St. Martinville – The biggest disagreement among St. Martinville City Council members at Monday’s council meeting came over an item that wasn’t even on the agenda.
Councilwoman Flo Chatman effectively blocked an effort by Councilwoman Carol Frederick over whether to name the council meeting chamber after an unnamed “former public servant” by voting no on whether to add the item to the agenda for discussion and possible action.
Under the Lawrason Act, the council must unanimously agree to add an item to the agenda, or the item cannot be discussed at the meeting.
That didn’t stop there from being a somewhat rancorous discussion over what Chatman said was the effort to name the meeting room after former Mayor Thomas Nelson.
Councilman Mike Fuselier said that Frederick had not said that she desired to name the room after Nelson, but Chatman said it was obvious who she meant as Nelson died on April 17 at age 89. He had served three consecutive terms as mayor of the city over a span of 12 years starting in 2006 and had previously served for 26 years on the St. Martin Parish Police Jury.
“I feel this way - I love Mayor Nelson, but other mayors have passed in the past, and I feel this way, when you do that, you open up a can of worms,” Chatman said.
“She didn’t even say who she was talking about,” Fuselier said.
“I know who she was talking about,” Chatman said.
“How do you know that?” he asked.
“Come on, now, Mike,” she said. “How many other mayors have passed (recently)?”
“Actually I didn’t even say mayor, I said public servant,” Frederick said.
Chatman reiterated that the obvious answer was Nelson. Frederick then said that there was a motion and a second to add the item to the agenda for discussion, and after adding it to the agenda was the time to discuss the matter.
The other four council members voted to add the item for discussion, but Chatman voted against it.
“Just to know, we won’t be adding anything to the agenda for the next three weeks,” Fuselier said. “Everybody has had the opportunity to add things to the agenda and discuss, so if you want to cancel it just know you’re canceling adding anything,” Fuselier said.
“Why not have a discussion about it?” Frederick said. “You can vote no when it came up for a vote if you don’t want the chamber named (for someone),” Frederick said.
City attorney Allen Durand asked Chatman if she was willing to discuss the subject after the upcoming elections for mayor and council.
“So then we’re saying that even though we have responsibilities as a council to make decisions on important matters, we’re going to make those based on an election cycle,” Frederick said.
“I think it’s a bad time,” Chatman said.
“So where do we start?” Frederick said. “Do we say, oh, we don’t bring it up because it might affect the election, a week before, a month before, a year before?”
Agenda
Mayor Jason Willis said that he didn’t see the problem with waiting until after the election to discuss the matter, noting that Fuselier and Frederick are not running for their current seats but the other three council members are, and could feel pressure to vote on renaming the chamber in order not to upset voters.
“I don’t vote, but it’s putting pressure on Councilman Fontenette, Councilwoman Flo and Janise (Anthony) because if they no that could hurt them in the election, if they say no or they say yes, it could be maybe this person’s mad or that person’s mad,” Willis said. “You and Mike don’t have no opposition. Immediately after the election, not when they change seats, you bring it up. That’s in three weeks.
“Not for the new council, not for the new mayor. Right after the election. Then there won’t be no pressure for them to vote.”
Frederick said other matters like voting on nuisance properties could have resulted in people not wishing to add items to the agenda or discuss them, but those matters were not blocked.
“Where would that end?” Frederick said. “How is it that all of a sudden that might cause you to not be elected?”
“I don’t care really, myself,” Chatman said. “I’m just saying how I feel. And you or nobody’s going to change my mind.”
The disagreement brought a couple of snarky comments on the next agenda item as well, adopting of the millage rates for the coming year.
“Can we discuss this?” Fuselier said. “I don’t know if we can discuss this because of the election. I’m just saying. We don’t want to put any pressure on anybody to make bad decisions.”
“I think we all need to understand that as elected officials, we’re here and we serve the people, the people that elect us, so you’re gonna have discussions that may not be what you want to hear or whatever,” Anthony said. “But in all fairness you should be open to hear whatever the discussion is.”
The council voted in favor of adopting the millage rates, after which the extra agenda item discussion was dropped.
The council recognized the Cleanest City Contest winners for the best slogan for the contest by students.
First place went to Amelia Rogers for “Throw It in the Trash, Not the Grass.”
Second place was Harlan Fontenette for “Pick Up the Trash, Clean up the City. Help Us Make St. Martinville Look Pretty.”
Third place went to Jamira L. James for “Pass the Day Throwing the Trash Away.”
Honorable mention went to Delilah Garrison for “Slam Dunk the Junk to Keep Our City Clean. Don’t Be Trashy, Keep Our City Clean. Feed the Can, Man, Keep Our City Clean.”
The winning slogan will be printed on T-shirts for the Trash Bash and other cleanup events.
The council voted to table a vote on cleanup by city crews of lots that are wooded and not just grass filled.
The mayor also noted that the Trash Bash, which has been postponed twice already by the death of former Mayor Nelson and then rainy weather this past weekend, is scheduled to be held Saturday, May 9 from 8 a.m. to noon.
