Here is 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:
- Parish Agenda
- City Agenda (Public Comment Time!)
Lafayette 101
Expropriation
Public bodies in Louisiana have the power to take private property for certain public purposes, called expropriation. Typically, that’s a lengthy legal process, but Lafayette is one of a handful of cities with “quick-take” powers, allowing it to first seize private property then and go to court to justify the taking, instead of the other way around, allowing work to begin immediately on public projects.
Parish Council
Final Adoption
Nurse raises. The Parish Council will vote Tuesday on raises for a handful of nurses at the parish’s Public Health Unit that would raise their pay by an average of about $13,750 a year to between $74,000 and $82,000. The move comes after the council failed to reverse Mayor-President Josh Guillory’s veto of a plan to slightly raise the public health property tax despite urging from Public Health Director Dr. Tina Stefanski to use the additional funds to raise nurse pay. Instead, the raises are coming from a small pool of funding for services related to COVID-19.
ACA equipment. The Parish Council will also vote on plans to use $300,000 from the now-rededicated CREATE millage to replace aging LCG equipment at the Acadiana Center for the Arts. The CREATE millage was rededicated by voters in 2020 to instead fund fire protection in rural parts of the parish, and the $300,000 on deck to go to the ACA would wipe out the remaining funds that were collected before the rededication.
Introduction
No significant items.
City Council
Final Adoption
New signal. The City Council will vote Tuesday on Councilman Andy Naquin’s plan to spend up to $250,000 to add a traffic signal to the intersection of Congress and Marie Antoinette streets near Lafayette High School. Marie Antoinette is frequently used as a connection between Congress and Johnston streets, and its intersection with Congress is a regular choke point for traffic, particularly during congested school arrival and departure times. The council’s vote on this item was originally planned for Nov. 27, but was deferred to Tuesday’s meeting.
Lake Farm settlement. The City Council will also vote Tuesday on cutting funds for the city’s Downtown drainage projects and Vermilion River spot dredging efforts to pay a settlement for the Lake Farm Road quick-take expropriation lawsuit started by Guillory’s administration in 2021. The move would cut $2.3 million from Downtown drainage work and $730,000 from spot dredging efforts, which Councilwoman Liz Hebert called a deal breaker when it was introduced at a special council meeting on Dec. 5. Tuesday’s vote will determine whether LCG can meet the $4.4 million sum asked for by the Randol family in return for the seizure of 16 acres on Lake Farm Road for a detention pond.
Introduction
No significant items.
Joint Items
Final Adoption
No significant items.
Introduction
No significant items.
Property
| Address | Approval | Action |
|---|---|---|
| 1700 Block E Broussard Road | City Council | Annexation and assignment of Residential Mixed (RM-1) zoning [Intro] |
| 4800 Block W Congress St. | City Council | Rezoning from Residential Single-Family (RS-1) to Residential Mixed (RM-1) zoning [Intro] |