[Editor's Note: When this story was posted Wednesday evening, Morrison was the only candidate to have qualified. On Thursday morning, Percell Glaude also entered the race for Scott mayor. Some content has since been edited out of the story to reflect that change.]
City-Parish Councilman Purvis Morrison qualified on Wednesday to run in the October election for mayor of Scott. The Scott native’s bid is not unexpected; Morrison indicated his intention to seek the seat nearly a year ago. Incumbent Mayor Hazel Myers, now in her fourth term, has decided to retire.
“It’s been a dream for me to have the opportunity to represent the city of Scott, where I grew up, all my roots, my mother, my father, my grandfathers, they’re all buried there,” Morrison says.
If Morrison wins, he’ll have to resign his District 1 seat on the CPC — he would be sworn in as Scott Mayor in January. Because less than a year would remain in the term before the November 2011 council elections, a replacement could be appointed to fill the unexpired term rather than hold a special election.
According to biographical information on his council Web page, Morrison is also a contract bus driver for the Lafayette Parish School System and is a licensed barber. He is a graduate of Acadiana High School and previously served on the Scott City Council, during which time he developed an interest in serving his hometown as mayor. “When I first got involved I really didn’t think about it right away because I didn’t know if I was going to like that type of work,” he says. “But in my third year I definitely started considering that when Hazel would retire that I wouldn’t mind doing this. And now that opportunity has come, so I say this is the best time to go.”
MAY 24 Blogger Robert Mann posts this entry about the Baton Rouge Chamber's recent report on Louisiana's higher education system. It's critical to economic development, and yet our system is facing a "funding crisis" with no way to resolve it, the report says. The Chamber says control of tuition and fees must be returned to the higher ed governing boards.
MAY 24 Here's a NBC33 story about Tyrann Mathieu. He has signed with the Arizona Cardinals, inking a $3 million, four-year deal. He gets a signing bonus of $265K, but gets another, larger bonus if he doesn't get cut from the team for doing drugs. The deal reportedly includes mandatory tests and meetings for the player.
MAY 24 Jarvis DeBerry posts here about the redonkulus rhetoric that would have us believe NOLA is a safe city with a murder problem. Maybe the city's crime stats don't compare with its murder stats because you can't manipulate a murder, he says: a dead body's a dead body. It just doesn't make sense, he says, and his readers agree: a poll asks if they believe the city is safe, and more than 90 percent say no.
MAY 24 Jindal administration officials announced Thursday that the privatization of public health care is going to cost a lot more than they budgeted for, the Advocate reports here. "I'm so surprised," said no one. Anywhere. The cost they're projecting now is more than $1 billion - a lot more than the $626 million budgeted for it. And, it's more than it cost the state to operate those hospitals. So why are we doing this again?
MAY 24 Blogger CB Forgotston ridicules the recent PR campaign by the state GOP in the wake of a legislative auditor's request to both major parties. The GOP (apparently unaware that the Dems got the same request) started yammering about being targeted because it had "killed" a tax increase. CB finds that laughable, but it's also pretty funny that the GOP was comparing this episode to the IRS scandal (Because the President has so much to do with our state auditor. Right?).
MAY 24 Politico details some recent fund-raising efforts by Sen. David Vitter, which have raised the question of his future political plans. This time, it is a $5,000 per head "bayou weekend" that includes "Cajun cooking" and an all-caps "alligator hunt," the story reports. Funds raised go to a super PAC that can spend money to support Vitter in federal or state races, the story points out.
MAY 24 The pink building on Royal in the quarter was sold at a sheriff's sale Thursday, this Picayune story reports. An injunction that would have halted the sale wasn't enforced because the family failed to post a $150,000 bond, the story reports. So the owner of the mortgages on the building bought it, for nearly $7 million. Now the feuding family will have to negotiate with that company to get a lease on the building that has housed their business for close to 60 years.
MAY 23 This post in Louisiana Voice tells us about a bill by a Winnsboro lege that would require all public high school students to take at least one Course Choice online class in order to graduate. (What?) Blogger Tom Aswell says it's a monument to "waste and corruption," especially in light of the problems he's exposed with the program in recent weeks. Idaho had a similar program, but voters removed it by a 2-1 margin, Aswell says.
Most Read
in case you missed it
Subscribe to this comment's feed
Ain't got no place to roam.
No office to call his own.
Down on his knees he prays, God heah let me stay.
Heah whar the west begins, retiring my bus today.
This is my fifth state retirement pay, Oh lord give me one mo day!