ST. MARTINVILLE — The St. Martinville City Council may have been exercising social distancing protocols during Monday evening’s meeting, but they were definitely doing so with the gloves off as the meeting devolved into yelling matches and arguments between the council’s two factions.

Several contentious issues came to the fore, including a discussion of sanctioning Mayor Melinda Mitchell and reporting her to the Louisiana Board of Ethics for allegedly targeting a city Public Works employee for retribution, having more recreation funds provided for improvements at Adam Carlson Park, and the timeliness of payments on city purchase orders.

Between the histrionics and occasionally meandering arguments, the council also laid off five additional employees, demoted the police department’s assistant chief and reduced a police detective to the rank of sergeant and put him back on patrol duty after an investigation into missing funds from the police evidence room.

The most argumentative moments came during a discussion of sanctioning Mitchell for allegedly having her family and supporters surveil and target Public Works Supervisor Mike Martin. Martin had performed work on a sewer line at Mitchell’s home last spring which led to an investigation from the state ethics board in which investigators interviewed Martin.

Previously, Martin had filed a letter with the council outlining three separate events which he said showed Mitchell and her husband had been looking for reasons to have him disciplined. At Monday’s meeting, he said that Mitchell called the Public Works barn to find out why Martin was working on a property at 410 Jefferson St.

“I received an anonymous call that a city employee was doing work on private property,” Mitchell said. “I was doing my job by calling the employee’s supervisor.”

The work was a properly permitted utility hook up at the home.

“I enjoy my job,” Martin said, “but I don’t even go to the barn anymore. I get my work and I go. I don’t know who has a camera taking video of me. I just want to do my job, but I can’t just work because I feel like they are watching me all the time.”

Mayor Pro Tem Craig Prosper said he brought the issue up because he wanted to make it clear that the council did not support Mitchell’s actions if Martin were to sue the city.

“We already had three other cases that were completely bogus,” Prosper said. “Now we have a fourth. We warned the mayor not to do this. The city should not have to pay her legal fees if he decides to sue.”

“It was not the mayor who was harassing him,” District 5 Councilman Edmond Joseph said. “It was the woman who called.”

District 1 Councilman Mike Fuselier made a motion to send the information on the issues that Martin had raised to the ethics board, which he said was expected to take up Mitchell’s case this month.

“Y’all do what you have to do,” Mitchell said.

The issue of providing funds for earthwork to create a football field at Adam Carlson Park was tabled. DIstrict 4 Councilman Juma Johnson said he had solicited three bids for the work, but only one was included in the council’s submittal packets.

Fuselier said that the bid that he saw needed further clarification as well.

“This says that he will move some dirt around,” Fuselier said. “It doesn’t show the scope of work. It says nothing about laser leveling the field or removing that tree.”

Johnson said he would have a more specific bid submitted and provide all three bids at the next meeting.

The issue of timely payment of purchase orders had been discussed at the council’s March meeting. Specifically, the problem centered on some concrete work that was being done at Magnolia Park that was held up for what Fuselier said was three weeks waiting for a check to be signed.

Mitchell, however, used an example from the police department to defend her reticence to sign the check, showing that money had been misallocated in the department’s accounts, leaving some budget lines underfunded.

“I am not going to sign a check if the money is not in the budget,” Mitchell said to Prosper. “You are more than welcome to come in and sign that if you want.”

Fuselier, obviously frustrated, pointed out that the issue was with a project that was fully funded that the council had approved that was held up because of a check not being signed.

The issue of amending the budget to balance the funds was also broached. Chief Administrative Officer Avis Gutekunst said the city’s auditor had recommended against doing multiple budget amendments.

“We need to get this under control,” Prosper said. “If money is misallocated, we need to make sure it is placed in the proper account.”

The layoffs announced affected one full time position in the police department and two part-time dispatchers, as well as two Public Works employees.

The council went into executive session to discuss the demotion of Assistant Chief Cody Laperouse.Upon exiting executive session, the council also voted to demote Detective Kelly Dauterive and return him to patrol duty based on Police Chief Ricky Martin’s recommendation, based on a pending investigative report into the disappearance of $600 from the department’s evidence room.