I had initially planned this week, in advance of Saturday’s runoff in the mayoral election here in Baton Rouge, to focus on the fiscal mismanagement of the St. George incorporation and the utter and complete failure to combat crime as the two most compelling reasons why Sharon Broome cannot be allowed to have a third term if Louisiana’s capital city is to have a future. But a couple of people I talked to absolutely insisted that I revisit the utter catastrophe that was Broome’s attempted end run around the voters and their elected representatives to install a $40 million annual tax under false pretenses.

Do you remember the stormwater fee debacle?

If this one slipped your mind, here’s a refresher: back in October of 2022, Broome and her administration went to the Baton Rouge Metro Council with a proposal for a stormwater utility fee to be assessed to the people of Baton Rouge. It was to raise some $40 million per year, which is a hell of a lot of money for a city-parish of 420,000 people.

Pressed for details on what this fee would cover, Broome and her people claimed that it had to do with drawing down federal money and complying with mandates from the Environmental Protection Agency – but they couldn’t say much more than that, because the feds had forced them to sign non-disclosure agreements.

The federal government says Baton Rouge needs to fix its stormwater system immediately or they’re stepping in.

Now a proposal was presented by Mayor-President Sharon Weston Broome’s Office last week for a Stormwater Utility Fee.

For years Baton Rouge has been failing its audits with the EPA and LDEQ regarding stormwater runoff and the Clean Water Act.

Now city-parish officials are in a situation where federal enforcement action is imminent.

And federal officials want to keep the negotiations tight-lipped, while pressure is mounting to impose this fee.

“It’s something that has to be done. We don’t have a lot of alternatives,” said Mayor-President Broome at a news conference on Oct. 6.

The stormwater utility fee proposal by the mayor’s office is for all property owners, including businesses and industry as well. The goal is to help fund long-term drainage and water quality maintenance strategies.

The monthly rate is expected to be $1.36 cents per billing unit. It will be calculated by the square footage of impervious surfaces, and the first fee will be on your 2023 tax bill.

“There is no one time and you’re done situation. It’s an ongoing work, an ongoing effort,” said Kelvin Hill, EBR’s Assistant Chief Administrative Officer.

We’re told the city parish is under the threat of a federal consent decree. And this proposed fee is a chance to keep stormwater management in local control.

“With the federal consent decree, the federal government would come in, they would tell you what kind of plan you have to implement. They would tell you pretty much how much money you’d have to borrow to implement that plan. The federal government would be in charge, and we would just be following orders under a federal consent decree,” said Metro Councilwoman Laurie Adams, District 11.

Back in the late 1990′s, the federal government had to take control of the parish’s sewer system, resulting in fee increases for residents since the early 2000′s.

It’s something city-parish officials are trying to avoid this time around.

“Look at the history of what is taking place. And I think that kind of gives us a snapshot of the potential of what we may be facing,” said Mayor-President Broome.

WAFB has confirmed that everyone in the administration involved in the negotiations with the DOJ and the EPA, has had to sign a non-disclosure agreement.

That sounded strange, so the Republicans on the Metro Council started doing research. So did Congressman Garret Graves. Graves actually sent a letter to the EPA and the Department of Justice asking them what in the hell was going on…

“Recent reports indicate that EPA and DOJ officials are requiring Baton Rouge officials to sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) prior to being briefed on the stormwater management negotiations. The City-Parish of Baton Rouge has indicated that a new tax on all properties in the city will be imposed as a result of these confidential negotiations. Effectively, the federal government is forcing the City-Parish of Baton Rouge to impose tens of millions of dollars in new, annual taxes – which amounts to nearly half a billion dollars over ten years – without any transparency. The parties involved in these negotiations are all public entities. There are no intellectual properties, trade secrets, proprietary information, or other confidential data at risk – only public agencies. The use of an NDA in this situation appears highly inappropriate and continues to block the public from key information needed to make an informed decision on the imposition of tens of millions of dollars in new taxes being forced upon our community by the federal agencies.”

And what came back after that letter from the feds was, essentially, “we have no idea what you’re talking about.”

There was no NDA preventing Broome from outlining what the stormwater utility fee was for. Broome was flat-out lying about the NDA’s and attempting to pass a $40 million tax increase on the people of Baton Rouge on the basis of fraud.

And yes, this blew up in her face.

Laurie Adams, the Metro Council member who had sounded the alarm about the stormwater fee’s necessity, did a complete 180 when she realized what a scam this was…

“I am frustrated, angry, and disappointed,” said Councilwoman Laurie Adams. “I was led to believe that the EPA/DOJ was requiring our local officials to sign an NDA preventing Parish officials from making any comments regarding a potential enforcement action against us for being out of compliance with the Clean Water Act and MS4 permitting. I spoke with several EPA officials in Baltimore this weekend and I now realize they must have thought I was crazy questioning them about the use of NDAs in a federal enforcement action placing local council members in a terrible position to make decisions in the best interest of our community and constituents. I will be voting NO on this proposal.”

So Broome ended up making a scapegoat of Kelvin Hill, the assistant CEO in her office who’d been the point man on the stormwater fee grab. Hill was the one who spread the lie about the feds forcing an NDA on the city-parish officials.

We could take you further into the weeds on this, but it isn’t necessary. All you need to remember about this debacle is that Baton Rouge has a mayor-president who thought it was OK to send her minions out to push a massive tax increase on the public not through a referendum but through a fee to be imposed by the Metro Council and they jacked up the Metro Council members by saying the feds were forcing this fee down their throats and they couldn’t discuss the details because of an NDA that didn’t exist.

You really can’t get any more dishonest as a public official than this. It’s a level of contempt for the taxpaying public which ought to blow your mind – and then make you chomp at the bit to get to the polls on Saturday and vote this lying nincompoop straight out of her job.

At the time this all blew up, J.R. Ball, writing at the Baton Rouge Business Report, said that “Sharon Weston Broome is done as mayor of Baton Rouge.” Ball said she couldn’t possibly recover from so blatant a breach of the public’s trust.

So far, he’s been wrong. On Saturday, if you’re a registered voter in East Baton Rouge Parish you’ve got a chance to rectify that. I suggest you join me in doing so.