For the Teche Area, 2019 was a year of shake-ups politically and and locally.

Not only did several elections decide the public officials who will be leading the parish forward in the coming years, but the area literally shook under Hurricane Barry in the summer.

After a review of the past year in news, here is The Daily Iberian newsroom’s picks for the Top 10 news stories of the year.

City Projects

For Mayor Freddie DeCourt and the New Iberia City Council, 2019 was a year full of projects that will more than likely spill over into the new year.

Not only did the city and organizers make progress on downtown projects like the George Rodrigue Pocket Park and Doc Voorhies Wing of the Bayou Teche Museum, but the City Council recently approved a Master Plan for downtown New Iberia that will determine the future trajectory for the heart of the city for years to come.

Renovations to downtown New Iberia are still coming, and the administration is gearing up to have studies done on other city districts for future work.

New Jeanerette mayor/board

Jeanerette saw a new mayor and mostly new Board of Aldermen after a March election, where Carol Bourgeois Jr. defeated incumbent Mayor Aprill Foulcard.

The win put Foulcard’s controversial tenure as mayor to a close, but fiscal administrator David Greer is continuing his assignment to correct Jeanerette government’s finances.

Since his election, Bourgeois has been working closely with Greer and bringing new board members into the fold.

Landry recusal motions

Months of trench warfare in the Iberia Parish Courthouse came to an end Dec.12 when 16th Judicial District Judge Lori Landry and 16th JDC District Attorney Bo Duhé came to an agreement to “communicate better.”

That agreement came after Duhé’s office filed hundreds of motions to recuse Landry from all criminal prosecutions. The statement from Landry and Duhé was delivered after four days of a hearing to determine whether or not the motions would stand. In making the announcement, Duhé also announced that his office was dropping all of the motions.

The filing of motions against Landry began on Sept. 17. The document claims that she “is biased or prejudiced against (the 16th JDC District Attorney’s) office such that she cannot be fair or impartial.”

The Louisiana Code of Judicial Conduct states that “a judge should disqualify himself or herself in a proceeding in which the judge’s impartiality might reasonably be questioned.” The 27-page motion from the District Attorney’s Office described 36 separate incidents. Many of the comments cited in the motion describe Landry claiming the District Attorney’s Office “knew or should have known” of irregularities in the Iberia Parish Sheriff’s Office prior to the federal convictions of nine officers in 2016.

“It doesn’t take a rocket scientist,” Landry said, according to the motion.

Landry denied any bias on her part. She called the motion “frivolous and without merit.”

But on Dec. 12, after the motions were dismissed, it was one big courthouse family on display.

“Bo and I talked, and decided it is best for us to do a reset and do the right thing for the community,” Landry said in court with Duhé at her side.

“I want to applaud the community and echo that communication is important,” Duhé said. “I look forward to addressing some of the issues that have come up through this.”

They even hugged.

Iberia Medical Center

The Iberia Medical Center Board of Commissioners will leave 2019 looking a bit different from when it came in, and with the hospital still seeking a new chief executive officer.

At the heart the changes was confusion that arose in the fall of 2018, when David C. Benson and José Mata, both doctors at the hospital, submitted their resumés to the Iberia Parish Council to be considered for a vacant board seat when former member Larry Nelson was up for reappointment.

After a legal review, Nelson was declared term limited. The IMC’s Medical Executive Committee recommended Mata, but the IPC voted to appoint Benson instead.

That decision led to meetings between the hospital administration, parish council and medical staff to reach a compromise for future appointments. The result was a compromise under which the IPC will approve at-large appointments, but the hospital’s Medical Executive Committee will appoint the two medical staff members of the board.

In the midst of that brouhaha, the long-running schism on the board exploded to the surface in July. Several board members were highly critical of the hospital administration’s operations and reaction to Hurricane Barry, during which the hospital lost power and evacuated dozens of patients.

Board member Frederick “Bozo” Metz led that charge. A month later, CEO Parker Templeton tendered his resignation, leading to a resolution from the Medical Executive Committee demanding the resignations of Metz and Benson. That led to a special counsel investigation of the two board members, which was forwarded to the IPC for action.

But the parish council didn’t act, instead sitting on the report until Metz’ term expired this month. As a last thumbing of the nose at the physicians, five council members voted to reappoint Metz, even after reading the evidence provided from the special counsel. Metz lost his seat in an 8-5 vote.

Indest Retires

After leading the Catholic High School football team for the past seven years, head coach Brent Indest announced his retirement from coaching Dec. 17 after three decades in the business,

Indest was a star quarterback for the Panthers, playing from 1980-83, and returned to his alma mater to take over head football coaching duties in 2012.

During his tenure, the Panthers won one state championship, beating longtime nemesis Notre Dame 33-17 in 2017, reached two more state finals and went to the semifinals two other times.

He finished with a 72-13 record at CHS and was 191-82 overall, leading the Panthers to three straight district titles and 19 straight district wins. He also sent several CHS players to the college ranks, including Jason Pellerin, who went to Ole Miss, Z’Yon Hill, to Louisiana-Lafayette, and most recently, Trey Amos, who signed with UL Lafayette during the early signing period the third week of December.

Fall Election

The Oct. 12 general election and Nov. 16 special election saw both new and old faces return for the upcoming political term in Iberia Parish.

Parish President Larry Richard was awarded a second term as a result of the October election, and candidate Tommy Romero bested opponent Murphy Meyers to become Iberia Parish’s next sheriff in the new year.

