Mayor-President Sharon Weston Broome speaks in a press conference Friday afternoon in response to the Louisiana Supreme Court’s ruling in favor of the controversial proposed City of St. George at City Hall on April 26, 2024. Although the mayor-president says she is not fighting St.
George's incorporation, her administration claims unresolved issues remain surrounding the new city's governance, calling into question recent work done by its leaders. On Tuesday, East Baton Rouge Parish Mayor-President Sharon Weston Broome sent a letter to St. George Mayor Dustin Yates and St.
George Transition District Chairman Andrew Murrell. In the letter, several concerns about the work of St. George's Transition District that she said are in need of "urgent attention.
" The first major concern cited was a lack of agreement on the incorporation date of the city of St. George, which is relevant for numerous reasons. Yates and Murrell both said Tuesday that they believe Oct.
12, 2019 — the day the city was approved via a ballot initiative — is the date of St. George's incorporation. For city-parish officials, that date creates a handful of problems.
Broome pointed out that according to the outlining the taxing procedure for the St. George Transition District, the district can exist for only 12 months following the city's incorporation date. "If incorporated in 2019, the authority of the transition district, including the authority to levy a tax, expired in 2020," Broome wrote in responses .