From the Editor: Who gets to talk and when becomes Parish Council issue

The St. Mary Parish Council may soon have a discussion about discussion.
Councilman J Ina of Franklin wanted to have that discussion last week. Ina wanted the council to talk about the rules governing when and how ordinary folks get to walk to the lectern and have their say at council meetings.
Ina withdrew the item from the agenda, saying he wanted to talk with legal counsel Eric Duplantis before putting the matter before the council. But the discussion discussion seems likely to land in front of the council sooner or later.
A bit of drama has emerged in the last month or so on that very point.
On Feb. 24, Councilman Patrick Hebert of Morgan City offered a public apology from the council table to Registrar of Voters Jolene Holcombe.
Alfreida Edwards had asked the council in December to consider whether the registrar’s office should have at least one African American employee on the staff because a third of the parish’s registered voters are black. The council decided to raise the issue in a letter to Holcombe.
The registrar responded with a long, heartfelt letter in which she noted that African Americans do work as election commissioners and objected to the fact that no one talked to her before sending the letter.
That’s why Hebert apologized Feb. 24.
When Edwards wanted to speak that night on the topic, Duplantis noted that public comments were allowed only on matters for which a vote was scheduled on the agenda. Neither a vote nor Edwards was on the agenda. So she had to sit down without having her say. She did come back at a later meeting to explain her reasons.
Jump ahead one month.
You’ll remember March 24 as the day after 10 inches of rain fell on St. Mary Parish. The Walnut Canal flood gate protecting Lakeside Subdivision hadn’t been closed until the day after the storm, and Morgan City Mayor Lee Dragna wanted to talk about that. He thinks the barge should have been closed long before the rain started falling.
Dragna had already picked a bone or two with the council over the consolidation of the drainage districts serving Morgan City — Dragna chaired that district’s board for years before the merger — and Amelia. Dragna alleged that the council had muffed the procedure for putting the two districts together.
In any case, at the March 24 meeting, Councilman James Bennett of Morgan City wanted to add Dragna to the agenda. But under the council’s rules, a unanimous vote is required to change the agenda.
Councilman Craig Matthews voted no, so Dragna didn’t get to speak to the council, except for a vow to keep the gate closed as he walked out of the council chamber.
Mathews said later that he blocked the agenda change because he thought the matter should have been left to the current drainage district board. He also said he didn’t want to see the public comment rules applied to some people but not others.
The question is, was the public served by the application of these rules in these cases?
Now, trust me that we don’t want oratorical anarchy at public meetings. I like a short, pithy meeting as much as the next guy, especially if the next guy is holding a gavel.
State law and local rules governing agenda and open meetings are important. The attorneys for the councils and boards I cover most — Russel Cremaldi in Patterson, Gerard Bourgeois with the Port of Morgan City and St. Mary Levee District boards, and Duplantis — generally make sure the public bodies do what’s right.
But some fine-tuning is required here.
Most councils have public hearings on proposed ordinances, and anyone who shows up can speak at the hearing, usually with some kind of time limit. That’s good.
But in the case of the Parish Council, you might see another sort of issue on the agenda in the legal ads and decide you want to speak on it. The trouble is that you have to be on the agenda to speak, only the agenda is already set.
And for another thing, you have to wonder whether Edwards had something important to say about the Registrar of Voters issue, or whether Dragna had something to contribute on the Walnut Canal issue.
Based on recent experience, it’s too hard to get on the agenda, and too easy to get knocked off it.
Bill Decker is managing editor of The Daily Review.