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Lafayette Consolidated Government
SHOCK: LCG Council Endorses Drag Event for ToddlersAt last night’s meeting, Council Clerk, Veronica Williams, announced to an overflow crowd that 397 people went on-record regarding the Library’s decision to hold a drag event for toddlers. A clear seventy-nine percent (79%) wanted the council to denounce the library’s decision to create and facilitate such a divisive event.
As promised, we presented 1,617 written petitions asking for the council to take a position on the issue. Add to that 76 speakers giving nearly six hours of public comments, a national petition with 17,000 signatures, a letter from state legislators Speaker Taylor Barras, Blake Miguez, Julie Emerson, Nancy Landry, and Jean-Paul Coussan, and a letter from 51 area pastors representing thousands of parishioners… that were all completely ignored by council members who had decided their vote before the meeting even began.
The purpose of our petition was for the City/Parish Council to take a position on the Library event – and take a position they did! Sometime after 10:30 last night the council voted to not oppose the Library’s controversial decision by a vote of 6-3. The three who voted in favor of the resolution to denounce the library included Jared Bellard, Nanette Cook, and William Theriot. The remaining six councilmen did not vote in support the resolution, causing it to fail. They were: Liz Hebert, Pat Lewis, Jay Castille, Bruce Conque, Kevin Naquin, and Kenneth Boudreaux.
Today on social media, many of the “Yellow Six,” as they’ve been dubbed, have been furiously attempting to defend their votes. Time will tell how long this will be the talk of the entire Parish. However, the elephants in the room remain the many, many tax propositions that these same six council members have heaved onto upcoming election ballots. Will the voters remember that these councilmen put the Library’s failed tax renewal on the ballot earlier this year in spite of its $42.3 million surplus? In November, will voters approve $11.2 million in new, annual taxes for a council that’s said it has ZERO control over the departments these taxes are supposed to fund? Can these six council members convince the voters to overlook their drag queen vote in March of 2019 and approve the single-largest tax increase in parish government history? Perhaps the biggest question of all is will their inability to control the library affect their re-election efforts next fall?
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