City council votes to declare property on Seiber Road a nuisance
– St. Martinville Mayor Jason Willis celebrated the city adopting the Lawrason Act in a vote by residents on Saturday with a rousing statement that had many attending Monday’s City Council meeting applauding loudly at several points.
The mayor read a statement at Monday’s meeting after voters passed the change in city government by a 67-33 margin on Saturday.
“I want to sincerely thank the voters of St. Martinville for showing up and speaking loud and clear in our recent election,” Willis said. “With 67 percent of the vote in favor of adopting the Lawrason Act, and a total of 975 yes votes to 472 no votes, our community has made a bold and united decision to move our city forward.”
“Say it louder, mayor,” one audience member responded The city has been run under a special legislative charter since the late 1890s that gives the council broader powers to approve the daily operation of the city. Twenty-four communities in the state have legislative charters. Most of the remaining villages, towns and cities (around 250 in all) operate under the Lawrason Act, which gives the mayor control of most aspects of the administration and the council control of the finances.
The council had voted 2-2 in February to put the issue on the ballot in May, with Councilwoman Janise Anthony abstaining. Willis cast the tiebreaking vote, which sent the issue to the public to vote on. anthony supported the switch to the Lawrason Act at subsequent meetings and town halls.
About 38 percent of the registered voters in the city turned out for the vote. Only 9 percent of voters in the parish turned out to vote on a bond issue put forth by the school board.
Fuselier and Councilwoman Carol Frederick had opposed adopting the Lawrason Act at subsequent council meetings and at two town halls that were held to explain the Lawrason Act to voters.
Willis touted the vote as a city-wide statement for progress and good government.
“Even more powerful is the fact that we won in every single precinct,” Willis said. “These numbers show that from the north to the south side of town, from early voters to election day voters, the people of St. Martinville stood together. We chose unity. We chose accountability, and we chose a future built on a structure of transparency and progress.”
Shouts of “Yes” followed each statement from the mayor at that point in his speech.
Willis said he is committed to doing all he can to bring healing to the city. Change isn’t easy, and challenges what we are used to, he said, but growth is what the city needs to keep up with demands to truly serve the people.
“The Lawrason Act provides a more streamlined and effective form of government, bringing clarity to process and accountability to elected officials,” he said. “It brings a clear delineation of responsibilities between the mayor and the city council. It limits the confusion and conflict that came with our … outdated special legislative charter, one that no longer met the needs of a modern city. By adopting this form of government we now join 85 percent of the other cities in Louisiana and are ready to make this transition.
The city scheduled Lawrason Act training at city hall, led by the Louisiana Municipal Association, with further training sessions offered by municipal government expert Karen White at no charge. City employees and elected officials were encouraged to take part in the training as the city makes the transition to a new structure of city government.
“This is a defining moment for St. Martinville,” Willis said. “It is a fresh start, a better path, and it is one we will walk together. Thank you to every voter who participated. Thank you for choosing better. Thank you for believing that our city is worth improving.”
Nuisance property
The council voted 4-1 to take action on a nuisance property on Seiber Road that the council has been addressing since February.
The property owner, David Daspit, and his son, who lives on the property, were given the opportunity at the city council’s last meeting to put up a privacy fence to shield the view from the road.
Lawrason
Mayor Jason Willis stressed at the April 21 meeting that the fence should be constructed of new material, not just pieces of debris gathered up.
But City Zoning Coordinator Otis Chatman reported that the owner’s son would not let him onto the property to take photos, after Daspit had been told that Chatman would return to the property to take photos and would call the owner to let him know when he would arrive.
Daspit was not on site when Chatman arrived, and the owner’s son refused to cooperate with the city employee, Chatman said.
A police officer accompanied Chatman to take the photos and said that though the owner is cooperative, the son is not.
Photos taken from the road showed that the family had put a black screen on the chain link fence and also used discarded pallets as fencing in some areas.
