Closed panel meetings sought

By KEVIN BLANCHARD
Acadiana bureau
Published: Aug 12, 2006

LAFAYETTE — A member of the Lafayette Planning Commission has requested that the panel meet behind closed doors with staff before each commission meeting.  Commissioner Fred Prejean’s proposal appears to be a violation of the state’s open meetings laws, which require the public be allowed to attend meetings of public bodies.

Prejean also asked commission Chairman John Barras to keep the proposal quiet. “I urge you to consider this request without having to discuss it in a public meeting or forum,” Prejean wrote. “I’m sure the news media will blow this out of proportion.” The commission already meets in the hour before their regular meetings for coffee, but that meeting is open to the public and noticed in the meeting agenda.

In an Aug. 5 e-mail to Barras, Prejean wrote that only staff members should be allowed to attend the coffees, because Prejean doesn’t trust certain “non-staff” members who sometimes show up. “My intention is to get rid of the ‘little Napoleon Bonaparte(s)’ who frequent our briefings,” Prejean wrote.

The attorney for the Planning, Zoning and Codes Department has advised that anyone is allowed to attend those coffees, said Eleanor Bouy, who as zoning commission director oversees the staff that supports its operations.

Prejean said Thursday he has asked City-Parish Attorney Pat Ottinger whether the coffees are indeed required to be open to the public. “If it turns out it’s open, so be it,” Prejean said, saying his intent was never to exclude all the public, just certain people.

Prejean’s e-mail refers to those who attend to “soak up significant information demonstrated through our commissioners’ attitudes and using that knowledge to calculate future actions.” “There’s a couple of individuals I’d like to keep out,” Prejean said Thursday.

While Prejean wouldn’t say who the “little Napoleons” are, he has spent time on his Web site railing against the actions of city-parish councilmen Bruce Conque and Chris Williams.

Prejean has called out Williams and Conque for their votes to overturn a Planning Commission decision to bar a student apartment complex from locating near an historic area. “Chris Williams and Bruce Conque are two dangerous politicians,” Prejean wrote on his Web site after that council decision. “They are armed with slight of tongue, an obnoxious superiority complex and a pretense of innocence extraordinaire. They’re good but they wouldn’t fool St. Peter.”

In his Aug. 5 e-mail, Prejean wrote that “recent events” have caused him to no longer trust “non-staff” people and “requires a justified proactive response.” I resent the indifference shown to me and our entire commission and I am predisposed to confront such foul play. I’m not intimidated by non-staff members, just cautious about who I will now trust,” Prejean wrote.

Prejean has already announced his intention to run for the State House of Representatives when current Lafayette Democrat Rep. Wilfred Pierre steps down next year because of term limits. Williams is also contemplating running for that seat.

Also in his Aug. 5 e-mail, Prejean wrote he is “contemplating additional action,” but is waiting for a response from Barras. “There’s a war going on with an enemy that is oblivious to other people and their interest,” Prejean wrote.

Conque said he doesn’t see himself involved in any war. “This is a one-sided battle on his (Prejean’s) part,” Conque said. Williams said that the planning commission process, with plenty of public input, has worked for years. “I don’t see a problem with the system the way it is now,” Williams said.

Prejean has defended the commission’s policy of asking people appointed to its subcommittee not to speak to the media, saying the subcommittees should speak with one voice.

In an editorial posted Thursday afternoon on his Web site — www.lafayettepublicpolicy.com — Prejean said people practicing “Machiavellian” politics are attending the coffee sessions to “intimidate” commissioners. “The political landscape of Lafayette is fragmented, polarized, paranoid and filled with mean-spirited individuals,” Prejean wrote in his editorial.

The attempt to bar these “little Napoleons” and Machiavellians from meetings, by barring the public at large, is actually an attempt to promote democracy, Prejean wrote in his editorial.

“While our local media may spin this editorial and e-mail to accommodate their purposes, let it be known that I am an advocate of democracy and the ideals of the proud American People who gave their lives for this country,” Prejean wrote. “My letter to the commission chairman was written with the intent of promoting democracy … I am confident that people of goodwill, in time, will extricate the cunning foxes and supplant them with people who don’t have an ego problem.”

The Planning Commission meets Monday at 5 p.m., in the Planning, Zoning and Codes building at the Clifton Chenier Center on Willow Street. There’s a commissioner’s coffee scheduled for 4 p.m. in the conference room.

Story originally published in The Advocate


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