![Mayor-President Josh Guillory at council meeting](https://media.thecurrentla.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/14162024/TG8_0063.jpg)
Guillory’s hole grows deeper with fallout over Hurricane Laura shelters
Many read it as a callous denial of help for those most in need, reinforcing a growing view that the mayor-president is heartless.
Many read it as a callous denial of help for those most in need, reinforcing a growing view that the mayor-president is heartless.
LCG’s budgetmaking process can be complicated in a normal year, and this is far from a normal year. Newly split councils, a mayor-president deadset on slashing budgets, and an uncertain economy has created a perfect storm for a tense budgetmaking process. As the councils round the corner on amending this budget, these are some of the top issues still to be resolved.
In order to be economically competitive as a city, Lafayette needs to offer quality of life amenities. In the rush to cut budgets, Mayor-President Guillory is putting the city’s quality of life at risk, reducing its ability to retain and attract people, especially young families.
Moving slowly means the program could fall well short of its ambitions, while housing needs, another use of the source funding, continue to worsen.
Reaching conclusions already voiced by the Guillory administration and its predecessor, a long-awaited forensic investigative report on suspect transactions between LUS and Fiber accuses former Director Terry Huval of flouting state law to inflate Fiber’s revenue by millions of dollars.
Parish government has been on life support for years now. With the city’s finances now strained, it’s time for the parish to get serious about living within its means.
$80,000 was the total cost to run the four centers in 2019. Combined, they generated just under $32,000 in revenue — mostly from 58 rentals at the Heymann Park recreation center — and operated at a net loss of $48,000.
Their departures parallel sustained outrage at the mayor-president’s decision to shutter four recreation centers on Lafayette’s predominantly Black Northside.
It’s not surprising that the decision to shutter widely used cultural and community facilities has sparked significant public outcry. But it’s a choice — not a necessity.
Lafayette’s recently separated councils fell into the early makings of a constitutional impasse, only months into the new form of government.
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