ST. MARTINVILLE — For the third time in less than a year, a St. Martinville city manager is on suspension over the use of vulgar language in the workplace.

According to Mayor Melinda Mitchell, Public Works Superintendent Brian Touchet will be on suspension without pay on Friday and Monday after he used profanity during an argument with Mark Brignac, the owner of a mobile home park who has been at the center of a disagreement with the city over maintenance of his park’s power lines.

In August, Police Chief Ricky Martin was suspended for two days after he used vulgar language during a conversation with a city employee in the mayor’s office. In March, former Public Works Superintendent Charles Rader was suspended for two days after a verbal altercation he had with an employee. Rader was fired shortly thereafter.

According to Brignac, the latest incident occurred when he went to the city’s Public Works barn Monday to pick up a copy of a work order he had requested last week. He said he sat down to speak with Touchet and another manager when Touchet became upset and slammed his fist on the desk.

“He said, ‘Get the **** out of my office,’” Brignac said.

Mitchell confirmed that Touchet did use coarse language in dealing with Brignac and apologized to the mayor for losing his temper.

“Unfortunately, things got overheated,” Mitchell said. “Mr. Touchet kind of lost it. We want to be respectful to our citizens, and we do not use vulgar language.”

The argument came a week after Brignac, who has been lobbying the city council to have lines at his park replaced to handle larger mobile homes, moved a mobile home into the park without proper permits.

“He did move a trailer into the park without a permit,” St. Martinville Legal Counsel Allan Durand said.

Durand said that the city’s code inspector, Rodney “Cooney” Richard, inspected a mobile home prior to it being allowed in the park and instructed Brignac that he had to get a permit to put the structure in the city limits.

“He told Mr. Brignac, ‘The trailer is permissible, but you still have to get a permit from (Zoning Administrator) Shedrick (Berard),’” Durand said.

Durand also said Brignac had applied for an electrical pole at the site, claiming it was for a security light. The pole in actuality had a 200-amp box for the incoming mobile home.

“He tried a stunt to hook up a safety light, but put in a meter big enough to do a trailer, not just lights,” Durand said.

The battle between Brignac and the council over upgrades to service for one side of his park has been ongoing for months. The city did replace lines on one side of the park, but was not able to do similar work on the other side because five mobile homes were set within the right-of-way used for utility maintenance. Some of those mobile homes are also under an electrical line, which is a building code violation.

Evangeline Mobile Home Park is an older mobile home development created for smaller homes using about 60 amps of electricity. Modern mobile homes are not only longer, but require a higher amperage of electrical service. Operating the newer mobile homes on the 60-amp service can cause damage to appliances in the mobile homes.

Some of the newer homes, which are placed closer to the property line of the park, are also on a city water main, which may become an issue in the future if the line needs repair.

In its meeting on June 24, the council agreed to have its inspectors measure the distance between the park’s trailers and the property line to determine how many need to be moved, and how far they may need to be moved to allow work to occur. At the time, the council also agreed that the costs to move the trailers would be Brignac’s responsibility.

Also at the June 24 meeting Brignac handed out flyers calling for Mayor Pro Tem Craig Prosper to be charged with malfeasance in office for failing to have the city resolve the issues at his park. Prosper has said that if the city could get to its right-of-way to do the work, it would have already been addressed, as the other issues at the park had been.

Brignac had previously asked the city to pay his expenses for legal and engineering fees, which the council denied last month. The council also gave Brignac 30 days to suggest a solution for the problem or else power to the outdated lines would be turned off.