One can attend either one or both of The City of New Iberia, Louisiana’s City Council meetings held on the 1st and 3rd Tuesdays (unless changed) for FREE, no-cover, n0-minimum, on the 3rd floor of City Hall on East Main Street starting at 5:30 PM (or very close to it.)

It was there that I witnessed the thorough discussion of Agenda item 5. a., SIGNS IN THE CITY and I received a real appreciation of how our City Council determines WHICH laws to consider, pass or not and WHICH are best not addressed at this time.

Since the time period we are in includes a National election and a Local one as well, signage is a very important issue to address right NOW since it had come up and not gotten resolved in the period between the two Presidential elections, the ones 4 years apart. Also, it has come up before and never got past consideration only, just as other difficult issues do…

We now face the question “Is this the time to act, or not yet again?” The arguments pro and con over various considerations and ramifications was a lively one…much to be enjoyed and appreciated by the audience who could ONLY observe now, even if they had ‘pre-registered’ to speak during the Agenda 1. opportunity period…way back at the beginning of the meeting…hmmmm.

The discussion itself between council members bounced around over various viewpoints as the members voiced their concerns over all signage, but ‘political’ ones especially…due to their current proliferation.

The attending public audience might have been swayed one way or another, but we may never know until, perhaps, another PUBLIC COMMENT period in the future as spelled out in the rigid rule-book speaker period allotted time to share their opinion period.. Of course, the options of telling your council representative, or the mayor, right after the meeting ‘kinda’ exists, but the meeting is over and everyone wants to go home then…

Folks, if you missed the meeting, you can catch it on various platforms, both visually and audio-only…T.V. and RADIO re-broadcasts…try it, you might like it? I strongly suggest you do that, unless you have something better to do.

We all live busy, busy, busy lives these days, but one should find time to see how one’s local government really works…it then won’t be such a big surprise to you when, say, a new SIGN ORDINANCE goes into effect…

RICHARD PHILLIPS

New Iberia