(Editor’s Note: Mayor Gene Paul, Administrative Assistant Katelyn Waggoner and City Clerk Geri Melder met with the paper to discuss recent events.)
Mayor Gene Paul wants everyone to know what happened in September. He said Waggoner wanted to apply for a grant through Love Louisiana Outdoors for playground equipment. He said there was “a limited time – short window” to get the application together for a possibility of up to $400,000. He said the public hearing – not meeting – was advertised in the paper for the 8th. There was no quorum or public participation, so their engineer advised them to post a meeting on the door for September 9, waiting the 24 hours and try for public participation. He said Wesley told them a quorum wasn’t needed, because they were seeking public comments for the grant. “No decisions were to be made.”
“We followed everything they told us to do. Katelyn and I walked over, and no one showed up. We came back and posted it on the door. The next day at 3:40 p.m. we went back and no one showed up.”
He said he didn’t know “Wesley (engineer) asked her to send the minutes.” Basically, there was no action taken.”
After the complaint, Mayor Paul said they even researched this with LMA (Louisiana Municipal Association).
He said Councilman Jeremy Smith went to see him because he wasn’t notified of the meeting. He said Katelyn did attempt to contact all council members. She called Jeremy and there was no answer. That’s when everything went downhill. We were not trying to hide anything.”
He said anytime something comes up and they are not sure how to handle it, they ask for advice and follow that advice. He said Katelyn did speak to the engineer about no quorum.
Waggoner added this was not something they were trying to hide. She said it was for playground equipment.
Paul said once the complaint was received, the city attorney (Ray Rush) told them this was serious and to stop all procedures until it was settled.
They said there was no meeting, no action and believed the situation has grown out of control. They just wanted to apply for playground equipment.
“We did what we thought was right,” Paul said. “The professional people told us how to do it. Then, we went with Rush’s advice to discontinue.”
Waggoner took this job mid 2021, so this situation has been a learning tool for her. Paul said they will be notifying council members in several ways in the future to prevent this situation from re-occurring in the future. He said it’s time to move on. He thought the AG’s opinion would end this.
“We did exactly what we were told,” Paul said in this situation.
