ST. MARTINVILLE — The racial divide in St. Martinville was in sharp focus Monday night, with one councilman saying he believed racism was driving operation and policy decisions in the city.

During a discussion of council interference in day-to-day operations at the city’s Public Works barn, District 5 Councilman Edmond Joseph said that he went to the barn Monday to get a grass crew to work in his area because he felt all of the department’s efforts were going to the white areas of the city, not his district, which is predominantly Black.

“I understand it’s been raining, but that’s one doggone thing,” Joseph said during a heated exchange with Public Works Maintenance Supervisor Brian Touchet. “The South always got to suffer while the North gets all of the attention.”

“What, it rains more in the South?” Mayor Pro Tem Craig Prosper asked.

“I ain’t talking about the rain,” Joseph continued. “You know what I’m talking about. Y’all take Carlos (one of the grass cutting crew foremen) from the south and take him to the north.”

“Wow,” Prosper said.

“A lot of things like that go on,” Joseph continued. “Wow is right.”

Prosper tried to speak again, but Joseph cut him off.

“Man, look as long as I am sitting in this seat going to do what the people need done,” Joseph said.

“What?” Prosper asked.

“I’m going to do whatever I need to do as long as I am sitting in this seat,” Joseph repeated.

“I really wish that you would control yourself better than that,” Prosper said, but Joseph cut him off again.

“You always want things to go your way,” Joseph said.

The discussion of council interference in day-to-day operations stemmed from a vote at the previous meeting, when Joseph spoke against hiring a new lineman for the city’s electric department. During that meeting, Joseph objected to the hire, saying that Touchet was trying to sneak a new superintendent into the department.

Joseph is a proponent of promoting current lineman Cassius Bourda into the supervisor’s position, despite Bourda’s pending trial for an alleged Sept. 2019 sexual assault which, according to police reports, occurred while Bourda was on his lunch break driving a city vehicle.

“Brian, you got mad last meeting because they didn’t hire a lineman,” Joseph said. “You slammed your doggone phone right here. You walked out. You walked back in. We don’t know. You could have walked in with a gun. You understand? A lot of things could have happened. But yet you call a meeting. You want to meet with me. That’s up to me if I want to meet with you.”

Touchet tried to respond, but Joseph cut him off again.

“You’re the superintendent,” Joseph said. “I’m the councilman. If I don’t want to talk to you, that’s up to me.”

Prosper, who was chairing the meeting in Mayor Melinda Mitchell’s absence, tried to gavel the meeting back to order, but Joseph continued justifying his position of circumventing Touchet, acknowledging that he did not even say hello to Touchet when he came to the Public Works barn to talk directly with employees.

Prosper finally gained control of the meeting, asking City Legal Counsel Allan Durand for suggestions to resolve the issue.

Councilman Mike Fuselier tried to offer a suggestion.

“We don’t let just anyone go to the city barn,” Fuselier said. “I don’t think a city councilman should be, like I say, we’re a legislative body and —”

Joseph then cut him off.

“Excuse me!” Fuselier said.

“When I go to the barn, I want to do business there,” Joseph said. “When I go there I put in a work order just like everybody else.”

“And that’s not the problem I have,” Touchet responded. “It’s the side conversations you have, going down there and stirring stuff up.”

When Joseph tried to retort, Prosper again banged the gavel.

“One more time, one more time and you go,” he said.

Durand then said that council members had a right to visit city work areas to investigate issues or to collect information, but that a councilman spending an hour in the morning once or twice each week talking to employees during their work time — as Joseph does — would constitute a disruption.

Joseph’s time at the barn, as well as his long conversations with employees in the offices of city hall, has been a simmering issue for years. Chief Administrative Officer Avis Gutekunst echoed Touchet’s complaints about Joseph’s undermining of city administrators.

“We gotta quit bringing in this north and south, this racial thing that we have going on,” Gutekunst said as Joseph tried to interrupt her. “Edmond, you’re sitting up here and you are looking at me when I’m trying to hire a new employee, the first time that she’s here, and you say, ‘Sure, hire the white lady instead of the black lady.’ How does that make our employees feel?”

Touchet also replied to Joseph’s allegations, saying that not only did he not deny any services to minority areas, but went out of his way to make sure that the Public Works operation was working smoothly to address issues across the city without any prejudice.

“In the two years I’ve been here I have maintained an open door policy at the city barn,” Touchet said. “I’ve got nothing to hide. I think I have the barn pointed in the right direction. All of you have my cell phone, email if you want to come out. All but one of you do that. I have no problem with someone coming down to be part of the solution, but I don’t need someone coming down to disrupt.”

Fuselier made a motion to limit the amount of time a council member could spend visiting with employees, but the motion died for lack of a second.

After more back and forth, Prosper ended the discussion, calling for a motion to adjourn.

“We could stay here until 2 o’clock tomorrow morning, but I don’t know what we’d get out of it,” Prosper said. “Edmond, I’m going to ask you, please, to handle yourself better. That’s it. Simple.”

On Monday night the St. Martinville City Council also:

Approved closing New Market, Evangeline and St. Martin streets on May 2 for the “Dinner with Evangeline” fundraiser.

• Approved a request from Acadian Workforce Solutions to use the Magnolia Recreation Center for a job recruiting event on April 24 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

• Approved installation of a speed bump on Rousseau Street.

• Allowed the owner of a dilapidated home at 210 E. Hamilton St. 90 days to make progress on rehabilitating the structure.

• Allowed the owner of a home at 120 Resweber St. 14 days to gut and clean up the building, cut grass on the site, and treat the property for fleas.

• Approved hiring a full-time patrol officer.

• Moved three Public Works employees from part-time to full-time status to fill existing vacancies.