Committee on fairgrounds grows after discussion at SM City Council meeting

The St. Martinville City Council voted at its Monday meeting to approve an 11-member committee to recommend policy and guidelines for use of the fairgrounds to the council.

The council had been set to appoint seven members to the committee, including two council members, Mike Fuselier and Janise Anthony.

Concerns raised by St. Martinville resident Tangie Narcisse, who also represents District 3 on the St. Martin Parish Council, and St. Martinville City Councilwoman Flo Chatman led FuselierandAnthonyto withdraw their names from consideration for the committee, and to the council deciding to have each council member appoint one person to serve on the committee.

The committee also will include representatives from the Cultural, Recreation and Tourism and Main Street organizations, Kiwanis Club, Rotary Club, Newcomers Club and Chamber of Commerce.

Narcisse asked the council why it was appointing a committee to deal with the fairgrounds rather than taking the responsibility of that upon itself.

“I’m here as an individual, but I am an elected individual, also, and I know that the people, the majority, elected us,” she said.

Narcisse said she believes, and she thinks many others believe, that the council was elected to represent the residents and are supposed to know what the city needs.

“You guys are supposed to stand for us. You’re supposed to know what we need in our city,” she said. “You’re supposed to understand what our city is crying for, what can we afford, what can we set forward.”

Establishing committees to make decisions keeps the council from being accountable, she said.

“I truly believe that you guys are well capable enough to do what needs to be done, and I do know that the people are looking for you guys to do what needs to be done, because we elected you,” she said.

Fuselier said the committee would make no decisions, only recommendations.

“The committee will simply refer back to the council,” he said. “The buck has to stop here. All decisions will be made here.”

“So what you’re saying is your committee members are going to be in tune to what the community has to say,” Narcisse said.

“That’s why we have people from the Kiwanis, we have people from the Rotary, we have people from the Newcomers, we have people from the Chamber, we have people from the Council,” Fuselier said. “We have a good cross-section of people who are dedicated to work in the city.”

The committee has to look into a lot of issues with the festival grounds, he said. In the past it was going to be used as a campground, but that idea changed.

“So instead of keeping reinventing the festival ground, we need to make a decision as to what are we going to do with the festival ground,” he said.

He doesn’t think that using the festival ground for a festival four times a year isn’t the best use of prime property in the middle of the city, but the committee will look into that and make a recommendation to the council.

Councilwoman Carol Frederick, who was to be appointed as the Rotary representative on the committee, said the committee was going to be created to have more insight into what would constitute a festival, and what charges the city could decide upon for groups wanting to use the grounds for a festival.

Mayor Jason Willis said he believes in committees because he can’t do everything by himself, and the council members can’t do everything by themselves. He wants input from the people.

He also bridled a bit about the idea that the festival grounds would only be used four times a year.

“I had a conversation with Eric (former mayor Eric Martin) and other people, (who said) that it was actually something that was built to bring the people together, to get the people out of the

north side, south side, bring them there together” Willis said. “And I think it could be big.”

People on the council talk about wanting to bring in new hotels and other businesses. Festivals bring tourists to town, which shows hotel owners and other business people that someone would come to the city, stay in a hotel, shop in local stores and eat at local restaurants.

“That’s all stuff just like tourism,” he said.

“But we don’t have hotels here,” Fuselier said.

“No, but that’s how you start, Mike,” Willis said. “You’ve got to bring the people here first in order for me to go out there and say, look, we’ve got these things going on, and we need hotels to accommodate the people that’s coming to town.”

City attorney Allen Durand addressed concerns about the committee holding meetings in secret, saying that he spoke to the Attorney General, who said that since the committee is appointed by the council, it must adhere to open meeting laws, publishing the dates of meetings and allowing the public to attend those meetings.

Willis further said that since the council will vote on the recommendations made by the committee, he didn’t think council members should be on the committee.

Fuselier and Anthony agreed, and the council voted to have each council member appoint a representative to the committee, in addition to the organizations who will have a member on the committee, and a representative of law enforcement.