” As of today, the prime 4-acres is still fenced off with a “No Trespassing” sign attached to the fence blocking the public from using that part of West End Lakeshore Park, which has approximately 200 pelicans and spectacular sunsets. .

Marsala presented that if implemented, Hilferty’s 2019 West End development bill would bring crime to the entire district and cited the recent 4:30am shootings at the corner of Veterans and Fleur de Lesi by high powered rifles as to the future of the area.  The logic being that if Giarrusso’s “Major New Attraction” becomes a “Burbon Street West” in the West End neighborhood, traffic will flow through Lakeview, Lakeshore, and Bucktown neighborhoods to reach the West End bars.

In recent months cars, boats, and even the wheels on parked cars have been stolen in West End. A handgun was recently found on the bricks surrounding a flower garden across from the proposed bar site. The Hayride has been reporting an increase in crime in West End.

Marsala’s opening statement was on policies that that Alliance for Good Government could advocate to improve government transparency in Louisiana. His suggestions included changing Louisiana State Law to require local governments to have Public Comments for “Items not on the Agenda” on the agenda of government agency meetings. To eliminate loopholes that allow local governments not to produce Public Records Requests. To require government agencies to make available to the public contracts that spend the public’s money. And to require government agencies to post videos of their meetings.

Recently the Municipal Yacht Harbor Management Corporation voted to spend approximately $500,000.00 of reserves from homeowner dues with HR&A Advisors and will not make the contract public by claiming attorney-client privilege.  HR&A Advisors is headed by a former Deputy Mayor to Mitch Landrieu.

Marsala suggested that Louisiana Property Tax increases be capped at 1% annually by State Law. He noted that this law had worked well in California since the 1970s and allowed seniors to keep their homes without having large increases in property taxes.

In person voting versus Mail-in Ballot Harvesting was a key differing opinion between the candidates. Although Marsala has been back in Louisiana for 10 years, he was still sent a ballot to vote in the California 2020 Presidential election. The Pew Institute has reported that approximately 12% of the names on voter rolls across the national are invalid and should be removed.

Recently the Louisiana Secretary of State agreed that 25,000 names on the New Orleans voter roster were invalid. In Los Angeles 1.5 million inactive voters were recently purged from its voter database. Marsala believes that Louisiana’s in-person voting system is better that the mail-in voting other states adopted in the 2020 election.

Without a national review of voter databases for inactive voters receiving ballots by mail, Marsala has questioned the 2020 election results and those of future national elections. At the forum, Hilferty stated that she unequivocally accepted the 2020 election results.

The current Louisiana Statewide election timeframe has been changed to protect the incumbents. Filing was pushed back from July to August and the election pushed up from November to October. The shorter time frame for the campaign favors the incumbents. More than 40% of the incumbents in the Louisiana Legislature are running unopposed. Marsala stated he favored returning the campaign from July to November.

Marsala closed the forum by stating Coastal Restoration, Unfunded Pension Liabilities, and the Dead Zone in the Gulf of Mexico were other issues impacting New Orleans and Jefferson Parishes that needed to be addressed. He added that that he had videos on these topics on his YouTube channel AWE News.