Commish preparing separate city and parish charters
The Lafayette Charter Commission will decide Monday evening whether to forward drafts of separate city and parish charters to Lafayette Consolidated Government’s legal department as well as to the New Orleans attorney who advises LCG on bonding issues. The nine-member commission has been meeting since last August and must make a recommendation for changes to governance in Lafayette Parish by April 20. Since the fall the commission has gravitated toward the creation of a separate council and mayor for the city of Lafayette, although LCG attorney Pat Ottinger says separate charters for the city and the parish may not be the end result of the commission’s work.
“They’re at the point of wanting to put the packages together and send it to the legal department for a review,” Ottinger says. “It’s been kind of a patchwork quilt, if you will, so they’re asking us to finesse the language and make it a clean document. As far as I know it is a separate charter for the parish and for the city, which does not necessarily mean that’s where [the process] will end up. But they’re at the point where they’re needing to have it looked at from a legal perspective of language and uniformity and formatting and continuity and things of that type.”
Also on Monday’s commission agenda is discussion of a “tweaked” Lafayette Home Rule Charter. Commissioners last week were given a presentation from demographer Mike Hefner, who told The Independent that working with the 2000 census he was able to redistrict Lafayette Parish in such a way that five CPC/school board districts entirely within the city and four districts entirely outside the city could be created. Hefner added that he’s confident the same can be done when the parish redistricts following the receipt of 2010 census figures next month.
If Hefner is correct, many of the concerns about the city of Lafayette’s sovereignty and self-determination that led to the creation of the charter commission last year could likely be addressed without creating a separate city of Lafayette council. However, some commission members have expressed reservations about such a plan, noting that the current charter allows the city-parish president to be elected from anywhere in the parish and that a city-parish president who isn’t from the city may not have the city’s best interests at heart.
... written by Southsider , January 25, 2011 - 01:15 am
Seperate entitles are the way to go. Hefner's best interest is to continue with the status quo. Living in Duson gets him and all the other towns city services without having to pay city taxes. Enough is enough. We want our city back.
... written by NORTHSIDIAN SHOTGUN , January 25, 2011 - 03:08 am
" However some couillion commission members have expressed reservations, that a city-parish president who isn't from the city may not have the city's best interest at heart, "Now, where in the hell, did that ideology orginate ! Could it perhaps have been born from witnessing Joey Durel's constant biased brow-beating and ignor-ance of the repeated requests by councilman from outside the Lafayette city limit for assistance on maintance, utility problems etc which Joey never even took the trouble to set their requests on the back burner, he of the higher than any of his constituents, with the exception of bowing and genuflecting to Zooschlag and the Surveyman, among a few of his cronys, or should we call them, those under the table circlejerkers ?
... written by NORTHSIDIAN SHOTGUN , January 25, 2011 - 03:12 am
Ga, I think of you " My Presidente, everytime, I hear that Kenny Rogers song, "You surround yourself with many, who demand so little of you.
... written by andy hebert , January 25, 2011 - 07:37 pm
“I know it is a separate charter for the parish and for the city,…” “The nine-member panel comprising five city residents and four parish residents…”
Why are City registered voters allowing non-City registered voters the opportunity to write or re-write their “separate charter”?
“…that a city-parish president who isn’t from the city may not have the city’s best interests at heart.”
Charter Commissioners who aren’t “from the city may not have the city’s best interests at heart” could that be the same case? Isn’t that what happened before, non-City writers of a City Charter?
What will be the Legal fees to review 2 separate charters and who pays how much? Follow the Money.
“… able to redistrict Lafayette Parish in such a way that five CPC/school board districts entirely within the city and four districts entirely outside the city…”
Why wasn’t this done with the original Home Rule Charter?
Or with the “Election held 10/1/94 prior to consolidation to substitute Council districts identical to Lafayette Parish School Board; …”?
“…make a recommendation on future governance in Lafayette Parish - be it the creation of a separate council and mayor for the city of Lafayette,”
Why isn’t it reported that the Commission is also making “recommendation on future governance in (The CITY of) Lafayette?
Isn’t “a separate council and mayor for the city of Lafayette” affecting the CITY’s “future governance”?
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