New Iberia mayor, council address nationwide protests

Published 8:00 am Wednesday, June 3, 2020

With a relatively light agenda at Tuesday’s meeting, members of the New Iberia City Council and Mayor Freddie DeCourt took the opportunity to comment on the recent protests happening all across the country.

DeCourt said that although he doesn’t usually comment on national affairs, the series of events that began with the death of George Floyd after a police officer in Minneapolis knelt on his neck for several minutes affected him and every public servant.

“We built a community police department here,” DeCourt said at the meeting. “I talked to the (New Iberia) Police Department this morning. The police department stands with you in mourning and demands justice.

“We’re built on community policing and we will have community policing here,” he added. “The man responsible is in jail. Let’s all just pray the legal system does its job.”

The mayor also called the tragic incident an opportunity for the community to come together and protest peacefully, noting a peaceful protest is scheduled for Saturday.

“The good thing is we live in New Iberia and we have a long history of tolerance, of working together, of being a community,” he said. “We are that kind of a culture.”

Councilwoman Natalie Lopez asked her constituents to take the opportunity to educate their children on racism and prejudice as they get exposed to the events unfolding through social media and television.

“They’re going to experience this on TV and social media and you want them to take away the right values from the situation,” Lopez said.

Councilwoman Sherry Guidry also said that reflection and prayer should take place within the family.

“I just want to say continue to talk with your kids about this matter,” Guidry said. “It all starts at home with a foundation of prayer.”

Councilwoman Deidre Ledbetter said that although it was 2020, recent events have made many feel like they are living in the 1950s and 1960s.

“People of all ethnicities are coming together in peaceful protest, and I want to stress the majority of it is peaceful protest,” Ledbetter said. “You have a few rotten apples in the group, hopefully people really see it’s a movement to make things better in our country.”

In other business, the council approved the millage rates for the new fiscal year.

The rates will be the same as last year’s millage rates, with DeCourt saying that he felt the millage rates should not go up in the present economy.

“We could have rolled them up slightly, it would have made a difference of $10,000 a year,” DeCourt said. “I thought in this economy we shouldn’t go up.”

The council passed the measure unanimously.