Mitchell blasts Prosper in TV interview

Published 12:00 am Thursday, March 21, 2019

ST. MARTINVILLE — In a rambling interview with a local television station Wednesday, St. Martinville Mayor Melinda Mitchell called for professionalism and respect from her mayor pro tem — after three solid minutes of blasting him for attacks against her.

In a video posted live to social media of her interview, an obviously agitated Mitchell read off a flood of perceived wrongs committed against her as well as a list of her accomplishments in her first nine months in office.

“It’s time to break the silence,” Mitchell said. “Enough is enough. The citizens of St. Martinville deserve so much better than what we have been seeing. 

“I’ve been bullied, I’ve been yelled at, been told I would fail and totally disrespected by Councilman Craig Prosper, our Mayor Pro Tem, since the second week after I had taken office,” she continued. “My family has been humiliated and taken advantage of. I have been on the front page of seven newspapers, falsely accused of all sorts of things. Having to adjourn a council meeting because this councilman would speak over me, even when I hit the gavel a couple of times for order.”

Prosper’s response to a group email Mitchell sent out Tuesday afternoon precipitated the litany. Mitchell said the note was to let councilmen know she intended to have three Public Works Department employees polygraphed following an incident on Feb. 26 at the Public Works barn between former Superintendent Charlie Rader and employee Michael Martin. That incident was the subject of a special council meeting on March 11, which resulted in Rader and Martin being suspended for two days without pay.

On March 18, District 5 Councilman Edmond Joseph asked that Rader’s performance be discussed at the council’s regular meeting. After the discussion, which became heated at times, Rader was terminated after barely two months on the job.

“I had my secretary email the council that the polygraph tests had been ordered,” Mitchell said. “At 4:27 p.m., I received a response to the group email from Mr. Prosper. ‘This has to be the stupidest thing we can ever do. Are we trying to give this particular employee additional reason to file suit against us?’ And Chief Ricky Martin agreed with Councilman Prosper in a group email. Why couldn’t Councilman Prosper just ask to discuss the issue in a professional manner?” 

Prosper admitted to being brusque and over the top in some of his comments to the mayor, but said his aggressiveness was the result of frustration.

“I was adamant about things because we had deadlines and things needed to be done,” Prosper said.

When contacted, Martin said he understood the reason for having the three employees still employed take a lie detector test. He still agreed with Prosper that having Rader take a test was moot after his employment was terminated.

“I met with the mayor (Wednesday) afternoon,” he said. “I said I understood why she wanted to test the other three employees.”

Mitchell said she wants to find out whether the employees who made statements about the Feb. 26 incident — Michael Martin, Raphael Hebert and David Delaunay — were being truthful when they spoke to the council during what became Rader’s termination hearing.

“The fact is if we are going to discipline one, let’s discipline the others,” she said. “If they fail the test, we have to be fair. They have lied to the council and the mayor. I hope it all goes well, but we need to be fair.” 

Mitchell and Prosper have had a tempestuous relationship at best during her term as mayor. The meeting which she said she ended prematurely deteriorated during a discussion over the hiring of Mitchell’s transition manager, Janine Coleman, as a consultant for between $65,000 and $165,000 per year. It was during that discussion that Mitchell left the meeting.

Another argument between Prosper and Mitchell over the mayor removing a discussion of the city’s electric utility contract from the council agenda led to an incident in which Mitchell’s husband threatened Prosper in front of the chief of police. That incident led to a restraining order against Mitchell’s husband. He has since been arrested twice for violating the order.

“She kept pulling the discussion of the contract from the agenda,” Prosper said. “If we had not put that out for bid, we would have had no leverage with CLECO to renegotiate our rates.”

An attorney general’s opinion later clarified that the council, not the mayor, controlled the placement of items on the agenda under St. Martinville’s home rule charter.

Mitchell claimed the new CLECO contract as one of the wins for her administration. After the council was abe to get the request for proposals on the agenda, bids were received from other vendors. CLECO then came through with a counteroffer to lower rates and keep the St. Martinville contract.

In November, Mitchell recommended the city hire its safety and zoning director as its new chief administrative officer. The city’s independent auditor, Burton Kolder, said Shedrick Berard was not qualified for the position. Another candidate who the auditor recommended later withdrew her application after delays and a lower salary were offered. 

Prosper said he also warned Mitchell that Berard’s background was not suited to the job.

“I told her that he is a nice guy, but he doesn’t have the training to be a chief financial officer,” Prosper said.

In the last month, the city has been plagued with payroll issues and questions over unpaid bills from vendors after the accounting specialist who had been handling those functions went on an extended medical leave.

Over the Christmas holiday, a procession, including a small carnival train, wound through the streets of St. Martinville without a permit. Initially, Mitchell said she was not riding on the train but was in the procession, which blocked traffic on two main streets in the city. Later, during a council discussion “to clarify” her participation in the event, she said she was at home and was not involved at all.

In the latest disagreement, the council voted Monday to fire Rader, who Mitchell had chosen for the Public Works superintendent job and who the council approved unanimously in January. 

“He did do an awesome job,” Mitchell said. “But they did get the votes to fire him. It’s very discouraging. But at the end of the day it was done and my hands were tied.”

In her video statement Wednesday, Mitchell pointed to several wins, including a new electric power contract for the city. 

She also claimed credit for a windfall from the Metropolitan Planning Organization for $2.3 million in road work on La. Highway 31. That money is in the process of being transferred from another project for a bypass around the city that was in danger of being declared dormant after Parish President Chester Cedars said the matching funds for the project were not an effective use of parish resources. 

Although it will bring an economic benefit for the city, the road project uses federal funds for a road the state is responsible for maintaining. State funds would not be available to do the work anytime soon, so the federal funds effectively move St. Martinville to the front of the line for work that would have taken years to be done with state money, and without the city having to put up any matching funds or engineering and administrative costs.

District 1 Councilman Mike Fuselier said the dysfunction is a new low point for the city.

“In 25 years of public service, I have never been so frustrated by the lack of decorum in our public meetings,” he said. “I have never seen our city administration this disorganized. I just hope and pray we can regroup.”

Towards the end of her interview, Mitchell struck a more reasonable tone.

“I’m willing to work with anyone, but he or she has to be willing to work with me,” she said. “I’m asking Mr. Prosper to come on board and communicate like adults and the leaders we have been elected to be.”

“It’s time to break the silence. Enough is enough. The citizens of St. Martinville deserve so much better than what we have been seeing. I’ve been bullied, I’ve been yelled at, been told I would fail and totally disrespected by Councilman Craig Prosper, our Mayor Pro Tem, since the second week after I had taken office. My family has been humiliated and taken advantage of. I have been on the front page of seven newspapers, falsely accused of all sorts of things.”

Melinda Mitchell