As SaveGonzales readies to make its push to the finish line (2,145 voter signatures to recall Councilmen Gary Lacombe and Timothy Vessel) it got a boost from four visitors to its Wednesday meeting at Carli-Co Café. Mayor Barney Arceneaux, Chief of Police Sherman Jackson, and Councilmen Kenny Matassa and Kirk Boudreaux briefed SaveGonzales on what to expect at the next city council meeting on July 28.
“What’s going to happen on Monday? It’s impossible for me to say for sure since Mr. Lacombe, Mr. Vessel and Mr. Irvin don’t tell me anything. At this point, nothing they do would really surprise me,” Mayor Arceneaux told the group. “We’ll have to wait and see, but I am certainly preparing for more budget amendments.”
Monday is the fourth meeting at which the city’s General Fund and Capital Outlay budgets are scheduled for a council vote. The three Councilmen identified by Mayor Arceneaux took turns amending the budgets on April 28 until they had subtracted $800,000 which was reallocated to fund “Gary Lacombe’s brainchild,” the I-10 service road project/study.
Among several Capital Outlay cuts was funding for five of the nine patrol cars requested by the police chief. The single General Fund reduction was the $100,000 allocation to Ascension Economic Development Corporation (AEDC) down to $25,000.
Their actions pushed back the budget vote to May 12 when they adopted both amended budgets over dissenting votes by Matassa and Boudreaux. Mayor Arceneaux vetoed the budgets on May 21 and went on to meet with each of Gonzales’ five council members in the attempt to negotiate budget terms acceptable to both factions.
“I’ve stated my position clearly and consistently. I will not compromise on public safety and when Chief Jackson requests funding for patrol units I’m going to stand with him,” Arceneaux reiterated to the universal approval of SaveGonzales’ membership.
Mayoral concessions were included in the budgets that Arceneaux introduced on June 23. He eliminated $170,000 for a dog park and retained cuts made to the fire department by Capital Outlay amendments. He reduced AEDC funding to $75,000 in General Fund. The new budgets came up for vote on July 14.
Again, Lacombe, Vessel and Irvin voted to reduce funding and their amendments pushed back the vote to July 28.
“AEDC’s board voted and the city is going to lose its services unless Gonzales funds it at $75,000,” Arceneaux recounted his recent conversation with AEDC President Mike Eades.
The first round of budget amendments redirected $800,000 to the road project/study while the latest cuts totaled only $135,000. Arceneaux’s June 23 budget proposal saw about $300,000 deleted from the budgets he had introduced on April 14. SaveGonzales’ suspicion is that more cuts are in store for Monday.
Reliving the city council’s budget battle only fueled its members’ indignation.
91 days have elapsed since the group filed recall petitions against Councilmen Gary Lacombe and Timothy Vessel. Members point to the ongoing budget controversy as proof that the recalls are necessary. Arceneaux’s briefing, and the fact that only 500 more signatures apiece are needed to recall Lacombe and Vessel, seemed to revitalize SaveGonzales on Wednesday.
Also, the group welcomed several new members which infused additional energy.
“Now is not the time to congratulate ourselves because there is still much to do,” said the group’s Co-chair, Chuck LeBlanc. “We want to maintain the pace that we’ve set over the first 13 weeks since we filed the petitions on April 23. If we get 100 signatures per week both recalls will be done by the end of August.”
LeBlanc refused to give an exact number of signatures until each one is verified and added to the official total. 2,145 signatures are necessary to trigger recalls and, based on LeBlanc’s five week projection, SaveGonzales must have at least 1,645.
Once the magic number is reached, recall elections must be scheduled.
Two election dates remain for 2014. Louisiana primary elections are scheduled for November 4 to be followed by general elections on December 6. Assuming SaveGonzales can meet its 100-signature per week quota, it is targeting the general election date to have the Lacombe/Vessel recall elections.
Once a recall petition is certified by the registrar of voters, the governor has 15 days in which to issue a proclamation ordering the recall election. To get on November 4’s primary ballot, the gubernatorial “proclamation shall be issued on or before the last day for candidates to qualify in the election,” according to Louisiana Revised Statute 18:1300.7.
Candidate qualifying for this year’s primary election is August 20-22.
To appear on the December 6 general election ballot the gubernatorial “proclamation shall be issued on or before the forty-sixth day prior to the election” or by October 21.
Louisiana Revised Statute 18:1300.11 spells out what the recall election ballot would look like:
“SPECIAL ELECTION FOR THE RECALL OF
(Name of recall subject)
FOR the Recall. _____
AGAINST the Recall. _____”
R.S. 18:1300.13 provides:
A. “When the majority is in favor of the recall, the public officer is, ipso facto, recalled and removed from office, and the office shall be vacated upon expiration of the time period for contesting the recall election (not later than 4:30 pm of the ninth day after the date of the election)” or “when the final judgment becomes definitive if an action contesting the recall election is commenced timely.”
Under its best case scenario, SaveGonzales could see the council seats occupied by Gary Lacombe and Timothy Vessel vacated on December 15 at 4:30 pm. What next?
R.S. 18:1300.13 goes on:
“B. (1) A public officer who has been recalled and removed from office shall not be appointed to succeed himself in the office from which he was recalled and removed.
(2) A public officer who has been recalled and removed from office shall be ineligible as a candidate at an election called to fill the vacancy created by the recall of such public officer.”
Section B. (2) was added to the statute by Act No. 690 signed into law after Louisiana’s 2014 legislative session.
So, if recalled and removed, Lacombe would be ineligible to run for the seat to which he was previously elected; the same for Vessel. Assuming both are recalled and removed, is Lacombe eligible to run for Vessel’s vacated council seat? Is Vessel eligible to run for Lacombe’s vacated seat?
Since more than a year would remain on each unexpired term, “the governing authority…, within twenty days, shall issue a proclamation ordering a special election.” R.S. 18:602.
“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” Neal Bourque checked some of SaveGonzales’ more optimistic members. “We’ve still got a lot of work to do.”