Аарон Франсис Брауссар: Саяси мансабы мен «Катрина» дауылдары кезіндегі әрекеттері

American politician (b.1949)

Aaron Francis Broussard (born January 6, 1949) is a former American politician who served as the president, a combined municipal parish position, of Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, from 2003 to 2010. A Democrat, Broussard became known nationally for appearances he made in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

Broussard was born in Marksville, the seat of Avoyelles Parish in south central Louisiana. He moved to Kenner, a city in Jefferson Parish, in 1958. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of New Orleans and a Juris Doctor degree from Loyola University New Orleans in 1973.

Many Jefferson Parish residents joined in a class action lawsuit against Broussard after he followed a years old "doomsday plan" in the wake of Hurricane Katrina and evacuated more than 200 drainage pump operators north to Washington Parish. The pumps remained off for more than two days and sections of the parish, including Metairie and Kenner, experienced severe flooding as a result of rain water, backflow from Lake Pontchartrain and flood waters from the broken 17th Street Canal. Broussard defended his actions, saying that he wanted to protect the pump operators' lives, even though some pump operators were willing to stay. Other public officials, such as police and fire departments, did not evacuate. Water department workers also stayed.

Subsequent news reports identified the son in the story as Tom Rodrigue, Jefferson Parish's emergency services director. Rodrigue's 92 year old mother, Eva, lived in the St. Rita's nursing home. It appears from a CNN interview with Rodrigue that he made phone calls to the nursing home on Saturday, August 27, 2005, and on Sunday, August 28, 2005, and urged that the home be evacuated. That evacuation did not take place, and at least 30 residents of the nursing home drowned on Monday, August 29, 2005. A September 19, 2005, MSNBC story quotes Rodrigue as saying, in response to being told about Broussard's statements on Meet the Press, "No, no, that's not true." A Broussard spokesperson described Broussard's statements about Rodrigue's mother on Meet the Press as "a misunderstanding."

On May 2, 2007, Allen Leone, a Republican businessman, announced that he was entering the race to challenge Broussard for president of Jefferson Parish. Broussard won re election narrowly with 52 percent of the vote over Leone. The East Bank of Jefferson went for Leone while Broussard carried the West Bank. At the Alliance for Good Government forum Broussard refused to say he would stop taking money from Parish contractors. The alliance instead endorsed Leone but it was not enough to carry him to victory. Broussard resigned his position on January 8, 2010, in the face of a grand jury investigation of his staff.

On September 24, 2012, Broussard pleaded guilty in federal court to two felony counts based on payroll fraud involving his ex wife. On February 15, 2013, he was sentenced to 46 months in prison. He began serving his sentence in May 2013. Citing misconduct within the local U. S. Attorney's Office, Broussard filed a motion asking Judge Hayden Wilson Head Jr. to vacate the conviction or, alternately, his sentence.