Tempers flare up at SMCC meeting

Published 6:00 am Tuesday, March 12, 2019

ST. MARTINVILLE — During a heated 90-minute special meeting Monday night, a St. Martinville mobile home park operator claimed that the altercation between the city’s public works director and a public works employee was a setup intended to get the director fired.

Evangeline Mobile Home Park owner Mark Brignac said he called Mayor Melinda Mitchell on Feb. 25, the day before Public Works Director Charlie Rader and employee Michael Martin were involved in a verbal altercation, to tell her Rader was being targeted.

“Listen to me good,” Brignac said. “I came to City Hall the day before this happened with knowledge that he was being set up. I walked out on the patio in front with Mr. Rader and told him, ‘The word on the street is that there is a plot to get rid of you.’”

Brignac then said he called Mitchell and gave her the same message. She confirmed in the meeting that Brignac had in fact talked to her and gave her that message.

The special meeting was called to take action after an altercation at the St. Martinville Public Works on Feb. 26 led to allegations from Martin that Rader used a racial epithet during the argument.

Rader, accompanied by lawyer William Goode, said it was Martin who used the coarse language several times during the exchange.

Rader said Martin threatened to beat him up three times, calling him a “m***** f****** n*****” twice, before leaving the Public Works office.

Martin said the argument was one-sided in the other direction.

“He said, ‘Hit me, n*****,’” Martin said. “You know you want to hit me.”

In reports filed after the incident, Public Works employee David Delaunay said he heard cursing, but did not hear Rader use any racially charged language. Another Public Works employee, Raphael Hebert, said he did hear the epithets.

Rader was hired in January as the new director of Public Works. In his testimony before the council Monday, he said he has found abuse of overtime in the department and tried to bring standards to the workplace. He pointed out that when he came on board the department had no personnel handbook and no policy manual in place.

Mitchell said Rader had brought up the overtime issue, and she had instructed him to monitor it closely.

Brignac insinuated the plot to undermine Rader came from members of the council. Mayor Pro Tem Craig Prosper shot back that he had concerns about Rader, but had only been at the Public Works yard once in two years, and that was to gauge the morale last month.

“I called Mr. Rader the afternoon before and told him I would come by in the morning,” Prosper said. “I showed up at 6:45 with three dozen donuts. I left at 7:15.”

Prosper did say he was concerned Rader’s performance, citing his time at City Hall instead of at the Public Works barn and a trip to St. Mary Parish for a continuing education conference for a certification he does not hold.

Rader countered that not only was he present at the barn every day, but he was responsive to his duties.

“You are liable for the lies you are making against me,” Rader said. “You are making false statements.”

Rader said one of Prosper’s complaints — that he called multiple times from his conference in St. Mary Parish to check on a downed electric line — was because Rader was getting requests from the St. Martin Parish School Board so they could make a decision regarding school for the next day.

“The school board was calling every 30 minutes because they needed to know what to tell parents,” Rader said. “I had to walk out of the conference to take their calls. I answer every single call, because that is who I am.”

St. Martinville City Legal Counsel Allan Durand said that the issues, from what he heard, were personnel matters to be dealt with.

“I don’t find that any violations of law occurred,” Durand said.

The council voted to have all four witnesses — Rader, Martin, Hebert and DeLaunay — take lie detector tests before determining a course of action. Mitchell had to break the deadlock when the vote was 2-2 — with District 4 Councilman Juma Johnson absent. Mitchell voted to approve the motion.

Prosper then made a motion to suspend Rader and Martin for two days without pay.

“No matter what was said, this is not how we should handle ourselves,” Prosper said.

That motion passed 3-1, with District 1 Councilman Mike Fusilier voting against.