Voting in favor of the motion by Commissioner Bruce Conque to make a final decision and send it to the council were Karen Carson, Conque, George Lewis, Keith Miller, Steve Oats and Aaron Walker. Commissioners Don Bacque, Dale Bourgeois and Greg Manuel voted against.
The vote clears the way for the City-Parish Council to set a date for an election on the proposition. The council cannot amend the proposition; it can only advance it to a parishwide vote. That step is expected to happen hastily: Council Chairman Kenneth Boudreaux, who will determine when the council addresses the matter, is an outspoken proponent of repealing the current charter and returning to the separate governments that existed before 1996.
The commission beat back a substitute motion by Oats, an attorney by vocation, stipulating that the final vote be contingent on whether the council votes Tuesday to extend the commission's term in office; the CPC approved an introductory ordinance last week doing just that. Oats wanted more time to clean up language in the proposed city- and parish charters.
“Every time I look at [the proposed city- and parish charters] I find more stuff that needs to be corrected,” Oats told his fellow panelists. The commission moments before had approved corrections and clarifications to a number of typographical and language errors in the proposed charters flagged by Oats.
With Oats’ substitute motion failing on a 5-4 vote and Conque’s motion for final approval passing, the Lafayette Charter Commission has completed its nine-month task.
Following the vote, commission Chairman Lewis offered his fellow panelists the opportunity to offer closing comments. Bacque, who voted in the minority, had none. However, Bourgeois, who also opposed repealing the charter and voted with Bacque, said, “The only comment I have is, watch the money.”
Bourgeois, Bacque and Manual — the commissioners who voted against the separate-governments proposition — expressed concerns at various points during the commission’s tenure about the cost of returning to separate governments. In an attempt to ameliorate those concerns, the proposed charters for the city and the parish slash the salaries for council members: For both the seven-member city council and seven-member parish council, salaries would begin at $14,000 annually; chairmen and vice-chairmen would make 10 percent more, or $15,400 per year. The proposed city charter, however, hikes the chief executive’s pay; the mayor would pull down $128,000 per year while the parish president would make 85 percent of that, or $108,800.
Commissioner Carson, a non-city resident who proved to be a pivotal figure in the process when, just over a week ago, she reversed course and joined four city commissioners in agreeing to let the parish decide if it wants to repeal the current charter and return to separate governments, closed by saying, “I’m trusting the people of Lafayette have the brain power to figure out what they want.”
MAY 20 This post by blogger CB Forgotston draws parallels between Gov. Bobby Jindal and two individuals he probably doesn't want to be aligned with: President Obama and former governor Edwin Edwards. CB says Jindal's trying to jack up the debt ceiling (an Obama play, according to CB) and buy votes from GOP leges who normally wouldn't go for that (an Edwards play, CB says).
MAY 20 Here's a post in the Baptist Message from an alumnus of Louisiana College. The author, Larry Burgess, calls on the leadership of the private school to take care of some pressing problems. Physical plant issues are critical and unaddressed, some faculty make so little they need government health care, and there is an atmosphere that does not encourage honest discussion, he writes. It's time to get things back in order, he says.
MAY 20 This post in Gambit tells of a benefit concert scheduled to raise money for the 19 people shot during a Mother's Day second line on Frenchmen Street in NOLA. Among them was Gambit blogger Deb Cotton, who spoke frequently about violence in the city and reported on the city's second line culture. Gambit's foundation, along with other NOLA non-profits, also is selling t-shirts to raise money for the victims.
MAY 20 Blogger Robert Mann is critical of the personal interest some legislators take in their work here, sharing the comments one NOLA solon made in explaining his decision to vote against a bill that would require people to stop discriminating against female workers. His wife might lose some salary, so he was going to have to vote against the equal pay bill, Conrad Appel said. Appel and everyone who heard him should have been ashamed, but they weren't, and that's what is wrong in that building, Mann argues.
MAY 20 American Press columnist Jim Beam writes about the budget again here, urging kudos for the House and its efforts to try to fix the budget as opposed to passing on a flawed and messy rubber-stamped document as it usually does. The Senate already is poo-pooing the effort, but instead Senators should be trying to find a way to improve it as well, Beam argues. He also has some predictions in here from LABI and CABL.
MAY 20 Here's a link to the photo gallery from Tulane's graduation this past weekend. Dr. John and Allen Toussaint played together and received honorary degrees. The Dalai Lama was so entranced by their performance he got up from his seat and walked across the stage to stand next to them. He even participated in a second line with his own personal, saffron-colored umbrella. To the graduates, he urged them to think about creating a peaceful, hopeful life and society.
MAY 20 This Picayune story questions the rhetoric of NOLA officials who say the city, aside from having a "murder problem," is safe. The talking points generally are that the criminals are killing each other, but everything else is OK. The police chief there says that even Lafayette is more dangerous than NOLA. But crime experts interviewed here say that NOLA's numbers indicate one of two things: either people are so used to violence they don't report it, or somebody's "fudging the numbers."
MAY 20 The Advocate's Mark Ballard writes about some of the background maneuvering that took place during the development of budget alternatives in the Legislature. From Rep. Joel Robideaux being called a "tax and spend liberal" to robo-call influence, Ballard lets us in on some of the work that happens behind the scenes but usually doesn't make it into the Advocate's daily coverage of the session.
Most Read
in case you missed it
Subscribe to this comment's feed