With a 7-4 vote, St. Landry Parish Council will seek outside help to investigate Parish President Jessie Bellard. This– was after several former employees claimed they were unjustly fired by him and he filed an injunction, deeming an investigation “unnecessary.”
St. Landry Parish,La(KADN)- With a 7-4 vote, St. Landry Parish Council will seek outside help to investigate Parish President Jessie Bellard. This– was after several former employees claimed they were unjustly fired by him and he filed an injunction, deeming an investigation “unnecessary.”
"An investigation had to be done because we had twenty-one employees fired in one year period of time. That's a lot of people to be fired at a certain period of time," says Council Chairman Jerry Red.
This will be the first time since the approval of a home rule charter nearly 20 years ago, the parish president and the parish council will go to court.
Chairman Red says the parish government always did rules and regulations for employees through a resolution, however, Parish President Bellard says that's been incorrect. "He says it should have been done in an ordinance form, so an ordinance carries more weight than a resolution. That's where it's left in limbo that he doesn't have to really follow the resolution, more less follow the ordinance.
Parish Councilman Jimmie Edwards voted no against hiring an outside lawyer. "Because I didn't know who is the lawyer. I don't know. I am not going to hire somebody I don't even know, let alone speak too."
Edwards wants residents watching this unfold to know in the end they will come together. "As a group of people, as a group of elected officials especially. I think we can come back together as a group."
Although, Chairman Red says that's only after the court decides. "After the investigation, if you come back clean everything is good, but if there is a problem it needs to be fixed."