“I don’t want to see this no more at the council meetings,” Councilman Jonas Fontenette said. The property is in his district. “It seems like we’re just kicking the can (down the road) again. The fence that he put up, a 20-mile-an-hour wind probably would knock it down right now. The money he wanted to spend on a dumpster, Councilman (Mike) Fuselier had recommended somebody who could put him up a good strong fence and make it look better, and he refused that. I’ve got enough of it myself, so whatever action we need to take, let’s do it so we don’t have this issue again. Because the next person that comes in, they’re going to want all that time, too, and our hands are going to be tied up.”
City attorney Allan Durand said the council should vote to find the property a nuisance under the city’s nuisance order, or a private junkyard, and the next step he would suggest would be to file a lawsuit against the owner and anyone in possession of the property to have the court file an injunction to clean the property up.
“The court has a lot more remedies available to them than the council does,” Durand said.
Fontenette made a motion to declare the property a nuisance and for the city to file a lawsuit seeking an injunction asking for the property to be cleaned up.
Daspit said the heavyduty polyurethane black sheets on the fence and the metal fence panels and strapping should stand up to bad weather.
Daspit said it will take time to clean up the property, and the family is doing that as it gets enough money for each stage of the cleanup.
The mayor said that the option to put up a fence was given to allow the family more time to clean up while reducing the complaints from the public by hiding some of the debris on the property.
“But we also stated that you needed to at make it look at least like a nice fence in the front,” Willis said. “To hide the junk, if you put up a nice fence it could deter the complaints.”
Willis said Fuselier had offered, by calling for a quote on a fence, a less expensive way to deal with the issue than paying for multiple dumpsters to haul off the junk. But the stipulation was the fence had to be nice enough to deter some of the complaints.
“Based on the research I’ve done, I think it’s a good enough fence,” Daspit said.
Councilwoman Janise Anthony said the agreement was to put up a wooden fence.
“That was a suggestion, but I wanted to take action for today’s meeting, and now you see the results until we have the funding to do an even nicer one,” Daspit said. “This one is nice.”
The council voted 4-1 to declare the property a nuisance and file a lawsuit to have the property cleaned up. Fuselier voted against the matter because a house he had sought to be declared a nuisance was instead given years to address the issue.
Summer programs
Culture, Recreation and Tourism Director Danielle Fontenette outlined the city’s summer youth activities for the council.
The splash pad and pool will open Memorial weekend with the splash pad open every day except Mondays.
Public swimming will be from 1-6 p.m. each day, with the pool closed on Mondays. Water aerobics will be from 6-7 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Swim lessons will be given in the mornings.
“Parents and Me” swimming lessons for children with disabilities also will be offered.
The pool plans to hire all the lifeguards who were on staff in 2024 with eight youngsters taking the lifeguard training.
Summer culture camp will be held for two weeks in late July because the schools are offering camps during June. Basketball camp also is offered.
In other business In other business, the council adopted millage rates of 3.90 mills for the general bond and 4.11 mils for the public improvement bond.
The city council also heard a monthly financial report from the mayor. The city continues to take in less revenue than it had budgeted for, but to spend less than it budgeted for as well, with city department heads working to keep expenditures down.
The result is the city being able to put money into savings accounts so that it can be used for unexpected expenditures or as matching funds for grants and capital outlay from the state that can be used to improve the city, the mayor said.
The city is nearly $300,000 to the positive in the year-to-date budget, Willis said.
The city has about $407,000 in its ARPA reserves (savings account), $58,000 in water reserves, $74,000 in sewer reserves, $160,000 in the Opera House reserves from the sale of the Opera House and $50,000 in its electric reserves.
The city council also voted to approve entering a contract with Fenstermaker & Associates as the engineers for the second phase of the sidewalk improvement project from Madison Street to St. Martinville Senior High. Fenstermaker was the engineer for the first phase of the sidewalk project.
The council also approved a status change for police officers Hunter Domingue and Indea Kately, who completed their academy training to become post certified.
The council also agreed to work on an intergovernmental agreement with the St. Martin Parish School Board for use of a Magnolia Parks baseball field by the St. Martinville Senior High baseball team, to be completed and approved at a later meeting.
