2/23 Council Preview: Protect the City Committee, five new detention ponds, rent assistance and announcing the Adjudication Bureau

Here’s a selection of items on the agendas for this week’s meetings of the city and parish councils. To see the full agendas, check out the links below. 

• City Agenda
• Parish Agenda

City Council

Mayor-President’s Report

Mayor-President Josh Guillory will announce the creation of an Adjudication Bureau. The bureau will handle administrative matters that can get backlogged in district court. Noise complaints, litter violations and property adjudication are the main business for the bureau, which will be managed by an administrative law judge. The Advertiser has more coverage of it here.

Final Adoption

A handful of properties are up for consideration of actions by the City Council: 

Property	Action	Details
107 Asheville Lane	Condemn
1911, 1913, 1915, 1921, 2000, 2001 West Congress & 766 St. Thomas St.	Rezone	From Commercial Heavy to Mixed-Use Neighborhood
201 Rendon Drive	Rezone	From Commercial Heavy to Mixed-Use Neighborhood
600 & 700 block East Pont des Mouton Road	Rezone	From Residential Single-Family to Mixed-Use Neighborhood

Lafayette’s getting some new transit buses, thanks to a $2.85 million grant from the Federal Transit Authority, which the City Council will approve receipt of.

Appointments

Protect the City Committee. Five committee appointments will be formalized. The goal of this committee is to hold a series of public meetings to discuss whether consolidation has been a good or bad thing for the city of Lafayette. Each City Council member has one appointment:

Board	Appointing Authority	Appointee
Protect the City Committee	Pat Lewis, District 1	Joseph Catalon
Protect the City Committee	Andy Naquin, District 2	Mark Pope
Protect the City Committee	Liz Webb-Hebert, District 3	Roddy Bergeron
Protect the City Committee	Nanette Cook, District 4	Jan Swift
Protect the City Committee	Glenn Lazard, District 5	Tina Shelvin Bingham

Two at-large appointments to the committee will be decided by majority vote. Here is the list of 19 candidates who have submitted résumés, which can be found here:

Ronald Arceneaux II	Robert Benoit	Stuart Breaux	James Colvin
Kay Dupre	Keith Faulk	Steve Hebert	Daniel Landry III
Steven Lazarus	William Leyendecker	Amanda Martin	Glynn Maturin II
John Mayer	Fernando Perez-Viart	James Proctor	Sarah Gauthier Roy
Lorrie Toups	Jackson Voss	James Wynn

It’s the City Council’s turn to hear public comments on matters not on the agenda. As a reminder, the city and parish councils now alternate meetings for these public comments.

Parish Council

Final Adoption

The Animal Shelter is getting a new transport vehicle, thanks to an $83,000 grant from the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

Introduction

Stutes Road bridge. An ordinance is up for introduction that would declare replacing the bridge at Stutes Road a public necessity.

New parish detention ponds. Located on Homewood Drive, Lebeseque Road and Robley Drive, these detention ponds would mitigate flooding by keeping more water out of coulees during rain events. These detention ponds are up for introduction to be declared public necessities as well to get the ball rolling.

Joint Items

Final Adoption

Acadian Ambulance exclusive contract renewal. Acadian is the exclusive provider of ambulance services in city limits and in unincorporated Lafayette Parish. The current exclusive contract began in 2012 and ends March 27. The Emergency Medical Services Advisory board voted to recommend approving this new contract in January. If approved, the length of the contract will be five years with options to renew it for two additional two-year terms.

Updated drainage map is up for final adoption. This regularly happens to reflect any additions or subtractions or clarifications to the drainage channels LCG is responsible for managing.

$7.28 million in emergency rental assistance. The councils will vote to appropriate funding Lafayette received for rent and utility assistance through the federal stimulus booster passed in December. LCG’s Community Development Department will contract with Catholic Charities of Acadiana and community action agency SMILE to distribute the funds. This funding cannot be used for mortgage payments.