In all likelihood, an ordinance putting a repeal of the Lafayette City-Parish Home Rule Charter before voters in November will be tabled or deferred this evening by the Lafayette City-Parish Council; several council members have expressed concern that the process is moving too fast, a sentiment shared by City-Parish President Joey Durel and the Greater Lafayette Chamber of Commerce. But vote on deconsolidation they must — three resolutions pertaining to the topic are the first action items on the agenda; the ordinance itself proposing the repeal of the charter is the first up for final adoption. By 6:30 p.m. today, Lafayette Parish should have a pretty good idea what, if anything, will be on the Nov. 2 ballot related to deconsolidation.
The council is covering its bases with Tuesday’s legislation: If the ordinance that would send deconsolidation to the voters in November is shot down or tabled, a second ordinance will be voted on that would let the parish decide in November on whether to amend the existing city-parish charter to give the council more time to redistrict the parish following the receipt of census numbers some time around next March.
Currently, the city-parish charter requires districts be redrawn at least six months before a council election. The City-Parish Council election is set for October 2011 — seven months after the likely receipt of census numbers. A redistricting plan that grows out of the census will need to be vetted by the state Bond Commission as well as the U.S. Department of Justice — a process that could take several weeks. Consequently, it’s likely the council would be unable to meet the “six months prior” requirement in the charter. The second, fall-back ordinance before the council Tuesday removes that six-month prescription. In fact, it was this dilemma that prompted council Chair Jay Castille to convene the charter committee that on Feb. 1 voted to send the deconsolidation ordinance to the council and, ultimately, to parish voters.
Tuesday’s council meeting begins at 5:30 p.m. in the council auditorium. To view a pdf of the agenda and related documents, click here.
... written by NORTHSIDIAN SHOTGUN , March 09, 2010 - 07:14 pm
YOU'LL BE SORREEEEEE, THE AREA ENCOMPASSING, THE LAFAYETTE CITY LIMITS IS GOING TO JUST EXPLODE WITH GROWTH........THE POPULATION IS MOVING TO THE SUBURBS, AND BUSINESSES HAVE FOLLOWED SUIT, SETTING UP SHOP IN THE OUTER AREA WHERE THE POPULATION GROWTH JUSTIFYS THE INVESTMENT.......NOW WE WILL SEE THE PARISH FLOURISH, AND AS FAR AS MUSEUMS/NPO'S EXPENDITURE'S, NON EXISTENT, JODU'NT DONE BUILT EM......
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MAY 23 Here's a story in the Picayune about some statistics that must come as a blow to folks who believe that any private school can do a better job of educating kids than any public school: Danielle Dreilinger reports that only 30 percent of the voucher kids are passing. That's less than half of the state wide average, she says. It's an interesting statistic because most of the schools (if not all) taking voucher kids have never had their students' standardized test scores released to the public before.
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