– St. Martinville Police and Fire Civil Service Board Chairman Michael Formeller withdrew his resignation from the board at Monday’s St. Martinville City Council meeting.
“Mister Formeller’s 30 years of service has been invaluable to the city and to the police and the Civil Service Board,” city attorney Allan Durand said. “His term ran out sometime last month, I think. He was the chairman when we had the Cody Laperouse hearing in January, which because of some technical difficulties with it, procedural difficulties with it, the board had to vacate its order.”
Laperouse was fired by the city after allegedly threatening to kill a city resident in August of 2024 after the resident had reportedly threatened Laperouse’s mother. The Civil Service Board unanimously voted to uphold the firing early this year.
That decision by the board was vacated after state Attorney General Liz Murrill filed a lawsuit against the board stating members may have violated the open meetings law between Jan. 28 and Feb. 3.
Durand said that if Formeller resigned, the board might be required to hold a new hearing at “significant expense” to the city, because of the lawyers’ fees involved, and one of the city’s witnesses has since died.
“Me and the chief (Police Chief Ricky Martin) met with Mr. Formeller, and he graciously agreed to withdraw his resignation and to stay on until we can get the Cody Laperouse finished, which we plan on doing at 4 o’clock tomorrow afternoon,” Durand said.
Durand added that though the city council had not formally accepted Formeller’s resignation, he asked the council to offer a motion to formally allow him to withdraw the resignation to make sure it is clear on the record that he will continue to serve until his replacement is appointed.
City Councilwoman Carol Frederick made the motion but asked if it had been determined whether the mayor must recommend a replacement for the position.
That had been a point of contention at the previous council meeting because Councilman Mike Fuselier
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had introduced Formeller’s resignation letter at the meeting but also wanted to nominate a replacement. Mayor Jason Willis at the time said that he was not opposed to that person replacing Formeller, but that he had already told someone else he would nominate them for the position on the Civil Service Board and didn’t want to go back on his offer.
The council asked Durand to look into whether the nomination must come from the mayor, as Willis said at the time, or if the board could vote for another candidate for the board.
“The Lawrason Act (the city’s new form of government) is silent on appointments like this,” Durand said Monday. “It’s clear that the mayor hires and fires employees and makes recommendations to the council for certain officers of the city like the clerk or the city attorney but it’s silent on this type of appointment. The Civil Service Board statute itself says that the replacement is appointed by the governing authority, which is the council.”
Board
The board voted unanimously to allow Formeller, who attended Monday’s meeting, to withdraw his resignation, and the mayor and board thanked Formeller after the vote for his continued service.
Housing Authority
The council voted to reappoint three members to the city Housing Authority Board of Commissioners — Chairman Gloria Polite, Vice Chairman Malcolm Ledet and Board Member Hazel Aubrey.
The board also asked the council to recommend another member to fill out the board by contacting Polite.
Planning & Zoning
City zoning coordinator Otis Chatman discussed a pair of nuisance properties the city has been dealing with, including the Eddie Greig property at 2085 Terrace Highway.
Chatman said the grass on the property has been kept mowed but Greig’s son, who had been tasked with helping clean the property, is in the hospital with a friend in the ICU. But the debris and structures on the property that the city has asked to be removed are still there.
Chatman said that he’s learned the son has power of attorney for the property so he asked the council to allow him to send letters in the future to the son rather than the father.
Once the paperwork is in hand regarding the power of attorney, Chatman will send letters to the son. Durand said that the city can send letters to both the father and son now.
Greig’s daughter-in-law asked the council for a little grace as she and her husband are doing all the work to clean up the property themselves, and that the son just learned that day of his best friend’s death — his reason for being at the hospital — and so hadn’t heard of the request to be at the meeting until 4 p.m. on Monday.
The council agreed, given the circumstances, to give the family until January to make progress on the cleanup.
The council also heard a request from Gallery & Coffee Bar on Evangeline Boulevard to obtain a liquor license, to sell beer and wine with weekend lunches or private events.
The city was asked to give permission because state law requires the city to approve a waiver for a business within 300 feet of a church to sell liquor.
But the mayor said that since the business is primarily a restaurant or cafe and not a bar, the business likely does not need such a waiver anyway.
The council passed a resolution saying that if the waiver is required by the state, the council granted such a waiver
In other business
The city council approved a request from the police chief to move trickor- treating from Oct. 31 to Thursday, Oct. 30, because of the Oct. 31 St. Martinville Senior High homecoming activities that day and weekend.
The council passed a resolution recognizing October as Domestic Violence Awareness Month following a presentation from Kelli Cantu of Chez Hope, which provides services to victims of domestic violence in St. Martin, Iberia, St. Mary and Assumption parishes.
The council approved an amended weed and grass cutting ordinance to remove the term “may” use a private contractor to “shall” use a private contractor to remove trees that threaten damage to public streets or utilities.
The council also approved extension of the Domino’s lease with the city at $1,100 month, an increase of $100 a month, for five years, pending approval by Domino’s.
The council approved a resolution for its capital outlay priority list, moving a couple of items down the list and a couple up the list.
The council also discussed logs stacked on property at 219 Mary Street. Some neighbors hadcomplained about the logs, but Durand said that it doesn’t look the city has the right to do anything about the logs because it does not seem to be a nuisance or in the city right of way.
Frederick also asked the mayor about city employees driving grass mowing tractors on main roads. The mayor said the crews are not supposed to drive on the roads and they would be reminded of that.
