On February 20, 2025, the St. Bernard Chamber took to Facebook to announce that St. Bernard’s very own John Lane had been declared Citizen of the Year. In case you missed it, take a look for yourself.
Imagine being so out of touch with reality that after everything that has gone on in the last year you would name John Lane as Citizen of the Year for his “ongoing commitment to making St. Bernard a better place for everyone.”
Let’s take a look back at 2024 to see Lane’s accomplishments that earned him citizens of the year.
Accomplishment #1:
Lane was accused of hosting his son’s wedding for free at the Parish’s historic courthouse.
As reported by Fox 8 New Orleans: “An investigation found that taxpayers footed the bill for the wedding reception, which included facility rental, tables, chairs, clean-up costs, security, and even the bar serving Bud Light, vodka, amaretto, gin, bourbon and wine for 100 guests.” Days after Fox 8 New Orleans requested the documents noted in their investigation, the Parish sent Lane an invoice and the next day Lane is reported to have paid nearly $4,000 to the Parish for the rental. This report prompted many people to begin asking whether Lane’s actions were illegal and whether Lane would face any consequences. Fox 8 New Orleans asked a legal expert for this opinion. Take a look at one legal expert’s response:
This is just an obvious and clear conflict of interest. It’s really so blatant. My guess is, this is probably not the first time this kind of thing has happened. It’s somebody who’s in charge of a facility and then is renting it out to themselves for free. I mean, it’s obvious it’s both a conflict of interest and it’s stealing. He’s stealing money from the government. These are public facilities that receive funds that support public functions.
Joel Friedman, Professor of Law, Tulane University. As reported by Fox 8 New Orleans in an investigation by Lee Zurik posted May 1, 2024
See the full article dated May 1, 2024 by Lee Zurik for Fox 8 New Orleans for a full explanation on this investigation.
So what was Lane’s accomplishment?
Apparently, not being held responsible!
Accomplishment #2:
Lane receives highest payout for emergency pay for the January ’25 snowstorm
Late last year, on October 15, 2024, the Council passed Summary 4217 that provided for triple pay for essential personnel working during an emergency. We can all agree that the men and women doing the hard work during emergencies deserve every penny and more. But it should come as no surprise that that’s not how things turned out. It’s the people pushing paper in a safe and comfortable office who already have hefty salaries that reap nearly all of the benefits of this emergency pay scale.
Lane, already one of the highest paid employees in Parish government, received an additional $9,155,07 in emergency pay for the January 2025 snowstorm. This was the highest amount, by far, of any Parish employee who received emergency pay related to the snowstorm. Let’s take a look at who got paid for this emergency.
What does Lane do for Parish Government? According to the Parish’s website, Lane is the Coastal Manager.
Someone is going to have to explain how the “Coastal Manager” constitutes essential personnel for a snowstorm.
It is really difficult to understand how the duties of the “Coastal Manager” were of any legitimate use during a snowstorm. How much management could the coast have possibly needed during the snow storm?
So what was Lane’s accomplishment?
Apparently, receiving an extra $9,155,07 for managing the coast during a snow storm!
Does Lane deserve to be named Citizen of the Year?
I guess it depends on how you look at things. Pomes and Bourgeois violated the terms of the Buy and Build Program, not once, but twice. The consequences of these violations required that Pomes and Bourgeois give back their properties to the Parish. But as we now know, neither Pomes nor Bourgeois complied with that requirement either. Just in case you missed that one, please take a look at our recent article: Council voted to forfeit $3.3 million to protect Pomes and Bourgeois.
Lane at least reportedly paid the Parish back. So in comparison to Pomes and Bourgeois, Lane’s repayment does deserve some acknowledgement and apparently that is enough of a reason to name him Citizen of the Year!
In all seriousness though, the fact that Lane did not have to bear any meaningful consequences for his actions should shock the public. How could the Parish President, Louis Pomes, not take any action to impose meaningful consequences on Lane? I guess we will never really know. According to Fox 8: “Newly elected parish president Louis Pomes agreed to an interview with Fox 8 but canceled the day before, declining to comment on potential litigation arising from the incident or related audits.”
But Pomes isn’t the only one who should have taken action. How could council members Cusimano, Moran, Meyer, Randall, Mones, and McCloskey not take any action either to impose meaningful consequences on Lane? The public is owed a direct explanation, but it is unlikely that we will ever get one.
Now that we know that Pomes and Bourgeois violated the terms of the Buy and Build Program, at least twice, we can start to have a pretty good idea why: Pomes and Bourgeois couldn’t come down hard on others because they didn’t want anyone to come down hard on either one of them. And guess what? No one except Everhardt did!
What can we expect from the President and Council going forward? Based on the last 14 months, we can expect the President and the Council (except Everhardt) to stick their heads in the sand as long as they can, and when they can no longer get away with that, we can expect the President and Council (except Everhardt) to just kick the can down the road for as long as they can.
Let’s connect a few more dots and tie this whole thing into the Port of New Orleans!
How did Lane get nominated and then named Citizen of the Year? We have some suspicions and it all goes back to the Port of New Orleans.
Lane was named Citizen of the Year by the Chamber of Commerce. Who supports the Chamber of Commerce? Let’s take a look.
The Port of New Orleans, the St. Bernard Economic Development Foundation, an outspoken proponent of and for the Port of New Orleans, and St. Bernard Parish Government are all major supporters of the Chamber of Commerce.
Who supports the St. Bernard Economic Development Foundation? Let’s take a look.
The St. Bernard Economic Development Foundation’s major supporters are the Port of New Orleans, St. Bernard Chamber of Commerce, and St. Bernard Parish Government.
Let’s connect some dots here: The Port of New Orleans supports the St. Bernard Chamber of Commerce. The Port of New Orleans supports the St. Bernard Economic Development Foundation. St. Bernard Parish Government supports the St. Bernard Chamber of Commerce. St. Bernard Parish Government supports the St. Bernard Economic Development Foundation. The St. Bernard Economic Development Foundation supports the St. Bernard Chamber of Commerce. The St. Bernard Chamber of Commerce supports the Economic Development Foundation.
A pattern of a circular support system emerges here.
So would it be fair to connect the dots and conclude that one of Lane’s real supporters is the Port of New Orleans and the other is St. Bernard Parish Government? That seems to be how the levers of power work. Almost anyone else would have been fired for doing what Lane did. But instead, Lane is recognized as Citizen of the Year by organizations supported by local government and a local branch of the State.
Why? One has to at least wonder if it is because Lane has never bucked any of the Chamber’s supporters – most importantly the Port of New Orleans.
