Panel applicants asked not to talk to media

By KEVIN BLANCHARD
Acadiana bureau
Published: May 5, 2006

LAFAYETTE — By the end of this month, a newly appointed subcommittee will be meeting to come up with a plan for development in north Lafayette.

The Lafayette North Plan Coordinating Team was created by the Lafayette Planning Commission. It fills a gap left when the City-Parish Council cut off funding to the Rebuild Lafayette North Committee.

The new organization, because it is underneath the planning commission, will have access to city-parish resources and employees and already worked-on long range plans for Lafayette Parish, said commission member Fred Prejean, who came up with the idea of the Lafayette North subcommittee.

But like the members of the commission’s three other subcommittees, members of the Lafayette North Plan Coordinating Team are asked not to speak to the media about the subcommittee’s activities, Prejean said Thursday.

Wednesday night, the commission held a workshop, where it reviewed the 20 applicants to the Lafayette North team. At that meeting, Prejean noted that some of the applicants had not answered a question on the application that asked if the applicant would have a problem from being restricted to reporting only to the planning commission.

Prejean said that, in the past, members of subcommittees have “said they weren’t going to blab to the press, and they did.”

Prejean also noted that some applicants had not said whether they could make two meetings a month.

Prejean asked Planning Manager Mike Hollier to call those applicants and make sure they meant to answer “correctly.”

The commission moved to approve all applicants, pending their decision to revise their answers accordingly.

Lafayette attorney John Milton was one of those applicants. He said he got a call from Hollier Thursday and agreed to the conditions.
“If they have good intentions, I’ll work with it,” Milton said.

In the past year, Milton has been an outspoken advocate for improving infrastructure on the north side of Lafayette. “I don’t see how, if I have something I need to say, I don’t think I would be restricted from saying it,” Milton said.

Prejean said that all the planning commission’s meetings are open to the public — and will remain so. Members of the subcommittees are encouraged to speak their minds at those meetings, Prejean said.

But it’s important that none of the members try to speak for the group as a whole, since the planning commission, ultimately is responsible for adopting the subcommittee’s recommendations, Prejean said.

“We can’t have different voices going out and saying different things about what’s going on,” Prejean said. “It’s a way to control what goes out to the public.”

Milton said he can see how one person could cause dissension in the group if that requirement was not made. “You don’t want people jumping out to make speeches for their political gain,” Milton said.

Notices of planning commission activities can be found at http://www.lafayettelinc.net and at the building where the meetings are held, Hollier said.

Some of the members who applied to the new Lafayette North Plan Coordinating Team include Mervin Harmon, a civil-rights leader and the first black police juror in Lafayette Parish; former firefighter and current developer Jay Castille; the Rev. Michael Sucharski; banker Buddy Webb; businesswoman Mitzi Duhon; and the Rev. Deborah Young.

Applications are still being accepted for two more weeks to fill additional spots, Prejean said.

The committee will likely break down into smaller groups to handle some of the 80 recommendations made to the planning commission on improving the north side during public meetings, Prejean said.