By JIM BUTLER
The draft agenda for Thursday’s England Authority monthly meeting indicates discussion regarding a family deportation staging center may not be over. Two items specifically relate to the center and a third might.
Details regarding the center have been part of the continuing public controversy regarding it as well as apparent friction between some Authority commissioners and some commissioners and staff.
One draft item as of Monday afternoon is discussion of the Intergovernmental Service Agreement regarding the center and/or Cooperative Endeavor Agreements regarding it.
Also on the table:
A discussion of whom the operators and subcontractors of the center are and/or will be, who will be handling day-to-day operations, receiving a presentation from any of those, and any action related to these items.
Another agenda posting is a motion to compel Executive Director Ralph Hennessy to release the ISA between Department of Homeland Security, Immigration Customs Enforcement and England providing the center.
Preceding these items is an executive session “to discuss prospective litigation involving public records requests.”
The nature of those or whether any written demands involving litigation have been made is not
specified.
Such correspondence itself has been ruled public record in Louisiana.
It has previously been asserted that requests for some documents related to the center have been denied, citing agreements with DHS and/or ICE.
The state’s public records law includes specific exceptions. Any record, document, correspondence, etc. not specifically exempted by statute is considered public in Louisiana.