Candidate Beau Beaullieu won a bid to become the new state representative for District 48, replacing Speaker of the House Taylor Barras, R-New Iberia.

A race to replace former New Iberia City Marshal Vic Delcambre, who died earlier this year, came to a close after Tony Migues defeated opponent Brett Lang in November.

Hurricane Barry

Although not the strongest hurricane in recent memory, Hurricane Barry left its share of damage and made its presence known in the Teche Area after the Category 1 hurricane blew through the area in July.

Barry made landfall near Intracoastal City July 13 as a Category 1 hurricane. Storms associated with Hurricane Barry began impacting the state July 10. A Major Disaster Declaration for several Louisiana parishes that sustained damage caused by Hurricane Barry, including Iberia Parish, was declared by President Donald Trump in August.

Local residents went days without power and dealt with housing damage as a result of the hurricane, and debris cleanup became an inssue for the next several months.

Retail

It’s been no secret that 2019 may have been the year of new retail for New Iberia.

Several new businesses that have been talked about for years finally broke ground in the city, with local residents feeling a fresh breeze of new growth and options for shopping and food.

One of the biggest openings was Rouses Supermarket, which had a grand opening complete with marching bands and city officials turning out to Admiral Doyle Drive to witness the much sought after establishment.

Hobby Lobby came soon after, opening next door to Rouses at the site of the old K-Mart building, and KFC followed. Chick-Fil-A also opened its doors earlier this month with much fanfare and excitement, with many local residents camping out in tents the night before in the hopes of getting free food for a year.

Thibodeaux Trial

Former Iberia Parish Clerk of Court Mike Thibodeaux was convicted May 28 on one count of racketeering, two counts of theft over $25,000, one count of theft between $5,000 and $25,000, two counts of filing or maintaining false public records, seven counts of malfeasance in office and one count of perjury.

Thibodeaux was sentenced to 30 months in jail on the seven counts of malfeasance in office, but 15th Judicial District Judge Lewis Pitman suspended any additional jail time on racketeering, theft, perjury and filing false public records counts. Thibodeaux is still out on bond pending an appeal.

The investigation of Thibodeaux’s office began after former Chief Deputy Clerk Ryan Huval, who is mounting a campaign for Clerk of Court, was fired in November 2015. Huval then provided documents he had saved for years, at least since June 2012, to the Louisiana Legislative Auditor.

Those documents showed that Thibodeaux had created 334 checks to replace refund checks to litigants that had gone unnegotiated. He used those checks to transfer more than $47,000 from the advance fee fund, which is a fiduciary account for funds litigants pay up front when filing lawsuits, to the clerk’s salary fund, which is the operating fund for the office.

The other major component of the state’s case against Thibodeaux involved the “suit clean up” process at use in the clerk’s office. That process involved charging off the amount remaining in dormant accounts, ones which had sat idle for more than five years, noting false claims of certified or Xerox copies made against the accounts to justify moving the money from the advance fee account to the office’s salary fund.

That process netted Thibodeaux’s office $218,000 in the three years the LLA studied in its investigative audit.

He also failed to forward the funds from the dormant suit funds to the Louisiana State Treasury Unclaimed Property office as required under the statute governing the Clerk of Court office’ operation.

Thibodeaux also paid for part of a vacation using credit card points earned from government American Express cards. He used two $200 gift cards secured with credit card points to pay for hotel rooms while he and his wife were traveling in Austin, Texas, with friends, then tried to justify the expense as a business cost because he visited the Texas state capitol while in Austin.

St. Martinville

The goings-on in St. Martinville during 2019 are epic, even in a state known for its outlandish politics.

Mayor Melinda Mitchell was elected in 2018 to succeed long-time Mayor Thomas Nelson. Mitchell, a first-time office holder, has struggled with how some of the basic levers of government operate, to include the city’s special legislative charter and Robert’s Rules of Order. But she has had vocal support from her constituency, leading to packed council meetings, shouting matches and at least a few ejections of overzealous citizens.

Coming into 2019, Mitchell had the chief administrative officer she wanted, Shedrick Berard; a new public works superintendent, Charles Rader; and at least two firm votes on the city council from District 5 Councilman Juma Johnson and District 5 Councilman Edmond Joseph.

Then one night her husband threatened to kill Mayor Pro Tem Craig Prosper over the phone — with the chief of police as a witness, while using the chief of police’s phone. That led to an eventual stay-away order from a district court judge and several return trips to court as the order was violated.

The council raised concerns over Berard’s abilities. Financial issues arose regarding payroll deposits and police department grant funds.

Simultaneously, two Public Works employees filed complaints against Rader. Those complaints made their way to the council and eventually ended in Rader’s termination.

Weeks later, Berard was brought before the council, possibly facing termination. He tendered his letter of resignation to Mitchell before the meeting started.

One solution to the impasse Mitchell has sought is to blow up the city’s charter and go back to the strong mayor-weak council government model under the state’s Lawrason Act. That effort failed twice before the council, but that hasn’t stopped her. In December, she hosted a town hall to push the idea which degraded into a shouting match, with her supporters circling and shouting down District 1 Councilman Mike Fuselier.

As the year ends, the city has already notified the state that it will not have its annual audit ready for the Dec. 31 deadline because of the issues left in Berard’s wake. That audit, even when finished, is expected to have multiple findings, only a year after auditors praised the city for excellent financial management.

It also remains to be seen if Mitchell will attempt — for a third time — to put the removal of the city’s charter before the people of the city for a vote. If such an effort were to succeed, it would be the first time that any municipality had renounced its charter in favor of a Lawrason Act government model.