
Amid investigation, Guillory’s security detail nixed
Use of Lafayette Police Department officers for the M-P’s full-time personal security is the subject of an investigation launched by the City Council late last year.
Use of Lafayette Police Department officers for the M-P’s full-time personal security is the subject of an investigation launched by the City Council late last year.
The City and Parish councils deferred action on establishing a new public records policy to work out kinks. The administration has signaled willingness to go along with the changes.
A seldom-used LPD dignitary protection unit has become M-P Josh Guillory’s full-time security. Council members have asked an audit firm to probe the arrangement.
The firm’s creation, timed as LCG fuels a local construction boom, creates a minefield of potential conflicts.
The councils’ letter sticks them in line for a response from the AG. Without it, Guillory could have withdrawn his request should the opinion be unfavorable.
A success in LCG’s eyes, the overnight operation may have violated state law, federal law, a St. Martin Parish ordinance and, it now appears, Lafayette’s Home Rule Charter.
In a letter delivered to both councils, M-P Josh Guillory suggests deferring questions about his drainage projects to an auditor.
The City and Parish councils have been complicit in approving Guillory’s drainage projects without question. Now with tens of millions of dollars at risk of being wasted, the City Council is starting to ask the hard questions.
The Guillory administration’s plans to declare two more private properties a “public necessity,” carving a legal path to seize the land for drainage projects, may hit a snag at tonight’s City Council meeting.
Lafayette’s city and parish councils made minor changes to the administration’s budget, approving the mayor-president’s spending plan and revenue projections unanimously.
Much of the spending in Guillory’s plan was of questionable eligibility, and the administration struggled to make the case for moving ahead now with so much uncertainty.
Would be co-sponsor Nanette Cook formally withdrew her support for an ordinance imposing a local mask mandate Tuesday. Unable to see a practical means of enforcement, she also cited mixed messages from unidentified “medical professionals” among her reasons for backing out.
Some 2,000 calls flooded the council office for and against the proposed ordinance, which The Current first reported last week. Misinformation about the what the local law would do has swarmed social media.
Glenn Lazard, who is in and out of treatment for leukemia, is pressing forward. But with Cook’s support, the ordinance won’t have a veto-proof voting block to carry it.
“I still have plans to go forward with it,” City Council member Glenn Lazard told the Advocate. “It’s the right thing to do and I’m still hopeful I will receive the necessary support to pass it