The Crooked Smile of Leadership: part 4
Louisiana Secretary of State records show that Tribe Kayak, LLC was registered on May 11, 2022. Shane Smiley is listed as a registered agent, Manager, and Member. His co-registrant, Robert Little, is listed as co-registered agent.
Tribe Kayak operates through Catahoula’s, a restaurant located in Monroe, which also reflects Little and Smiley to be business partners of on the Secretary of State website.
Nine days before Tribe Kayak was formed, a post on Catahoula’s official Facebook page advertised kayak, paddle board, inner tube, and lily pad rentals available daily through the restaurant.
Catahoula’s is also currently listed as an official kayak rental outfitter on the Discover Monroe and West Monroe regional tourism website’s Ouachita Paddling Trail page, with published pricing for single and double kayak rentals.
Business as usual, for two guys with a restaurant on the bayou…unless one of you is the president of the Ouachita Parish Police Jury overseeing a series of expenditures to develop kayak infrastructure in the parish.
Beginning in September 2024, official meeting minutes reflect that Smiley voted in favor of every related action. The minutes contain no record of any disclosure by Smiley of his ownership interest in Tribe Kayak LLC, nor any recusal from any related vote, at least not that I could locate.
On September 16, 2024, Smiley voted in favor of awarding the Cheniere Lake Area 3 handicap parking project to Bentz Construction Group LLC for $28,425.60. That infrastructure project directly supported the site designated for the new kayak launch.
On October 7, 2024, Smiley participated in a unanimous vote to allocate $15,000 in ARPA funds specifically for a kayak launch on Cheniere Lake. Again, in my review of meeting minutes I found no disclosure or recusal by Smiley.
In April 2025, Smiley was presiding as President when the Jury received a formal progress update on the Area 3 kayak launch and a report on ongoing discussions regarding agency partnerships for rental kiosks at both Cheniere Lake and Moon Lake.
On July 21, 2025, Smiley participated in a unanimous vote to authorize the parish IT department to seek quotes for a new software program to manage bookings for Cheniere Lake facilities on a rolling twelve-month basis. That action followed a report from a fellow juror regarding the planned installation of kayak rental kiosks at the site. Meeting minutes reflect no disclosure or recusal by Smiley.
On February 17, 2026, Smiley was presiding as President when the Cheniere Lake Area 3 kayak launch had been successfully installed and completed.
Throughout my review of these proceedings, the official minutes of the Ouachita Parish Police Jury contain no record of Shane Smiley opposing, abstaining from, or recusing himself from any vote related to the development of kayak recreational facilities.
The Cheniere Lake kayak launch was funded in part through the Louisiana Recreation and Park Commission LGAP grant, Project No. 50-J37-22-01, according to the OPPJ’s 2024 audit.
The completed infrastructure is located on the Ouachita Paddling Trail. Catahoula’s and Tribe Kayak are listed as official rental outfitters on that same trail by the regional tourism authority, Discover Monroe and West Monroe.
Louisiana Checkbook, the state’s public expenditure transparency database, shows that a man by the name of Robert Little, the same name of the co-registrant of Tribe Kayak LLC with Smiley, received a payment from the Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry on October 14, 2025, through the Forestry Productivity Fund. The specific purpose of that payment has not yet been determined by this publication.
