Craig Prosper staying on St. Martinville City Council through year’s end

Published 6:00 am Sunday, May 19, 2019

ST. MARTINVILLE — Mayor Pro Tem Craig Prosper has made his decision.

“I will stay the rest of the year,” he said Friday. “I do not think I will serve out my full term, but after all of the calls, texts and support, I will serve out the rest of this year to get things on a stable footing.”

Prosper had said on May 11 that he was going to announce his resignation last week after Lawrence “Nanny” Mitchell was released on $500 bond when he was arrested for violating a civil restraining order for the third time this year.

On May 10, Mitchell entered a special meeting of the council during a discussion of city finances. Prosper stopped the discussion and briefly left the meeting. Mitchell was arrested later that evening.

The order requires Mitchell to stay 100 yards away from Prosper. On Thursday, Prosper filed documents with the 16th Judicial District Court to hold Mitchell in contempt of the order for repeatedly violating it.

The recurring incidents involving Mitchell and the general lack of decorum in the city council’s meetings has brought several items to this week’s meeting agenda. Both Prosper and District 1 Councilman Mike Fuselier have proposals on Monday night’s meeting to address the rancor that has existed during the last year.

Fuselier is taking an idea from other area governments, discussing a rule change for its “yellow card” speaking requests. In many cases, the members of the public have either gone off topic or begun arguments with council members. Fuselier is proposing that speakers may present their views, but cannot get involved in “one-on-one” discussions with council members or other parties.

He also is scheduled to discuss making sure there is a police presence at every council meeting.

Prosper has asked to discuss appointing a parliamentarian to actually run the meeting, similar to how the St. Martin Parish Council operates. Although the presiding officer still gavels the meeting to order and calls for any actions that need to be taken, the parliamentarian would move the meeting from item to item on the agenda and keep the meeting on track.

There also are several items on Monday’s agenda that have developed from previous meetings. The council is scheduled to discuss in more detail a public records request from Mayor Melinda Mitchell’s former transition manager, Janine Smith Coleman, who had asked for years of city financial records, including checks and other documents.

When the issue of the request came up at a special meeting on May 15, there was no clear answer as to what information Coleman had been given or how much fulfilling the request — which came to between 1,000 and 3,000 pages of computer printouts — had cost. It also was not made clear at the council’s special meeting last week who gave the word for the request to be fulfilled.

Coleman’s continued interest in the city’s finances comes as she herself is the subject of a filing from JPMorgan/Chase Bank for a loan she refinanced in 2017 for her property in St. Martin Parish. According to court records, the bank filed suit in March to foreclose on the property to collect $136,000 still owed. As of last week, an attorney had been appointed to represent her because she failed to respond to attempts to serve her with documents.

Coleman had made a pitch for the city to hire her as a consultant. The three options she presented to the council ranged in price from $60,000 for three months of work to $160,000 for a year.

The city has yet to provide the same information Coleman requested to media outlets, including The Daily Iberian. An electronic version was to be sent Thursday, but has so far not materialized.

Prosper also has asked to discuss procedures for employees clocking in and to clarify the council’s discussion of holiday pay for part-time employees. The council also will discuss its personnel overtime ordinance after a discussion at the council’s May 6 meeting raised questions about how overtime affected some workers.

In other business, the council is scheduled to:

• Consider rezoning the Florsheim property and adjacent lots on Main Street from residential to commercial.

• Hear requests from two groups wishing to use city facilities for summer programs.

• Hear a request for two 30-minute parking spaces to be established at 416 S. Main St.

• Discuss payment of two change orders totalling $18,550 for work at the Maison Duchamp.

• Discuss hiring a new part-time dispatcher for the police department.

• Discuss approval of a Taser policy for the St. Martinville Police Department and purchase Tasers for officers.

The St. Martinville City Council will meet at 6 p.m. Monday evening in the city council meeting room of City Hall, 120 New Market St. in St. Martinville.