Iberia has 5 amendments on ballot

In addition to the large number of candidates up for voters’ consideration this month, Iberia Parish residents also will have five amendments to the Iberia Parish Home Rule Charter to consider Oct. 24.

Those five proposed amendments ask voters to consider reducing the number of Iberia Parish Council members, upping pay for Parish Council members, cementing how vacancies are filled and setting term limits for government officials and board members.

Proposition 1 would reduce the Parish Council from 14 members to nine beginning with the fall 2019 election that would seat new members in January 2020. It would charge the Parish Council being seated in this election with drawing the new districts.

That same proposition also would bump Parish Council members’ annual pay from $7,200 to $12,000 beginning with the body being seated in January and to $20,000 annually beginning with the terms starting in 2020.

Proposition 2 would require a special election called if a Parish Council seat is vacated with more than 18 months left on the term, even if someone was appointed to replace the resigned member. If there are fewer than 18 months remaining, the appointee would simply finish out the term.

Proposition 3 would lay out the same guidelines as Proposition 2 for the Iberia Parish president’s office.

Proposition 4 would limit both Parish Council members and parish presidents to no more than three four-year terms, regardless of whether they are served consecutively. Appointments or special elections to finish out unexpired terms would not count to the three-term limit.

Proposition 5 would limit those appointed to parish boards and commissions to three consecutive terms on the same post. Individuals are not limited in total terms served on one board or commission. Again, appointments to fill an unexpired vacant term would not count toward the limitation.

The amendments come to the ballot after an ad hoc committee made recommendations earlier this year, although the proposals now differ significantly from what the ad hoc committee submitted.

The proposals to reduce the Parish Council count and up their pay were initially separate. The term limits for Parish Council members and the Parish President also were initially separate. The special election amendments were added at the last minute when the Parish Council’s attorney recommended them to keep Iberia Parish Government consistent with state law.

Councilman Lloyd Brown called for Proposition 1’s current language combining the reduction and pay raise and Proposition 4’s combination of term limits for Parish Council members and the parish president. At the time, the move was sold as the best way to push the proposals forward.

Councilman Bernard Broussard said Tuesday he believed in May the best chance of the Parish Council allowing the amendments to go before voters was by combining them together rather than individually placing them.

“The original propositions, hearing the council, wouldn’t have passed,” Broussard said. “I don’t think you would have had enough votes as they were.”

Councilman Troy Comeaux, who served on the ad hoc committee considering the charter amendments, blasted the combinations of proposed amendments at the time. This week, he characterized the combinations as an attempt at “sabotaging” the original proposals and “absolutely” a political move.

Comeaux said he became most discouraged when the discussion on Parish Council size revolved on which would be easier to manipulate behind or against a vote.

“The experience has now turned to manipulation,” he said Tuesday, adding he went from undecided to “1000 percent” behind term limits after the changes. “Obviously it’s time for these people to be replaced. We’re living proof that the negatives (of no term limits) outweigh the positives.”

Comeaux said he believed those Parish Council members who openly supported combining reduced members to pay raises were trying to dissuade voters from approving that amendment, but his conversations with constituents reflect a different attitude. Talk of reducing the council has long circulated the community, but voters have never had an opportunity to decide on it until now, Comeaux said.

“Despite the fact the items on the ballot were not all what the ad hoc committee had recommended, many of the folks I have talked to are more interested in downsizing government than the small increase in spending,” he said.

Wayne Landry, a former assistant district attorney with the 16th Judicial District who once represented the Parish Council, said he agreed with Comeaux that combining council size and pay raises was likely an attempt to kill the proposal, but noted even as a member of the ad hoc committee, he opposed the notion of term limits for local politics.

“There’s a legitimate argument for me if you’re talking about Washington, D.C., because you’re running against the bank in either race,” he said.

Landry, who continues to represent the Iberia Parish School Board, said he believed public discussion was more about never being able to vote on these issues rather than outright calling for the changes.

“I think what the public was more vocal about was that the council never put it on the ballot for them to vote on,” he said.

Brown did not return multiple phone calls.

Early voting for this election is Saturday and Oct. 12-17, from 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. each day. Election day is Oct. 24.