Lawyer for new city of St. George talks about Supreme Court decision OKing incorporation

Bonnie Bolden
·2 min read

BATON ROUGE, La. (BRPROUD) – A Louisiana Supreme Court decision released on Friday, April 26, will allow the city of St. George to incorporate.

They found that legal error led to lower courts denying the incorporation, and the lower court’s judgment was reversed. The city’s incorporators and electors won the judgment requested.

The justices said the record doesn’t support the supposition that the city can’t support its necessary services. They also challenged the idea that a city-parish council member could contest the incorporation without living in St. George.

J. Andrew Murrell, the attorney who represented the incorporators, is holding a news conference to discuss the opinion and what it means for residents. Watch the video live in the player above.

Louisiana Supreme Court: St. George can incorporate into new city, taxes can support services

Murrell said, “we’re ready to move forward, we’ve had a goal the entire time, two goals, create a world class city that everyone can be proud of that’s accountable to its citizens, and second, make a better East Baton Rouge Parish. A parish that’s on the decline with a high crime rate, a poor education system and people leaving in record numbers to go to other parishes who are benefitting from those citizens. We had two goals, better city, better parish, and now we move forward in that process.”

He said that a better city “is the opportunity to build a city from scratch.”

“We are open for everyone. If you want more opportunity, you want a better life, you want a chance for lower crime, St. George. I don’t care what you look like. No one does. No one ever did. That’s a narrative that was created as a smokescreen to rally people to a cause. It’s never been true,” Murrell said.

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In regards to a plan of government, “the model works by privatizing as many services as you can to deliver better services, more efficient services at a better cost. It’s eliminating overhead that’s unnecessary,” said Murrell.

He was asked about the criticism that the decision was based on racial or financial lines.

“Well, every judge so far, even the ones that ruled against us, said that was not true,” said Murrell.

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