ST. GEORGE - Early voting starts this weekend for the first elected seats for city-council. District 4, the at-large seat, and the mayoral spot are the three with candidates running contested. The city charter is also on the ballot for voters. 

CHARTER
In forming a new city, the town charter and government plan are also on the March ballot. The creators of the document say it is a plan built specifically for St. George, with the intent of giving citizens more control. If the home rule charter passes, the mayor’s job will be a full-time job. The mayor presides over the council and represents the city in intergovernmental relationships, though they don’t vote on city ordinances.

The mayor would work alongside a seven-person council, five from each district and two at-large seats. Then, the council appoints a city manager to manage the day-to-day operations, overseeing contractors and contracts. The city manager also won’t have a vote in the council meetings.

Critics say the charter has a loophole under the “Employee Benefits” section because benefits are not limited to full-time employees. The council, which would be part-time under the home rule charter, can grant compensation and benefits. If council members granted themselves benefits, critics say it could double their salary.

PATTY COOK
While all other district candidates are running unopposed, the District 4 pool has four vying for the job. Patty Cook served as an at-large council member and is currently the District 4 incumbent, one of those initially appointed by Gov. Jeff Landry in May of last year to serve as aldermen until the first election was able to happen. Now, Cook is running for the district seat.

Cook is a substitute teacher at the LSU Lab School. After years of sending her children to East Baton Rouge schools, Cook says her children’s friends were leaving the district for neighboring parishes, and she wasn’t happy with the direction the district was taking. At that point, Cook hosted one of the first meetings to establish a St. George School District in her living room.

“We were very excited, got involved, went to the legislature two years in a row to testify, but we didn’t get our school system,” Cook said. “They said go be a city if you want a school system. That’s what started the first petition drive.”

Fourteen years later, Cook says the intent is still to create a school district and hopefully attract the families she says left East Baton Rouge.

“I just want to see a community built,” Cook said. “Good communities usually have a good school system, and people support those school systems and get involved, and it makes a huge difference.”

Cook says she’s equipped for the job because she’s helped to build the city of St. George from the ground up, and she wants to continue the work she started fourteen years ago.

JUSTIN TURNER
Justin Turner says he’s not a politician but has always felt a pull to serve his community at the local level.

Turner started running a pipeline inspection agency three years ago, performing quality management and auditing. When the proposed salaries for the St. George mayor, city council members, police chief, and city manager became public, Turner immediately opposed the rates.

After hours of debate at a January city council meeting, the full-time mayor’s salary will be $160,000, and the full-time police chief’s salary will be $140,000. The part-time city council salary was approved at $36,000, down from $44,000.

“The dollar amount was initially sticker shock,” Turner said. “We’re essentially going to be paying $160,000 for a mayor that’s mostly ceremonial. They’re job roles and descriptions don’t align with the pay that’s being set for it.”

Turner says he understands that good work can’t be done without compensating qualified people accordingly. As a city council member with a background in managing a business, he’s equipped to run a new city.

“In my line of business, I can’t be on every project,” Turner said, “But I have a set of documents that governs or regulates how they do work, and I have reporting and things in place that ensure they’re doing the work to the standard that I expect.”

SHANNON POWELL
Shannon Powell works with the East Baton Rouge Criminal Justice Coordinating Council. As a case navigator, she works with judges, defendants, and public defenders to help improve efficiency in the justice system. She also has a background as a substitute teacher and has worked with the Department of Children and Family Services.

Powell says she lived in the area long before it officially became the city of St. George. Five years ago, she became a widow and moved to the Shenandoah neighborhood in December 2022. Though as someone who wasn’t involved in the initial living room meetings and signature gathering, she says the information shared hasn’t always been clear.

“So far, what I’ve seen when I look at the St. George development is conflict or disagreements and not really true transparency,” Powell said. “I think if people just explained themselves, there would be better understanding.”

Growing St. George for Powell means supporting schools, and she says schools are ultimately a business that draws in families.

“Schools make a big difference, and people are willing to uproot just to make sure their children are in a good place,” Powell said.

DAVID MADAFFARI
David Madaffari started by volunteering with the transition district, making videos for social media and explaining processes as St. George came into its own. Madaffari, a real estate broker, put his hat in the race after the council debate over salaries, which he said were too high.

Madaffari says St. George is missing engagement, and he wants to get more people involved and aware of what’s happening in the city. He signed the initial petitions when they came out, motivated by the creation of a new school district.

“The idea of running a city better, my father and I talked about that my whole life,” Madaffari said. “The idea of St. George, because they wouldn’t give us a school district, creating a new city. This is a historic movement and I’m a history nerd.”

Fourteen years later, Madaffari says creating a school district is still the central focus for him, especially as a means to attract people to move to St. George from neighboring parishes. Madaffari compared St. George to the City of Central, whose founders also sought to create a school district.

Leading up to the Supreme Court case, Madaffari made videos shedding light on what was happening.

“Why are they fighting us so much, but they never fought Central?” Madaffari said. “If you create your own school district, that money stays here, which again, created the message of local control over tax dollars.”